Mile 1732 to mile 1755.9, 23.9 PCT miles +.6 miles off trail for second lunch & water, 24.5miles total
PCT Total: 970.1 miles
Running total: 1081.3
I woke up with three mosquitos outside the tent and that was it. It was amazing!! I didn’t want to say it last night for fear of jinxing us, but that was the best evening we have had in a LONG time! Thank goodness- we needed it for our morale!
We ate breakfast in bed, packed up, and by 0735 we were on the trail. Oregon is notorious for being the “flattest” and “easiest” section of the PCT- it surely isn’t flat, but there are fewer steep climbs and descents than the rest of the trail, allowing for higher, faster mileage. Most people cruise along doing 25-35 miles a day in Oregon and we, too, hope to ease into those high miles eventually.
For most of the morning we kept a 20-22minute mile, which is close to our desert pace, so I was psyched about that!
Guys, I can’t contain my excitement!! We knew our trail fam was heading south and had planned to be in Ashland by today- and we had left Ashland the day before heading north! I so badly wanted to surprise them, but with the fear of accidentally missing each other on trail I gave them the heads up. We knew that the girls were meeting Arc’s husband Phil around ten at a road crossing, so we had a pretty good idea of when we would see them. At one point somebody started running towards us- it was BIG MOMMMMAA!!! Next came Woodpecker, followed by Arc just steps behind. By the time Arc came running towards us, I was crying- I missed them so damn much and seeing them made my heart so fuckin happy! We chatted on the trail for maybe 20 minutes before letting them escape to meet Phil (sorry Phil, I know they were late!) We hope to see them again somewhere along the trail- since Matt & I flip more than the poor dolphins at SeaWorld, there is a chance it might happen- fingers crossed!! 🙂
Seeing the girls put a little pep in my step and we cruised through the morning.
Trees growing out of tree trunks always blow my mind!
Around noon we made it to a road junction leading to the Hyatt Lake Resort- we had planned to take our lunch at an abandoned campground right by the junction, but I had heard rumors that if they weren’t too busy, somebody from the resort would come pick up PCT hikers and bring them to the resort! Since I had service, we decided that if somebody could get us, we would go to the resort- otherwise, we would lunch at the campground as we originally planned. Turns out they weren’t busy, so we were picked up and enjoyed a nice lunch with cold drinks at the resort.
There are a handful of these lake resorts along the PCT in Oregon- most require 1-2 miles of walking off-trail, but they usually have some good food (or food that beats Cliff bars, ramen, and peanut butter…), flush toilets, and water. Most have cabins for renting and some offer showers and laundry- it’s a nice break from the hot, sunny trail!
We caught a ride back to the trail from the owner of the resort and by 1:35 we were hiking again.
It’s so hard to tell in the picture, but that’s a new tree growing out of an old tree trunk!
By 4 I was feeling tired and my feets were a-hurtin! We decided to carry on another mile to a junction that led off-trail to Klum Landing Campground, which we heard had bathrooms and running water!
When we arrived we found Beats Workin freshly showered and just relaxing. The campground was beautiful! We sat at a picnic table with a beautiful lake view while we enjoyed second lunch and relaxed. We charged our phones in the bathroom- a bathroom with flush toilets and running water!! Golllyyy that was nice:) Since we were only on day 2, neither Matt nor I showered, but we heard the water was nice and hot! Somehow we ended up spending nearly 1.5 hours there! (/I know how: there were no mosquitos! Just those damn yellow jackets…)
Since we had planned to hike another 5.5 miles that day, we eventually had to peel ourselves from the campground. Omg my feet were dying! Every step hurt and the early evening took forever. With a little more than half a mile to go to our planned site we had to stop at a mosquito-hell water source to load up on water since our next water wasn’t for 18 miles!!
Once arriving to the area where we had wanted to camp, Matt found us a nice spot a little off trail where we set up the tent, ate a quick ramen dinner, did our night chores and went to bed. Alarms were set for 5am…
Happiness is: a nice lunch off-trail and flush toilets and warm water to wash my hands at Klum Landing Campground!
Ali Walks Far 