8/28/2023
Section: Milepost 1342.5 to 1332.4
Total Trail Miles: 1607/2650
Distance: 10.74 Miles
Moving Time: 4:04 Hrs
Elevation Gain: 1480 ft
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Last night I peed out of my side of the tent. This might be TMI but my side tent door is, for all intents and purposes, no longer functional. I can open it a tiny bit but that’s all and if I want to leave I have to crawl over Amanda, which is irritating for all involved, so this morning, at 2 am, I woke up and had to pee and said f*&% it, i’m not doing that and just peed out the small opening in the door. It’s not pretty and it’s the patriarchy at work but it’s what happened.
The stage today climbs steeply up from Domingo Springs campground via a vast saddle between North Stover and Ice Cave Mountain. The path peaks at just over 6000 feet and 3.7 miles in before paralleling West Stover road for some time. The PCT crosses Stover Springs road before dumping down off the south side of the plateau to a lower plateau where it meanders the last few miles out to State route 36.
The morning was a bit chilly, which was great for sleeping - I have really appreciated some cooler nights recently, but maybe not so great for getting a move on. Despite that, we were up and off by 6:30, both making use of the pit toilet before we left. As we turned left on CR11 to find that overgrown access trail we had come in on, we ran into Skull and Crossbones and Lightweight. They had decided to hike into Chester on the road (CR11) since it ran straight into town and cut some miles off. Theys asked if we wanted to join them. We said thanks but that we were planning on sticking with the trail and said we would catch them in Chester. We headed up the road and quickly found the little trail we had used the night before and were soon back, speeding down the PCT. We scrambled up the early day climb, constantly crossing busy logging roads. The sound of heavy trucks was incessant. We would find out later that day that logging companies were actively trying to pull out as much of the burned timber as they could before it was no longer viable lumber. 90 minutes brought us to the top of the saddle between North Stover and Ice Cave Mountain and we dropped quickly from there down to the upper plateau. From up here we could see State Route 36, which quickened our pace a bit.
We descended off the plateau and made our way across the lower bench - running into a few elderly hikers coming up from the highway. The burn was really bad here, almost nothing survived. 9 miles and 3.5 hours brought us down to the highway altitude and about 30 more minutes saw us exit to the highway.
As always, we ran into a few hikers getting back on at the trailhead and they gave us some beta on the breweries and food in Chester. Sounded like a pretty typical hiker town. We got our comfy shoes on and made our way to the westward side of the highway where we eventually flagged down a beat-up old red suv with an old timer behind the wheel. “Get on in!” he said, coming around the back to help us load our bags. Tragically, I broke my spoon in the chaos of loading up the bags - left it on the shoulder strap and it hooked the frame of the car as it was getting hauled in. Titanium is light but not super durable. The ride was about 20 minutes and along the way our driver told us all about the fire, about how he had been evacuated and about all the work that had been done to save Chester, which sat smack-dab in the middle of the burn zone. According to him, the town had almost been lost, but the fire had been stopped just inside the city limits by a herculean effort to keep it at bay. He also was the one who explained the crazy amount of log truck traffic on all the local USFS roads. In town, he drove us down the single stretch, pointing out all the places to eat and resupply and eventually dropped us off at our location for the night - the Antlers Hotel. As we rolled in, we recognized some familiar faces that we had not seen in a very long time. Two of the infamous Ride Brides, Rubie and Maddy, smiled back in recognition as we unloaded our packs from the old SUV. I tried to give our ride a few bucks but he turned me down point blank, saying that he always gave PCT’rs rides and never took any money. Amanda and I thanked him profusely before running up to give Rubie and Maddy big hugs. I left Amanda talking with Rubie, Maddy and the other 2 girls they were hiking with to go check in. After checking in, I picked up 2 Miller Lights that were hanging out in the hiker box and went outside to catch up with 2 of my favorite hikers on the trail. We sat with the 4 girls in front of Antlers for probably 2 hours catching up. The other two were named Wonka and Token. Token was from North Bend, so we had that West-side Washington connection. Maddy and Rubie had been bouncing all over the trail and were skipping the burn section down to somewhere around Buck’s lake to continue heading south. Eventually we said goodbye and good luck to them before finally heading to our rooms and getting cleaned up. Amanda showered first while I organized our gear then she went across the street to grab some deli chicky nuggets and beer while I showered. After eating, we went to the post office where I found out one of our boxes was not due to arrive until the next day, which was a let down, and ran into Lightweight who said the road walk had been a breeze. After that, we returned to Antlers to get laundry moving through and I waterboarded my Thermarest to find the holes which were leaving me on the ground at the end of every night. Turns out, my sleeping pad is starting to do the same thing Amanda’s was in the desert. One of the baffles towards the head location is starting to separate but, unlike Amanda’s, every time mine does it forms a new, small leak. I am now actively chasing this baffle with patches as it works its way across the pad. I am up to my 3rd patch and the leak continues to propagate. I also attempted to repair the tent zipper on my side with no luck - it’s FUBAR.
That night we went to dinner at Timber Brewery. Good beer and decent food. Afterwards we came back and did some digital catching up before passing out in clean sheets.
