Day 129 - Big Lake Youth Camp
Start: 0800 - near Mini Scott Spring
End: 1730 - Big Lake Youth Camp
Miles (today): 19.5 (18.5 PCT, 1 alternate)
Miles (cumulative): 2031 (1829.5 PCT, 130.5 alternate, 71 off)
It's official - my own personal trail hell is walking over lava fields for hours. My poor, poor feet. At least the day was overcast and cool, I'm sure it would have been way worse baking in the sun. Then again, the clouds obscured the views, which usually help take my mind off of the discomfort. Then again, I was so focused on the trail in front of me that I barely looked up, anyway. Crazy lava fields!
Trail hell (for me). Nick is up there ahead of me
Halfway through lava field hell, we stumbled upon some trail magic at McKenzie Pass - it was a nice little break and I enjoyed chatting with Gina about holistic medicine (she's studying acupuncture)
Gina and ? - it seemed like the clay figures were made just for them (the spider for her, the camera for him).
Just getting through the day feels like a victory - I'm not sure why I'm struggling so much lately. Part of the reason is probably because I'm not sleeping very well; the other part is because I feel so slow out there and, even though I know I need to get over it already, being the slow one is really difficult for me. (But we already know that)
I had two forest encounters today. The first one happened in the morning, when I came upon a dead mouse in the middle of the trail. It seemed as if the poor thing deserved a better resting place than that, so I took a little time to bury him by a tree. The second encounter was similar - in the afternoon I came upon a seemingly dead ground squirrel laying in the middle of the trail. As I went to scoop him up with my hiking poles (to bury him) he moved! For some reason I felt I couldn't just leave him there, so I picked him up with a spare bag and carried him all the way to the Big Lake Youth Camp.
When I walked up to the hiker shack, Nick took one look at what I was carrying and just shook his head - he saw the poor creature on the trail and walked right on by. While I am fully aware that there probably isn't anything I can do for this little guy, I have to try. Right now he is sleeping in a box next to me - in the morning, if he's still alive, I hope to find someone here at the camp to care for him.
the poor little guy was still alive - I couldn't leave him on the trail!
isn't he cute? He seemed so much more comfortable off the cold ground
This youth camp is great - we showered (again!), did laundry, ate a fantastic vegetarian meal (this is a Seventh Day Adventist camp), and are now safely sleeping in a little bunkhouse with 5 other hikers. Outside its raining and cold (yeah, I know this is just the beginning of the not-so-great weather); being inside is nice because we won't have to deal with a wet tent in the morning. Hopefully it will clear up by tomorrow.
I also hope my little friend will make it through the night.
Along the trail:
Mary, this picture is for you- it's of South Mathieu Lake :)