Miles hiked: 25.9
Mile marker: 2029.5
Total ascent: 3700 ft
Total descent: 4700 ft
While the previous paths of Oregon have been smooth, today is not a continuation of that.
It feels like I’m hiking forever uphill. The ground is rocky and my feet already hurt walking on it. Walking on rocks is my least favorite terrain. I also don’t like hiking uphill. Rocks plus uphill? Well, at least Oregon is “flat.”
That’s the rumor, anyway.
The mountains are high in the sky. A big jagged mountain is off in the distance. The clouds are like bird feathers in the sky, as if the artist got creative and whimsical in his painting.
For a pre-lunch snack, I eat my fried rice. The kimchi is soft and supple and juicy. A lovely salty snack before a four mile ascent!
Lunch is by a lake. It’s chilly in the shade. I eat pepperoni and cheese on a tortilla as I watch the lone duck in the lake float on the water then dip underneath for a few minutes, sometimes popping up somewhere else in the lake.
The next few miles are along a rocky ridge. While I can see the mountains off in the distance, the forest beneath me looks like an explosion of sorts occurred. It’s in ruins, a burn zone.
“It’s sad,” Rafiki said after I told him the PCT only gets worse and worse because of fires. It will take a long time for trees to grow back.
We keep seeing Mount Hood, a big snow covered triangle that keeps peeking around corners until it’s in full view.
We scramble down to a pond for water. The comments on FarOut said our water source is dry.
When we pass it in a tenth of a mile, it is very full of water indeed. I hear a person being violently sick as we pass.
“Don’t be sorry!” I hear a woman say in an exasperated voice.
I’m glad I’ve never been sick on trail.
We keep hiking. It’s several more miles until we reach our tentsite. The arch of my foot hurts from walking on those rocks. The woods are dark with a yellow egg yolk sun stabbing through the trees.
Soon I see a pink sunset through the trees. Then it’s very dark in the thick of the forest. We make a hasty dinner — I attempt to cook spam over my stove with the handle of a spoon stuck in it.
It’s not as good as Rafiki’s when he cooks spam.
It’s dark before I’m even in bed.
8:30 pm and this dark? Bed time, I guess!
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