Day 111 - 1800 Miles — Vive ut Vivas

Start: 0730 - a pond near Snow Lake
End: 2000 - Dutton Creek trail junction (near Crater Lake)
Miles (today): 27
Miles (cumulative): 1865.5 (1703.5 PCT, 94 alternate, 68 off)

It took me forever to get to sleep last night- my feet throbbed and cramped and just felt all around bruised. Even though I spent quite a while massaging them, by 0100 I decided to take some Ibuprofen so I could get a little rest.

It was a slow morning. Nick struggled to get the steri-pen to work (it wouldn't give him the flashing green light that indicates it's ready to sterilize water) and I took a long time getting organized (I'd blame the lack of sleep but I don't think that was it).

We walked 5 miles to the last on-trail water source for the next 20 miles and spent quite a bit of time there- Nick still couldn't get the steri-pen to work so he used my Sawyer squeeze mini to make 4 liters of water, which is a very time consuming process with a mini. I tried to keep myself busy by eating snacks and organizing my pack, but after a while I got antsy and asked Nick if I could play with the steri-pen to see if I could get it to work.

I got it to work. :)

Nick continued to squeeze water through the sawyer mini while I set to work sterilizing 4 liters of water for myself. We finished at about the same time and then set off to hike 22 more miles. Alas, it was already 1030!

I decided to see how fast I could hike - for once my body was feeling pretty good and I wanted to make up for the slow morning. I managed to hike 8 miles in 2 hours, which is pretty good time (it helps when the trail is relatively flat and when your body isn't screaming at you). Nick doesn't believe that I hiked that fast but I did! After those two hours I dropped back down to 3 mph, which is still decent time.

20 miles without water in Oregon is a lot different than 20 miles without water in the desert - the temps were cooler, there was a lot of shade, and there was decent cloud cover (which was great when we walked through the shadeless burn areas). It wasn't bad at all.

The watch I bought specifically for this trip finally stopped working today. At first I thought I was losing my mind - I glanced at it, told myself I'd have a quick snack in 15 minutes, and when I glanced at it again later I was dismayed to see barely any time (none) had passed. Sometimes I DO think I've been hiking for an hour only to find that a mere 10 minutes have passed, but was I that crazy to think I hiked for at least 15 minutes when barely any time (none) had passed? (The answer is yes, it's entirely possible.) When I looked at my watch a little closer and realized it no longer worked, I laughed. I'd be sad about this development but I've been wanting a new watch ever since Baden-Powell, where one of the pins holding the watch face onto the band broke, causing the watch face to dangle annoyingly from my wrist. Since the watch still worked I couldn't justify getting a new one, but now I can.

Tomorrow is Crater Lake - I can't wait to see it again (and I can't wait to see Mark and Mary and, hopefully, Tim and Nubia.) :)