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A good day today, but I woke up late, had a few blowdowns to deal with, had quite a large burn area to walk through, but the heat stayed away until late in the day and I was able to resupply in the Mazama village store and get a hamburger.

I didn’t wake up until 5:45 and did not get on trail until 6:30.  The morning was nice and cool so there were no mosquitoes when I got up and got moving.  In fact, the morning was very cool and lasted until well after noon. 

There was an even mix of climbing and descents all day long.  Not too rocky anywhere.  There was about a three mile long burned section where there was almost nothing alive and it would have been hot if not for the cool temperatures.  There were alot of blowdowns in that section, too, but not as many as yesterday.  Once we hit the national park boundary, the blowdowns almost disappeared.

I saw only two or three thru hikers throughout the morning, and three or four day hikers once I got within a few miles of the trailhead.  I went ahead and stopped at noon to eat a full lunch, even though I was close to the village.  I wanted to make sure I kept my energy up for the whole hike, because it was starting to heat up quickly.

I got to the village a little after 2 PM and headed straight for the store.  Some of their prices were outrageous (16 oz coke for $2.59, ice cream bar $3.50+) but other prices not too ridiculous.  I got a fountain drink (free refills), beer ($1.60), and ice cream to tide me over while I rested.  There were close to twenty hikers at the store.

I got directions to the hiker campsite and set up quickly and headed straight for the showers.  It took fifteen minutes just to wash the feet again.  The showers were free, so everything got washed at least twice.  Next up was laundry.  I gathered all the dirty goods, but I was pretty hungry by now, so I went to eat first and took my laundry with me since it was a haul back to the village.

I had a bison burger with fries and a single trip to the salad bar.  That was the best $5 I’ve spent on the trip so far.  The plates were huge, so I loaded it up well with salad, cottage cheese, potato salad and beets.  I was planning on dessert, but I was so stuffed, that it wasn’t needed.

I was able to get my clothes into a washer quickly, but there were fewer dryers, so I just took my clothes back to camp to air dry.  Most of my clothes were dry by dark except for the pants and shirt.  I was surprised the socks dried.

Back at camp, I talked with a few hikers and one employee from the park was there passing out beer, good beer, Rogue.  I stayed up until dark chatting, even though I had to redo my resupply plan.  One of my planned stops ended up not really having any food to sell, so I was worried I would have to have Karen make up and mail a box quickly.  It turns out I can just buy one more day at the stop before to skip it altogether.  I may stop there to eat at their restaurant, but not to buy food.  I will also be stopping in Sisters instead of Bend just because it’s a much easier hitch.  Bye, bye, Bend.  I will have to come visit you again some other day.