Day 132: Mile 2059.4 - 2083.7

Today was a longer day--24.3 miles--and for a good reason. It turns out the Timberline Lodge--which we'll be reaching tomorrow--is famous for its buffet breakfast/lunch. Double Snacks made a reservation for 1:30pm tomorrow (the last possible reservation is at 2:00pm), and it's a long way--28 miles from where we camped last night. So we did 24 miles today to reduce it to 14 miles to food tomorrow. I hope it's good! (Everyone who's been says it's good.)

But today wasn't a bad day to get bigger miles. Mostly the terrain was mild: some rises and falls, but nothing too severe. It was colder this morning--I broke out the thermal long-sleeve shirt, had broken out the puffy (rather than the rain jacket) last night, and on the trail kept the rain jacket on for longer than usual. This cooler weather continued until about lunch--which we took at Wilson Road, a dirt road out here in the middle of nowhere. A random SOBO joined us there for lunch, and he recommended the Timberline Lodge buffet as well. After lunch, the smoke rolled in suddenly--I had smelled it a couple miles before the lunch spot, but we started lunch with blue skies and yellow sun, and an hour later when we finished the skies were hazy and the sun was orange. We continued on, eventually passing Timothy Lake and taking a break on its shores (the SOBO had also recommended taking some time at Timothy Lake--one of the most beautiful he'd seen so far--although by the time we got there, it was a nice lake but nothing so spectacular, really), before finishing up the lat 5 miles to reach this campsite. Scenery-wise, today has pretty much been green tunnel throughout. I've made my peace with green tunnels--I don't try to see views from them anymore, but rather just put my head down and hike--so these green tunnnels are a little bit easy to cope with.

But the real news of the day were the things that (naturally) went wrong!

-- I think I must have bumped my headlamp in my bag yesterday, because last night when I went to grab it it was already on. And checking the battery, the battery was less than 25% to boot. So I pulled out the solar panel to help charge it today. And it worked fine, until the smoke came and transformed the sun into orange. (I still think the panel has problems with smoky skies, although whether from the lessened intensity or the wavelength shift--or possibly something that I haven't even identified--I don't know.) 

-- There's a hole in the bottom of my backpack! So inside the backpack there's a metal frame that's shaped like an upside-down U. It seems that one of the ends of the U broke through its fabric stay, and then promptly pierced through the bottom of my backpack. This is not good, especially when it's supposed to rain tomorrow. I composed a message to ULA asking for their advice--will try to find signal to send it tomorrow--and tried effecting a quick field repair (plastered over the holes with Tenacious Tape), and came up with a new way to pack the bag that will hopefully relieve some of the pressure, but it's all dicey at this point. I'm trying not to let it get me down--it's scary when your backpack effectively breaks--hopefully this new packing style will work and, if not, hopefully I'll be able to find another one that does.

And that was the hike for today. Nothing much exciting, except for a hole in my backpack. More exciting things should be tomorrow, when we reach the Timberline Lodge and get to eat eat eat! It means an early call tomorrow--wake at 5am, leave around 6am, get there around 1:30pm--but hopefully it'll be worth it!

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Some notes:

-- Pinhead Saddle > Warm Spring River > Wilson Road > Timothy Lake > Forest Service Road 58 > Spring

-- I saw a gaggle of blueberries, all in a row on a vine, and I took a photo, but I did not pick and eat them, for they looked *too* delectable! 

-- The SOBO at lunch (whose name I never got) hails from Lancaster Pennsylvania (athough he's of Irish background rather than German). He works in cyber-security and effectively retired last year. He had worked for the government, so he has a pension (hence retiring before 50, from what I gather). He had considered moving out to Switzerland--it's a big cyber-security hub, what with all the banking and financial transactions--and his daughter lives in Friedburg Germany not far from Geneva, but then last year had hiked the AT (started in April, stopped due to COVID, then resumed in June and finished in mid-October) and this year is tackling the PCT, southbound. As for the trail ahead, he notes that from about White Pass on north, Washington is absolutely stunning. We'll see how much of that stunning-ness I get to see, but that's good tidings for the views, at least! (Weather is a whole other story.)

-- At Timothy Lake, we took a break at a large campsite right at the edge of the lake, sitting on a big log. And there was a duck--female mallard looked like--motoring past on the water incredibly fast. And then she saw us and came out of the water and started waddling toward us! What a strange duck, Double Snacks commented, then when she came really close, not afraid or anything, Double Snacks shooed her away. We suspect she's been fed by campers, because she waddled away, went into the water, motored by really fast, then came *back* and waddled up closer to where I was sitting! Again, not afraid, more like with an attitude of, do you have food? Are you going to give me any? Sorry, I don't have any food for you, I said to her, and maybe she got it, because she headed back towards the water even though I didn't shoo her away, and eventually motored off to somewhere away, likely to wait for the next set of (hopefully more generous) campers!

-- So as we were breaking camp and Brett was going to head out, he said to me, take care of her, meaning Double Snacks. To which I replied with a half-laugh, well, I think she's more than capable of taking care of herself! Yeah, I know, he said, but I'm duty-bound to say it. Here's the thing: my kooky brain, the way it's wired? I'm now a bit duty-bound to do it!

-- Back when he'd picked us up, Brett had seen me and Double Snacks hobbling around after our hike and commented, wait, so you can walk with a pack on your back for thousands of miles, but you can't get up from a picnic table? Yeah, we said, it's the hiker hobble: it's a real thing. And then today, after he'd hiked out, he messaged Double Snacks on her inReach and said, evidently hiker hobble is contagious because now he had it! See, I told you: it's a real thing! (I think the issue it stiffening muscles and tendons: when they've rested a while, they get cold and tight and a hobble results. When I hike, especially in the morning, I'm usually still "cold" and will indeed hobble a bit to start. Everything warms up pretty quickly, though--likely a combination of the extra weight from the pack and the muscle-memory of hiking kicking in--so the hobble is much more short-lived than it is when not hiking.)

-- When he picked us up, Brett has also asked whether we preferred hot and smoky (a la southern Oregon) or cold and wet (a la current Oregon). And Double Snacks had thought about it, but not come to any conclusion. Whereas without hesitation I immediately said, hot and smoky. Well, I got some of that today: when we sat down to lunch the skies were blue, but by the end of lunch they were graying and the smoke smell kicking in. You like hot and smoky? Well then hot and smoky you get!--let's see how much you *actually* like it!

-- Camping cohorts: Double Snacks and a couple in a tent that had evidently already retired when we arrived. I can hear them moving around in the tent--the crinkles and squeakings of sleeping pads resounding on occasion--so they're definitely there, they just haven't emerged or said anything all night.