Miles hiked: 20.
It was another dewy morning and in the low 40's and since I'd laid my hiking clothes to air out overnight I ended if walking the first 10 miles in my sleeping clothes. I had camped just above the boundary between the cool night air and the colder nightier air which had sunk down into the valley below. The trail traversed around the eastern slope of a hill, weaving up and down between these two bodies of air. Hiking in mountains early in the morning, I often feel the drastic change in temperature when moving between such air masses. But today, since the lower mass was thick with smoke, I could also see and smell when I moved between them.
The bejesus (or bajesus, b'jesus; leading experts differ on the most appropriate spelling) is found in most people when they are relaxed or at ease. It is the result of a complex combination of hormones, the names and details of which I don't have time to go in to here. Unfortunately, it can often be hard for people to retain, particularly when they do not pay enough attention to whether or not anyone's coming up behind them on the trail.
Anyway, I reached Crystal Lake without much incident, and there I took brunch on a deserted coarse-sand beach with a few boats making lazy loops around the big lake and some rain-looking clouds throwing beams of sunlight out over the scene. The sound of boat wake crashing g I the beach, even before I consciously recognized it as the sound of waves, and the sight of sand stuck to my feet, stirred a longing for the beach that I was not expecting from such humble stimuli.
It was another gradual, easy, fast 10 miles to Shelter Cove, but I still stopped part way along to eat the last of my salami and cheese along the shores of Diamond View Lake.
I got in to Shelter Cove Resort around 2 and settled in with some beer and a hot dog and tried to figure out what to try getting done here. I ended up getting a bit lazy and not doing any real town chores, sort of since this isn't really a real town and I'm planning a day off in a place that is in just a few more days. So I just sat and rested and sorted my resupply and hung out with other hikers. A pretty good group gathered through the afternoon, and it seemed like they'd all been sort of hiking together for a while. They were all super friendly and outgoing, but I still felt a bit outside the clique. So I stayed a bit longer and had another beer/hot dog combo and a can of fruit cocktail (I wanted anything fruity, and this was the best I could get).
So I hiked just another 1.5 miles or so and camped among trees heavily cloaked in moss and with a few Gray Jays that really seemed to think they could get some food from me, and hopped right up beside me.
Birds:
Common Nighthawk
Mountain Chickadee
Oregon Junco
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Clark's Nutcracker
Spotted Sandpiper
Red Crossbill
Swallow
Gull
Gray Jay
American Robin
Northern Flicker
Common Raven
American Dipper
Osprey
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