Day 174

Day 174 (pct 64): 36 miles

I overslept this morning, something new. When I was packing up the bugs were so bad I couldn’t stay sane. It was already hot and it was gonna be a 15 mile stretch without water so I wanted to try to down a lot in the morning but the bugs were so bad I couldn’t take it anymore so I just left with 2 liters.

It was hot and there were some really exposed sections in the morning so I was getting pretty dehydrated. After struggling though the last few miles I downed a bunch of water at the first source we hit. There was the water 1.7 miles later and then nothing for 20 miles until Crater Lake National Park. This was frustrating. I pictured Oregon having water and streams everywhere, not consistent long water carries. I downed probably 7 liters of water at that last water source and still didn’t piss all night.

My carrying capacity was only 2 liters cause I expected a lot of water. With it being hot and me mostly dehydrated I wanted to carry more than that. I filled up my cold soak jar which had remnants of ramen noodles and knorr sides floating around and using my true ingenious, I filled up a ziploc bag with water and that put me at probably a little under 3 liters.

Hammer and I were both dreading doing the 20 miles to Crater Lake, but we left a little after 5. It was mostly shaded in the beginning but then a little before sunset the trail was a burn area with no cover. I’m thankful I was doing that when it was almost dark or it would’ve been much worse. Around 11:30 I was pretty exhausted and thought about making camp 3 miles short. Instead, I turned off my headlamp, looked up at the stars with a blood moon tonight, and turned on Pardon My Take. I was ready to keep rolling. I ended up getting to the crater lake campground and getting to bed around 1:30.

I got a couple really nice cuts on my legs today. I now fully believe “rubbing some dirt on it” heals all wounds.

Song of the day: Black skinhead-Kanye west