Dry Times Ahead - 1885.2 mi to Campo

Been quite some time since the last post. After the head-bonking incident our next two days were relatively low mileage - ~16 and 12. Arij left her sunglasses behind on the trail about 1 mi back from where we had camped at Stormy Lake, so I ran back and got them, making it 18 mi for me.

All the running was hard on my feet - running with some 25-30lbs is tough! I actually bot a blister under my big toe on my left foot - first I can remember in some 14 years. Luckily it was pretty much a fluke and healed up in just a couple of days.

When we got to Shelter Cove Resort on the 15th, our package was AWOL. There was a mix up and it got sent USPS instead of UPS. Finally we figured out that the owner was due to check the mail that Monday. We took a much needed rest day there at Lake Odell.

We ran into some segment hikers called Katz & Curses there. They were there with their support crew, camping and resupplying after skipping a snowy section. Katz had taken a bad fall earlier on snow and was having nothing to do with it! They were northbound and we shared our experiences of the trail ahead. Very kindly, they invited us to dinner and we were treated to a fantastic meal and plenty of beer and wine!

On Monday afternoon, we finally picked up our package and took a short hike - about 6 miles or so back onto the PCT.

Today we had some fantastic views. Thielsen, McLaughlin and Crater Lake are getting very close. Mt. Shasta continues to grow on the horizon. We also ran into a fellow southbounder. He was hiking solo and had started at Manning Park on June 20th. He ran into TONS of snow and barely make it to Rainy Pass. Like us, he had then opted ot skip ahead to oregon and had been just a day or two behind us for the last several weeks, catching us after our package delay at Lake Odell.

My new head net Rocks. I now laugh at the futile attempts the mosquitoes make. It even comes with a highly fashionable patch of camo fabric. $2.99 is a samll price to pay for sanity. We also stocked up on Oregon Holy Water at Shelter Cover (aka DEET).

We've got two long dry stretches ahead of us. Tomorrow we'll do 24 miles and only hit ZERO on trail water souces. We'll stop at Thielsen creek. Then we'll hike 26 mi the next day with ZERO on trail water shources, finishing up at Crater Lake. Ugh. Packs are gonna be heavy!