7/16/2023
Section: Milepost 2090.7 to 2067.3
Total Trail Miles: 872.0
Distance: 24.76 Miles
Moving Time: 10:02 hrs
Elevation Gain: 2,127 ft
Click here ://uglyamericanadventures.com/paydenandamandahikethepctfor current location
My iPhone is dying here, so this will be short. Not much to talk about today anyway.
We woke at 5 am and were on the trail by 6 - Roadrunner started moving as I was about to hit the snooze one more time and inspired me to get my rear in gear. We hiked for some time up and out of the lake and over a shallow saddle that dumped us back on the PCT. From there it was pretty flat - and I mean very flat for most of the rest of the day.
We went through a trailhead parking lot and both stopped to use the toilets before continuing on. We crossed a road and found ourselves on the course for the annual Mt. Hood 50k. For about 10 miles we dodged runners, about 150 of them, until the PCT departed from the course. We did get to hit up the aid stations for snacks, which was pretty cool - thanks guys!
After we turned off from the race, we continued on for some time to Timothy lake. There we jumped in and had a little swim, the water was perfect. We restarted hiking and made it a few miles before we ran into Carol. Carol was an interesting personality - one of the more grating personalities we had experienced on the trail. Her first words to us were “you must not be thru-hikers, you look way too clean,” said in a way that had zero levity in it. Amanda smiled and responded that, yes, we were and that we had just taken a dip in the lake. Carol responded that she wished she had taken the time to do that, with zero actual desire reflected in her voice. I love this trail, I’ll say that right now, but there are some sub-cultures along the way that are just plain toxic - and this is one of them, the way-too competitive, the how-many-miles-are-you-doing-per-day type that seem to have zero interest in actually disconnecting and enjoying nature. For some reason, Carol did not read into our rather terse responses to her conversation and decided to hike with us for several miles. At one point, when she was able to break away from talking about herself, she asked us where we were flipping from. “The Sierra,” I said, “it was brutal.” “Oh yea, I just assumed the only people going in there were the ones with zero snow experience, and I skipped it all-together.” To which we responded that we were both mountaineers and wanted to see if it was passable - she had zero feel for social queues. We walked for about 20 minutes listening to long stories of Carol’s skiing escapades - I had to ask her where she was from 3 times before she finally realized I wasn’t interested in where she had been skiing the last 3 years - and eventually Amanda sat down to “tie her shoe” and Carol kept walking. We said goodbye and I thanked Amanda for the excuse to stop. 99% of people on this trail are awesome, but you always find some of the more interesting ones along the way.
We hiked on through the green tunnel. I gotta say, I lived in Oregon for 10 years and, yea, never noticed how close in the tree canopies are. We crossed into the Warm Springs Indian reservation and continued south. The campground we were headed to was supposedly haunted based on the commentary from FarOut and, as we got close, I could see why. Oregon has these Douglas Fir groves that, when younger, grow very close together and give off an almost stifling vibe, and that was very apparent here. We reached the campsite and, though I am not superstitious, I was happy to see a few other tents already in position.
We set up and I got water. I am gravity filtering through the Sawyer with the new CNOC bag, and it is super convenient. We had dinner and then decided to go to bed. Amanda wasn’t having my typing that evening, so I am writing this one day late
