Day 116
Start: Bobby Lake
Finish: South Sister
Daily Mileage: 50.04 (per GPS watch)
Hiking Time: 17:23
PCT Mile: 1968.3
Honeybun and I had briefly discussed a few times whether or not to try a mileage challenge on the trail. Oregon is stereotyped as flat and easy, though this isn’t always true. Regardless, many hikers were going to take their shot at a 24 hour challenge today starting from Shelter Cover or shortly later on trail. We weren’t going to participate since we didn’t want to mess up our sleep schedules by trying to hike through the night and then trying to recover after the fact. However, I proposed to Honeybun as we were nearing camp last night that we could do an “old man’s” 24 hour challenge, and only hike during reasonable hours and not overnight. We would also take breaks and either one of us could call a tap out for any reason and we would both stop.
Honeybun wanted to get a 42 mile day, a metric marathon in miles, but I said if we were going to do that, I’d like to beat 45 miles which was my previous high, from the 4 state challenge on the Appalachian Trail. We settled on attempting a 75k since that was a relatively round number at approximately 47 miles.
With that decided in the waning hours of the night before, we got to bed early and hit the trail just after 5, still slightly shorting our sleep.
It turned out to be a pretty good day to try it. The elevation profiles look similar to California except for some of the bigger climbs there, but there seems to be more exaggeration in Oregon’s steepness in the hiking app which I still haven’t adjusted to. We headed straight up the biggest climb of the day first thing, but like many in Oregon the grade wasn’t too noticeable and before we knew it we had topped out.
The trail made gradual ups and downs over the course of the day like this, and we didn’t pay much attention until later on.
Early on, we passed through a recent burn area that appeared to be originally burned and then burned again when it was starting to recover. The ground was covered in ash and decayed trees, and it like an apocalypse scene like in video games or movies. No other burns quite had this appearance yet on the trail, and it was creepy but interesting.
We took our first break at 10 miles, not really deciding yet how to handle the day. We were going to take breaks, though short, during the day and not just pound it out endlessly as I think that can end up being more tiring. At our first break we were averaging more than 3mph even including the break which I was happy with.
We finished up the burn and entered forest that wound endlessly around small ponds and lakes. We just stayed buried in the forest for hours, with few unique or notable features. The mosquitoes came in waves as well and it became apparent that we weren’t missing much by hurrying through this section of trail.
We took lunch around half way for the day, still taking a quick break while also refilling on water at a pond. More easy, cruisy trail with not much to note. We kept moving well with a good pace as the mileage kept ticking away. I made sure to keep eating throughout the day, especially since I was carrying more snacks than I needed since we ended up doing this challenge.
Lunch 3 we took with 13 miles left to our goal of 47, within striking distance and still doing good on daylight near Elk Lake. For the first time of the entire day, a couple brief views of the approaching volcanoes opened up for us, but they were limited through the trees.
The last stretch of trail had a couple climbs to it, and I wasn’t sure how that would go since we were already into the high 30s for mileage. However, we went up them and still cruised straight up at more than 3mph. I’ll take it.
Heading down we were suddenly attacked by a wall of mosquitoes. They hadn’t really been bad all day, and I hadn’t put on bug spray or my headnet yet today. Those were quickly remedied and we just couldn’t believe how many mosquitoes there were so quickly. Shortly we arrived at a lake which was probably the answer to the question, and there were many sad looking hikers hiding in tents or in full bug suits to keep them at bay.
We grabbed water from the lake and didn’t even stop to filter it because we would have been eaten in the meantime. Over one more bump and down to a couple streams before our final climb of the day.
We were walking through the forest on a flat plain when the trees ended and the trail went straight across a meadow. Right on the other side hiding behind walls of lava were South and North Sister suddenly in all of their glory, with snow reflecting the golden light of the near setting sun. It was an incredible walk through the large meadow with the sisters looming over us, and it completely made the day for me. It was all worth it because we got to see them in the perfect light.
We had reached 45 miles by this point, and we were both feeling strong and great, despite some foot pain from all the pounding. Nothing we couldn’t handle though. I mentioned that 47 miles is an awkward number, and 50 is much more of a round number. Honeybun thought the same, so in the waning hours of the challenge we updated our goal to 50 miles.
We started up the last climb 45 miles in still feeling surprisingly fresh and strong, and maintained a good pace of more than 3mph on the way up. I was amazed it was going so well. When I did 45 miles previously, though not in conjunction with a long distance hike, I had been hallucinating and seeing things by this point. Now I was feeling as if that day was not that old still.
We sped up the climb, donning our headlamps as the last of the sunlight went away and a convenient full moon came out. There was just not enough light in the forests to see and I didn’t want to eat it on a rock or blowdown.
Towards the end of the climb, I was getting tired, but not from the exertion, just from it being past when I normally went to bed.
We started looking for campsites as we neared our goal, since there wasn’t anything marked around our finish. We finally reached 50 miles after 17 hours and 23 minutes, and surprisingly, Yeti and Spätzle were at the same spot, just reaching their 100k initial goal, wondering how much further they would go.
We felt strong and I could have continued, but we were entering a scenic part of the 3 Sisters Wilderness Area, and I didn’t want to speed through it in the dark.
We found a flat spot just above the trail where we finished, quickly set up our tents, and went to bed at 11. Not quite within our normal sleeping hours, but not too far off either.
It was an amazing day to feel so good and strong while hiking so far, with over 6,500 feet of elevation gain and our full packs on our backs. I’m glad we tried this challenge and got through to successfully and without hurting ourselves too much.
1 comment
It was great meeting you at SnoCap in Sisters and driving you to the trailhead. I picked up another hiker that day whose wife follows you. Small world. ✌🏻