Mosquitoes have many effects on an outing…none of them are good. Mosquitoes are responsible for more deaths of humans than wars, religion, and politics combined. It’s estimated that of the 107 billion people who have ever lived, over 34 billion have died because of mosquitoes. The only good thing to say about them is they have never violated our civil rights and made us wear face masks. Even so, I consider them evil.
I peed before I got in the tent to unpack last night. Bunny didn’t. Naturally, I was the first to have to get out to pee again. Bunny’s eyes are often pee-yellow when I first see them in the morning. The jaundice look is not her best, but Bunny can hold a strong candle to Dancing Dog when it comes to stubbornness.
The mosquitoes taught me one lesson to follow after our next town stop. I am going to carry a wide mouth Gatorade bottle from here on out. When Bunny complains about being cold, I will provide her with a warm water bottle. There aren’t too many thoughtful husbands like me.
The worst part about mosquitoes is not the itchy bite. It’s the sound. My vestibule was filled with the little bloodsuckers. There weren’t any on Bunny’s side. I think Sassy might have cut some of her hair off and spread it in my vestibule as revenge for me innocently peeing on their tent every night of the trip. The high pitched “eeeeeee” sound got louder and louder as the sun went down. It never stopped. All night long, “EEEEE.” I finally rolled Bunny over and then I could hear the mosquitoes, “eeeeee.” I can’t win.
I made Chana Masala for supper last night. It wasn’t the good stuff from Stowaway Gourmet. It was the Mountain House version. Bunny took a few bites and said it was too hot for her. I was forced to eat the entire 2 person meal by myself. This was my saving grace. It was mostly rice, and not too juicy. The double portion of rice soaked up enough moisture from my body that I only had to make the one trip out. It was during that trip that I filtered a liter of water for the hike in today, and got the water ready for the coffee in the morning.
I did have a very vivid dream last night. I dreamt that Bear got up to pee and Sassy was applauding. I woke up to the sounds of “slap, 13, slap, 14, slap 15…” Bear had gotten up to pee and Sassy was killing the mosquitoes that had gotten in the tent and counting each one she killed. A single pee cost 24 mosquitoes!
When everyone woke up, we agreed to try to coordinate our tent exodus. We were to cook, eat, and completely pack inside of the tent and try to both get ready at the same time to make our escape. We got the 5 minute warning from Bear and Sassy. Bunny finally got out to get our packs out and pee while I took the tent down. Our tent is a breeze to take down in a rush; less than 2 minutes, down, folded, and stowed. Bunny and I got out of the camp and into a breeze while Bear and Sassy had only managed to get their fly off.
The first 2 miles were slightly uphill, only a 400’ gain. Once we got to the top, 2 things happened: we had a great view of South Sister (and could see noticeably less snow) and the mosquitoes quit bothering us. The rest of the morning’s hike was easy downhill or level all the way to Elk Lake Resort. We only passed one hiker, a guy from the Netherlands who was the 4th thru-hiker we saw this year. So far, a Swedish couple were 1 & 2, a Norwegian guy was #3, and now a Netherlander is in 4th. I suppose most of the Americans returned home or got off trail when Covid closures started whereas the foreign hikers were stranded so they just kept hiking.
There is one good thing the mosquitoes did for us, they sped us up. We covered the 7.6 miles to the resort in less than 2 1/2 hours. We just had 3 things to do (my morning constitutional window gets closed at 11 and it was now 11:30 or it might have been 4 things): eat, get our food drops, and get a hitch into Bend where we have a hotel room for the next 3 nights. The first 2 were a breeze.
The restaurant didn’t have any outside seats that weren’t in the sun, but the bar tender, Charisma, took our orders and offered to keep refilling our drinks even if we left the restaurant to get a picnic table in the shade. She also told us how to hitch rides into Bend and gave us a marker and paper to make signs. While we were waiting for our food (3 greasy burgers and one healthy salad for yours truly) we got our food packages that Miles and Linda had left for us.
Hitching was a different story. Charisma had told us to head towards the resort entrance and “camp” there. We sent Bunny down the road and put Sassy on the exit drive (Bear and I know how to pimp out our women). I proceeded to do the important work which works 100% of the time. I sat down on the shoulder, took out the clippers, and started cutting my nails. By the time I get my shoes off to cut my toenails, we always get a ride. I guess passing motorists see how at ease I am and figure we don’t really need the ride, so they naturally stop to offer us one.
I got my fingernails done and we still didn’t have a ride. I was about to take off my shoes for the closer when Bear through a wrench in the works. He told me I needed to go down closer to Bunny so it looked more like 2 couples hitching. I don’t like to fix things that aren’t broke, but I complied. When I got to Bunny, she said she was tired of holding the sign and made me take it. People! Stick with the plan! I took the sign and laid in the road to stop oncoming traffic. If we’re going to deviate, let’s make it worthwhile.
Luckily, no traffic came my way, but Bear did make puppy dog eye contact with a pickup truck. He indicated that we’d gladly ride in back. It worked. They pulled over and had 3 of us get in back while Bunny got the luxury spot inside with the dog in the back seat. I was the last in back and got handed a bag of dog poop. He told me I didn’t have to keep it, just put it in the bed. I stuck it in Sassy’s pack.
Here’s the scoop from the luxury seat up front. Tour Guide was driving. He had sold his business a few years ago. Peanut, his wife who likes peanut M&Ms, and he own a vacation house just east of Bend. They live full time in Portland. They had been out day hiking with their dog, Winston, today. They might even have been at a Olallie when we were there last week. They are younger than us but have kids and grandkids. They started young.
They had passed us once already and Bear could see they looked at us and wanted to give us a ride. They turned around and drove by again. When Bear indicated we would gladly ride in back, they pulled over. They were so kind to us. They even apologized that there wasn’t enough room up front because of the dog. In truth, I wanted to get up front with the dog, but I knew I’d never hear the end of it if both women were forced to be in back while I rode up front. No one loves dogs more than I do in this group. Life isn’t always fair.
Tour Guide said he’d take us wherever we wanted. We told him the hotel. He said he didn’t know where it was, but Peanut would look it up and he’d take us directly there. We got there about an hour before our room was ready because of disinfecting.
John had contacted us a couple days back about possibly hiking with us for a few days. I know he’s very protective of Jenny and any potential exposure of Covid since she already has some respiratory issues. I told him we start late, go slow, and we’re going to go into Bend for a few days. Even though we plan to sleep most of the time and get caught up on the blog, I knew our exposure potential would be an issue. I didn’t want to mislead him. When we got in town, he had said he was going to hike in a more remote area than the PCT. it would have been great to have him go with us, but we were all a bit intimidated by John and were worried we’d be too slow for him. If this damn Covid wasn’t an issue, we’d have had a great time. Next time, for sure.
Once we got in our rooms, we took care of town necessities (showers and laundry) before we headed out to a pizza place for supper. The trail provides.
EFG