We were forced to sleep late today. Surprisingly enough, it was Sassy who put up the biggest fight. Bear was willing to sleep until 7:30, but was not allowed. We were reliving “Freaky Friday” with the role reversals. Since it didn’t directly concern Bunny, she ignored the entire situation and slept until 8. As long as we are in line for food at 9 when the cafe opens, nothing else matters.
The only thing commendable about Fish Lake is their cafe. The resupply was overpriced and limited. The washer wouldn’t spin unless you held the door closed. The showers alternated between ice cold and scalding (on the upside, if you put in $2 instead of $1.50, you got 20 minutes instead of 3) but the drains were clogged in the women’s shower. The free camping was a joke…they allowed us to buy overpriced crap at their store, in return, we were rewarded with free passage to government lands to camp. There were only 4 camping spots anywhere near the lake. When we tried to rent a camping spot for $26, they wanted to charge us that amount for each tent. In retrospect, we’d have been better off skipping this place.
But back to the commendable cafe. We had pretty decent biscuits and gravy. The people working in the cafe were very friendly and accommodating. The guy even brought food out to Sassy to make up for her having to wait for a breakfast burrito without the tortilla. I did go inside and buy a package of Krispy Kreme chocolate donuts to supplement the biscuits and gravy. I willingly split the package with Bunny (she got 1 and I got 5, but it’s still a split).
While we were eating breakfast, we started talking to some other hikers that were sitting at an adjacent table. Nav was hiking with his daughter, Tree Frog, and her husband, Duckie. They started as sobo from the Canadian border but flipped to Sierra City after a little more than 100 miles. Now they are hiking north back to where they got off and will flip back to Sierra City again to continue south. I’m guessing we will run into them again in the Sierra when they pass us again.
Sassy and Bear were willing to walk back to the trailhead. This is non-qualified mileage, (i.e. non-trail miles) so I wanted to walk the road in the hopes of another hitch. I do adhere to walking every single mile of the trail, but I am more than willing to get rides off the trail. In the end, Bear turned on his charm and yogied us a ride from a couple that came into the store to buy some fishing worms.
Lori and Ray were driving an older model truck. It’s always been our experience that people driving older vehicles tend to be more generous to strangers. When they pulled up and looked our way, we could see they had some interest in us. Lori had helped some hikers just yesterday. Bear started talking to them and asked if they’d be willing to give us a ride back to the trail. To our happiness, they said yes. While they were inside, we loaded all of our gear and got in the back of the truck.
When they dropped us off, we got to talk with each other for several minutes. Ray was amazed that we were hiking close to 1400 miles this year. We tried explaining that we were heading south, but they just assumed we were heading to Washington since that is the direction the majority of hikers are headed. Lori and Ray used to be married but are now just fishing friends. Lori is petite and was a jockey for 20 years. We tried to give her a few bucks to help pay for gas, but she refused. Instead, she gave us a box of Reese’s Pieces. It still amazes me at the generosity we receive from total strangers. Even more amazing is that the less people have, the more generous they are.
We saw more thru-hikers today. I’m sure the biggest part of the bubble will be passing within the next week. More than thru-hikers, though, are section hikers trying to get Oregon completed. Oregon was going to implement a new permitting system this year that would limit the number of section hikers allowed to hike the PCT (it won’t effect the PCT permit holders, but will limit almost everyone else). Covid forced the state to delay the new permit system for at least another year, so people are out taking advantage of the delay.
Our initial target was South Brown Mountain Shelter because it’s the only reliable source of water for 10 miles. When we arrived, there was a couple of ladies cleaning off at the well. We had read that the NFS keeps taking the handle off of the well because they don’t want hikers to assume the water is potable. As soon as they finished, I got water to cook supper for Bunny and me (tuna and Knorr cheesy broccoli with rice). The revised plan was to eat supper at the shelter then walk another 4 miles before we camped.
A biker rode up and started pumping water out of the well. He explained that he was keeping an eye on the well and testing water quality so the Forrest Service would quit taking the handle off the pump. John, we found out, was 73. He and his wife have been maintaining the bike trail that runs to Fish Lake for 25 years, and now, he has taken it upon himself to see that hikers have reliable water in this stretch of trail. He even tossed us a Cliff Bar for some additional magic. John is another great example of the giving volunteers that make our hiking possible. It takes thousands of people to keep a trail like the PCT navigable. Without them, we don’t even have the opportunity to hike.
Our goal is to make it to Ashland in 4 days so we can have a triple zero to celebrate our hiking 1000 miles together as a tramily. Every extra mile we cover today, is one less mile we have to hike in the next 3. Even though we’re all hurting a bit (everyone has blisters: Bear got 4 in one day on his foot, Sassy has blisters on both big toes, Bunny got a blister on her heel that’s been slowing her down for the last 4 days, and I got a blister on my ring finger. It doesn’t slow me down, but it makes me feel like part of the group since I have a blister). We want to get as many miles as we can before Thursday so we can Nero into Ashland. I suppose that’s a long winded way of saying we hiked another 4 miles after our supper break at the shelter.
Nearly 14 miles complete on a day when we didn’t even start hiking until 11. I have to reluctantly admit that we might be getting stronger and faster. We still only net 2 mph, but we hike in excess of 2.5 mph. We just take a lot of breaks and talk to about everyone we pass. By pass, I mean passing in the opposite direction. We have not overtaken anyone heading the same direction we are headed (unless you include the family’s with young children we blew by on the Crater Lake Rim Trail—get your toddlers out of the path of the geriatric hikers or we’ll throw them in the lake!).
We made it to our spot before 7. Since we already had water and had eaten supper at the shelter, we just set up the tents and ate the bounty of free food we got today. I’m not the peanut butter fiend that Bunny is, but the flavor we got today is one of my favorites—free.
EFG