Miles hiked: 29.5
Mile marker: 1761.2
Total ascent: 4500 ft
Total descent: 4600 ft
I woke up last night at 11:30 pm. Then I rolled around and around. We cowboy camped because there was supposed to be a meteor shower. I fell asleep before it was even dark and awoke to a night sky painted with a billion glittering stars.
I see a light shoot across the sky. I stare at the blue abyss for a bit, see another shooting star, and spend the next several hours not getting good sleep.
It’s 5:00 am and my alarm wakes me up. I was dreaming. I don’t know what about.
I’m exhausted.
It takes me longer to pack my things without my tent than with it this morning. It’s a chilly morning and the pine trees are silhouetted against a dark blue sky with just a hint of sunshine.
We hike on a bit and make it just in time for a pink sunrise hidden behind some power lines!
Five miles in and we drop Bumper off in Hwy 66, where he’s getting a ride to go to Trail Days.
That is where gear companies meet and give out free gear! I want to go too, but it’s in Washington and would take too much time off of trail to get some random gear.
Maybe next year.
We hike on. I finish my book about evacuee children during WWII who are sent to the countryside of England.
Now I need something else to listen to!
We hike on for 17 miles and lunch in a shady spot. Shiny black ants the size of my finger curiously crawl onto my mat, shoes, feet, pack, shoulders, and anything else they can get their tiny toes on.
At least they don’t bite.
13 more miles left.
I’m stepping onto a dead log after Voyager. Two hikers are ahead of us about 100 feet. There are bees on the log, but I don’t think anything of it since I encounter bees frequently.
Rafiki gets the short end of the stick.
I turn around to say, “Rafiki, cross on the other side.”
But he’s already stepping over the log.
“Ouch!” he says. “Ow!”
Oh no.
“Run!” he shouts.
Voyager and I run. Those weren’t bees. They were yellow jackets! And I read about them in the comments of far out! I shouldn’t have stepped on that log! Poor Rafiki!
He got stung three times.
And about three weeks ago he got stung five times in one spot on his foot where a yellow jacket got stuck in his sock.
We continue the hike. I’m quite tired and my feet hurt today, but I push through.
Apserkaha Cabins are next.
We’re greeted by a car with two men.
“How many miles have you hiked?” The driver asks.
“1700?” Rafiki says.
I’m not sure either.
The driver gives us a box of junior mints.
We hit the privy and sinks. Another man asks if we want cliff bars or dots. I see a tent of about a dozen men hanging out in a tentsite. They’re having some sort of guys camp this weekend.
The three of us keep hiking. We’re moving through the woods, and soon hit an uphill section. It’s not that steep, but it is six miles long!
Voyager is watching a squirrel. He’s brown with tiny fingers. He pokes his head curiously out from one side of a tree, then another. He chirps and does this again. Then he frantically squeaks and runs into a fallen log, his tail hitting the wood with a small thump.
I’m frustrated. I’m tired today and feel weak under the heavy weight of 4.7 liters of water. How will I ever make it to camp?
Rafiki and I run into a young hiker with fluffy brown hair, bright blue eyes and a dirty face and legs as bad as ours were in NorCal.
“I saw a wolf chasing a baby deer!” he says with a British accent.
There are wolves here in Oregon?
We keep hiking. Soon we finally spot Voyager at camp! It’s a quick setup for the night, and soon I’m cleaning my pot in the thick trees in the dark listening to creepy creaky trees sway.
I crawl into my tent, dead from this exhausting day.
I will get good sleep tonight!
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