Days 110
Start: Little Hyatt Reservoir
Finish: Cascade Canal
Daily Mileage: 32.4
PCT Mile: 1774.6
Some hikers rolled into our camp after 9 and set up, keeping me up for a bit. Not good hiking etiquette when the entire camp is in their tents. Apart from getting to sleep a little late, I slept well with the slightly cooler night.
The hike started off nice and easy through flat forest. There was not much of interest for the start of the day, since there wasn’t too much to see. Cruisy hiking though which can be good. We passed near some campgrounds and reservoirs, but nothing we could see or had reason to visit. It was just good to get some miles out of the way before it got hot.
We climbed up to a great spring to refill after 14 miles. There has been less water on the ridges we have been following, but just enough for reasonable water carries. There also have been some sources I didn’t really want to grab from due to questionable sources. The water is also drying up. For the first time in the trip, we are crossing many seasonal water sources that are dry. Previously, anything listed as seasonable would be flowing. It had to end sometime now that almost all the snow is gone and we are in the heat of July.
More forest as we hiked on, but this forest seemed different to me. I recognized it. It was the forest from home in Washington. The trees had been the same for a bit, but now the plants and bushes had caught up. There were huckleberry, mountain laurel, and all of the other plants I cannot name but see every hike back home. What a great sign of being in the Pacific Northwest and getting closer to home and the end of the trail!
We stopped by a cabin with a well for second lunch before continuing in what we thought would be an easy cruise to a 30 mile day. It looked flat and cruisy like the rest of the day.
We left the cabin, saw a bear on a road, and resumed hiking through the forest, but it quickly changed. We came upon old lava flow after old lava flow. The trail had been amazingly built through the flows to remain flat and even smooth with rock and dirt that had to have been packed in for many miles, but there were still lava rocks sticking up through it frequently which took some more time to negotiate.
The scenery was nice and it was a great surprise to have the dramatic change, but it was more tiring to hike. In the last 10 miles I actually wanted to stop for a quick break half way through which is unusual for me. But we had already done almost 30 miles for the day, so I think that’s acceptable.
The day wore on and though the break recharged me some, it was still tiring to finish out and seemed to be dragging on. However, we escaped the lava and crossed a road and stream to make it to our goal after 32 miles in just over 12 hours including breaks. Not too bad!
We camped with most of the same crew from last night, with a couple that didn’t make it as far. The mosquitoes chased us into our tents early for the first time of the trip. Mosquitoes are supposed to come with Oregon, so I guess it had to happen, and it’s nice they haven’t been much of a bother until now in mid July.
We pretty much got past the Salt Creek Fire which was burning to the west. It was not a direct risk to the trail, but if the wind had been blowing in the wrong direction it could have gotten smoky. We just caught a couple whiffs the entire day, so we got lucky.
The thing that most energized me today was recognizing the forest I was in as the same as home. That sent me a powerful message, and one stronger than crossing any state border. I have tried to stay off this trail during past hikes, because I wanted to see it during a thru-hike, and I’m excited to see exactly what it will be like.