DAY 131: REUNITED WITH FRIENDS AND BITING FLIES

miles: 24

We slept in a tad this morning and waltzed down to the Shelter Cove Store to get a proper cup of coffee, first thing.

I cannot express how much Ben and I crave (and love) a good cup of real, hot, perfectly brewed coffee. It's something we fantasize about daily and we often find ourselves talking about it multiple times a day. It is a real treat to be at a place where we can enjoy a real cup of coffee before heading out for a long day of hiking.

We took advantage of the coffee situation and had multiple cups each.

Pleased by the sunrise, setting and coziness of this morning, we took our time packing up and hung out on the Shelter Cove porch. Maybe we lounged a little too long?

It was worth it.

The view from the porch.

A lot of families out for the weekend.

me and Ben cherishing the coffee moment.

The side porch dedicated to hikers.

This was a very busy leaf blower. (there aren't any leaves)

After relaxing all morning, we set out on our way. We were all excited for the next 5 miles because we all had a special relationship with the upcoming lakes: Rosary Lakes. Both Ben and I and Smiles and Slosh have snowshoed around those lakes in the past, so we all have a special fondness for them.

...Still hanging.

Approaching the Rosary Lakes (which I had never witnessed SNOW-LESS!)

Lower Rosary Lake.

Looking for crawdads.

THIS GUY - GET HIM AWAY FROM ME.

There were so many biting flies. I almost forgot how thick with biting flies this area was. How did I forget? Many times today we were chased by stinging/biting insects. Smiles even got stung!

We had an early lunch at Upper Rosary Lake and noticed a campfire that was not properly extinguished. I was walking by and noticed in the distance there was smoke.

"Is that a fire?" All of us approached it, and yes, it was someones campfire that was still burning, unattended. It took a lot of us delivering liter after liter of water to finally put it out. SO SCARY! Who left this unattended? Maybe they thought they had put it out but didn't realize the embers were still hot and smoldering and that left alone for hours, the fire could reignite? Either way, this was a very scary discovery and we ate lunch there in order to keep an eye on it.

Dr. Slosh's Nutella treat.

Lunch with biting flies.

1/2 OREGON

How we leave notes.

An inadvertent calf shot. I want to take a photo of all of us lined up with our calves. Someone remind me! It's insane! We are now officially machines.

Dusk came quickly and we hadn't done as many miles as we had hoped for, but it was okay. We planned to hike into the dark if we needed to. Which we did because there was a scary burn section we had to get through. We aren't comfortable camping in burn areas simply because of all of the dead trees around. These trees are very unstable and tend to fall a lot, which is dangerous. We are more comfortable if we camp in healthy forest.

It was kind of a nice night for a burn area, the lighting and clouds were interesting, at least.

We reached camp by dark and set up, wondering where Smiles and Dr. Slosh were, but they arrived shortly after us. I cannot explain how much hiking with a group boosts ones spirits! Be