Day 114: Over Halfway Through Oregon

Date: Thurs 8/9

PCT Start Mile: 1900.2

PCT End Mile: 1925.2

PCT Mileage for Day: 25

Total PCT Mileage: 1925.2

The Highlights: Shelter Cove, beautiful lakes, and trail magic

This morning was warm again, and also very loud, with all kinds of insects buzzing as we started down the trail.

In Oregon, there seems to be this phenomenon where large flies and several kinds of bees latch onto you and literally orbit your head, round and round seemingly forever. Nothing makes you feel stinky like flies circling you like a rotten carcass.

Typically, I eventually get annoyed enough that I just start flailing my trekking poles around my head like a mad woman and hope that – if it’s a bee – it’s not the type that this behavior would encourage to sting me. Hiking is fun.

Our morning hike was a quick six miles downhill until we reached a dirt road, where we took a sharp right, detouring from the trail to head into Shelter Cove Resort, an approximately mile and a half road walk over dirt and paved roads (and a railroad track).

Shelter Cove Resort is basically a very nice campground, the type where everyone has a really nice mega RV. They also have some cabin lodging, but we only walked through the campground portion, gawking at the giant houses on wheels.

Most hikers, like Mazama Village, had sent themselves resupply boxes to Shelter Cove. The PCT through Oregon is pretty remote, it crosses several roads but doesn’t come super close to many towns, so hikers mostly stick to the trail, mailing ourselves boxes at some of the resorts and camps near the trail that are kind enough to accept hiker packages.

Anyway, because it was a resupply point, Shelter Cove was a hub of hikers, and we commenced trail reunion time. Rainman, Pitch, and Mustang were all just finishing their breakfasts when we arrived, so we finally got to catch up with them for a bit.

They had done just over 52 miles for their 24 hour challenge out of Ashland. Rainman said he had been to the point of hallucinating by the end, seeing parking lots and cars in the middle of the forest. Did I mention that I’m pretty happy we didn’t end up doing this challenge? Hiking is fun.

Mateo, who we’d been leapfrogging with for several days, was also there, having arrived just before us. He also commented about the flies and bees orbiting his head. At least I know we aren’t the only ones experiencing this. And we saw several other hikers we’d been leapfrogging with – Upstream, Mowgli, Avatar, and others filtered in.

We quickly settled into breakfast burritos, coffee, and bagels. Hot food is soooo good. While we ate, I heard the melodic tune of an ice cream truck and perked up, looking for a bright happy truck. It turned out, this was the song of their septic tank tractor.

Apparently the campground didn’t have septic at the campsites, so a guy drove a tractor around, pumping the black water from the RVs into a tank towed behind the tractor. He played the happy ice cream truck song as he went out on his rounds and then played the Taking Care of Business song as he returned back through the main store/cafe/marina area. If was pretty hilarious.

After breakfast and sorting the goods in our resupply boxes – enough food for the next five days – we took a roll of quarters and headed for the showers.

While the showers here were a bit on the spendy side – especially for hikers – at $2 for 3 minutes – the showers had hot water, soap, shampoo, towels, and wash cloths, all organized in a nice clean room. A huge improvement on the luke-cold showers we’d taken in very dirty, cold, concrete block rooms at Mazama. Of course, those showers were free, but once in awhile we are willing to shell out for some comfort.

Of course, we put our dirty clothes back on after showering, but we still felt much more clean. And who knows, these could be our last showers in Oregon until Cascade Locks at the border.

Before leaving, we indulged in a bit more to eat – getting ice cream and sodas to hop ourselves up on sugar before hitting the trail again. While we were enjoying our treats in the shade of a picnic table umbrella, Dingo (another hiker we know and first met in the Sierras), walked by with a new shirt from the hiker box. It was a red t-shirt, cut off crooked about halfway down his torso, making it look like a girl’s crop top. On it was the outline of a pig with several webbed lines running through it. It said, Data is the New Bacon. “What does this even mean?” he said. Gotta love hiker box finds. I hope we see him again so I can get a picture of this ridiculous shirt.

It was a little after 11:30am when we finally hefted our packs and started back to the trail. A passenger train roared down the tracks just before we got there, too late to wave at those in the cars. The day had already grown hot and we now climbed back up the rocky gravel road to the trail.

We planned to hike another 18.5 miles today and camp at Lake Charlton for the night, which the comments in our Guthook app said was very nice. The trail to the lake included two long but gradual climbs, the first of which passed by some beautiful turquoise lakes.

I collected and filtered some water at the first one, though Shawn felt he had plenty for the moment and decided to wait until later to get more for himself. Unfortunately, we didn’t find more further down the trail as we’d expected and without much left, Shawn decided to hike ahead to get to the lake a bit faster. I had enough to get me there, but really no extra to share. So he went ahead.

As I hiked, I was growing very uncomfortable with burning chafe along the top of my butt and lower back. My shorts have a wide, thick waist band that gets sweaty and wet as I hike, as every part of me that touches my backpack does. The problem is this sweaty wet waistband rubs into my skin, especially with my backpack pressing against it.

Why this wasn’t a problem for the majority of the hike, I don’t know, but I’ve had some painful chafe along the very top of my butt a few times now, including a couple days heading into Ashland and now. While in Ashland, I’d picked up the hiker’s best friend for this: diaper rash cream. This stuff really does work wonders.

I was a little worried since I still had three miles to hike and would still be wearing my sweaty shorts and pack, that rubbing some on for the rest of the hike wouldn’t do much, but it was painful enough to give it a shot. So, I stopped along the trail to squeeze out a big ‘ole dallup of butt cream and apply to the necessary area.

Ahem. I don’t have to tell parents that, the next problem is that diaper rash cream is really hard to get off your hand. And, I didn’t have any extra water to spare, so there I was just hiking down the trail with one white hand. But… the cream did make the chafe feel much much better for the rest of the hike, so totally worth it. The white did eventually fade, but I definitely still smelled like baby cream. Hiking is fun.

Eventually, I reached the junction for Charlton Lake, which was also accompanied by a sign for trail magic that pointed forward. Woot!!!

I decided to head toward the lake first, assuming Shawn would have head there first to get water. Near the lake, I found all of his stuff, but no Shawn, so set my stuff with his and went in search of the trail magic, which was surely where he would be. Following the voices and the signs for the trail magic by Sparkles and Hannah, I eventually found him with a small but merry group of hikers, including Rainman, Pitch, and Mustang.

Sparkles and Hannah were manning the grill, where they were making grilled cheese sandwiches with pancakes, having run out of bread. LOL. This was a first for me, but good enough for a hiker!!! And so, I had a pancake grilled cheese sandwich and cookies for dinner.

Sprinkles had hiked the trail in 2016 from Mexico to Mount Shasta in northern California and was planning to hike the rest next year, with Hannah joining her for the Oregon portion.

Another hiker named Kat arrived eventually, she had hiked by me earlier right after I’d applied my butt cream and was trying to figure out what to do with my white hand. I had passed her again later, and now as we lamented hiker woes, she also admitted to using diaper rash cream earlier. We’re all in this together. Hiking is fun.

After thanking Hannah and Sparkles for their generosity, we went back to our pile of stuff near the lake and finished setting up camp. We’d already eaten, so at least that was one less thing we had to worry about for the night. I set up my sleep stuffs, changed my clothes, and filtered water.

The lake we are camped on is gorgeous and, on my second time to collect water, I watched fish jump just off the shore. Since laying in the tent, I’ve heard a few other fish splashes in the lake. The night is super dark. Even the bugs are mostly quiet. Must be time for sleep.

Today we passed the halfway point through Oregon, and only have about 8 days left until we will arrive in Cascade Locks, at the border. Needless to say, OR takes a tidbit less time than CA.

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