Friday 9/28/12
Miles 2303-2313 (10 miles)
Elevation 4,966'
We woke up this morning and walked the 1/2 mile back to the store at White Pass because we ran out of coffee (tragedy!!!) and wanted to get some. Plus we needed to charge our phones and make some phone calls. We walked into the store and saw Scallywag!! Cool! Hee Haw walked in shortly after. COOL!!! It was like a hiker reunion part 2. Lol! We ended up staying there til about 1pm, hanging out with everyone. We also met 2 section hikers who were southbounding Washington. They were named Marmot and One-and-a-quarter. They were so cool! It was a fun afternoon.
We finally went back to our tent and packed up to leave. I don't think we left camp til 2pm. We walked out with Doe Eyes and Scrub Rat. Ah well. Stoked we still got 10 miles in despite our late start. Lol!
I met two hunters on trail, they were pretty cool. Actually, all the hunters I've met on trail are pretty cool. They were out hunting elk. I asked them how they got the meat back to their car because oftentimes they'd be pretty far out. They said they cut it up in pieces and throw them in their packs (they both had huge external frame packs), and they had special bags they used to bag everything so bugs don't get into it. He said sometimes it'd be a 2 day process, making multiple trips, with loads of 100+ lbs at a time. Sometimes an elk can be over 400 lbs. yikes!! That's a big animal! Lol. He also said sometimes they'd hire horses or a pack team to pack out the meat. That's the most efficient way.
Interestingly enough, where we camped that night we heard TONS of elk. Gosh they make such weird noises. Lol! Sometimes it's be like a bugling sound and sometimes it's like a whistle. We didn't get to our campsite til after dark. Actually, we never found the campsite that the map said was there. So we just stopped at the first flat spot we found. On my way there I was waking in the dark and I think a small herd of elk ran by me. I couldn't see anything but I heard LOTS of hoofs running around and it sounded like it was just in front if me. It sounded like a bear crashing through brush. I figured it was several elk.
Kyle and I were talking about the random things we used to do when we were little. I loved to go to the meat section and poke at the Saran-wrapped packages of meat. Lol! That was probably a really bad thing to do, as people wouldn't want to buy meat that had some little kid's finger poked in it. Lol! Ground beef was the best. It was the squishiest. Lol!
By the way, those energy gels are really good. I dunno why I've never tried them til now. I guess it's because I've never been involved in a sport where it was popular. Although when I did the paddle board races (I raced the '08 and '09 seasons), the prone paddlers would tape a bunch of them to their boards by their head and consume them along the course. I raced standup so it wouldn't have worked too well because I needed both hands to operate the paddle. We all just wore camelbaks.
Dang. I've really wanted to standup paddle board along this trail. But paddling in a lake is so boring. Lol. And by the time I got to Bend (the Deschutes river runs through town), it was kinda cold and windy. Boo. :(
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