PCT day 80 - mile 1747 to mile 1776

"Not everything which makes us feel better is good for us. Not everything which hurts may be bad. To regard states of distress in general as something that must be abolished is a supreme idiocy, in general sense, a real disaster in it's consequences, almost as stupid as a will to abolish bad weather." Nietzsche

A good, long day I pushed few more miles than originally planned to split the difference to the next resupply point near Crater Lake.

Weather was near perfect and the trail was not too steep so everything was flowing well. At around 11am I hit an unexpected trail magic with Roy from Portland, he was following his friend down the trail, and set up his van next to a quiet road PCT was cutting through. I spend fifteen minutes talking to him as he also used to work as a stage hand in theatre, eventually becoming an electrician. I might meet him again as he will be following his other friend in couple of weeks who is doing PCT southbound starting at the Canadian border.

The water sources like yesterday were scarce, I stopped for a lunch next to a second one for the day by the South Brown Mtn Shelter where I met Jerry who was section hiking the trail towards Mt McLoughlin where he planned to spend the night. He was hiking in his fathers shirt and had a couple of his memorabilia as a way of bringing him along. Unfortunately his father passed away few years ago, he was the person who introduced Jerry to hiking. Jerry had a great knowledge of local wildlife, geography and history, he had no electronic equipment on him only paper map and a compass.

It was a real pleasure to talk to him, he seemed like a very level minded individual, with very constructive critical mind. He argued for example that the state of California should leave partially burned trees in the fire ravaged areas allowing them to reproduce, rather than mindlessly cutting them down as they clearly had a genetic advantage to survive the fire. Or that the fawn I found wasn't a newborn but it was just spending the night on trail. It's defence mechanism prompted it to stay still, as that how they can avoid predators, so my intervention was most likely unnecessary.

After a good half an hour chat I carried on walking and managed to stumble upon Tank Top, he was making his way to the Fish Lake Resort in order to receive a package and get food before the restaurant closed at 6pm. I was trying to keep up with him but I gave up after couple of miles and slowed down. I had more than enough food to last me until Crater Lake so there was no need for me to go there. I'll probably end up meeting him again tomorrow as he's back on the big miles hunt, meanwhile I'm sticking to the mid twenties per day plan. 

It gives me time to take pictures of this mushrooms! That's right, it's fungi photo day, enjoy! Oh, I also saw bear number five in the evening and just like the other four it ran away rather quickly.

Mt McLoughlin:

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