Day: August 23, 2016

When I awoke this morning, the temperature was significantly colder than it has been since the Sierras.  There was a small amount of dew on everything and I did not want to get out of my warm sleeping bag.  But I did get up at six and was on the trail at 6:30 without the extra insoles today.  The day was full of lakes again, and towards the end of the day, I am starting to get within sight of the big ski mountains, so Oregon is getting ready to change again.

The morning stayed brisk well after 11 am.  For the first hour or two, I wished I had my gloves.  I walked a while with my hands under my armpits, and walked much of the time with my thumbs tucked under my fingers.  Believe it or not, that will warm up your hands.  It was so cool, I probably walked thirteen miles to lunch on just over one liter of water.

I found a nice pond with plenty of shade for lunch.  I made ramen noodles and ate a little bit of cheese.  I took my shoes and socks off and trimmed toenails and fingernails.  The feet didn’t look too bad, other than being dirty and the skin tough as nails.  The heels are still sore, but the toes are much better today.

After a long lunch, it was time to get going again.  The afternoon was more lakes.  There was a brief hot stretch, but it was mild in comparison to previous days.  I actually laid down on a sunny rock at one point to dry the back of my shirt off during one climb.  It was such a cool day, the sun actually felt good.

Along one stretch of trail, I finally came upon some travellers on horseback.  I don’t know where they started, but they were only going to Odell lake where I was the night before.  It was a man and woman on horses pulling a mule with all the goods on him.  It was a very brief chat as they sauntered by me after I got about eight feet off the trail.  The mule was almost solid white.  I don’t think I’ve seen a white mule before.  The rest of the day I inspected all the road apples I saw so I could get better at estimating the age of road apples when I see them the next time.

Late in the day, the trail final climbed a bit and popped out of the woods.  After not seeing anything but forest and lakes for the last few days, it was a change to be able to see big mountains again.  Mt Bachelor was to my right and the South Sister to my left.  They both looked pretty big.  I go around South Sister tomorrow, but don’t get any closer to Bachelor.  The lake just to the right of it has a resort on it that Karen and I visited in 2009 and we both remember being shocked at having to pay $3 for a coke.  Now I see prices like that all the time.  It was not worth the one mile side trip just to get something to eat.  Elk lake resort is not on the itinerary this year.

I kept going up the big climb and was surprised to find good signal most of the way up.  I was finally able to look up the number of a friend that used to live in Jacksonville just down the road from where I grew up, but now lives in Bend.  This same person also hiked the AT and PCT in the 80’s and was the one who mentored me before my first hike on the AT.  I was able to get ahold of him and we are planning on having drinks or dinner probably Wednesday evening.  There are two ways to get to Bend from the trail and the one I hit tomorrow will be too late in the day to be able to do anything.  So I will probably hike on to the second highway if I can hit that earlier in the day to be able to hitch into Sisters and/or Bend.  I’m still not sure where I am staying yet, the hotels in Bend are $250 a night.  Sisters is a bit more affordable at $80 a night.

I also heard from Ireland via text.  They are camping about five miles past where I am camped and will be hitting the first pass at 4 PM tomorrow and staying in Bend two nights.  I don’t think I can hit that pass by 4 PM, so I doubt I will ever see them again unless I can hook up with them in Bend.  The next two days will be interesting.

The terrain is starting to change again.  More and more large lakes are starting to show up and they are starting to become the primary source of water.  After leaving Odell lake where the resort was, I must have passed nearly a dozen lakes and the third shelter of the trip so far.  I saw about eight southbounders and over a dozen weekend hikers today.

Since it took so long to get laundry done last night, I slept in until about 6:30.  That would give me enough time to pack up before the store opened.  I packed everything up, drank my Izze grapefruit soda and took my garbage and one water bottle with me to the store.

The store didn’t have anything special for breakfast,.so I got a hot pocket from the cooler and a fresh coffee.  The hot pocket was about what you’d expect, but the coffee was quite good.  She made it from a fresh espresso and water.  I must be getting close to Seattle.

I talked with a southbounder for over half an hour about what he can expect and he did the same for me.  I filled up my water bottle and made my way back to the campsite.  Gator and Nuthin were just waking so I said goodbye to them and headed out.  The first mile plus was a road walk and then about three quarters of a mile to get back up to the ridge where the PCT was.  It was about 9:15 before I got back on the official PCT.  A bit later start than I was hoping for.

The morning was cool and the trail was lush pines.  The trail circled around the north side of lake Odell as it climbed up the ridge.  It eventually crossed a highway and kept climbing on the other side.  Most of the morning was gentle climbing as it passed three Rosary lakes.  I noticed there was a shelter that I should hit about 12:30 so that seemed like the perfect target for lunch.

I hit the shelter a little early.  It was only 150 yards off the trail and it’s a pretty unique one.  It’s an octagon with a vestibule and a big second floor loft for sleeping.  It had lots of tables and chairs inside and was very clean.  It was the perfect lunch stop to have my salad and cookie.

As I was finishing my salad, a southbounder came in.  We had a similar exchange of information that I had earlier in the morning.  I offered her one of the three plums I had packed out.  She was very grateful and offered to pack out my salad trash.  I gave her the last plum as a reward.  It’s not often someone offers to take your garbage.  She had three hours to a garbage can but I had three days, and the salad bowl was awkward to pack.

I checked the afternoon maps to see where was a likely stopping point.  24 miles from the start of the PCT from this morning was a lake named Irish lake.  It sounded like the most likely place Ireland and Shiloh would stop for the night.  I would try to make it, too.

The afternoon had a mix of ups and downs that were graded well and I passed several more large lakes.  I was running low on water so I stopped at one to fill up.  By 5 PM I still had nine miles to go, so it would be questionable if I would make Irish lake or not.  My feet were killing me, so I was starting to slow.  I had made coffee at 3 PM when I filled up with water so I had energy, but the feet were howling. 

I tried something odd today.  Since my feet were hurting yesterday, I decided to try to find some insoles in the hiker box to put in my shoes.  I found some used ones, so I had put them in my shoes in addition to the ones already in my shoes.  They were starting to rub my toes raw since they were molded to someone else’s feet that were slightly smaller than mine.  I think I made things worse.

The last hour of the day was a burn area and it was a thoroughly burned one.  But new trees were beginning to grow to replace all the dead trees.  As soon as it turned to woods again, there was lots of flat ground to camp.  I was less than a mile from Irish lake, but it was already 8:15 and my feet were done.  I stopped, set up the tent, took my shoes off, then made dinner.  Ireland and Shiloh will have to wait another day for me to catch up to them.