Day 107
Hiked 21.5 miles
Camping in Warm Springs reservation
We awoke to a completely soaked tent, wet sleeping bags, and my shirt which was hanging up in the vestibule was damp and cold. The meadow depression we were camped in had collected all the wet moist air which is great for the fragile alpine plants but not great for us. Kevin hates packing a wet tent and was loathe to get up in the cold weather. It isn’t like I liked it either. But we knew we could dry our things out later in the day so we got a move on. So far, we have always been able to dry things out during the day and that has been a massive change and fortunate thing about this trail.
A couple miles into our morning, we both heard some rustling in the bushes across the gully and turned to see a bear headed toward us. Before I could finish my aggressive “hey bear” yell at it, it had turned tail and ran. It probably hasn’t seen people in a long time. This was our first bear sighting on the trail! I was afraid we would go the whole way without seeing one!
Nine miles into our day, we stopped at Lake Olallie. It is a USFS day use area with a great view of Mt Jefferson and a little store. I got some soda, a popsicle, and candy. We spread all our wet things out to dry in the warm sun and hung out for quite some time.
After hanging out for awhile, we made a plan for our miles to Timberline lodge! A giant hotel/restaurant built by the WPA (like the CCC, created by the New Deal during the depression) Their breakfast and lunch buffets are legends on the trail. Since we made our mileage plan a bit shorter, we only went 21 miles today and are going to bed early with the hopes of catching up on sleep!
ashleyisoutside 