August 17.
At some point last night I thought I heard some growling and it startled me. I woke up immediately and made as much noise as I could from inside the tent, grabbing my whistle and trekking pole as though they’d protect me. Whatever makes you feel safer.
Got up, morning stuff, same old same old. Had a dry 12 mile section but thankfully I still had plenty of water even after dinner and giving some to that nobo. The 12 miles wasn’t too bad, not a lot of elevation gain or loss. There were a few ponds and lakes I could have detoured to get water from but I elected to keep going the 12 miles to a nicer creek I read was still flowing. Had just around 2 liters of water and that was just enough with a little extra. Carrying up to 4liters with 4 days of food doesn’t feel too bad which is good because I think that’s going to be a regular thing now.
Hiked through more burn and made it to an up and down ridge that overlooked the burn. The smoke wasnt too bad today. I could definitely see it in the distance on the passes but I couldn’t smell it too much and it didn’t seem to after me physically today. There’s so much of the PCT in Oregon that is either currently on fire or was on fire recently. There was a lot of smoke in the morning but thankfully being up on the windy ridge made it not so bad.
The rest of the day was kind of meh. There was a climb up on talus which was nice. I took a wrong turn at one point on a ridge junction and had to backtrack a bit. Took a little “nap” right before a burn section. It was all still beautiful but it definitely feels like what I had heard Oregon was going to be like, flat and forested.
Kinda dragged the last 5 miles, taking about an hour longer than I expected but still making it to camp by 7. Made it to Christi Spring after another 11 mile dry section. This time I only carried about 2 liters and that was also just enough, including enough for dinner.
At the spring I got kind of frazzled trying to set up my tent. There were two groups at the spring already, a group of 3 guys and 2 other nobos and I got weirded out by them. Don’t know why, they just seemed very unfriendly and like they weren’t happy that I’d showed up. Wish I was better at socializing by myself.
I found a little spot and was going to cowboy but it was too small and there were bees and ants all over. I tried to set up my tent and couldn’t pitch it right in the tiny spot so after a lot of stupid struggling I found a different bigger spot like 5 feet over. I need to learn to be easier on myself. This wasn’t a big deal. Deep breaths.
Aside from that, it was a pretty easy day overall. If I was more ambitious I could have done a 30+ day but I would have had to dry camp which I didn’t feel like doing. Tomorrow is either a 29 mile day or 34 mile day. Either way it’s going to be pretty flat, one of the last flat days since it looks like Northern California is not flat at all. Only a few more days left in Oregon.
Plants Outside 