Days 117
Start: South Sister
Finish: Mt. Washington
Daily Mileage: 24
PCT Mile: 1992.3
We awoke under the sisters, though also within the watchful gaze of The Husband. Neither of us slept well or enough after our challenge yesterday. I actually felt more tired and worn out this morning than I did when I finished last night. We didn’t set a wakeup time, but were still up about the same, and left only slightly later than our normal 6am start.
We were stiff and still had sore feet from yesterday, and just didn’t have a lot of energy. We stumbled into the day with even the easiest climbs seeming steep and unable to get momentum.
We quickly came to Obsidian Creek, and it lived up to its reputation with obsidian scattered all about. Though we had travelled through much lava on this trip, this was the first time I’d seen obsidian with its striking black shiny appearance.
The creek also had some nice falls over a lava flow, though not obsidian, where we grabbed some nice cold water.
On the other side we took first lunch. We were still dragging and we had our dinners that we hadn’t eaten last night due to lack of time. That really picked us up and gave us more energy to continue on.
We started down, away from the amazing peaks of the sisters. Aiming for an easier day today to make up for the exertion of yesterday, we were shooting for 24 miles which would get us right where we wanted to be for town tomorrow anyways.
We filled up with water with 12 miles left in the day to get to the next water source. It was a good bit of downhill with not too much climbing, so it didn’t seem like it would be too hard. How wrong we were.
The trail down went through some light occasional lava, but as we were nearing a road crossing, the trail went straight up a wall of lava and into a large lava field. The trail was cut into the field, but essentially paved with rocks 1-2” in diameter, ankle biters. Each footstep had to be considered, and our sensitive feet from yesterday kept getting irritated as inflamed spots got hit or bumped. It was quite tedious and progress was slowed. It was interesting hiking over the lava, but I didn’t quite have the energy for it, and my feet with too small worn out shoes weren’t having it either.
We crossed the road which was cut through the field, and continued on the other side. There was a brief patch of lava free trail, and then it started a 4 mile traverse of an enormous field, up to its peak and back down. There were definitely some cool sights, but most of the focus was on our feet which limited our ability to look around. It was excruciating and I kept bumping the sore spots on my feet and feeling stabs of pain. Also, since the lava is black and it was sunny, it seemed hotter on the field due to the absorbed light of the rock.
The field seemed to endure forever, but at long last we escaped its clutches and went on to our last climb of the day.
It was supposed to be in the 90s today, and it sure felt it climbing through a burn area. I had no energy left, and was more trudging than walking. The sky was increasingly hazy with smoke from wildfires, and I checked air quality was unhealthy in this area. So many things holding us back.
At long last we made it to a pond which was the first water source in 12 miles, and there were some campsites right next to it. Good enough, and we were glad to be done.
Today was quite scenic with amazing lava features, but our tiredness from hiking 50 miles yesterday and soreness of our feet made the second half of the day more of a grind. However, we hiked as far as we needed to so we are set up for town tomorrow.
