As if this is a surprise to anyone, but Sassy got out of the tent and said (yelled, actually) “I absolutely hate (pick your expletive, it won’t be as bad as the one she chose) mornings.” Poor Bear was speechless. I know his pain. You make your partner coffee and breakfast in bed, and the best you can hope for is to avoid their wrath. I tried to deflect for Bear a bit, he was still shaken from the glasses incident of two days ago. “Excuse me, ma’am, but yesterday wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be. Maybe today will be better as well.” “Shut up Easy. I don’t need your optimistic rantings this early. Save it for someone who cares.” I tried, Bear. You’re on your own. I crawled back in my tent and cried.
Carrying water a mile and a half to camp is the way to go. Even when I sent Bunny out on bathroom recon, she came back and reported no mosquito bites on butt. This is as close to an all clear there is. But it gets better. The soil was nice and loamy making it easy to dig a nice deep cat hole. I haven’t dug one this pretty since leaving the desert of Southern California last year.
We were happy. We were mosquito free. We felt a little cocky thinking that we had Oregon all figured out. We took a smiling picture at the trail junction sign in the heart of our camp to start the day. We were laughing as we walked out of camp. 50 feet later we walked into mosquito hell.
I tried to tough it out a bit and pretend they weren’t that bad. I hadn’t worn long sleeves or put the legs on my pants this morning and they were feasting on all the soft white parts of my arms and legs (which is every bit of exposed skin). They were flying into my glasses and bouncing off. But worst of all was flying into my ears. I pulled my buff over my ears and picked up my pace. It helped a little. I asked Bunny how she was doing. “This is horrible. The worst I’ve ever been in the mosquitoes. I can’t take it.”
I tried to find Sassy and Bear, but they were nowhere to be seen. They had stopped to rub Jean Luc Picard over themselves (apparently, old bald men put Sassy in a good mood. Sadly, it works on Bear’s mood just as much). I asked Bunny for our lotion to put on my arms and legs while I was walking. It helped to knock them down a bit, but not so much that we could stop walking for any time without getting swarmed. That was how our first 4 miles of hiking went. We couldn’t stop for any longer than it took to take a drink of water.
We came upon a couple of Nobo’s about our age that were completely covered up and wearing head nets. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be getting better today. We talked to them for a bit, swatting ourselves while we were standing still. They told us the mosquitoes had only been bad for them for the last 3 days, but when they told us how far they were going each day, we q uickly figured out we have a week of hell to look forward to. As we were getting ready to part ways, I asked them if they had ran into Charcoal B and Struggles. They said they had about 3 days ago at Six Horse Spring almost 60 miles ahead of us.
Struggles had sent us a text on Sunday saying they’d be at Crater Lake on Monday. If they were at Six Horse Spring 3 days ago, they must be a couple days later than that, but they are well over 80 miles ahead of us. We were hoping to catch up to them before they finish the Oregon section. Perhaps they’ll continue on into a Northern California for a while since they’re making such great time. They started at Santium Pass about 6 days before we got there and we’re not really catching up to them.
About 6 miles in, we all needed a break. I found a shady spot with a slight breeze that had some sitting logs. As soon as we dropped our packs, I got out my pants legs to reattach, and switched to a long sleeve shirt. I also got out my head net and put it on. It was the first real relief I had gotten all day, but it comes with a price. Today was pretty hot and all the extra clothes and head net makes it that much hotter.
I was completely out of water but didn’t want to stop to fill up because of the devil spawn. We came to Irish lake and I broke down. While I was getting water, Bear read about the trail ahead and discovered it was an exposed climb, so they decided to fill up on water as well. So now our packs are heavier from water weight, it was extremely hot, the mosquitoes were still driving us crazy. It was not a good time. Sassy even said “I’m not having any fun.” As always, the trail provides when we were at our low point.
We came to the next dirt road and I heard someone say “Hikers, welcome.” In the middle of nowhere,we ran into magic. Three guys had pulled a little trailer into the middle of the woods and were planning on camping there for the next 4 days. It had taken them 3 hours to travel the final 4 miles because the road was so crappy. They invited us to drop our packs and take seats. We happily obliged.
Tazz, Horse, and Red Eagle has been up around Mt Hood last week giving magic, but hadn’t run into many hikers, so they decided to move further south in the hope of running into more hikers. They’re hoping to have at least 30 hikers come by. We were their first at this location. They had hotdogs, watermelon, sodas, and beers. We spent over an hour with them.
Tazz and Horse had both hiked the PCT last year. Bunny and I told them about our attempt last year, and then tried the “it’s a small hiking world” game where we try to name common people we all know. There was quite a few. I actually don’t know how we missed Tazz early on. He started just a few weeks after us, but we all knew the twins, Trash Can and Store Brand, who we had met in Northern California after Burney Falls and again in Washington near the end of the trail. We had a great time getting refreshed and reminiscing about last year’s experience.
The two sodas and food they gave me were just what the doctor ordered. We didn’t think we’d run into any magic this year. We were all excited, cooled down, and refreshed for the final 6 miles of our hike. The two sodas even created a scenario for me which hadn’t happened since we got out of the tent this morning…I was finally able to pee.
The section of trail was as Bear had described—exposed. This was another burn zone, but from the looks of the trees, it was well over a decade ago. I saw a couple of girls coming towards us and they looked to be dragging a bit. I thought I’d brighten their day and tell them there was magic ahead. This did perk them up. Cold drinks and food on a hot day are always appreciated, but when you throw in the word “free,” now that’s hiker motivation.
Dropsy and Baby Feet were just doing the Oregon section of the trail (about 450 miles). Dropsy got her name because in a single day, she dropped both her sleeping bag and tent off of cliffs while they were hiking. Fortunately, they were able to retrieve both items. Baby feet and Dropsy had stopped at the cabin where we intend to spend tomorrow night. They had found some baby mice there after they found their poisoned mother. Baby Feet is a softy for wild animals (even mice), so they were carrying the babies out to a friend that is going to meet them tomorrow. Baby Feet must not be totally committed to saving the mice if she’s letting a girl named “Dropsy’ carry them. Two days so far and they are still alive in their cheese box transport.
We made it to Charlton Lake around 6:30. Naturally, we have a back up plan if we don’t like the camping in the area. We dropped our packs and spread out looking for the ideal spot. Bear went up a side trail to a parking lot to see if there were pit latrines. I headed down the opposite direction to get water while looking for other sites. When I saw the lake and the gorgeous spots along the shore, I knew we’d camp down there, so I didn’t get any water.
Once Bear returned with the sad news of “no latrines.” We all headed down to the lake. There was a steady breeze, so no skeeters. I had already picked out a spot on a point that gave us water on three sides. First order of business was to get in the lake to get cleaned up and cooled off. We set up camp and we’re able to eat outside, mosquito free.
While we were getting ready to eat, we felt a thump thump over our heads. When we looked up, we saw a bald eagle just a few feet above us making his final approach to the lake hoping to snag some food. The eagle missed what he was trying for, but swooped up into a dead tree directly across from us where he had a good view of his surroundings. He stayed there the entire time we were eating.
What started out as a fairly mundane to crappy day through forests without views, terrible mosquitoes, and high heat, gradually morphed into a great day to be on the trail. We found out where our friends are. We got trail magic when we needed it most. Most amazing of all was ending the day with a bald eagle flying over us and then watching us while we ate. There’s a motto “never quit on a bad day.” We weren’t anywhere near the idea of quitting, but today demonstrated why you don’t want to quit on a bad day, because it can turn amazing in a heartbeat.
EFG