Day 5: 26.5 miles
It rained on and off all night but luckily took a pause while we packed up our packs for the morning. The skies were moody over Crater Lake and it was an amazing sight to behold.
I think the lack of water sources has become a bit of a theme in Oregon. The picture below shows one of the 2 water caches we came across this day. The caches are maintained by trail angels who so generously volunteer their time and energy and make hiking the PCT possible or at least more comfortable.
Just before we reached the water cache Peter was feeling a bit off and so we sat down on a log. He then proceeded to vomit. Now, if I were vomiting, I would be keeled over with tears streaming down my eyes, unable to focus on much else other than my current state. Peter, on the other hand, was able to casually engage me in conversation, while intermittently barfing, and continuing the conversation as if nothing had happened at all.
After barf gate, we saw two groups of all female Forest Service workers who were doing trail maintenance. Trail maintenance looks a lot different in the US than in Canada. For starters, I don't believe they're allowed to run chainsaws in National Forests. Instead, they carry massive 2 person cross cut saws. Secondly, there are no motorized vehicles allowed on the trail and each person we saw was carrying very heavy tools. I couldn't help but think about how much easier it would be to load up an ATV and motor on in there. One person was even carrying a 20L jug of water in her hands. The amount of effort that goes into clearing these trails is insane and we made sure to thank them for all their hard work as we passed by.
The trail had been quite flat all morning but this afternoon we began to climb up and up and up. It also began to rain and we put on our rain gear.
After having walked most of the day in the forest it was a nice change to hike to the shoulder of Mt. Theilsen. Here we were rewarded with exquisite views as the clouds parted exposing the summit of Mt. Theilsen.
We reached the last water source today around 3pm and it was roughly 25km to the next one. We knew we weren't about to hike all the way there this night so we had to carry a shit ton of water to make it to camp and then have some left over for the next morning. I remember my pack feeling very heavy as we hiked uphill for the next 5 miles to camp.
The tentsite we chose for the night we had all to ourselves! We could tell there was a stunning view waiting to happen but it was covered by clouds. It would be a different story in the morning :) We hung our stuff to dry, filled our bellies with cold ramen noodles and tucked ourselves in our sleeping bags and enjoyed an episode of criminal minds.
Marathon and Pole Vault
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