Day 120 - Campsite near wa1886 to Shelter Cove

A long day ahead of me, I got up at 6:00. It seems that it always takes me 52 minutes to get ready in the morning.

The trail went up on the ridge, and I had some great views on Summit Lake and Diamond Peak above it. I was planning to get water at the creek pouring into Summit Lake, but getting there I discovered it was all dry. The Summit Lake Campground was 1 mile further up the trail, and according to the app it also has water. Getting to the campground I came upon a big family camping there, and no water except from the lake itself. Luckily, the campers offered to give me some of their water, and I happily filled up 1 liter for the rest of the way.

The app said there is no more water until I reach Shelter Cove, some 18 miles away. But on the eastern slopes of Diamond Peak I crossed a very nice and cold creek at about mile 1902. Further north, there were some other smaller streams and small lakes, before reaching the Shelter Cove side trail.

The trail along Diamond Peak was very nice, with great views up that mountain. There was even a small snow patch just by the trail at one point.

I finally reached the site trail at 16:15, and started the walk down to the resort. I got to the railroad tracks just before the resort at 17:00, at the same time as Butter Fingers. We both got in together, and went to the store, where I got my package with supplies to get me to Bend in three days. There were some hikers hanging around. Lighthouse was there. He is doing the whole of Oregon on ten days, averaging 40 miles per day. Yesterday he did 50. He said he plans on slowing down considerably in Washington.

I also met Coyote, whom I didn’t see since the day I hiked out of Big Bear. And Acorn Estero were there. I just met them in the kick off, after following Acorn’s blog about her AT thru hike last year. They were all hiking out later today, and not staying at the campground.

I also met Forest, who started hiking in Ashland 10 days ago, and later Smiley came around, along with his hiking buddies.

I took a $1.50 shower. I thought the 3 minutes it gave me would not be enough, but surprisingly I even had time to wash my hair. Later, I did laundry, splitting the load with Butter Fingers. We had to wait forever for the drier to be free, but we got our stuff dry at the end. I had a long talk with Smiley, hearing some of his and Mr JT’s adventures along the trail.

For dinner, I had an over priced frozen pizza, done in the toaster oven. There was nothing else for dinner in the store. I was glad to see Moonshine & Sideways and Thor & Fern Toe also made it here tonight.