August 4th, 2021
Mile Marker: 1776.3
Miles Hiked Today: 26
This morning started out way later than we would have hoped for but it almost felt like it was out of our hands.
Big Momma agreed to pick us up at 10:30 instead of earlier like we wanted because she was going to take other hikers to the airport first. We had preferred her to be our driver since she knew where she picked us up and we couldn’t get enough of her. She was just a precious gem.
We slept in till about 8 and went to the continental breakfast and resupplied a few items. Once Momma arrived we gave her hugs and were off back to the trail. She had said the smoke that was coming into Ashland was pretty bad and she was glad we were getting out of it. The mountains seemed to be a little bit clearer but not by much.
We reached the trail head around noon and all gave Momma hugs again and waved bye to her and had the reaction of “I hope I don’t have to see you again but also, I wouldn’t mind if I do get to.” She was just such a selfless, loving person. She even yelled I love you as we hiked away from her and we yelled it back.
Such a sweetheart!
It was a weird feeling to be starting our hike at noon but we were well rested and ready to tackle miles. Planner had also felt better for the most part.
The first part of our day was a 12 mile water carry to a shelter.
I had put on music and was cruising. I had felt like I needed to get myself in the zone since I knew all of our breaks today would be rather short.
We reached the shelter around 4 and I was almost irritated with the amount of hikers I saw. There must have been about 15 hikers and this was something we have hardly had to deal with this entire trip. But since so many are skipping up north past the fires, this was bound to happen.
Journey said it perfectly, we have to find that sweet spot between 2 groups where we hardly have anyone around us.
This shelter had a pump for the water system which I got a kick out of. Conrad also wanted to take a bath so I pumped the water for him. 😂
We officially have under 900 miles to go. AH!!!
The trail was incredibly smoky today, where the views are smoke and smoke. When looking it doesn’t look like there are any mountains in the distance. It almost feels like I am walking in place.
It’s also so strange when we can stare right at the sun as it isn’t bright behind the smoke. Sometimes I feel like I can’t look away, like how am I able to see this and why is it so red!
We walked through lava rocks which I thought looked cool and kind of ominous with the smoky background.
We all hiked and hiked and planned to refill our water at a location on Guthooks that acted like water was present.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t any water and the water we found was a small, tiny dirty puddle.
We decided that we would make do with the puddle and filled up enough to continue on for another 2.5 miles. The next water source would then be 8 miles the next morning.
We finished the day around 10:30 and were content with the mileage.
My eyes can’t stay open any longer!
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 