August 17th
The nights are turning cooler and cooler each day, making it harder and harder to get up, into damp clothes and out of the tent. Still, we were on the trail and hiking by 7:15 with Ruth and Toek. We would see them at breaks throughout the day. Occasional day hikers also came out near the trailhead.
The smell of smoke was thick in the air most of morning, drifting in from some distant fire, perhaps the one still burning in Crater Lake NP, or perhaps another that is near Lakeview OR. Smoke can travel great distances and in this the season of forest fires smoke haze is not unusual. As far as we can tell the smoke is not coming from anywhere near the trail ahead. Still, it reduces visibility and irritates the eyes and throat.
We pass lots of lakes and lots more mossies. These are not the mossies of Oregon legend. We’re too late in the season for that. These are persistent, tenacious, late mossies. What they lack in numbers they make up for in determination. They are out for blood. Fortunately there are few enough of them that most are easily swatted dead.
My left heel hurts, either a deep blister beneath the callous, which was recently removed or a bruise. After each break/rest it seems so sore that it affects the stride, as if I am sub-consciously favoring it. After about 30 minutes of walking it will loosen up, or more accurately, the pain will deaden, go numb. So, for now, the solution seems to be to hike through the pain to the point it no longer hurts. I think that at some time most hikers experience this phenomenon – to continue means to ignore a constant pain until it seems to go away. Using this strategy we manage to get in a little over 28 miles today.
Toward then end of the day, at dusk, we surprise 4 elk grazing at a small pond. One cow spooks and she incites the other two cows and a trophy size bull to rush off into the woods.
We camp at Tadpole Pond, a small pond typical of this area, fed by snowmelt. Gradually over the summer it drops in elevation as the water evaporates or percolates down through the volcanic soil, Tonight we have more “Ruth” food, a Chinese “take away” of dried rice, mixed veggies and pork.
We eat under the starlight, not even ay moonlight and hear the faint sound of slow, deliberate movement and munching. Something is grazing in the dark – deer or elk or hungry hikers……..