Day 121
Start: Warm Springs Indian Reservation
Finish: US-26
Daily Mileage: 33.5
PCT Mile: 2089.3
We were both out cold last night after our long day yesterday, but we got up and planned to do the same thing again today. We awoke to the smell of smoke in the air, and were unsure if a new fire could have popped up that we didn’t know about. There was nothing to do but keep hiking and keep our eyes peeled for anything unusual. When we did get some cell signal, we were able to confirm that we were in the clear.
We hiked through forest, forest, and more forest. In the first half of the day, the only view or notable feature was a from a small clearcut area which offered limited views of the surrounding forested hills. Nothing too exciting.
It turned into just cranking out the miles. Thankfully the treadway was easy and the miles flew past much more quickly than yesterday, bringing us ever closer to Timberline Lodge and its buffet. Oh yeah, and Mt. Hood. Priorities.
We crossed a road near Timothy Lake and had our first Trail Magic in a while, with a cooler full of soda and grapes. Quite a score. We continued onto the lake for lunch 2 with views of people windsurfing and paddle boarding.
We had been debating our end point for the day again. Climbing up to a spring with campsites, it was nearly full, so we took that as a sign to press on to our furthest potential camp.
Chafing had become a major issue today, especially with the big mileage we were doing. It was al I could do to keep lubing up and trying to find that ideal positioning of everything to minimize it which usually works, but not today. I just had to suffer through it. On top of sore feet from my too tight shoes I’m desperate to replace, it was not the most pleasant end to the day.
However, as we were nearing camp, Mt. Hood jumped out in front of us, now taking up most of the horizon since it was the next mountain over. We had quickly approached it and hadn’t really noticed since we were buried in trees the whole day. At least that was some sort of redeeming feature of the day.
We arrived at our camp after 33 miles tired and sore, but knowing that we did well for the day and were set up great to get to Timberline Lodge early tomorrow. Hopefully it was worth it.
