Day 113,    17.5 miles

Mount Hood National Forest

I had a great time today.  This morning I sat with a fun bunch of Southbounders.  They all started near the Canadian border a month ago and hope to reach Mexico in November.  I enjoyed their excitement and enthusiasm.

The Breakfast buffet did not disappoint.  After breakfast I stayed inside the warm lodge and caught up with the blog and emails.  I had left my tent up during this time.  I started to worry it would blow away or get damaged in my absence.  There is a strong, cold wind that kept me awake last night and hadn’t let up.  It looks stormy too.  I returned to the treed area and my tent was still standing, flapping in the wind.

I packed up carefully, not to lose anything to the wind, and hiked away with all my layers on including my rain gear.  It warmed up as I hiked to lower elevations.  It was after 2 when I left, so I wasn’t expecting to get far.  A young Aussie hiker, Sam, caught up to me and we hiked together.  I have met him a few times before.  We had some great conversations about good books, authors, podcasts and so on.  Time flew by and we had hiked 17.5 miles.  Much farther than I thought.  I had a great day today.

We are camped beside a creek on a slope.  There are no level tent sites.  The only flatish spot I could find was right on the trail!