Day 116

I woke up determined to make up for yesterday's debacle. My original plan out of Medford had me arriving at Crescent Lake (actually Odell Lake) today. And even though it would take some serious hiking to get there, I still had a chance. I ended up putting in my longest day yet--35 miles--and even got to the resort to pick up my package before they closed at 8! I wish the rest of the night would have gone as well. Because the terrain was so dusty, I was the dirtiest I think I've ever been tonight. Very fine dust clung to me everywhere. Since I had a shower and laundry available to me, I thought I should probably take advantage of it. As far as laundry goes, all I really care about anymore are my socks. Gotta take care of the feet! Well the ladies in the resort office failed to mention that six quarters would only get me three minutes of shower time (thanks for that, ladies) and of course the shower that I use doesn't tell me that either. So my legs are only moderately clean and I still have soap in my hair when the water shuts off. I don't have any more quarters. So basically I just dried off with a shirt that wasn't in the wash and I still feel kinda gross. To add insult to injury when I grabbed my raincoat (not wearing it because it is raining...only because it is chilly this evening), there was a bunch of what I think is white soap scum from just outside the shower on it...totally gross. I can handle nature's dirt, but it's other people's nastiness that grosses me out. It's nights like this that I can't wait to be done with this hike!

It's already pretty late so I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to get going tomorrow, especially since I still need to go through my resupply box and make sure I'm good to go. But I'm also trying to figure out if I can make it to Highway 20 (94 miles away) in three days. I'd really like to, but I think it'll largely depend on how I'm feeling tomorrow after today's big day.

One cool...actually two cool things for today to end on. The first was that I startled a herd of elk this afternoon. If you've never seen an elk, just picture something the size of a horse that looks sort of like a deer. They don't go around things like deer, however. They go through them, so they make a lot of noise. Second, I crossed the 1900-Mile mark today and am now at 1912.2 (or something close to that).

Anyway, that's all I've got to report. Hopefully my laundry is dry by now so that I can go to bed!