(+ 2 miles to Ogre & back)
Tom asked me if I was looking forward to hiking today, to which I replied “not really.” There was so much logging in the area, and even though Tom bumped me up to rejoin the Kiwis, it was difficult to enjoy hiking through a forest of stumps.
I set off on my day anyways, telling myself a thruhike is made of good and bad days, and prepared to put my head down and “get ‘er done” as they say.
Shortly into my hike, I got a message saying my tramily wants (what we call) a Tom day! YES!!! I excitedly turned around, and for the second day in a row, backtracked to Ogre.
It turned out that Bianca & Ollie had passed a south-bounder, who was able to provide an update on the horrible trail conditions that lay before us:
Mosquitos, overgrown trail, logged trail, and snow-covered trail. In my short hike, I had already encountered all of this, and the southbounder warned that there were dangerous conditions ahead. We later learned that SAR recently performed several rescues in that area.
So instead of hiking through the misery, Tom took us to McCloud for burgers, fries, and ice cream, and then on to Ash Camp. We spent the day splashing in the ice-cold water of the creeks nearby, and eating. Tom made a sausage and cream cheese dip, and Bianca cooked up a stir fry – YUM!
