Pacific Crest Trail

The Oregonian trail and its surroundings

Day 95

This was the first full day on the Oregon section of the PCT. I was walking by dawn and had my breakfast a bit later as I had tried to be as quiet as possible when packing down camp to not disturb my fellow camper.

It was for the first time in a long long while an overcast day. Or so I thought. When the sun rose further you could see how distant objects were grayed out and the sun itself shone bright red through the thick smoke and the smell certainly was there as well. I didn’t like it but I wasn’t as afraid as previously as there were no longer any fire nearby. After the morning it did clear up a bit, fortunately.

While I have already been in Oregon for a couple of days, this is the first whole day on trail here. So. Does it look like California? Well, kind of, but still I feel some things are changing. In the densely forested area ls there is a sprawling green undergrowth, though sometimes dried long grass replaces it. The trail has so far been very soft and the elevation changes have been very gradual. It has also been quite warm and there has been longer between the water sources. Lastly, and to my great joy, I have yet to see poison oak here. These are of course only first hand impressions.

There was a large lake some hundred yards from the trail so I went there for a swim, but to my great disappointment, the water was very unclear, the shore muddy, and the whole place had a weird and quiet intense smell to it. That didn’t stop the locals from enjoying their Saturday there, though. Me, I opted for the showers that were in a building together with the restrooms. There was even warm water and it was all free of charge. That was a first.

I actually met quite a few other through hikers today. Maybe eleven or so. To of them, Oldtimer and MacGyver, I had seen for the first time in the Sierras. That was in starch contrast to many of the previous days where I had almost been walking alone. I had previously thought that many of the people I had met and lost I would never see again, but more and more familiar faces start popping up. I camped after twenty eight miles next to two other hikers, Naturalist and Dragon. It hadn’t been the most eventful day, but you have to accept that there’ll be some of those.

This days miles: 1732-1760

2 thoughts on “The Oregonian trail and its surroundings”

  1. Question: you mentioned that posts are made with some delay, seemingly up to a week. Is it planned that towards the end, as you’re getting closer to the goal, that they will be more real-time? So the final post will be on the actual final day

    1. The last part of the trail is quite remote with potentially limited internet and cellular service, so I don’t think that would be feasible. But now that you brought it up and made me think of it I might do some days with two posts to get it a bit closer to real time. No words will be out on social media about how it went before it also has been posted here.

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