PCT 2015 Day 115: A Few of my Favourite Things

• Start: 1,987.3
• End: 2,010.2
• Miles 22.9
• Camp: Near Wasco Lake junction

Raindrops and roses and whiskers on kittens. Etcetera. Side note – no lava fields or sand mentioned in there.

Actually the lava fields were kind of amazing. The rocks were indisputably painful on the feet, and the vast expanse of bleak, black rocks was not the most interesting view around, but there was also a wide open view to the mountains and weird little plants pushing their way through the barren lava. The lava rocks are at least stable when I put my feet on them too (for the most part, anyway) and the vista is so alien that it managed to take my attention almost completely. I thought of my Lord of the Rings comparison around Mount Shasta, the Lonely Mountain, and extended the list of Middle Earth places I’ve seen. Although. One does not simply walk into Mordor…

The trail after the lava rocks was unfortunately sand. All the way into Big Lake Youth Camp. And all the way out of it, come to that. Sand definitely isn’t my favourite thing to walk on (I talked about the rocks, right?). It saps my energy and in the hot sun I have so little of that in the first place. I was glad to get to Big Lake and rest in the shade. 

The camp almost proved to be a vortex. The kids had all left, and the counsellors and staff were working on clean up and refurbishments. They had sack lunches which they were happy to let us have (bagels and cream cheese and cookies) and their PCT hiker hut had wifi and places to charge phones. We had to be pretty disciplined to unbox the resupply and get out of there rather than stay the night on the beach. Fancy Feet had arrived before us, and it was nice to see her again, having not seen her since the slackpack in Tehachapi!

As we headed uphill into the evening, it started to get windy. We knew we would be ending the day right on the ridge, so we looked for alternative campsites on the way up although without much success. 

We also passed mile 2000 today. That is definitely one of my favourite things.