July 22

Distance today: 15.2 miles

Mile marker: 365.9

The lake we stayed at was covered with fog in the morning as we quietly packed up. There were two other people when we arrived last night. Thankfully, the sun was burning off the humidity.

We made the uneventful 7 mile walk to White Pass where our next resupply was waiting at the Kracker Barrel store. $10 to pickup isn’t so bad when we probably used that much electricity recharging our electronics.

The store had many tables out back for hikers to rest and repack. Several people had actually stayed the night in the gravel driveway behind the store. Apparently, that’s pretty common.

There were a lot people hanging out. Some passed by rather quickly, others were taking several days to rest and recover from illness or  injury. Most going southbound, but a lot more going northbound are showing up. We expect the bubble to really hit in mid-Oregon.

We opened our box and sorted our things. We cooked lunch from the meals we had leftover. Jason had mac n cheese (B+) and Alex had mac n cheese n beans (B-).

We caught up with some people we had met before and met a few new. Jason met a man from France who had the same pack but was experiencing different issues. Jason’s repairs are holding up so far without any worsening of the holes.

We left in the afternoon to make a dent in the next section to Trout Lake. The top of the ridge gave great views.

There were two other groups at the spring we stayed at. One was a dad with his two young sons, maybe 7 and 9? When we were eating dinner (Jason: Indian curry (A+), Alex rice and beans (B), the older son came to ask Alex if she could come over to their camp to give the younger brother a trail name. It was very cute.

Goat Rocks have rave reviews from all the people we’ve passed. Tomorrow, we’ll see.