This was a first. Magic came to us in our tent and woke us up. Doc, who we had met at House of a Thousand Cups as well as heard of last year while hiking in Washington, came up to the shelter about 7 offering apples and oranges. In addition, he offered to take all of our trash. Bunny and I were still in the tent drinking our coffee when he showed up. At the mention of trash, Bunny pushed me out to get rid of it (she’s our designated sanitation engineer while on the trail. I’m getting some pushback on this designation). People don’t realize what a big deal it is for hikers to get rid of trash (unless they are/were hikers themselves). Hikers abhor carrying any extra, dead weight. Right behind slow moving spouse, garbage is at top of the list.
Glen, who had cowboy camped on the floor of the shelter was gone pretty close by 7:30. We did talk to him a bit about the state of Jefferson, but didn’t push the topic very hard. For those unfamiliar, there has been a movement in Northern California and Southern Oregon since 1940 to break away and form a separate state. In a nutshell, these are people that now designate themselves as a Trump Republicans. It is kind of a single color group who feels the rest of the state has gone too liberal. They don’t want San Francisco or any of the coastal “pinko liberal” towns to join them. In other words, these are the descendants of the southerners who fled the south at the end of the Civil War. The areas they want to incorporate into a state would have no industry, consist mainly of desert, and have no natural resources to exploit. They don’t consider that they would have to pay for a new Capitol and government infrastructure, education, national representation, driver’s license bureaus, Fire stations, etc. I’m guessing why nothing has happened in over 80 years of effort.
There are similar movements and sentiments all over the country. Take my home state, Illinois, as an example. Downstaters mistakingly believe that Chicago sucks all the money from the rest of the state when it’s actually the other way around. There would not be the extensive road system throughout the state without the taxes collected in Chicago. Less dense populations just don’t generate the tax base to support a large state and all the required/mandated infrastructure. I get that people feel like their voices aren’t being heard and want to take some form of action.
Bunny claims that I was snoring last night. I claim that Bunny was snoring. We can all agree that Bunny hates the thought of me peacefully resting and recuperating. Bear and Sassy were not bothered by my snoring. Glen seemed to sleep ok even if he tossed and turned a lot. As usual, she feigned sleep while I was preparing breakfast. She didn’t really perk up until she heard someone volunteer to carry our garbage out. Once she’s up, she’s a whirlwind of motion until she ready to go. I was the slow one today. If I could have avoided a latrine trip, we’d have all been ready at the same time. My bowels cost us today.
We’re only 16.5 miles from being done with the Oregon section. There wasn’t anything significant to see today, but we decided to take it easy and try to enjoy our last full day and night in Oregon. It was hot, but not quite as hot as yesterday. The amount of climbing we did in the 16 miles was pretty equal to our gains and losses yesterday but over 6 additional miles. After debating about pushing on into California, we opted to stick with Bear’s original plan of camping just 0.3 miles from the state line. We’re going to give the Oregon bears one last night to show themselves.
Water is starting to get better as we are about to enter the Trinity Alps of Northern California. We didn’t have more than 7 miles between water sources today and we hope to be able to reduce the amount we carry with us starting tomorrow. Having said that, we did camp at a dry site tonight so we had to carry water a bit over a mile to camp.
There were several nice spots right next to a dirt road that leads into California. We picked our spots to set up and then ate supper together. We decided to look back on our Oregon experiences as we’re getting ready to leave. We’ve seen quite a lot in over 450 miles. We got to visit our friends, John and Jenny in Sisters but missed Leela and Brsni because of Covid. We spent multiple days in Bend and Ashland, both cities we liked. We saw deer, coyotes, grouse, osprey, peregrine falcons, and bald eagles (still waiting for a bear). We had Dancing Dog hike with us for the first 100 miles and we only lost her one time (but recovered her the same night). We saw a straight line of volcanoes that are part of the ring of fire: Mt Hood, Mt Jefferson, the Cinders, Three Fingered Jack, Mt Washington, the Three Sisters, the Bachelor, the Husband, Diamond Peak, Mt Bailey, Mt McLaughlin, and Mt Mazama. We walked along the rim of Crater Lake and were stunned by its beauty. We walked in lava fields and crossed snow fields (some times in the same day). We’ve lived through the plague of mosquitoes, been stung by yellow jacks, and survived each other’s farts (yes, it’s confirmed, all four of us do fart). I still haven’t found everything that gives me gas, but we can all agree if there’s water in it, I’ll have gas.
Between Bunny and I hiking the Oregon Coast Trail last year and the PCT this year, we are approaching 1000 miles of Oregon hiking. We have not hiked more in any other state. The same can be said for Bear and Sassy. We hiked 600 miles of the AT with them and 450 miles of the PCT. We have spent more time with them than anyone else and we’re still friends (I think, they tend to run ahead whenever I have a drink of water). We still have another 900 miles to hike on the PCT, so I’m sure to test their tolerance levels.
Oregon has been fun. We’ll see if the peanut butter I rubbed on the Big Agnes tent that appears beside us every night will provide us the bear sighting we’ve been waiting for. I’m sure, out of professional courtesy, Bear and Sassy will not be harmed. Just like a cougar will never attack us since Bunny is one herself.
EFG