PCT day 113 – Rain
I slept so badly. The rain was hammering on the tent into the early hours keeping me awake.
I was up at 6 and hiking by 6:30. Dana had already left by 6. About 2 minutes after I left it started raining. Of course it did, this is Oregon! But seeing as I had 3/4 of a litre of water to get me the next 11 miles the rain was better than it being too hot!
Not eating that Pad Thai again. I had 3 poos before 9am!
It wasn't so smokey today but the views were covered in cloud instead. Got to summit lake and got water, I was going on have lunch but the Mosquitos were terrible - another thing the rain is good for.
I stopped further up the trail and ate my standard tuna and crackers and Cheetos. 14.5 miles done, 14.5 miles left. The trail had 2 1000ft climbs today but they were really gradual so I was able to maintain a 3mph pace the whole day.
Lots of people told me how beautiful Oregon is. So far it's not really. It's just like a tree graveyard. There are fallen trees melting into the ground everywhere.
I also came across lots of 'tagged' trail blazes. It really winds me up every time I see one. Who is the moron who is doing this. I won't dignify their actions with a picture. Stop writing on the trail blazes!!
The second climb got me to a ridge with views of the mountains and more dead trees. Then it was pretty much all downhill from there.
Lots of downed trees, this was the trickiest to navigate. And dead tree lake.
With about 5 miles left I was starting to flag. My legs and feet were hurting. So I bust out the Crunchie which I had been saving for a moment like this.
I passed mile 1900 today!
With only 2 miles to go it started to rain. Big fat drops of rain. Rain coat time - but it was still so humid. I had been hearing the distant rumbles of thunder for a few hours before.
A mile side trail took me over the railway and into Shelter Cove where I had a resupply box waiting. I still have so much food in my pack - I have shaved a whole day off my estimated time and I packed too much food because I ran out last time.
When I arrived Smokey, Legend and Dana were there. Bumble (who I thought was in front) arrived later, Farmer got sick at Crater Lake and had to take a few day off the trail. Bonus Miles and Hoarder arrived in the evening. We sat around the hiker area and ate, organised our boxes and used the very patchy wifi. Dana and I had paid for a spot in the campground, which we felt stupid about - the others were stealth camping near the Jamboree, so we joined them there.
We did laundry and had showers. In my haste to gather my laundry and get to the shower I forgot a towel so I had to drip dry and of course that didn't really work so I had to put my waterproofs on over my wet body which was quiet unpleasant!
29 miles by 5:30. Strong day.