Thursday 18 July 2019

PCT 2019 ver 2 Day 3 July 12

Daily mileage 22 plus 2
Trip mileage 67
Total PCT mileage 1422
Hiked from 5:30 am to 5 pm

The day I saw a bear instead of bare hikers.



For whatever reason, sleep was hard to come by last night. On factor could have been the rather odd hiker (and I hesitate to assign him the label of hiker as he is wearing blue jeans, has a mucky big hunting knife strapped to his hip and does not carry a sleeping bag, pad or tent) thought he could sleep through the night simply by snuggling up to the fire. Trouble with that is the firewood is all kindling size so he was up rustling around stoking the fire about 30 feet from my tent all night.

But, off I went at near the crack of dawn. I had only gone about a mile when I could hear something grubbing around below the trail. It was a bear. He or she was totally oblivious to my presence until I snapped a picture.
Look hard and you will see the bear


Trail through lava fields


A lot of the first 10 miles was through old lava flows. The crews who built this trail did an absolutely amazing job as the tread through these areas was really great. I also got my first look at Mt McLoughlin as I was passing through one of these flows. I believe that I am camped on the northern flank of that mountain tonight but all views are hidden behind trees.


Mt McLoughlin

I got 10 in by 9:30 (bless your easy little heart Oregon) and that put me at a highway from which the Fish Lake Resort is only 2 miles away from the trailhead. I was not going to bother going there until I spoke with a Sobo (south bounder PCT hiker) who said the food was amazing there. So I hitched a ride to the resort and indeed, the food was wonderful. I even managed to get a soapless shower in.

Now you see it

Now you don't. Magic!

Feeling a bit guilty about the diversion, I figured the fastest way back to the trail was a side trail, hence the extra 2 miles in today's total.

Then it was up the only real climb of the day, which turned out to be an exceedingly easy 1200 footer spread out over 5 miles.  After I got over the top, I bumped into a Sobo hiker. I could not help to notice that he had his mosquito head net on. That was rather odd as they were not really out in force. Then I went another mile or so and it all came clear. Just a flipping wall of the little blood suckers. Setting up camp tonight was predicated around getting the tent up and me and all my stuff in with as few of the little burgers  as possible.
Mt McLoughlin getting closer


Home for the night, shared with 10 million mosquitoes 

All in all, it was a very good day.

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