8/7/17 – Breakfast Buffet

Day 105
Miles: 2,088.97 to 2,099.53

Total miles hiked: 1,458.49

It was about 6 p.m. last night when we met several southbounders not more than 5 miles past Timberline Lodge. We asked them if they stopped for a visit and all of them said yes, and that the breakfast was very good.

Breakfast? I thought. Breakfast ends at 10:30 a.m. These people are super fast, they hiked around 500 miles in a month. They should be much more than 5 miles from the lodge by now.

Today we were the hikers who were 5 miles from the lodge by 6:00 p.m. I don’t think anybody could start hiking right after that breakfast, or even couple hours after that breakfast.

Luckily the lodge offers plenty of comfortable seating, both inside and outside, and charging stations as well so that all the Hikertrash can keep busy while trying to digest the food.

We were back on trail around 2:00 p.m. hoping for 10 miles, and at first we made good time. On the uphill from Zig Zag river; however we were met by a challenge of downed trees. All the fallen trunks were enormous and often one landed atop of another. It was a maze not easily navigated and it hampered our progress. 

In the end we only hiked 5 miles where a small site awaited us on an island between two forks of Lost Creek. It had a nice view of a tall waterfall cascading in several plunges and a variety of wildflowers around the stream. It was an easy decision to pitch our tent here and enjoy the view for the rest of the evening.