Day 141

(Originally written on Tuesday, September 22)

Here I am camped at Deep Lake. I wish I had a dollar for every "Deep Lake" I've come across on this trip. In Oregon, one of my maps had two "Deep Lakes" on the same page! C'mon lake-naming-people, let's get creative! Anyway, the lake is beautiful but I elected to camp out of sight of it, by a creek. The water here is more accessible and the campsite was flatter. In short, it is just a better campsite.

In my blog entry from yesterday, I failed to mention the reroute I was yet again forced to take. It began at Snoqualmie Pass and reconnected with the Pacific Crest Trail about 26 miles later. Allegedly, the fire that was burning in the area a while ago is still burning inside some of the old-growth timber along the PCT, causing them to occasionally explode. I'm not making this up--it's what the folks at the Ranger Station said. In any case, there was a three-mile stretch closed and the only way around it was to follow a much longer Forest Service (official) reroute or take an unofficial reroute that was about 12 miles shorter. I elected the unofficial reroute, as did 99% of the other PCT hikers, from what I've been told. The problem with the unofficial reroute is that the terrain was much more difficult than the PCT or the official reroute. It was bad enough in some places that it took me two hours to go three miles! Nevertheless, I made it and happily got back on the PCT at about 3:30 this afternoon. I went another eight miles before calling it a day. My legs were so exhausted from the steep (and poorly maintained or unmaintained altogether) ascents and descents that the last couple miles just went by so slowly. My sleeping bag never looked so inviting!

Tomorrow I've got a stiff climb greeting me first thing in the morning. From what it looks like on the map, the trail continues its harsh gradients nearly all the way to Highway 2. And from what I've heard from others, it could be this way until I finish in 11 days.