Wednesday, July 11, 2018 – 15.90 miles

The mosquitoes returned with a vengeance today. Aside from a short mosquito-free period between ~11:00 AM to ~4:00 PM, they’re always present and hungry for blood.

I saw my first food/drink trail magic, a cache of bottled drinks beside a road, but unfortunately only beer was left. I then encountered a huge water cache of 150+ litres! I didn’t note the date on the jugs (or else I did, but had no idea of the current date, so didn’t pay attention) but someone told me later that the cache had been left only yesterday. I arrived around noon, so took water to cook potatoes.

The trail approached Mt. Thielsen, an interestingly shaped volcano that you can scramble to the top of.

Near the junction was a campsite with great views, but a day hiker was peeing there when I arrived. I didn’t actually realize what he was doing until he apologized and said he hadn’t expected anyone else to be around. It’s all right! It’s a law of the PCT that when you’re peeing, you’re 30% more likely to encounter another hiker than you would be otherwise. You could have refrained from peeing on the campsite though. Backpackers would appreciate that.

I had been meaning to camp at Thielsen Creek (the first water source after Crater Lake), but I had enough water left to dry camp, so I ended up stopping earlier. Today’s distance is an estimate.