I got us going by being tricked into a false early start. I mistook Igor’s movements for Bear and Sassy. I thought they were trying to get the jump on us again just like after I told Molly and Clint we are faster getting ready in the morning. It really made them a lot more competitive. People need to chill and realize hiking is not a competition. Just let us win most days by getting ready first. Side note to government agents: more mosquitoes still need to report for renewal.
We had an easy hike to the rood. It was almost all downhill and level except for when it was going uphill. Once again, we met very few hikers and most of them were section hikers. We’re still waiting for the bubble to arrive. We really expected to run into the main bubble before we make it to Ashland. Right now, we’re enjoying the lull. Pit Stop did tell us she thought a lot of hikers may have jumped north to try to get Washington done before the snows arrived.
We were hoping for magic at the road with an easy hitch. I had pictured a pickup truck waiting with folding chairs and 4 cold drinks waiting…2 Coke Zeros, a diet A&W Root-beer, and a Coke. We’d walk up, have a seat, take the offered drinks and cool off. As we were about to finish, the angel would ask us if we needed a ride anywhere and we’d say “Fish Lake.” He’d tell us to hop in and away we’d go. I’ve always heard you need to envision your expectations and it’s always worked (except for the lottery, my personal life, my work life, and hiking the trail).
I got it half right. We made it to the road and got the ladies to stick out their thumbs. We kept trying to give them directions to get them to go further uphill so oncoming traffic could see them. This kind of worked. A car coming from the direction we wanted to go stopped. All the female driver from Texas saw was two dirty old men pestering two women and thought there might be a domestic abuse situation in process. When we explained we were 2 married couples hiking the PCT just trying to get a hitch into Fish Lake, she said she’d take us. The whole process took less than 4 minutes to get a ride. No sodas, though.
We threw all our gear in back of the SUV and climbed in. We were all wearing our face masks. She told us it wasn’t necessary. We felt a bit awkward, but we took them off and lowered a window. When she dropped us at Fish Lake, we put them back on. We noticed we were the only people wearing them here. We had somehow travelled through a portal directly into the Deep South where individual rights were not going to be trampled on by asking people to be considerate of those around them. We all felt right at home since this was the mentality which caused us to decide to hike. We couldn’t wait to get back on the trail, but town food was too close. We chose to stay.
If you cook it, they will come and stay for more. Bear and I chose the Hiker Burger special—two 1/3# all beef patties and curly fries. They even had peach pie alamode, no turning back now. We ordered, then chose a table furthest away from everyone. The PCT camping area was on the other side of the lake, so we decided to take care of all business before hiking over and setting up tents. We bought all the food we’d need to reach Ashland (after Bear and Sassy gave us the extra food they had in their resupply box). The showers and laundry were also on this side of the lake, so we headed there after all the food business was done.
The showers were being “cleaned” and clothes were on top of the dryer, so we decided to go set up our tents first. We walked around the lake only to discover there were only 2 decent sites and they already had tents in them. Bear and I went back to the office to try to figure out what we were missing. Here’s what we discovered. In a nutshell “FU”. The far side of the lake is government land and you can camp wherever you want. The resort allows us to buy overpriced food and resupply while not charging us for the privilege of crossing their land. We tried to rent a campsite. They wanted each of us to pay full price for a site. All the other “campers” had multiple tents and RVs on a site, but PCT hikers weren’t allowed to do so.
We gave up. We went back and found the best spots we could even though they weren’t even big enough for either of our tents. We felt good about reading the Guthook comments and finding the shower hack—deposit $2 of quarters to get 20 minutes of hot water instead of $1.50 for 3 minutes. The owners haven’t figured they are actually “giving” a perk to hikers. The washing machine was beat all to hell. It died on us twice and I had to go find maintenance. The guy was very friendly and obviously overworked. Bear ended up diagnosing the problem and the maintenance guy game me a handful of quarters to make up for the trouble. I took enough for the dryer and gave him the rest back. He looked surprised.
We showered, laundered, and did dishes in the bathhouse. Fish Lake Resort is not really hiker friendly like Shelter Cove was. They didn’t provide towels, soap, or shampoo. If it weren’t for the fact that they serve overpriced biscuits and gravy for breakfast, we’d be out of here. Everyone knows, the way to exploit thru-hikers is through their stomachs. Nothing else matters.
EFG