August 16. Day 107.

Stormy Lake to mile 1934.1.

Miles hiked: 31.3.

Slept in for 25 minutes then spent more time than normal sitting in my sleeping bag. I told myself it was because of the cold, but it was 10 degrees warmer than the last few mornings. I think the day off I have coming up will be good.

Dusty trail; there's a couple hikers right there somewhere. 

The first 22 miles of the day were through more thick forest; Western Hemlock, some Lodgepoles, and some others I don't know. There were more lakes, their shallow water still holding yesterday's heat (or the whole summer's) and warmer than the air, and with steam drifting back and forth over the surface, cut by the shadows of shoreline trees cast by the low morning sun. I stopped a few places to browse blueberries. I seem to be getting the tail end of the berries, and these ones seem to be struggling toward ripeness in the cold autumnal mornings, their sour, almost bitter juices bursting in my mouth and staining my finger tips. Gray Jays squawked and whistled and cawed through the forest like some sort of tropical parrot. 

In the afternoon the trail climbed up an isolated cone called Koosah Mountain, and at the top, finally, there was a long view south all the way to Thielson and all the smoke down beyond it, and then around another bend there was a wide panoramic of South Sister to the north, Broken Top to northeast, and Mt. Bachelor to the east, all just a handful of miles away now. I lunched here in the shade savoring this view. The sky was clear, and straight up it was the sort of blue that makes your knees buckle so you just flop down on the ground and have no choice but to stare up into its endless depth. 

South Sister, Broken Top, and Bachelor. 

The trail dropped down off Koosah and through some more trees and emerged out onto the Wickiup Plain, a broad stretch of flat land with nothing but sparse forbs and a few short conifers growing in the coarse, tan soil. South Sister loomed over this plain, with its tall rounded top and steep crumbling sides smudged with indistinct reds and blacks and light grays. Over South's left shoulder rose Middle Sister, conical and pointed and uniformly dark gray. 

Middle and South. 

Wrapping around the west side of South Sister, the trail passed through alternating bands of forest and meadow, traversing ridges and gullies radiating off the peak. A female Sooty Grouse stood watch on a fallen log while here chicks foraged in the grass just off the trail. As I made it farther north and the evening deepened a wall of smoke came down from the north, smudging the view of Middle Sister and itching up my nose. 

I got into a little pinch with water when the source marked on the map I was headed for was dry, and went a couple miles farther than I'd been planning, to a stream and small pond that weren't marked as water sources on the map, but which I hoped would have water. They did. 

South Sister from the northwest. Can you see Clifford?

From bed tonight I have a view right up the northwest face of South Sister, which has a big red splotch shaped just like Clifford the Big Red Dog. Smoke wafted on the lightly gusting wind, and the last of the sun shone reddish on the reddish peak. 

Big red dog!

Birds:

Oregon Junco 

Gray Jay 

Red-breasted Nuthatch 

American Robin 

Common Raven 

Hairy Woodpecker 

Bufflehead

Clark's Nutcracker 

Western Bluebird 

Northern Flicker 

Golden-crowned Kinglet 

American Kestrel