Day 12

It was a very long one! I didn’t get to my campsite until 9pm, the last half hour walking with headlamp. That wasn’t really planned and not my favorite but at least I am cozy in my Duplex (my tent) at a flat site now. It’s actually a trail junction and saddle, and the wind is still going (no dead trees) but I hope it will be quiet soon.

I got an early start at Pierre Lake campground, being at the entrance all ready to go at 7:30am. I needed to get into Orient for food and then back on trail … but there wasn’t any traffic. In 1.5 hours, only one fire engine and one car went by (that car sounded like it was falling apart). So no rides.

At 9am I walked to the campground host site and saw two ladies sitting outside smoking. I explained my situation and offered gas money for a ride (10min drive to Orient). The host said they hadn’t started their day yet (even though I’d seen them smoke and chat for at least an hour) and she would give me a ride when ready. I said thanks and no problem, I’d be waiting at the entrance.

About an hour and another 10 cigarettes later she was ready to go. The first thing she said in the car was “I’m a smoker” and lit another cigarette. Besides that, however, she was very nice and told me all about her history with Pierre Lake where they went as kids, the wet spring and hot July, etc. She dropped me at the famous Essentials store in Orient.

That store is run by the Seventh Day Adventist church and famous for how nice to hikers they are there. It’s a tiny community but the store has all a hiker would want, at super low prices. They have showers and laundry too. On Saturdays they have a potluck that hikers are welcome to join.

While waiting for the store to open, the people working around the store gave me the wifi password so I was able to have a birthday chat with Joyce 😍 Once inside, Linda offered and explained everything. She wanted me to settle down, eat (microwave there too), relax, probably even shower (it had only been a day). So super friendly! We took a picture at the end for her hiker book.

Her friend’s husband took me down the road to Boulder Creek Road from where I hitched up to the trail (a nice grandpa from Curlew picked me up). It’s kind of cool to now be in an area that I have visited before!

At the top, I started out hiking around 1:30pm. It was pretty hot, and the whole area (22 miles on the PNT) was burned in 2015. So the scenery was barren and grey for most of the day.

As it got later, I had to ration my water until I got to the next spring. The going was not super fast and the trail is not what I expected. For one, it still seems to climb much more than it goes down … I feel like I should be in the stratosphere by now 🤣 Somehow a crest trail seems to imply it stays high. It is also narrow, rocky and sloped. Worst, it’s a cow trail and they turn the surface into fine powder that is very unpleasant (besides the cow patties of course). I had to scare them away a few times today. The views also weren’t what I thought they would be.

Overall I honestly expected more. Maybe the stretch tomorrow to Sherman Pass is better …

So I pushed it with little water to Neft Spring which is channeled into a trough for the cows but relatively easy to get water from using the spigot (you don’t want the algae water from the trough!). Somebody had commented that the tent sites above the spring all had cow poop and that was true. So, fully loaded up with water, I kept walking to find a flat spot. Any flat spot. But there aren’t any!

It was getting darker and I eventually saw the first sign of humans when I noticed a tent squeezed in a flat spot below the trail (PNT hiker by the gear). So eventually the next spot that was listed as having a flat spot, a trail junction, was my goal. I made it there around 9pm.

I would have liked an earlier bedtime but at least it’s comfy and flat here. Let’s hope the wind dies down.

Half a day of eating and waiting. Half a day of tricky hiking. 16.1 miles done. At 6100ft elevation. I’m very ready for a zero in Republic!!