Day 114: Monday, August 26

Tenting by the Warm Springs River (PCT mi 2073.7), walked 26.8 miles today

Woke up to threatening clouds outside, but no real rain just yet. Took awhile to get packed up due to low motivation and high dampness of nearly every piece of gear, but eventually got hiking around 8. There were only sprinkles of rain throughout the morning ... At 10, made it to the Olallie Lake Resort, which has a store that, judging by the paucity of car campers around and the remoteness of the location, probably does a good chunk of its business with PCT hikers. Consequently, they were extremely friendly to us (me, Spit Walker, Sherpa C, PDX Pete) ... I bought myself a cup of coffee and a box of Oreos and went to town on those out on the porch. After half an hour or so, an employee named Sam showed up, and she invited us to her "secret hiker box" room, which comprised some storage space out back that had fresh fruit, cookies, milk, and random other goodies available for PCTers to take at will. So Olallie Lake is going to get an enthusiastic recommendation from me and probably many other hikers in the next edition of Yogi's guidebook.

After Olallie Lake, it's hard to express how easily we cruised along for the next 20 miles. I left there at 11:30 and was here at camp by 6:30, and the same was true for the other two, Spit Walker and Sherpa C ... Spit Walker himself usually averages about 20 per day total. The sun came out around 1pm and stuck around for good this time, and the temperature was about perfect at 75 as we rolled mostly downhill for the afternoon. Spirits were greatly buoyed by this turn of events. About 15 of those 20 miles were with them ... They've started calling me Square Scrub because I don't partake in weed, tobacco or caffeine on the trail, while they are enthusiasts for all three. We all got to this site around the same time in the evening and Stumblin' Beef, whom I hadn't really seen since Red's Meadow (mile 909) was also about. The four of us hung out for dinnertime and devised a plan to possibly double up on Timberline Lodge's legendary AYCE buffets, breakfast and lunch, on Wednesday. Tomorrow we just have to do enough miles to get to within striking distance.