Oohlala, I slept lovely on the new combination of my Thermarest underneath my inflatable pad. It was not a very cold night, but I already noticed the difference. Excited to see how the combination works out if it gets real chilly. Hiked out a little after 0800.
A shout-out to my buddy Mazin, who was kind enough to share his audio-book of The Lord of the Rings with me. I started listening to it this morning, as I was hiking through a burn-area. The last time I read the book was in high-school when I was either fourteen or fifteen. I read it in Dutch at the time, but listening to it in its original form was great. Tolkiens English truly is a delight to behold.
This morning was very smoky, but there were still some good views of the Three Fingered Jack, which the trail passed very closely.
Around lunchtime I was filling up my water-bottles at the lake. With my heavy pack I had been slowing going during the morning, and I felt sluggish today. A smile found its way to my face upon hearing some-one call out from the distance: ‘Hoooyaaaaaaah’. It was Jukebox! Hurray! I thought my little trail-family might be a little ahead of me, it turned out that they’d arrived only a few minutes later at the trail-head where I was dropped off yesterday. Soon Photo-Op and Pops showed up too. I used their arrival gladly to take more time to relax, as they’d picked the lake as their lunch-spot. Good times catching up, we haven’t hiked together since Ashland.
Not long after lunch, we found ourselves lucky for the winds picking up making the smoke diminish significantly. As we were approaching Mount Jefferson, it made for excellent views of it. The spectacular strato-volcano rose up in front of us in all its glory. We couldn’t stop reveling in its beauty. As we hiked closer, the views got better and better.
It was wonderful to be hiking with my buddies again. It had been quite some time, and I could really tell that I had missed it. We decided on a campsite close to the last water-source pass today and appreciated the views of Mount Jefferson as the sun was setting, casting a beautiful light on its flanks.
Tomorrow there’s 21 miles to go to Ollally Lake, we plan on checking out another resort. Photo-op has not missed a single resort in Oregon, and thus aims to add this one to the list too. I have way too much food as it is, and honestly shouldn’t even consider stopping there. But since it is only 0.1 miles off trail, I might be persuaded.
I probably will be persuaded.
We found a few campsites in the forest, before it got real dark, and after a quick dinner we got into our tents. Tomorrow we’ll aim to get up nice and early to crank out a bigger day. I didn’t mind not hiking crazy far today, I was just happy to be hiking with my friends again.
Houser-Creek Wrecking Crew reunited again! Yihaaaah!
After school
Walking home
Fresh dirt under my fingernails
And I can smell hot asphalt
Cars screech to a halt to let me pass
And I cannot remember
What life was like through photographs
Trying to recreate images life gives us from our past
And sometimes it’s a sad song
But I cannot forget
Refuse to regret
So glad I met you and
Take my breath away
Make everyday
Worth all of the pain that I have gone through
And Mama I’ve been cryin’
Cause things ain’t how they used to be
She said, “The battle’s almost won
And we’re only several miles from the sun.”
The Sun – Maroon 5
