Day 107, 28.1 miles

I was really feeling the long day yesterday when I awoke this morning! I slept in nice and hard, not leaving camp until around 7:45am. The mosquitos were so horrible, and for awhile a tried to just hike quickly through them. Around an hour later I caved, applying my second 30% deet wipe of the entire trail!!

Back of right knee/leg

And the left...

See what I’m dealing with? Many of these bites were from the last hour of hiking last night, but I got a bunch of new ones this morning as well. UGH, I hate mosquitos!!! At least the morning was pretty, albeit hazy... I pushed up a big hill for most of the morning.

Morning lakeside

Mosquito-lake reflections

Open fields between mosquito lakes

Cool fungus growing out of the ground

At the top of the really long hill I had a really long lunch break. I had already done 15 miles by noon which is great for waking up so late. I was just being really lazy and had great service at the top of the hill so I spent some time blogging and talking with family. The day got really hot and the Nobo hikers that passed started talking about an upcoming lake only 1.4 miles away. I finally decided to get a move on in the heat, knowing that I’d stop again soon for a nice swim!

Hazy view from my lunch spot

Sisters Mirror Lake

Sunshine going for a dip!

A dragonfly 

The swimming there was sooooo good!! I swam twice and even let my hair dry before even thinking of continuing on. I didn’t see one mosquito the whole time thanks to the numerous dragonflies! I saw Sunshine there who I hadn’t seen since the Sierra! (Besides briefly seeing him at Shelter Cove). Pretty soon I realized it was already 4:30pm and I had still only done ~16.5 miles! Wanting to do at least 25, I recluctantly left the beautiful lake and continued on. 

The trail turned into a moderately steep climb, and slowly became less and less buggy. The views opened up and South Sister loomed in the distance. 

South Sister


A great, ice cold water source straight from the mountains

Middle Sister

Looking back at South Sister 

I had some new music I had downloaded in Crescent, and the tunes kept me going nice and fast into the evening! I did 12.8 more miles by 8:00pm! That’s 3.65 mph up a huge hill! It’s crazy what a nice swimming break and some good music can do for morale! I walked up to a sign around 8:00pm saying that there was no camping for the next 1.8 miles, so I decided to stop there!

There were 4 really cool older hikers from Portland who were out for a 3 day trip. They had extra chocolate quinoa bars and gave me a bunch of chocolate. They asked me a bunch of questions which I didn’t mind answering. As long as I’m not in a hurry or trying to get anywhere quickly I love to talk to inquisitive hikers/campers.

Man, what a crazy rollercoaster every single day can potentially become!! This morning was really frustrating with the mosquitos and I just felt lazy and lethargic in general. But then somehow, the last 1/4 of the day was some of the best hiking and best mood I’ve had/been in the whole time! 

Since I hiked pretty late today I’m just going to cowboy camp tonight in between a couple large trees. I’ll be hitting Big Lake Youth Camp in just about 25 miles tomorrow! 

Thanks for reading!!