August 11, 2012 - What's in a Trail Name

Day 56
Mazama Village Campground
Crater Lake National Park
Miles: 23
Trip: 981

A very tiring and busy day; even the flat 23 miles seemed to drag on forever. And when I say flat, I mean football field flat - I can see the trail, level, for at least 100 yards. The forest is very pretty though, thick with fir and hemlock and pine, and carpeted with perfumed, silvery lupine. Even with all the lush scenery, by the last five miles I was ready to be out of the woods and in a restaurant eating a giant cheeseburger. Which I did, along with lots of other junk food from the Mazama Village store.

We also picked up our packages - tons more food there, including delicious birthday treats from home (Mom, your monkey bread is even better than Schatz) and almost enough food to get us all the way to Bend. I'm getting more excited about stretching out our leg to Bend - walking 160 miles without stopping for resupply. It could even force me to carry a more reasonable amount of food. If I feel under-supplied, that means I probably have just enough.

We've met so many hikers in the last two days, maybe more than we've met since Kennedy Meadows! Hotshot and Snausage (a forest fire-fighter and salami-making chef, respectively) seem like fun, laid-back people. The rest of the crew in Mazama are nice too, but if I don't see them again there's no way I'll remember that many names. Since trail names usually describe some quirk of a hiker's personality - although this doesn't mean trail names are unique - they are easier to remember than a parade of Johns, Staceys and Laurens. Still, this Grolar Bear is getting close to overload. Whatever our names, trail or birth, sitting around a campfire laughing with a bunch of goofy, sarcastic hikers makes me hope that some of them end up in our campsite more often.

(No pictures today...sorry)

Shaggy says:

The terrain today proved to be easy and we had over 23 miles in by 4 pm. We were motivated to get to the park and eat at the all you can eat pizza buffet. We walked with several other hikers today. In Mazama Village there are at least 13 hikers. Kind of a party on the PCT.
   We ate, we drank, we resupplied our 6-7 days of food. Tomorrow we will hike on to Bend. I am exhausted!