Campsite at mile 1782.26 to Campsite at mile 1803.33
Happy five month anniversary to me me on the trail. I started this hike 2 April...exactly 5 months ago today. I was awoken at 5:30 AM to Share Bear yelling, "Mighty Mouse...rain!" Somehow a very light rain woke her and she knew I didn't put on my rain fly. I jumped out of my tent grabbed the rain fly out of my bag and quickly covered my tent and everything inside of it. The alarms went off at 6:00 AM while very light rain fell. We all decided to stay in our tents to see if the rain would stop. By 6:40 AM it was determined the rain stopped and we finally got moving. We were then ready to hike at 7:41 AM.
Ready to hike
Not only did it lightly rain this morning, but it was quite chilly as you can tell from the photo above. By the way, the last time we saw any rain on the trail was 1,500 miles ago when we awoke on Deep Creek to a bit of rain.
We hiked a whole 0.2 miles to Christi's Spring where we collected and filtered water. What better use for a sign pointing out a spring than to use it to hang your gravity water filter from?
We hiked a whole 0.2 miles to Christi's Spring where we collected and filtered water. What better use for a sign pointing out a spring than to use it to hang your gravity water filter from?
Helpful Christi's Spring sign
Today started like yesterday ended with lots of deadfall across the trail. This made the going slower than usual and was pretty tiring.
Deadfall blocking the trail
We climbed up a bit of an incline and was rewarded with a view. It seems that it's been awhile since we had a view from the trial.
Share Bear admiring the view
The trail led us to the top of a rise and briefly went through a burn area:
PCT going through a burn area
After lunch we hiked up another ridge and for this awesome view of the volcano Mount McLoughlin and a view of a valley:
Mount McLoughlin
Valley view
We climbed above 7,000 feet for the first time in a while and met three weekend hikers from San Fransisco. The woman had her shoe off and asked if we knew anything about blisters. Share Beat then went into action and took care of her. They then told us that the rock formation behind me is called Devil's Peak.
Self-portrait "Devil's Peak"
One mile down the mountain from Devil's Peak was a steam were we had to stop to collect and filter water. This is the last water for 20 miles so we each needed 4 liters. There was a woman and her dog camping close by. Of course Share Bear got excited about the dog so we stayed and talked to her for a bit. We then realized that it was 5:00 PM and we still had a long way to go to get to camp, so let's go!
Sounded great until we saw another hiker on the side of the trail one hour later picking and eating wild blueberries. Of course we had to partake. They were incredibly delicious. We could have hung there for a long time eating blueberries, but it was getting late and we had to get to camp.
Sounded great until we saw another hiker on the side of the trail one hour later picking and eating wild blueberries. Of course we had to partake. They were incredibly delicious. We could have hung there for a long time eating blueberries, but it was getting late and we had to get to camp.
Wild blueberry bush
Woohoo...we hit a new milestone today...the 1,800 mile point on the PCT.
Proof I'm standing at PCT mile 1,800
My 1,800 mile pose
The trail today was more rocky than it has been since we entered Oregon, but there were some really nice sections as well:
The perfect trail
It was getting late and we were about 1.5 miles from camp. Of course this is where the trail climbs and the deadfall returns. Here we had to get over three trees very close to each other on the trail:
The triple threat of deadfall
We finally made it to camp at 7:45 PM. The temperature had dropped some by that point and it was already getting dark. Luckily we decided to eat dinner for lunch, so we all ate quickly without having to cook and got into our tents. Tonight I didn't take a chance and put my rain fly on. It's been a while since I used it, and I miss seeing the stars above me. Oh well, it's better than being woken up by rain.
By the way, today we actually planned on camping 3 more miles up trail, but we didn't make it. Between getting out of our tents late and talking to many other hikers on the trail and the deadfall slowing us down and having to dry out our tents at lunch and picking/eating wild blueberries, we came up short. We now have 15 miles to hike tomorrow to meet up with Tim in Crater Lake National Park instead of 12...blah. Oh well....we will make it there tomorrow regardless. So, until then...
By the way, today we actually planned on camping 3 more miles up trail, but we didn't make it. Between getting out of our tents late and talking to many other hikers on the trail and the deadfall slowing us down and having to dry out our tents at lunch and picking/eating wild blueberries, we came up short. We now have 15 miles to hike tomorrow to meet up with Tim in Crater Lake National Park instead of 12...blah. Oh well....we will make it there tomorrow regardless. So, until then...
My home for the night
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