Miles hiked: 29.1.
The wind grew overnight and even though it was around 50 degrees, I kept my down jacket on all night for only the 5th or 6th time of the trip. He wind blew smoke in from somewhere, and for some reason I had dreams about people burning trash. In the morning the wind was still blustery and cool and gusting up toward 25 mph. Streamers of reddish-brown smoke curved around a nearby peak, and a haze was thickening in the air.
I stopped in at Olallie Lake to check out the scene. The store wasn't open yet and I couldn't think of anything I wanted to buy anyway, so I just said good morning to the few hikers waiting around and kept going. The wind now built to gusts over 30 mph, kicking up dust from the trail and shaking needles from the trees. The thickening smoke began to ache in my eyes. I flushed what I think was a juvenile Northern Goshawk, but otherwise it was a quiet day for birds.
The rest of the day was spent walking through more easy flattish forest with thick smoke. Visibility dropped down to just a mile or two and the sun was muted through the day. The trees were again shaggy with moss and lichen and most carpeted the ground in many places.
I leapfrogged with several other hikers: Sherlock, who I've seen off and on since Kennedy Meadows; Hitch Bait and Pops, who I talked with once near Mammoth and saw briefly at Echo Lake but haven't seen since; Cooky Monster and Morning Star, from Belgium and just met today; and a few others whose names I didn't get. At the last water break of the day, where everyone had stopped for a rest, there was talk of the breakfast buffet at Timberline Lodge, and that everyone's plan was to go another 8 miles tonight to a campground with water spigots, then do a short 24ish miles tomorrow to be there for the buffet the next morning. I had been planning to pass by Timberline tomorrow, but I've been feeling a bit slow and I hear the buffet is not to be missed, so I decided to slow it down a bit and adopt the same timeline. We separated for the evening hike and when I got to the campground I realized it was the weekend and found all the sites taken and couldn't find the hikers that were in front of me. I could see their tracks leading down the spur trail to the campground, but didn't find them there and didn't see tracks leaving. Maybe they were all inside one of the giant car camping tents that were set up everywhere.
I filled some water bottles then did just another 0.1 miles or so to the next camp spot I could find. With the moss and other understory foliage in this wetter forest, I've been needing to find previously-used campsites, unlike in the drier areas where pretty much any little flat space would be free of living things. I ate too much polenta too quickly and got nauseous and thought maybe I was getting sick, but it passed and I flopped down into bed without any desert. The moon, now waning and nearing half full, glowed orange in the smoke and drifted behind tall broad tree trunks.
Birds:
Oregon Junco
Mountain Chickadee
Northern Goshawk?
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Gray Jay
Common Nighthawk
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