Start: 620.7
Stop: 645.1
Today’s miles: 24.4
Total PCT miles: 832.8
Hi. It’s me. The one that continues to “oversleep.” I didn’t hear my alarm. I also had a nightmare that jolted me awake at 2:30.. but the moon was so bright I could immediately see Marquis in his tent and it made me realize where I was. I fell back to sleep, after realizing my quilt and tent were damp from the condensation. I really don’t like camping by water anymore, pretty as it is.
When I did finally wake up, Marquis was packed already and walking out of camp, Margot wasn’t far behind. I did leave by 7:15.. but it felt way later. I caught up with Margot when she waited at a river crossing for me. Wet feet first thing in the morning, how exciting. We carried on from there, through a burn zone and then through another water crossing.
At some point we had a 5 mile climb that sounds way more difficult than it felt. It was smooth going, hikers coming our direction yielded to us appropriately.. it was honestly great. We ate lunch at a small pond at the top of the climb and there were no bugs! Phenomenal! A guy we’ve been leapfrogging, Keith, ate lunch with us and it was so relaxing to sit there chatting, toes drying in the sun.
The rest of the day was up and down and over mountains, no real gain or loss elevation wise, but the views were amazing. Even through the burn zones I was stunned with the vastness of it all. The wildflowers were everywhere, the breeze was blowing. It would be hot in the sun and then each time I’d walk into a stretch of tree cover it felt like walking into a hotel room with the AC on after being at the beach all day. It was glorious.
In the afternoon we hit the dreaded “miles of blowdowns” everyone had been warning us of and complaining about. The first chunk of them were all dead, smooth trees in a burn zone-the ground was soft on either side, the terrain was easy, no steep switchbacks or anything.. it was honestly a piece of cake. Somewhere in the middle, the trail was cleared for a mile or so-obviously a trail maintenance crew very recently came though.. thank the good lord for that and them!
There were no more blowdowns all the way to where we wanted to eat dinner, at a little pond. Well, we realized after we ate that this wasn’t actually the correct pond-but that didn’t matter. I got water from there, then dumped it because it was a weird yellow color. The blowdowns started back up just before the real pond, where we got good water, and carried on.
As the sun was setting and turning the sky spectacular shades of purples and pinks, we walked our last 2 miles to camp. There were several more blowdowns-annoying but seriously no where near as bad as these people have been making it out to be. I can’t wait to see what they say about that 13 mile stretch of straight up and down hell we hiked through.. blowdowns that if you slip you’re falling a reallllllly long way down..
When we got to camp, Keith was there, Marquis had pushed father, and three other people were setting up their tents. Margot and I walked around to find places, attempting to stay off the vegetation, but everything left is super sloped. So, I’m so sorry Mother Nature.. I’m sleeping on top of your tiny bits of grass trying to pop up. Please forgive me. I can’t do a night sliding on my pad tonight, especially with it being so chilly.
Our sites are beautiful though, besides the burned trees from a previous fire. There’s a gorgeous view of Mount Jefferson and we watched the sun set all the way down. I’m a bit cold and know it’ll be hard to wake up tomorrow because of that.. but! We get into Bend tomorrow morning and plan to have some fun there.. so, maybe that’ll motivate me to get a move on! Haha. Time to bury myself in my quilt. Sweet dreams, y’all.