Today’s miles: 21
Total trip miles: 650/2660
Whack! Whack! Last night, I woke up to very loud noises right outside my tent. I turned on my headlamp, unzipped my tent, and took a look out. I was met with two gleaming eyes behind a bushel of trees, about 20 yards from my tent. I yelled and banged a rock and the creature scattered. But then it came back. We did this dance something like 4 times- I yell, it loudly scrams, and then loudly returns. Finally, I begin to stop getting a response and I lay my head down and go back to sleep.
In the morning, I feel groggy and somewhat sleep deprived. As I start walking, the scenery brightens my mood a bit. The trails transitions from the lava fields of yesterday to more prairie-like flatlands. I like being able to see far out ahead of me, and there is a nestling of trees on the perimeter of the grassland.
I’m planning on making a little improv stop in the early afternoon at a spot called Elk Lake Resort. It’s a mile and a half off trail, but the comments on Guthook say the restaurant food is really good. Oregon is so different than Washington. Washington, especially up north, was so remote and rugged. You’d go days without dreaming of having cell service and town stops being spread 5, 6, 7 days apart. Here in Oregon, it feels like trail food and service are always only a day away.
I walk into the restaurant at Elk Lake Resort with a NOBO hiker named Splash. We sit together and I order a giant pulled pork sandwich and drink 3 glasses of iced water with lemon in it. Splash orders a pastrami and gets beer, a milkshake, and water to go with it.
After we eat, I wonder around the lake a bit. It’s hot and crowded, and there’s very bold squirrels approaching me as I rummage through my food bag. I feel tired and I don’t really want to hike out just yet, but I also don’t really want to stay. I kind of just meander around and am sitting on a picnic table, eating a salmon packet (always better to eat the fish stuff in town when you can toss it right away), when a couple I chatted with earlier asks if they can buy me an ice cream cone. Sure!
This ice cream trail magic is amazing and as I eat my cone, I talk to the couple. They are in their late 50’s and are quite the accomplished athletes themselves. Both have done many marathons and the lady (names will forever elude me) has done multiple ironmans and competed in the Boston marathon a few years. The ice cream is great, the conversation even better, and I feel totally rejuvenated when we part ways.
I see on my maps there is a way to hike out of Elk Lake that is different from the way I came in. That’s great news as retracing your steps can feel monotonous It’s something like 6 pm when I rejoin the PCT and feel a few seemingly innocent raindrops on my back. I want to keep hiking, I could keep hiking, but I think it’d be good to keep a little of that motivation in the tank. I even have service and stopping early, giving my feet a rest, doing some stretching/eating/YouTube watching as rain splatters on my tent sounds pretty great. And that’s exactly what I do.
