Day 87 | mile 1907.9 - 1944.2 | 36.3 miles

Slept in today. The bed was so nice and soft. I wanted to take advantage of it. Got up at 6:30. We left the hotel at 7:15-ish. Wish I could’ve slept even later.



Breakfast was really good. Oakridge has surprisingly good food. We split a brisket hash and croissant French toast. I added the Twinkie ice cream and nectarines to the french toast.

Drove to the trailhead singing Taylor Swift. Waved goodbye at 8:45.

I felt light. The first 4 miles were uphill and it felt like I just floated up there. Everything was so easy.



Walked by a whole bunch of lakes today. The first two had a ton of weekend warriors packing up today. It’s Sunday. I watched a family of ducks glide effortlessly on the lake.

Some mosquitoes were out during the day. Not too many. I only got bitten a handful of times.

Passed Gandalf and his sidekick. Leapfrogged with them because they take huge steps and pass me, then they take a smoke break and I pass them.





Got water off trail at Charlton Lake. I had to filter because it’s not running water. Walked by some used up trail magic. Took a break for lunch at 2:30.

When I was filtering the water I saw some organisms swimming in the lake water in my bottle. Once I filtered enough water, I dumped the rest out in the dirt. I immediately felt horrible about killing those organisms. I could’ve easily carried that little bit of extra water and dumped it in the next lake. Agh.



Speaking of killing, one of the chapters of The Better Angels of Our Nature talked about sadism. He said that serial murderers often feel sick after killing their first victim. But then they develop a taste for it and get addicted to killing. Sounds awful, right? Except I just realized I enjoy killing mosquitoes. The other day I caught a mozzie by the wings. I could’ve let it go. I saw that it was plump with blood and I squeezed it. It died with a satisfying pop. And I... liked it. Isn’t that terrible? These fuckers have made a sadist out of me. “I just love killing.” (Pretty sure only Alex will get this reference.)

To be fair, I think I would enjoy mosquitoes more if they just left me alone. But as it stands, I like killing them. I’m considering carrying one of those electric zappers as my luxury item.

Listened to the Daily. I haven’t been keeping up with the news out here. But Alex told me about the meeting of Putin and Trump and I wanted to hear what happened. Wow. I binged the 3 episodes about it. And I cried. I wanted to retch. I don’t know why I had such a strong reaction. I just felt hopeless at the state of things.



Listened to MBMBaM to lift my spirits. It worked.

Walked through another recovering burn area. And more lakes. Got to my campsite at 8:30. It’s a lake with a 3-walled shelter.

There is a father and son and their 2 dogs here. Randy, Cody, Lily and Ziek. Lily was really aggressive toward me at first. I think because I had a head net on and she didn’t know how to handle it. We quickly became best friends. They were taking up the whole shelter with their stuff. I set up my tent next to it. Had my dinner at the fire with them.

Going to sleep to the sound of the whole quartet snoring.