PCT day 110 – Magic
I tried to get an early start. I set out at 6:30am. 19.5 miles to the road. 1.5 miles to the Crater Lake Mazama village store where I can pick up my resupply box.
It was all going well until I came across a series of logs. I was clambering over them and on the last one the toe of my shoe caught, I went flying and ended up lying in the dirt. As I fell I heard a rip. It was my shoe, the front ripped so now there is a giant hole. Time for new shoes - these ones have made it almost 1200 miles!
I had very little food left, very few snacks, which wasn't good. And there was no water for the whole stretch. I carried 2 litres. That would have to last me. I hiked 10 miles, through a lot of burnt areas and a lot of dead decaying trees. So far Oregon is so dusty. You kick up the dust as you walk and breathe it in. You can't really walk with anyone because you just end up eating their dust. I stopped for a small break. Too many bugs. I carried on.
I caught up to Dana and we hiked the last 7 miles to Mazama village together. On the way we ran in to Goaltech heading south carrying the biggest bag of crisps and other trail magic. I was so hungry by this point I could have easily eaten the whole sack but I only took one and it was the most amazing bag of crisps I've even eaten.
A couple more miles and we got to the highway. Wrangler was there (horsing around's husband) and he had trail magic too! I would have liked to hang around to say hi to Horsin Around but the call of real food was too much.
You aren't allowed to hitch here so Dana and I road walked the 1.2 miles to the resort.
We walked straight into the restaurant and had pulled pork burgers and soda. Then to the store to get our resupply boxes and ice cream. There were lots of stinky hikers hanging out. Farmer, Bumble, Steady, a couple of southbounders, Julia and Rachel, Jukebox. Bonus Miles, Rebo, Wild Pony came in later. I had a bit of a panic because there was no wifi ($4 for 1 hour! Who charges for wifi anymore?!) but we got given a code by a nice man. So I was able to order some new shoes and socks. Only another 8 days to hike in these falling apart ones.
I paid my $5 and pitched my tent in the hiker/biker campground where I ran into Gene the machine. Launched all my stuff in there, put my food bag and still unopened resupply box in the bear box and went back to the store to do my laundry. I bought 2 boxes of soap and my clothes came out cleanish. Cleaner than they went in anyway. I had a shower. I only got 4 minutes. This body needs more work than 4 minutes can give but that came out cleanish too. All the stinky hikers hung out outside the store and 8 of us went for dinner at the lodge. Round 2 of calorie loading. I went for a mushroom swiss burger. We got another ice cream at the store for pudding.
Farmer is my new favourite American, he used to date an English girl and knows all about roast dinners and Yorkshire pudding. Finally.
We left the restaurant to the rumble of thunder. Dana and I rushed back to the camp area to put the fly on our tents as we felt rain drops. We were on the edge of a big storm but we got away with only a few drops.
We had a camp fire and s'mores. I started to feel icky from all the food I had scoffed throughout the day and left the party early to lie down!
21 miles by 2pm. Pretty good.