Day 111, 41.1 miles!!!

This is IT guys! A day I had been planning for about a week now! Yes, you read right, that’s 41.1 miles!! Lots of people like to see how far they can go in one day in Oregon because of the flat and favorable terrain. Some do a full 24 hours, while some just prefer to do a long day with sleep on both ends. I prefer the latter as I don’t want my body to be completely wrecked after staying up for 24hrs to hike 50 or 60 miles. 

I decided a few days ago that Olallie would be the perfect start for a long day. It’s ~50 miles to Timberline Lodge from there, but the last 10 are steep and sandy uphill. I had told Happy and Manza the plan yesterday and they were both in! To make things even better, the Perseus meteor shower peaked between 2-3am this morning!

So, that’s how the day started. We woke up at 2:00am to watch the meteor shower from our cowboy camping setups. I think I only got ~3hrs of sleep last night, due to excitement but also being uncomfortable, yet I was still eager to start the day. I saw maybe around 6 meteors before eating breakfast and picking up. We hit the trail right at 3am.

We hiked for the first two hours with headlamps. It was spooky and eerie in the dark, thick forest, but we stayed together, and no one got eaten by any monsters. As we were crossing a huge clear-cut area for power lines, we looked up and saw the Milky Way shining bright. Just then, I also saw a HUGE meteor complete with a tail! It was so amazing!! When light finally did hit, we soon went through a very short burn area, and there were some pretty purple post-burn flowers growing.

I didn’t take too many pictures today because, well, because I hiked 41 miles!! Nobody got time fo’ dat!! It was a very pretty day, but I never felt like I was missing anything or that I wanted to stay longer at any stop. The three of us kept it at a move normal pace, never pushing our bodies too hard on this long tiring day. 

An antique PCT marker!

The trail was mainly in the trees, and it was of perfect grade and level. I didn’t see one mosquito all day while hiking! I don’t think a 40+ mile day would’ve been as do-able solo, but with the great company of Manza and Happy, the day went by as quickly as it could! 

Power line clear-cut 

We did 24 miles by noon! A new personal record for sure! Just after noon we ran into two SOBO trailangels, Mileage Mike and Care Package. They were giving each hiker an Starbucks instant coffee packet and a sleeve of 6 Oreos!! They took my picture which I grabbed off Facebook later.

SOBO angels Care Package and Mileage Mike

Me-hee

Shortly after that, I hit the shore of Timothy Lake. The trail skirted around the lake for about 1.5 miles. By then Manza was nearby, and we decided to stop at the lake for a swim; we had done 30 miles by 2:15pm!!! We figured we had enough day left to easily reach our goal.

Timothy Lake, went for a swim!

Chilly Bin was right behind us and she stopped for a dip as well. After she left and Manza and I were still there, Happy came down the trail! We hadn’t seen him for awhile and assumed that he was ahead of us all! But it turns out he was just taking a nap and we passed him! Haha. 

Shortly after leaving Timothy Lake, there was a short 0.2 mile trail to Little Crater Lake. This is a tiny spring fed lake that is very very blue and visible through! It is pretty deep for its diameter, and was a must stop on the PCT.

Even the shelf of land in the foreground is underwater

So deep and clear!

Little Crater Lake

After that we started up a very long, but thankfully gradual hill. At around 5:45pm, we came upon Mad Baker, a trail angel with great snacks, sodas, and a bunch of chairs! I hugged a Dr. Pepper and ate snickers, Cheetos, and hi-chews. He also had some home-made cookies. Happy caught up and joined. I was there for about 45 minutes! We didn’t want to leave but the end was in sight! Only 5 more miles!!

Mad Baker

High Yeti danger...

That was the last photo I took of the day. The haze came on thick but we got to see the fuzzy, bright orange sun going down from a nice ridge with a view of Hood. Those last few miles went by surprisingly well! I was so delirious that my legs were in automatic mode. I wasn’t even thinking about moving them, they were just going. 

Happy kept us entertained by performing the movie Aladdin for us, almost word for word and scene by scene! It was amazing! Definitely kept my focus off of my tired and aching feet and pushed me up the long hill to our destination.

We got to Highway 26 at 9:00pm! We had done 41.1 miles in 18 hours!! When we arrived Chilly Bin was there with her tent set up, perplexed that Happy was after all behind her. She had done a 35+ mile day. The three of us boys set up our cowboy setups, and then the four of us ate dinner together. It was such a good night! Time to finally SLEEP!! I’m sooooooo tired!!!

Thanks  for reading!!