Day 119, Wish you were here

It Part 4, Oregon, Day 119 

Miles: 18.6

Total Miles: 2043.4

Last night was rough. Horrible sleep, bad dreams. I slept on a root and it hurt my back. I was hiking by 6:30am. The trail was brutal this morning. 3,500 feet and 9 miles of climbing. I was going strong early on. It was really windy out.

Early on I arrived at Russell Creek. I did not expect the crossing to be so crazy, but it was easily the most precarious water crossing of the trail so far.

It may look tame in the photos, but this creek was flowing very strong down into a steep canyon, and the wind was tearing right through the ravine.

I made it across dry after some thought. It took some acrobatics, but it was fun.

I continued uphill. 

I arrived at Jefferson Park with much anticipation. I'd heard it was gorgeous, but it was more than that. 

There were mind blowing views of Mt. Jefferson. 

A lot of the creeks that flow from glaciers on these old volcanoes are almost milk white.

This was one of the most beautiful areas of the whole trail. 

I could barely move forward because of all the views. 

Mt. Jefferson is up there with Shasta as one of my favorite mountains of the hike. 

I think I can get away with one more pic of Jefferson.

After some more climbing I reached the top with some killer views. I found this epic, shredded American Flag at the top:

The trail went downhill for 7 miles and was pretty rocky and tough on my feet. The sun came out pretty hot. I grew incredibly tired and going forward was difficult. 

My mileage was way down and each step felt like quicksand. I was worn out, and I just wanted to make it to Ollalie Lake and rest. I decided to stop for the day there.

It seemed like ages passed before I finally saw this sign:

I made it. It was a .1 mile walk to a store on the lake. 

 I arrived and sat on the porch with Beetlejuice and Lebowski. I was happy to be here. 

The store was expensive and didn't offer much, but I bought some food for the next 100 mile stretch. I washed my socks in the lake. They were very dirty, as you might imagine. I think I scared this guy:

I hung out with Farmer, Cliffhanger, and Bumble for a bit. We timed Bumble after he said he could rain proof his pack on under 1 minute:

He went 2 seconds over, but still a good job. A storm came in and brought thunder and lightning.

It looked like Mt. Jefferson had erupted.

Here's my ramen dinner with a nice backdrop. 

I camped at their free campground. There's a bunch of other hikers camped around me. I just hope I'm still not dragging tomorrow. What a great day though. So much beauty.