PCT day 109 – I blame the Mosquitos
I woke in the night 00:30ish needing a wee. In my semi asleep state I thought a car was coming into the camp but I realised it was someone night hiking. Everyone was up at the same time and we all had pretty much left by 6:30am.
I was feeling a bit better than yesterday. Stronger. More motivated. The first goal was to get to the water 12 miles away. Which I did, fairly uneventfully, apart from this deer leaping out from behind a tree and having to take an urgent poop in the woods.
Bumble and Farmer were at the water. Still 17 miles to the days goal. The Mosquitos were horrendous today. Worst yet. We discussed the amount of bites we had. They have feasted on my elbows, shoulders, the backs of my knees and under my KT tape. The KT tape ones are the best though because you can scratch and scratch to your hearts content without breaking the skin.
I stopped to have a lunch break. I just wanted a peaceful relaxing half hour, but the giant ants, wasps, biting flies and mosquitoes made that impossible. I am also running out of food. I resupply tomorrow, but I'm going to have very few snacks to get me there.
I saw Sailor, a rather attractive southbounder, who asked me if I was enjoying the huckleberries, I asked him to show me what they were, they were delicious.
The trail was pretty boring again today. Stuck in forest with nothing to see. But I was enjoying the solitude and listening to some podcasts to pass the time. Mid afternoon there was finally a view, although not a great one as it was obscured by the heat haze.
I had to duck off the trail for another poo, the guidelines are to go at least 200ft off trail, but sometimes that is just not possible - when you have to go you have to go, you know. But I am pleased to say that I haven't ever left a single piece of toilet paper in the forest, I pack it all out. Smug face.
There was a bit of a climb in the afternoon (Oregon is NOT flat), the climb was pretty insignificant to what I have been up and over. But, today it was tough. It was so hot and we were walking across lots of rocks and shale which made it slow going.
There was no water until a couple of miles down the other side. Because it was so hot today I was drinking more and I think I became a bit dehydrated. By the time I got to the stream I had caught up to Wild Pony. I guzzled water there and continued the 3 miles to Honeymoon creek where we had planned to camp. It was the quickest 3 miles of the day for me, there were so many Mosquitos I practically ran all the way. I crossed a stream surrounded by tiny frogs, I really really hoped the next water was not full of frogs. I pitched my tent in record speed and launched my stuff and myself inside away from the evil blood sucking monsters.
I then did something potentially disastrous and cooked my dinner in my tent.
I was super careful and it went exceptionally well. Then I made a hot chocolate which also went well until I put it at the side of the tent to cool down and I made the ridiculous decision to blow up my air mattress. All the time thinking to myself as I was doing it that it was going to end in disaster. Then. I knocked over my hot chocolate. So annoyed with myself. Luckily it didn't go on anything other than the floor of my tent. I was more annoyed that I didn't get to drink it.
Just as I was cleaning up Dana arrived. I thought she was way ahead of me. Turns out she went the wrong way and ended up doing about 4 extra miles, as well as walking south for a bit until she ran into Bonus Miles (turns out it was Bonus Miles night hiking the other night and he had done a 50 mile day. Nutter). I had resigned myself to camping alone and now I'm not, which is nice. Dana chatted to me while cooking dinner and while I was still in my tent. It had been a bit of a poopy day for both of us. We are hoping Oregon gets better soon!
29.5 miles. My legs and feet are throbbing.