One Weigh Ticket: Journal Entry: Wednesday, 7/3/2019

Day 6 of 10

Stats

23.3 miles
3,069' elevation gain
10.0 hours hiking

Photos

Link to all photos and videos from day 6.

Journal Entry

italics = original journal text
regular = added during transcription

A long day in the green tunnel.

Today was all about timing for tomorrow. Tomorrow was when Kylie was meeting me at Timberline Lodge with Geoffrey and Ivan and Timberline Lodge was where a lunch buffet was. They were scheduled to arrive around noon while the buffet opened at 11:00. After 110 miles over 6 full days of hiking, my appetite was healthy.

Needless to say, I wanted to plan for an 11:00 buffet arrival, meaning I would try and hike enough today to leave no more than 10 miles tomorrow morning.

Again, the weather was great for hiking: overcast and 55°F. My rain jacket was enough to break the nip without causing me to sweat until hiking uphill, of which there were a few today. And now I'm officially on the slopes of Wy'east.

I got an early start this morning, around 6:45 and after only one other hiker. Within the first 3 hours I saw 5 new southbound PCT hikers. Then I got to the popular weekend destination of Timothy Lake.

It actually wasn't crowded, even for being the day before a long weekend. I passed a few occupied camps including one boat-up site which looked like fun. I was also startled by a "hello" which came from none less than a mountain biker. It was then that I realized how much our mind relies on hunches to construct a general idea of our surroundings. Over the past 6 days of hiking, my mind had become dependent on trusting that if I look back (which I often do when hiking alone) and see no one for 100 yards, there will be no one behind me for the near future - it takes a long time to make up 100+ yards at a hiking pace.

I was hit with this realization like, immediately, because there was a fucking cyclist on the PCT! I stopped hiking, faced him, and stood in the middle of the trail until he was just a few feet from me and had to unclip his pedals and stop. "Bikes aren't allowed on the PCT ya know," I said.

"Yeah sorry, I'm just visiting from Phoenix and I got a little lost," was his excuse.

"Well what trail did you turn onto this one from? I can help you find it on my app."

"I'm not sure, I was just riding around the lake," he states and then walks his bike off the trail and around me, realizing that I'm not moving for him.

"Bikes aren't allowed on this trail so if you're not going to find the right one then you should probably walk your bike." (this is actually the official, signed rule for the 600' section of bike trail that overlaps with the PCT just 2 miles north of where we met)

"I've already been riding it this far…" and then his annoyed voice trailed off as he rode away.

Whatever. I made it 23 miles today so now I'm within 10 of Timberline Lodge. Meeting up with Kylie, Geoffrey, and Ivan to eat at the lunch buffet and then hike to Cascade locks with the latter two.