Day 141: slow start, and a mini party!

Thursday 9/6/12
5 miles
Elevation 5,000'

Well I felt like absolute crap this morning. Boo :( My neck hurt so it was hard to turn or move my head. That really sucks. And my stomach was all weird too. Bleh. It was a long 5.25 miles to Shelter Cove! Lol. Once I got there I progressively felt better. I was stoked it was like a mini reunion of hikers there! Typo and his mom, Easily Distracted, Jeff, Hee Haw, Brian, and Pitfall. We ended up hanging out there the entire day. Lol! So much for just getting in and out. Ah well, Kyle and I both needed a break. I also did laundry, which was nice. Although I forgot to wash Squizzle. Man, he is one elusive squirrel! He doesn't like baths and everytime I'm doing laundry he finds a way to disappear, and then I just forget. Lol!

Shelter Cove is a really nice place. It's a privately owned resort on Odell Lake, and they have cabins for rent and camping and RV spots. They're hiker friendly too which is awesome. I bought a hot dog at the store. It's funny, the weird things you crave on the trail. Like, in the default world I don t really like to eat hot dogs. But lately I've been craving one. I was stoked to finally get my hot dog. Lol! I also crave cereal like crazy. Specifically cinammon toast crunch and lucky charms. Which is another thing I don't eat in the default world. It's crazy, because I can easily eat a whole box of cereal and still be hungry. This hiker hunger thing is pretty crazy. I had no idea I could consume so much food. I didn't start to get hiker hunger until I was regularly doing around 18 or more miles a day. Then the hiker hunger increased again around Tahoe. And then again since being in Oregon. And it's not just me, other hikers are feeling the same thing. It's funny, before Tahoe, I met a past thru-hiker who was describing Oregon, and he said that your hiker hunger will increase *even more*. I didn't think it was possible, now I see what he meant. Lol!

Oh! And I found out, after consulting with other hikers who've had confirmed giardia in the past, that the illness I had was not Giardia. It was some other kind of stomach bug. Whew! That's good to know. However, Hee Haw and Brian both had Giardia when they got into Ashland, which was shorty before I got sick. Weird.