Daily mileage: 28
Mile 1797-1825
What a great day. I woke up so comfy in my tent. I could see the mosquitoes but they weren't getting me (okay at least they weren't getting me yet). I looked at the time and promptly shut my eyes again. What was the rush to get up? Didn't start hiking until 6:15 and it was great, and thankfully the mosquitoes weren't as bad as the evening before.
Just a little bit of flat before starting to climb, I even got a glimpse of a hat up on the ridge. So of course I sped up because I was curious who it was. I managed to catch up with the person, it was a section hiker from Medford. What a lovely way to start a morning. Chatting with Jane was perfect, it's always fun talking about the trail and I was distracted enough to not finish my water miles before the next source. We climbed our way up to the junction for Snow Lake and made a quick water detour. While we were relaxing and enjoying the view Wrong Way showed up. A little more talking and we were finally back on the trail. It took me a few minutes but suddenly I felt like I was flying as I headed up towards the Devils Thumb. I just kept thinking, wow this is the first time I've truly felt like myself in awhile. Apparently I thrive on sugar and caffeine, hmmm Wrong Way you could have started something bad giving me those Starbucks packets. Up over down and all around, great views and even some snow on the backside. All small patches but more snow than I've seen in awhile.
Looking out towards the town of Klamath Falls
My lame attempt at a panorama, doesn't everyone put trees in the middle?
The longest section of snow, totally doable
Snowmelt streams!
As I zipped along singing and dancing and enjoying icy cold streams I couldn't be happier. Lots of creeks and intersections that were yet again not all on my map, why again does that help me? Finally decided I was hungry enough for lunch and soon Wrong Way joined me. A good 2 plus hours later after talking to some backpackers we finally hit the trail.
I'll admit I had definitely slowed down, still in a good mood though. It wasn't long before we hit a burn area. Pretty large too, I guess it burned sometime between 2008-2009.
At mile 1817 we headed down to Jack's Spring. Depending on your map it's anywhere from 0.5-0.8 miles off trail, and wow heading steeply down through the burn it fed like it takes ages. But it's the last water until Mazama Village and I'm not going there tonight so 12 plus miles water it is. At least it was delicious, and the climb back up actually wasn't too bad.
I was getting slower as the mosquitoes got worse and I had to put on layers. I wanted to camp so the morning would be a short one so at about mile 1822 I started looking. The swarming mosquitoes were just getting worse so when I saw Wrong Way had found a sweet campsite I breathed a sigh of relief. Another early night, in my tent and hiding by 7:30. Pretty great, and tomorrow Crater Lake!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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