With the fire closures we get off at Rainy Pass and head for Medford.
Another day with a lot of really ragged trail. I’ve a picture I’ll add once I have internet access to modify pictures and reduce their file size. Full resolution pictures crash this application.
The picture is an example of how rough the trail was.
But we did 24.2 trail miles today and more walking up to a campsite we decided against and to one for our siesta break. Trail legs are coming back.
We are camped next to Crusty, a German hiker we met a while back. She finishes up the trail and then has a wedding to plan. The campsite is on the other side of a river from a big campsite —with too many mice.
She was cooking dinner when we came up and she moved her tent and invited us to share the camping area. She was so kind.
This way we avoid the crowds and the mice and can probably make the noon bus.
I’ll note Stehenkin has no cell service or normal internet access. We expect that two days later at Rainy Pass. Makes for difficulty planning our trip to Medford/Ashland difficult as Far Out pretty much ends it’s coverage once you leave the trail.
Great day. We started at 6:00 am on the trail. Made great mileage. Ran into Brewer and his trail family. We had last seen them far south of here. We were SOBO at the time and they were NOBO.
They’ve done a steady fifteen miles a day since. We sat and had lunch with them.
Tonight Win and I each had a chicken noodle casserole for dinner with light snacks. I’ll try cold soak granola for breakfast with protein bars and beef jerky to get me through to the trail famous pastry shop.
Beautiful mountain views. incredible rock fields. Glacier melt streams and rivers. So many bridges.
I’ve lost a little more weight. My recovery from shin splints is going well. Compression socks and ibuprofen seem to be working as advertised.
I was nervous about the ibuprofen because studies show it really reduces gains from training and I’ve been so worried about getting my trail legs back.
Anyway. That was today.