Day 108, 26.0 miles

Oh man I tell you what! Last night was the worst sleep I’ve had on trail yet... Firstly, about a half hour in I realized that the ground I was on wasn’t exactly flat. I had set up in the dark with my headlamp and thought it was good enough but there was a pretty bad slant. Then, there were constant mosquitos and flies flying around and landing on my head! Like all night! I thought it would be cool enough to have no bugs but I was wrong! Of course instead of just setting up my tent I kept hoping that they’d stop. I just could not get comfy and got plenty of bites on my face. I did manage to get about 2 hours of sleep total in small ~30 minute bursts. I awoke from one of these at 4:45am and decided it was one to go again! 

I had camped at the South border of the restricted camping area surrounding Obsidian Falls, and within half a mile I was there at the falls. It was stunning!My phone wouldn’t work for a good 5 minutes, but I refused to leave without at least one photo! 

Hmm...

Much better! 

Aside from the bad sleep and frustrating start, the morning went well and was VERY beautiful!! I stayed up high for awhile, hitting some truly amazing crystal clear springs coming out of the earth. The sun was rising behind some cool peaks and the second photo below is my favorite from the day! I then dropped down into a burn area.

Took my camera out of its case for this one, much clearer! 

Eerie lava field ascent

The ole burn...

The burn led down to a long lava field stretch. This stretch is notoriously tough for people, as it is completely exposed and the sharp lava rock adds even more to the challenge of exposed terrain. Plus, for us Nobos, it’s mainly all uphill for 7 or 8 miles of the old lava flows! Luckily for me, I was able to hit it in the late morning, before it got too hot in the afternoon! 

That’s lava folks!

Lava flowers! (Jk, I don’t know what those are called)

The lava section was honestly not as bad as I thought it’d be. Although I must be a little biased since I was born and raised on the Big Island of Hawaii and so I’m used to walking on REAL sharp lava rock and cinder! What made it even MORE bearable was the fact that there was trail magic halfway through!!

It was Coppertone!! 

Coppertone is a “famous” trailangel who frequents the PCT, making root beer floats and providing chairs, cookies and bananas to us hungry, hot, and tired hikers! Claire and I ran into him probably 3 times in 2016. I was surprised to see him along the trail this year! It was cool to catch up and chit chat for a bit. As you can see, I was the only hiker there! He didn’t quite remember me, but he DID remember Claire when I told him I was hiking with “The Bee’s Knees”. After about 1/2 an hour, I decided to head out again before it got too hot!

A cool pano I captured

More lava!

The lava fields finally turned back into old burn areas again, and then eventually climbed up towards the foot of Mount Wahingston. 

Mount Washington 

After that it was a fairly quick descent down towards Big Lake Youth Camp. BLYC is a Christian summer camp (specifically Seventh-Day-Adventist), which accommodates hikers and offers us free laundry, a shower, WiFi, and even free meals! They have a brand new hiker A frame for us to hang out in and charge our devices. I forgot to take a picture of it, sorry!

When I arrived there was some fresh fruit salad on the table and cold Capri-Suns in the fridge. I picked up my package and ran into Goatman. We threw together a small load of laundry and I was able to take a shower! Then, at 6:15pm, all the hikers headed down for dinner! These guys are so awesome! They had us line up outside the cafeteria and served us our FREE food even before the rest of the camp ate! Like hundreds of teenagers eating AFTER us stinky hikers!! What a great place!

Hungry hikers!

Super filling dinner!

I had a large plate of more fresh fruit and cottage cheese, as well as a big bowl of assorted soups! Man oh man what a great, giving, and loving place Big Lake Youth Camp is! I’m so glad I decided to stop by here!

After I was stuffed, I headed back to the hiker’s A-frame, finished my blogs and packing my bag up and hit the open trail around 7:30pm! I wasn’t going to go far, I just didn’t want to stay the night there and be tempted to stay until breakfast and most likely wait until almost noon until I started hiking!  

Bye Big Lake Youth Camp!!

I got just over a mile out, and I found a sweet little spot to throw down for the night. I’d say it was a pretty successful day! Ingot in and out of Big Lake, and was STILL able to pass my 25 mile daily goal! 

Thanks for reading!!