August 9

Distance: 25.2 miles | Ascent: 2640′ |Descent: 2310′

Mile marker: 729.1

Lunch: J – black rice surprise (D+), A -.tomato orzo (A)

Dinner: J – mac n cheese (A-), A – chicken chili (A+)

We decided to count northbound hikers we crossed paths with on the trail today. Counting infrequent and irregular events over 11 hours is hard. Maybe it’s the wandering minds over those same hours, but it’s funny how it becomes a question of “was that guy number 25 or number 26 because when I counted number 24, I said the next person was number 25 and the last number I had in my head was 25, but that was to remind myself I had counted 24….?”

We approximately counted approximately sixty-four northbound hikers. Considering 50 northbound permits are issued per day for the starting months, I’d say we are definitely in the northbound bubble. We’ll have to fight and claw our way to a campsite. And, it’ll soon be like that ultramarathon we passed a few weeks ago – just an onslaught of people on the trail. We also saw two southbound hikers (unsure if thruhiking), a day hiker near Elk Lake, and two trailrunners (one of which was limping pretty severely, it seemed).

Mosquitoes are back. Southern Oregon has a lotta lakes and therefore a lotta bugs. It hasn’t gotten as bad as those first days in Washington, but we’re prepared for and expecting it to get so much worse.

The trail was nice today. Almost all the blowdowns were cleared (some very recently, it seemed), the grade was manageable, and the temperature wasn’t too hot (though it was very warm!). We passed by a lot of nice lakes. We lunched at one, got water at others.

At the end of the day, we entered the biggest, most recent, and most devastating burn zone we’ve seen all trail. It was crazy to see trees completely burned down. No stumps, even. It’s a sobering reminder how powerful and quick a wildfire can be. Never, ever do campfires during a time of elevated fire risk (like the people are in the next campsite over tonight…).

We ended the day at a lake. Our legs and feet tend to get really tired and sore between miles 15 and 20. It just makes those last miles seem to drag on. Maybe we need more frequent breaks.

We’re going to try to get an early start tomorrow to spend some time relaxing at Shelter Cove in the afternoon. Jason’s pack should be there.  He’s worried about two and a half things: 1) they charge a holding fee. Is it per package? He doesn’t want to pay double. 2) He needs to send his old, broken pack back to Osprey, for some reason. Will he be able to ship it from Shelter Cove? and a half) Or will he have to carry the old pack and shipping box the 100+ miles to the next stop?