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).