Last night I went to bed to the sound of buzzing. Later at night I had to scare some animals away from my camp. They were nosing around my tent. Maybe they want shelter from the skeeters too. I woke at first light and heard the buzzing start up. They are waiting for me. I did a little experiment with my shitty botanical insect repellent. I sprayed a spot on my tent and sure enough the skeeters moved away…for like 15 minutes. Then they came back. This stuff sucks.

So today my plan is to go covered. I zipped on my leggings (thank goodness I brought them) added my long sleeve shirt and headnet. I always leave my socks outside the tent with my shoes to air out. Well I can only find one. As I’m looking around, I notice my hat which I also leave outside has a big chew hole in it. Some critter last night munched on my hat and ran off with my sock. Going to have to sleep with this stuff from now on.

Anyway, I got out with a mixed sock combo and in full mosquito battle armor. Dropped the tent, packed and started hiking. No breakfast today. I’ve got to cover some serious mileage which fortunately is mostly downhill. I’m passing a bunch of nice lakes surrounded by ponds and bogs. My insect friends are trying to get in anyway they can, but my armor holds. At any one time, a dozen skeeters are stuck to my headnet. F you, bitches ! I constantly spray my hands with the not-repellent, but those get plenty of bites. I….will…buy…deet at the next stop.

My pace was pretty good. I tried to keep it just slow enough to not sweat alot. No breaks for 4 hours, just hiking slow and steady. Eventually I made it to the bug free zone of Mountain Creek (1896) where I stopped and had some lunch. Ran in a section hiker called Scorch who just wanted to talk and talk. Seems to be a trend. Folks must be lonely out here. Anyway, Scorch’s hiking pace is anything but and I left him behind.

A little later I rounded a corner and this little dog comes running up to me all barking. Behind the dog is a lady who is section with the dog. We have a nice chat then I notice she has a revolver in a shoulder harness laying on the rock. I’m like, “hey that’s kind of heavy” to which she replies that it helps her feel safe. She had some incidents on the trail. What incident? Well she says that while hiking around Ashland, she walked between two Bigfoots on the trail. Huh. At this point, the dog is still barking at me, the gal has a gun, and she believes in Bigfoot. Definitely time to leave!

After travelling through more of the bug menance I started getting pretty hot. I could not keep this pace and not sweat. Enter my salvation in the form of little snow blobs in the shadows of the trail. Every mile or so, I would scoop up a big snowball and carry it, switching from hand to hand dumping my excess heat into a melting snowball. When one was done, I’d find another. I actually started getting chills ! Going to file that technique away for the future.

Eventually the skeeters took a siesta and I unzipped all my armor and practically ran to Shelter Cove. Got there about 4:30. The folks there have totally rolled out the welcome mat for PCTers there are showers, laundry, a cool awning with picnic tables reserved for PCT hikers. The hiker box is full of stuff and my resupply was there. I sat down at the picnic table and some fellow hikers give me a plate of ribs that someone donated to the group. Man, heaven.

So, at this point I figured it is Friday, I’ll just sleep at the campsite and get picked up on Saturday. I’m sitting there eating a burger and this dude Gordon walks up asking for John Baum. He is from the resort that has my cabin that Alice booked for me. I tell him yeah, I’ll see you on Saturday. He says ok, walks away, then realizes that I don’t know what day it is. IT IS Saturday. Well after that is cleared up, I grab my pack and literally run to his truck. The place he puts me in is incredible. Huge living room, 2 bedrooms, kitche, etc. I’m sitting there right now, drinking a beer and writing this blog.

It was a good day (said with a Canadian accent).

Last night was really cold. I was zipped up in my bag with a buff wrapped around my head and still shivering. I eventually got warm enough to sleep, I just needed to stay very still :). Must have been around 30. Morning was cold as well so I stayed zipped up till 7 then jumped out and got moving. Dark Horse was still in her tent when I left.

Today I need to bust out some miles. I’ve 46 to go to get to Shelter Cove and a pickup! I’ve left burnville behind and now walking through some beautiful old growth forest. The beauty comes with a price….skeeters. They go from bothersome, to thick, to outrageous. Near the end of the climb, there is no stopping them. I’m spraying this crappy repellent called Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus which the eco friendly gal at REI convinced me to buy instead of Deet and it does not work worth a damn.

IMG_0920

So I’m walking, slapping off skeeters, spraying, and generally miserable. Then it gets even worse. I’m talking clouds of mosquitoes. They are going up my nose, mouth, eyes. I inhaled several, ate even more. Goddamn. Finally I stopped and unloaded my bag to find my headnet. That improved things a bit and I made camp at the first spot available at the top of the hill. I jammed into my tent and sat there eating trail mix for dinner. There is no way I’m unzipping this tent !

Thank God this day is over.

Started at 6:30 this morning. Getting a little better about rolling out of the sack. Hike today started with a slight downhill then turned into a mostly easy climb from 6k to 7.5k. I grabbed a couple liters at the water cache at 1848, I love these trail angels up here!

Fortunately, there is less burn up here and decent shade. Had a little huffying and puffing up a stiff grade. It was getting windy and I knew I was near the top of this bit of trail. When I finally popped out, there it was. Mt Thielson. Wow.

I was standing around taking pictures when a day hiker appears. He is going up the Mt Thielson trail which intersects the PCT here and offered to take a photo. I was like “You walked all this way to take my picture?” Well here it is, the Salty One fronting Mt Thielson.

Carried on hiking and crossed my first patch of snow. First thing to come to mind was that I should have brought some tang to mix in….but it was not to be. Nobody carries tang anymore. Pity that the science of orange powder has been overridden by Organic this and that.

Next stop was Thielson Creek at 1856 where I stopped and grabbed some water. There was a gal there northbounding from Ashland named Dark Horse. She is out to finish up the trail like me. She said her name came from always being the last one into camp after everyone had written her off (i.e. betting on the dark horse). Anyway, she packed and moved out while I was having some tasty Granola with Blueberries.

Munching away, here comes another full-on Northbounder named Tenderfoot. Turns out he hiked part of the PCT in 2017. I don’t recall meeting him, but the name rung a bell. He only got as far as Walker Pass then. He said his pack was way to heavy and he got some injuries. Well now he is back with a featherwieght pack and full of advice for anyone who would listen. Given that I was the only one there, that person would be me. I busied myself rearranging my pack because I’m carrying an extra set of shoes and the weight distribution is killing my lower back. He had some suggestions on how to pack which were useful, then a bunch of gear suggestions which were not. Dude just wouldn’t quit….so I did. Off I went up the hill.

Climbing away, I passed Dark Horse who was making some good progress. She is slow, but determined. Later Tenderfoot sailed by me, at a crushing pace. Good for him. Hope he makes it this time.
I’m hurting at this point. My pack, while pretty awesome all things considered, is killing my back. I got to thinking about it and I miss all the padding and stiffness of my old pack. Frankly, strapping into my old pack was like having an exoskeleton on. That pack is so stiff, I didn’t even need sholder straps, the thing just hung on my waist, transfering all the weight straight to my hips. This one on the other hand needs those shoulder straps tight. That combined with all the weight hitting my lower back is making me a little miserable. I’m pretty sure that once I dump the weight of my extra shoes, it should get a little better.

So I’m hurting and feeling a little wrung out. I knew I’d hit shelter cove on the weekend which means I’d likely not get a room and would have to tent it. I need a bed and some civilization! So I sent Alice a message on the InReach and she finally found me a place. I just need to get there in two days for a Saturday night stay. She is my Angel!

I camped at 1860. Supposedly this site was “awesome” according to guthook comments, but I found it to be just ok. There is a lot of smoke in the valleys so the views were truncated. The site is at 7600 feet and pretty close to the highest point in oregon for the PCT. Dark Horse showed up later and setup while I was turning in.

Got up at the crack of dawn. Packed my stuff then riffled through the hiker box looking for some extras to take on the trail. Mike had dumped some spam single servings and kind bars that I grabbed. Also found some Knorr rice sides. With that, I took one last trip to the clean bathrom then headed out. Was on the access trail by 7ish.

So I was debating whether to hit the rim trail around crater lake or just follow the PCT route. After slapping some skeeters, I chose the PCT route. I had heard it was mostly burned and the views sucked, but at least I would be hiking without a swarm of bugs and tourists. Well it was certainly all burned up.

While hiking this section Alice, who is monitoring my InReach dot closely, starts sending me messages that I’m off the trail and should be going around the rim. I’m texting her back that this is the actual PCT and rim trail is an alternate. Of course texting by satellite is not the quickest and messages are overlapping. Finally I just stopped and carried on hiking. Don’t worry honey!

Found a nice spot for lunch at Copeland creek (1829). Ate some of my hiker box winnings while lounging in the bug-free shade. Only saw one group on the trail going south. The guy said they were looking for solitude. I pointed South and said he’d find plenty.

After that I reached the trailhead and parking lot at 1839. Trail Angels have stocked a nice water cache there. I refilled and sat down to take a break. Before long an SUV drives up and out hops 3 gals. Two older ladies who are sisters and their younger cousin. One from Alabama, other from New Mexico, and the cousin from Oregon somewhere. Anyway, they want to know about the trail I just hiked cuz they plan to hike it + crater rim in a loop. So after all that they ask me if I needed anything. I’m like “no, I’m fine” then they start listing off things “candy bars, soda, gatorade, cheetos….” Wait, CHEETOS???? One of them runs back and pulls out a huge bag of cheeto paws and hands it to me. Makes my day.

So, I’m sitting there munching my Cheetos when this nice, big RV shows up. The gal driving parks it and pops out all 7 months preggers. She tells me she is supporting her husband who is running the trail, trying to beat the record for the quickest supported thru-hike/run in under 50 days. He has been doing 50+ miles a day ! Her barfooted, shirtless son of 8-10 years old appears at some point while we are talking. He perches himself squating on the hood of the RV. He has hair down to his waste and it looks like his haircuts are designed to simply keep most of it out of his face. Real wild child. They are from Ashland. You meet the funniest folks out here.
Anyway, I hike another mile or so and setup at a huge flat spot and quickly fall asleep. 

On the trail at 7 today. I’m getting back into the rythm of waking earlier. Today’s walk was same as yesterday. Mostly burned out areas of the forest. Didn’t take too many pictures, just wanted to get some miles in. Saw a couple of southbound section hikers and that was it. I did the whole day on 4 liters of water which is remarkable. I was dry when I hit the Mazama village intersection, but well hydrated.

Rolled into Mazama village around 4. I was reading comments on the Guthook app about this place and they were not very positive. I can confirm them. First thing I did was talk to a few local workers taking a break who gave me bullshit information about the PCT campsite there. They said it was closed due to tree fall. Next I went into the store and found it had almost nothing a hiker needs to resupply (not that I needed much since I’m packed for 6 days). The most outrageous omission was any kind of cheap beer or takeout sandwiches.

While browsing the camp store, I notice lots of fresh smelling, put-together people buying stuff. Then I took a look at the parking lot…all expense cars. So then it hit me, this place is near crater lake and probably just want to cater to city people. I found a gal at the checkout who finally told me where the location of the PCT area in the campsite. “I’m not supposed to tell you where it is” then pointed it out to me on the map. Jeez. Bought my Poweraid and left.

At the PCT site there were about 6 or 7 tents setup. Couple of young gals there and a guy. They showed me a free spot to setup my tent. Buster, Pinky, and Mike where the names. I thought, well finally I meet some PCT hikers, but no. Buster and Pinky were sectioning from Ashland to Washington. However, after 5 days and 100 miles, their feet hurt and they wanted off the trail. They called Mommy for a pickup. Mike is also sectioning the same path and was something of an oddball. Once he got talking, he had an interesting story. Just finished graduate school and was going to work at Apple. Was hoping to hook up with him on the trail and talk a little more. Anyway, nice folks….just not the hiker-trash I’m used to.
For the evening I bought some kind of lame Oregon craft beer and a soggy ham sandwich. I covered it with 3 packets of mayo and mustard, scarfed it down and went to bed. I heard the restaurant is busy and the food sucks, so no breakfast tomorrow. I’m getting the F@#$ out of here first thing in the morning.