Monday, July 3, 2023
Start: 2.9 miles north of Highway 140
End: 2.4 miles north of Jack Spring Trail
Miles: 35.0
Elevation gain/loss: 4413’/3970′
There was a VERY LOUD herd of deer last night around 3am. They were crunching bark and stomping around breaking sticks and sounding like they would crush my tent. After debating my options, I put my earplugs in and went back to sleep.
I was up at 5:15 and out on trail by 5:45am. The mosquitoes were bad last night and they were awful this morning. Even hiking 3.5-4 MPH, I was swarmed and chewed on by mosquitoes.
The first water souce of the day was the worst mosquitoes I saw on the trail in one place. I got there at the same time as Zippy and his friend; we shared the campsite last night and we chatted a little bit while we filtered our water. We were all wearing headnets and they had on rain pants and jackets, and I have never wished for pants as badly as this trip.
There were longer water carries today, with 10-20mi between reliable sources, though snow melt created a few more. I went over a mountain pass, with a lot of snow and an involuntary glisade down. I lost the trail and had to use GaiaGPS to find my way back a few different times in the snow. At least it was consolidated snow; there was no post-holing, only slippery melty snow. Losing the trail was disconcerting, but I made it work out for me and started getting more used to it over the course of the day.
Towards the tail end of my day, I met Prov (The Provider); she was in her tent and we chatted for a few minutes. She hiked the AZT in Mar-Apr 2023 and is now doing an OR PCT LASH. I entered the burn area south of Crater Lake, and hiked through most of it, managing to find a lone campsite in a grove of living trees. I got to camp at 8pm and the mosquitoes weren’t awful but still required me to get into my tent pretty much immediately. Tomorrow is Mazama (shower, laundry, resupply, food!) and Crater Lake.
Transcending Mountains 