Total Miles This Hike: 326.5
PCT Miles Covered: 2027.6
Last night was a little interesting. Just as it started to get dark and I was settling into my tent, I started to hear some twigs break to the right of the direction I was laying down. One of the things I learned a long time ago is if you hear a stick or two break at a time it is usually a small mammal such as a squirrel or chipmunk. If you hear a whole lot of sticks breaking back to back, theres a good chance it is something a bit bigger, such as a deer, elk, moose or bear. The one animal I left out because of their stealth in stalking is a mountain lion, or couger. That would be one of those animals so stealthy that usually you have no clue they are even there, so any twigs/sticks breaking would be minimal like a small mammal. One additional general comment I have heard from those few I have met to encounter a mountain lion is that they will usually circle you a whole bunch of times trying to completely figure out what they are up against.
I have never seen a mountain lion and I’ll be honest, I really have no ambition to ever see one outside of a zoo. Back to my stick breaking. So I peeked my head out of the tent, and didn’t see anything. As soon as I got back in and layed back down, then I heard snaps from the other side of the tent. Another quick check and nothing, then the in front of my tent started to snap. This put me so on edge as it continued from all sides for about a good half hour to hour. At this point it is pitch black out, and me camping under the canopy gave me very little starlight, so periodically I would nervously continue to peek my head out and scan all around with my headlamp.
Finally, i said to hell with it and just left my headlamp on, and pointed it out one end of my tent and tried to force myself asleep. Batteries be damned, if the light helped ward off whatever it was then it was worth it. Somehow I fell asleep and made it through the night without waking up too much. My lamp was still on when the sunlight came up. I searched the whole area for tracks this morning and couldn’t find anything significant, but deep down I feel as though it really could have been a mountain lion.
After my late departure and low miles yesterday, I decided to try to get as many miles as possible today. All of the established spots to camp seemed like they only would accomodate a couple of hikers so I would have to plan based on who was around me and go from there. The big views today were of Three-Fingered Jack which the trail wound around all morning and early afternoon.
As you can see from the photos there was a little bit of smoke still lingering in the area.
My initial goal today was just past Shale Lake, which is a limited access area that you are not allowed to camp at. I got there, and there were about 5-6 other people hanging out there. I got some water and decided to keep going past the first legal camping after the lake. It was all downhill to Milk Creek which is a glacial creek I would have to ford. I figured if I could ford it tonight, it would be better than if it was deep and having to ford it first thing in the morning.
When I got there, I found 3 tentsites before the ford stuffed into very thick bushes, one of which was completely covered with horse poop. Thank you equestrians!!! I dropped my pack to claim one of those spots just in case and walked to the ford to take a peek. It didn’t seem too bad, but my feet/shoes would most likely get wet. I really wanted to do it tonight, but looking at the other side, I could only see one tent site that looked very lopsided. It was almost 7pm, and I had no clue what was farther up the trail, so I decided to just go back to where I dropped my stuff and setup there. One other young female hiker came in about a half hour later and took the other non-horsepoop spot. We really didn’t chat aside from talking about the ford and campsites, but after having an animal stalk my tent last night I was glad to have somebody camp nearby tonight.
Keep on keeping on,
Patch
