Total Miles This Hike: 130.6
PCT Miles Covered: 1810.8
Today was gonna be slow going with a fully restocked food cannister. I got up early and was packed up and down at the PCT tent to charge a little more and go through my resupply box. Since I had brought about 4 extra pounds of food into a resupply it was obvious I wasn’t eating as much as I planned yet. The goal is always to walk into a resupply with nothing or very little left. I knew I sent myself too much food before I opened the box, and add that to what I still had, I would be donating quite a bit into the hiker box. And I did. And within about an hour after everybody else woke up and came down, it was all gone.
When the restaurant counter opened up I ordered biscuits and gravy and another 2 root beers and sat and watched France win the World Cup. I felt bad that England got knocked out for Cookie Monster after rooting for him in Tahoe, but it was fun to sit around with other hikers and watch it.
I had a decision to make today. There is an alternate route that probably half the hikers take called the Oregon Skyline Trail which diverges right here at Shelter Cove. Apparently this alternate is 8 miles shorter, but has better water sources, less swings in ascent and descent, and an established forest service campground with pit toilets and running water about 10 miles in. It doesn’t show up on Guthooks App which is the one I primarily use for my maps and gps, but it does show up on Halfmiles App which I somehow deleted and now had to wait for Shelter Cove’s wonderful wifi to download back onto my phone.
I don’t feel bad about taking the alternate “blue blaze” as there are many extra miles I have already done on this trail this year and on previous trips off the PCT. As long as my footsteps are connected from Mexico to Canada, that is what matters when this all is over. I have already walked over 50 miles of detours on this trail because of fire closures or side trails into town for resupplies so I don’t feel bad (plus I think I’m gonna be doing about 5 extra miles in a couple days to make up for it at Diamond Lake).
So once the app was done loading I was on my way. My goal was to only shoot for the forest service campground today as I was leaving around 11:30AM, but the trail was actually incredibly graded, passing by a couple lakes early.
The weather was something I hadn’t seen yet this year as well. By about 1PM the whole sky was cloudy and I started to hear thunder in the distance. And then it actually started to sprinkle, turning eventually into a very slow rain. I was ecstatic. This kept the bugs away, and it was getting to the point where my biggest 2 pieces of dead weight might actually get used. I finally pulled off under a tree and sat down for a break. If it was still raining when I got up, I would put on my rain jacket and my pack cover. Alas it was over faster than it started.
I reached the campgrounds around 3:30, took advantage of both the actual toilet and filled up my bottles from the faucet, and decided it was too early to stop so I kept going. There were a couple lakes about 6 and 8 miles up I could camp at for water. As I walked around the campground I realized this section was more of a horse camp with people with horse trailers everywhere and plenty of presents left by the horses all over the trail. I came upon a woman and her grand-daughter on trail walking their horse and talked with them for a bit before heading out of camp. Asked them if I could take their picture and they agreed.
Decided to stop at the first lake named Windy Lake, though once I got set up I realized the water level was so far down it was gonna be a challenge to get good water to filter. Took a while but finally got enough to make it the night and the first 4+ miles tomorrow too.
Very happy with my decision to go this way. Low bugs, smooth flat trail and I made it 6 more miles than I planned even after not leaving Shelter Cove until almost noon. Still haven’t done a 20 mile day yet. Maybe soon as my body is finally starting to work through all the kinks. I’m finally sleeping better too as the first couple nights I was waking up constantly throughout the night.
Tomorrow the temperature is finally gonna start to rise and I will rejoin the actual PCT and get back to climbing to higher elevations.
Keep on keeping on
- Patch
No comments:
Post a Comment