Day 142 (8 September) - Mile 1913.73 - 1939.84

Campsite at mile 1913.73 to Campsite on Mac Lake

Yet another cold night, but not as cold as the past two and I slept really well. I woke with Brad's alarm at 6:00 AM and started getting ready soon after. Today we plan on record miles, so we have to get on the trail at a decent time. We were all ready to hike just before 7:30 AM.

Ready to hike

Within a mile of hiking we came upon the Eugene to Pacific Crest Trail junction. The sign had a really cool medallion on it:

Cool trail marker

Most of today's hike had us walking under cover in a pine forest. Just as you would expect in Oregon. 

Typical trail for the day

We were pretty chilly starting out. Luckily we had a bit of a climb to start out with, so we were able to warm up. After 5 miles or so we stopped for a break and quickly started cooling off. Share Bear managed to find a place with a bit of sun coming through, so she did as she had learned from the marmots:

Share Bear sunning herself

Here is a cool PCT sign we saw today:

PCT sign of the day

I think this was the first burn area we have come across in Oregon.

Burn area

We have been looking forward to getting to the Three Sisters area. We heard it was beautiful.

Entering Three Sisters Wilderness

We must have passed at least 10 lakes today. All the trees around them make you know you are in Oregon.

"Typical" Oregon lake

I LOVE the old PCT signs. Here is one we came across that happens to have a great view of a lake.

Awesome PCT sign of the day

This is what most of today's hike was like. Trees, trees, and more trees.

Our typical view for the day

Share Bear hiking the PCT

Check out the awesome color of Stormy Lake:

Another old PCT sign:

PCT sign of the day #2

We hiked really strong all day because we had a goal of hiking 26.2 miles today. We were doing awesome keeping on schedule until we came across a bunch of wild blueberry bushes. We must have spent al least 30 minutes filling our bellies with this delicious berries. 

Incredible wild blueberries

When we got to our planned campsite we had hiked 26.10 miles, 0.1 miles short of a marathon. So, Share Bear and I hiked an extra 0.1 miles to reach our goal. 1939.95 minus 1913.71 equals 26.24 miles!

Proof we hiked to mile 1939.95

After a small celebration we hiked back to Mac Lake and setup camp. Scott from Bend, Oregon was already there and had a small campfire going. He was fine that we crashed his party and I was so happy to have a fire to sit by while I cooked and ate dinner.  Oh, Free Lunch showed up and stayed the night here as well. 
Tomorrow looks like it will be a bit harder hike than today, but not too bad. So, until then...

Home for the night