PCT day 128 – Mt Adams
Before we went to sleep last night we were discussing rodents chewing through food bags and tents. I spent most of the night dreaming that my tent was being chewed through by mice. I dreamt that it was completely shredded and I woke up in a panic to find that my tent was thankfully still all in one piece. Chewy however wasn't so lucky and he actually did have a mouse in his tent last night!
I wasn't last up and out of camp today! Pie and Lizard were still in their tents. I packed up quickly, I've got it down to half an hour now. I had to leave quickly because I need a poo. Now that I've become a two poos a day kinda girl I'm not sure I'm going to have enough toilet paper to last me to the next stop. It is concerning.
Bit of a climb first thing, and it was cold, I could see my breath. I put my wind shirt and gloves on but after about a mile I soon had to strip all that off. It was very smokey this morning. I could really feel it in my lungs, but as the Suns rays cut through the smoke it made for some nice pictures!
Lizard soon passed me as I was taking my time - and he knew something I didn't! When we reached a road Pie's brother and daughter were there and they handed me a cold sprite. Lovely. And his daughter - Ice Cream, who also hiked this year and just finished - handed me a roll of toilet paper! Result! They also had scales in the car so I weighed myself. Still 10kgs of weight lost.
On to the second climb of the day through a large area of burn which was now filled with smoke. It was also really hot today, especially with no shade offered from the burnt tree trunks. It was a lot more smokey than any of the pictures show. I stopped at the top of the climb and ate my usual lunch until the wasps and bees became too much to deal with.
I continued on and as I rounded a corner I was stopped dead in my tracks by Mt Adams looming large in front of me. It was hardly visible because of the smoke so I can imagine it packs quite a punch on a clear day when you come round that corner. I had views of the mountain at various points throughput the day, gradually getting clearer as I headed north.
Another day another elegant log crossing.
Water was pretty regular today although there were some questionable streams...
I came to a creek crossing and luckily I had passed a sobo girl just before who told me to walk upstream and there are some logs. The creek was in full flow and looked pretty powerful. I found the logs and the water was coming up over them in places. I made a dash for it and only ended up with a little bit of a wet foot.
From there it was a nice gentle 5 mile downhill to the camp spot. Around 5pm it finally started to cool off a bit. I got to camp with plenty of time to spare, 6:30pm. Light Feather and her friend were already there all set up and in their sleeping bags! They said I could cowboy camp with them but I like my barrier between me and the bugs. There was a mountain spring which was clear, cold and delicious. I ate my ramen for dinner and made a hot chocolate to drink in my tent with my bar of dairy milk from home. I really savoured that. Still only 7:30pm!
Vince made it and Cardboard - who I assumed was ahead of me – turned up. He spent the night at Shreks drinking tequila until 2am, I'm glad I escaped that one!
And now I have a whole roll of toilet paper I'm no longer two poos a day. Typical.