DAY 135: THREE FINGERED JACK

miles: 20

Slept in.... couldn't avoid it.

Sisters was a nice break and I definitely needed it to heal my feet. They feel a little bit better and slightly refreshed, even. We hit the trail at noon and did 20 miles today. Some section hikers hiking the trail this year gave us a lift to the trailhead and came all the way from Bend to pick us up and drop us off. They were sticking around Bend for a few days with a rental car nursing some injuries themselves... and in the mean time decided to help hikers get to and from the trail. So they are both hikers AND trail angels! They gave their number to the front desk at the Sisters Inn & Suites. How nice of them.

We've been here before...

An attractive burn area.

It was hot hot hot.

Black Butte to the left.

Three Fingered Jack

Three Fingered Jack

Three Fingered Jack

Three Fingered Jack

Oh! Hey Jeff! 

The backside of Three Fingered Jack... still had snow! 

There were tons of tourists out and about today, given it was Labor Day Weekend. Apparently this section of trail is popular with runners - we saw a million runners. They were braving the hot day and coming out in giant groups!

It was sort of entertaining and fun to see so many normal people (day hikers, families, people training for races) and I was in a particularly good mood. It was comforting to see so many humans out and about while we hiked!

Once we reached the backside of Three Fingered Jack, we noticed some white dots... There were mountain goats hanging out on the rock fields grazing! It was really cool to see. Apparently in the past few years there has been a reintroduction of mountain goats to the base of Mt. Jefferson and they have reproduced and have even started migrating to other parts of the region: Three Fingered Jack being one of those areas! So cool.

The white dots are mountain goats.

Wasco Lake.

Fall colors already.

Pearly Everlasting.

Black Butte in the distance.

We hiked until dusk, eager to stop at a nice camp spot such as a picturesque lake. Recently we've realized that it isn't often that we end up camping at very nice campsites. I think this is because we typically don't search for camp locations based on attractiveness but instead stop when we are exhausted or where there is water. I think we are going to try and make a concerted effort to scope out and end our days in cool places. Going to make it a priority. I'm tired of less-than-ideal campsites.

Rockpile lake was gorgeous, and although it was sooner than we would have liked to stop (6:30 is almost embarrassingly too soon to camp), we decided to camp there anyways. Just because it was so nice.

However, the wind picked up and it seemed as though this lake was in a wind tunnel. It's own private wind tunnel isolated to this one lake. It was uncanny how windy it was in this specific spot. It was kicking all kinds of fine dust particles and dusty matter into and through the mesh of our tent, so we decided to move camp. This is quite the endeavor and we avoid doing this at all costs, usually, but this was a special occasion. We literally picked up the tent  and moved it around the lake, plopping it down in a circle of small trees.

A much better spot. We must remember to also take wind into account when choosing a campsite.

There's always something.

Rockpile Lake - our camp for the night.