I woke up around 6am today and quietly dropped my tent while stepping over and around my two new friends. They woke briefly and said good bye. I think they are staying an extra day. I’m sure we will meet again in Ventura.

I decided to switch to my new shoes this morning. My old ones have been worn smooth. Put on my new shoes, relieving me of another 4 pounds of pack weight.

Had some climbing to do today. First to get out of Elk Lake, then some more on the trail. First 5 miles were exposed burny areas. It was early and it seems the temperatures are beginning to moderate. Overall a pretty easy morning hike.

The terrain began to change from all forest to a mix of forest / alpine meadows. Each clearing I got a peek at the surrounding mountains, AKA the Sisters. It was spectacular…. Here was the first clear view

This opened up into a huge alpine walk with occassional forays into the forest. Had to take another crappy selfie. To the right is the South Sister (I think). Shortly after that I stopped for water at a stream and ran into two gals who were doing their annual girls-go-hiking-for-a-week thing. Their packs looked so heavy. While I was filtering out some water they kept asking me questions about stuff. Do you have rain gear? How much does sleeping bag weigh? etc. It is kind of nice to have my equipment mostly dialed in right now.

So up here in sister-ville, we have the North, Middle, and South Sister. Then sitting off to the left we have “The Husband”. Not sure what’s going on with this family.

Wish I there was a geologist around to explain some of what I’m seeing. There were some huge lava flows around those craters. Mountains of the stuff. Earth Poo. I’m curious why there are so many craters next to each other.

Continuing on, I walked through the obsidian limited use area. Cool water fall, but I only snapped a passing photo.  The bugs owned this spot.

While watering up at the falls, I spoke with an Old-timer who told me the next 15 miles would be on/off lava rocks, with a crescendo of a 5 mile stretch with almost no break. Got that to look forward to tomorrow. I setup at the first tent site outside the limited use area and crashed. It’s a nice spot. No mosquitoes today, great scenery, and 23 miles + 1.5 from Elk Resort.

So I’ve been thinking. I’m starting to bust out some good mileage and I’m fast approaching Santiam Pass at (2001). When I get there, I have to get around the fire closure. There are three options: 1) Ignore the closure and jump over a million blowdowns + potential fine 2) Try to find someone to get me into Olallie lake at 2046 which is a 2 hour drive down crappy dirt roads. 3) Hitch to Bend and take a bus up to timberline lodge at 2097.

I might try the first option if I was with someone. I hear the area is not patrolled. The second option is a no-go. Seems there are few trail angels that want to make that drive. So, I’m left with the recommended route to Timberline. That will cut 90 miles of trail walking. In fact, when I get there I’ll only have about 55 miles of trail left in Oregon.

Well if that is to be my route, I had better take in what I can of Oregon’s hospitality ! I decided to Nero into Elk Lake. It was a short walk of 6 miles plus a 1.5 mile access road. Got there at 11, had a shower, setup my tent on a campsite and spent some time in the restaurant.

The resort is nice. Seems to be a destination for Bend folks to play on the beach, sail, and paddleboard. Some hikers milling around here and there. While I was munching on my (delicious) Rueben I met a couple hiking together named Mitch and Gem. Turns out they are from Ventura and hike a small section of the PCT every year. I told them they were welcome to share my site if they could not find another good one.

Later in the day, I’m laying in my tent reading and Mitch shows up asking to take me up on the offer. The last hiker campsite they offered was terrible. So Mitch pulls out some fold up cooler, fills it with a bag of ice and some beers and offers me one. That pretty much kicks the rest of the day off.

Mitch English teacher who grew up in Ventura, a child of one of the local farmers and land owners. He has long hair and probably in his late 50’s early 60’s. I think his mother’s side was Hartman whose name I’ve seen on a few buildings in the area. Charismatic character, he must run an interesting class. Well Mitch seems to have been infected with some ultra-hippy ideology which he puts to good use arguing against capitalism/greed/whatever. It is a fun debate that goes on into the evening.

Then it gets wierd. The three of us are sitting on a fence next to my tent finishing off the second 6 pack when our little debate switches to a monolog. All of the sudden Mitch and Gem are talking at the same time filling each other sentences. They are going on about returning to the ancient ways, that our modern society is a dead end, and a bunch of other stuff I could not parse. This goes on for an amazing 10 minutes. It just comes spilling out.
When they finally pause the only thing I say is “Wow, this sounds like a some kind of religion!” and crawl into my tent to lay down. I leave the door open and keep listening until…well I fell asleep. They woke me up a while later to check on me which was nice. They then cowboy camped right next to my tent on the only flat spot available and started reading poety to each other. Honestly at first I was annoyed, but I kind of liked listening to it in a semi-lucid state. Eventually I drifted off again and slept like a baby, dreaming of the ’60’s.

I suppose one of the reasons I’m out here is to get a taste of some unique points of view. Definitely found one of those.

Got a late start this morning. Packed up and walking around 7:30. I saw Gnocci and Lucas head out ahead of me where full mosquito body armor. Gnocci has a long string of curses he uses to describe how miserable the bugs are out here.

I ran into them again at Charlton Lake (1925) as they were finishing up water filtering. They took off and I spent a half hour making breakfast (Biscuits and Gravy, yum) while slapping mosquitoes.

Today is green tunnel / burned forest kind of day. There are a ton of blowdowns on this section. I was stepping, hopping, climbing over trees most of the day. I’ve heard this is only a taste of what is to come. Folks are telling me that this is the status-quo for the next 50 miles after which there is a little break in the lava fields which is probably going to suck even worse.

The grade was mostly small climbs and descents today. With my newly re-energized Spotify, I’m now listening to some righteous tunes and picking up my pace. I aimed for a place called Island lake which will give me a 25 mile day.

Reached the lake at 7 and setup with my mosquito friends. This lake is more of a bog with some high ground in the middle. I believe the Mosquito queen lives there. Had to spend an extra 5 minutes of bug slapping after I zipped up. The skeeters are now stuck outside….waiting.

Well this morning I lounged on the front deck of the cabin for most of the morning. I’m packed and ready to go, but Gordon seems to have other problems. The new owners took over the place last week and they don’t seem to be too interested in serving hikers. Gordon told me the owner does not want him to drop/pickup hikers due to concerns about liability (whatever that means). Anyway, I have to cool my heels until the owner dude leaves at 12 o’clock.

Wasn’t all bad. The chairs on the deck are super comfortable and there’s plenty of shade. I took a long nap until Riley, Gordon’s dog, came by to wake me up and get going. Gordon ran me back to Shelter Cove where I left my battery charging. Got that packed, then he dropped me at the trail while picking up another set of hikers. I gave him a $50 for the troubles and wished him luck with the new owners. From the sound of it he’ll need it.

Back on the trail and feeling good. Today’s activities involves a couple of nice climbs from 5k to eventually 6500. Encountered a couple of older guys hauling gargatuan packs on the first climb. We chatted for a bit. They asked me how far I go in a day. I told them 20 to 25 miles. They laughed and said they planed to 30 their whole 5 day trip. Heh. Bet those packs had a couple of liters of burbon.

I was passing lake after lake on the first climb. Around 1910 is a lake called Lower Rosary which was beutiful. The trail runs right along the shore line so I stopped, had a snack and snapped a couple photos.

A couple PCT kids passed me throughout the day. We just chatted for a couple minutes and they continued bounding up the hill. Probably going to be a common feature of my hike. Most of the folks I’ve met through-hiking started in late March and now have their eyes firmly on the prize. They want to knock out the miles.

My target for today was a campsite at the peak of the second climb (mile 1921). When I got there around 7, I found Gnocchi and his kid Lucas in a tent all ready to turn in. I’d met them earlier at Shelter Cove. Gnocchi is a genetists who lives in San Bernadino county. He is an Italian from Argentina and quite the character. He did the California section of the PCT in ’18 and is trying to finish the Oregon section this year with his son. His kid says he is there to monitor his dad, then head to graduate school in the fall.

Anyway, the campsite is on the edge of a big hill. Lots of flat spots for tents surrounded by trees. Not a bad spot, just lacking in significant views. Mosquitoes are pretty bad here. I suppose tomorrow will be more of the same. I started with 4 liters today and still have 1 left after dinner. I’m still amazed at my lower water consumption. This pack makes such a huge difference. I plan to keep dialing my carries down. Saving 4 or 5 pounds of weight is worth it.

Showered twice, eating everything I can get my hands on. I backflushed my filter and fixed the Salty hat ! Writing away on the blog and itching all my bug bites. I am definitely feeling like a human again. I found some deet at the store, so that is packed away.

I’ve been chatting with the Family and Stormtrooper. Storm will hit Ashland at mile 1717 in a few days. He really wants to catch me. I guess I’m now his motivation to go faster. Pretty sure he’ll do it at some point in Washington.

Will be hitting the trail tomorrow afternoon. Gordon has really shown me the love.