Elk Lake to Stormy Lake

Hello, Mosquito

When people in the PCT Facebook groups said the mosquitoes were bad from Elk Lake to Shelter Cove, they were right! Nobody likes mosquitoes and these are the swarmy kind that does not care about any of the chemical or physical bug barriers we tried to apply. Not close to the worst mosquitoes we have experienced, but still bad.

There are so many ponds, lakes, and runoffs from the late snow melt, of course, there are going to be a shit ton of mosquitoes in the morning and evening. It’s basically a series of mosquito subdivision areas out here. Their parents grew up here and their kid’s kids will grow up here. My least favorite thing about hanging out in mosquito subdivisions is how they bite my ass when it’s morning poop time. Not fun.

To Oregon, with Love

I need to take a minute and apologize to you, Oregon. When I said those mean things in earlier posts, I was upset because my skin hates you. Now that we have gotten to spend more time together, I am finally seeing you for the national treasure you are. Freshwater lakes with hews of emerald green and tropical island blue, all of the clearest kind. Maybe I could live inside you again someday, if you’d have me.

Today also changed my previously written opinions on hiker interactions. Brianna and I stopped to talk with all sorts of hikers today. Gandolph and Holblet were a cool younger couple we exchanged trail war stories with. We also stopped to try and help a group of lost sections hikers. They weren’t really lost, they just weren’t sure where they were… they were looking for a very specific small lake, not on any of my maps. They were on the PCT though, with plenty of water and food, so hopefully, they found themselves.

One of the major appeals of reading blogs like this, whether you know me well or know nothing about me, has to be observing how my opinions and perspectives change, how I change. Making quick judgments about people and things is an area I do need to improve upon here and in my normal life. If you treat everyone like you’re playing them in a poker game, then each person you meet with always be an opponent.

I’m wrong a lot.

Trial Details

Today was such a beautiful day. We passed by more lakes with excellent camping opportunities than we have in all of our previous 200 miles combined. We don’t have unlimited time or food, so we cannot camp at them all. We stopped at the lovely and quiet Mac Lake for lunch and a fawn walked right up to and by us. It didn’t want anything, it just didn’t particularly care that we were there.

It became of the utmost importance for us to find a beautiful campsite for tonight! Who wants to pass up so many awesome spots just to camp next to a swamp? No one, that’s who. I do not know the name of the lake we are camped next to and it doesn’t matter. To infinity and beyond!

Special thank you to Penny & Curt for helping and hanging, it was an awesome start to our trip! Having family who love the same things and enjoy being around each other as friends has made for some of the best times of our lives. We miss you ? ?