It doesn’t matter what we do in the morning. If we decide we want to hurry, we can get ready by 9:25. If we decide we want a leisurely morning, we can get ready by 9:35. If we decide we’ll just go when we’re ready, we can get ready by 9:30. Either we are inconsistently consistent, or we operate on Sassy time. Today, without having to fold tents, waking up whenever, having a leisurely breakfast, and me choosing to hold off on hole digging, we hit the trail at…9:35.
We knew we were having an easy walk into Shelter Cove. The first 2 miles were an easy up grade and the rest was all down hill. I was motivated for a couple of reasons to push fairly hard: 1) I wanted a shower, and 2) I didn’t dig a hole so I was all in for porcelain. Sassy clocked me at better than 3 mph. That’s screaming for an old, overweight guy fighting plantar fasciitis. Thank god and the modern marijuana industry for CBD oil. It has changed my life for the better.
No one was as motivated as me to get a shower, but they were all motivated for me to have a shower. I’ve been wearing long pants and long sleeve shirts to reduce exposed surface area for blood sucking. It’s been hot and I’ve been sweating profusely. Disgusting facts to follow. Skip ahead if you don’t like old man issues. Here goes.
Mosquitoes attack any exposed skin. Think about that for a second. You can wear long sleeves and pants, even gloves. Throw on a head net and you’ve got nothing exposed. But you’re hot and sweating a lot which makes you drink a lot more. Sometimes you end up drinking more than you need and your body does what with the extra water? It’s inevitable that you have to stop and pee. This is not as burdensome for a man as it is for a woman, but you’ve got to expose some skin (maybe there’s a market here for pee condoms). Here’s the problem. You’re a guy with excess stomach fat so your waist belt is very tight to push up the fat soufflé. Older males already have issues with completely emptying the bladder. You want to reduce exposure time as much as possible, so you might skip the extra shake that you might not in less trying times. All this leads to more of a urine smell in your pants than is otherwise, socially acceptable. This could be why dogs are drawn to me on the trail (I prefer to believe they can tell how much I love them, but I’ve got to face facts).
Once we began our descent into the Willamette Pass, we began running into lots of hikers. It was easy to distinguish the thru-hikers from the day hikers. First clue was odor. Thru-hikers, especially males, have a urine/sweat smell about them (it’s not just the old ones like me). They are not wearing face masks, and they walk very fast. Weekenders are usually heavier and have a slight sweaty odor that doesn’t quite mask the tide pods they did their laundry with. They also step way off the trail as anyone approaches. Day hikers smell of cologne, deodorant, and laundry detergent. They also wear face masks and run 50 yards uphill at the sign of any movement in the trail in front of them. I’ve seen a lone chipmunk start a stampede of day hikers.
The front of the bubble is definitely here. We met several more thru-hikers including the Kiwi Sisters who’s reputation proceeded them up the trail. They are a couple of older New Zealanders (past retirement age) and they have zero body fat. One of the sisters complained about walking around all of the mountains; she’s a mountain climber and wants to go over them. The other just said there was more walking than she anticipated. They’re averaging 20-25 miles a day. We have yet to break a 20 mile day.
We made it to Shelter Cove by 1:30. We went to the PCT hiker tent to drop our packs before we headed to the store for some lunch. There were probably a half dozen thru-hikers already there. They gave us a rundown on the campground. Guthook has some bad comments about Shelter Cove from some early hikers so everyone is a bit on edge about the place, but we only got good feedback and positive vibes from our initial entry. We even discovered there are laundry machines here.
After we ate, showered, and did laundry, we returned to the hiker tent to have some hikers that weren’t there earlier, approach us and tell us this was for hikers only. They were quite rude to Bunny and Sassy. When I walked in and heard the smelly entitled hikers, I said we are hiking the PCT. We’re only LASHers (Long Ass Section Hikers who hike more than 1000 miles at a time) but we also believe in personal hygiene. This shut the loudest mouth jerk up who was supposedly a Triple Crowner who had been in camp all day but still hadn’t found time to do laundry or take a shower. Sassy was through with them. This guy was a complete ass to everyone and is why hikers get bad reputations. After he left, the crowd became very friendly. All it takes is one bad apple.
We plugged in or electronics with our own plugs and cables then went up to the restaurant so we could connect to the WiFi. A bit later, I went back down to check on our charging progress to find someone had unplugged our phone and plugged their phone in using our cables. Guess who? Dirtbag Triple Crowner. I unplugged his phone and plugged ours back in but stuck around to make sure it wasn’t switched back.
About 6p, the group of entitled dirtbags decided they were going to take off and hike the 8 miles to the Maiden Peak Shelter. I was so relieved that 1) they were leaving, and 2) they weren’t a day faster and showed up at the cabin last night. They’ll be getting there after dark and will be rude to whoever happens to be there. I am so glad I have never run into a group of thru-hikers like this before but worry about the damage a group like this does for the rest of us. Sassy said she was happy we’re sobos and don’t have to see them again. I didn’t bother to point out that even if we were nobos, we wouldn’t see them again because they consistently put in more miles than we do. Screw it. We are old and can afford to take our time. Mom and Dad aren’t paying for our hikes.
EFG