PCT day 71

August 8

Red’s Meadow – 918

Smoky morning but I sure did appreciate the real plumbing at the campground. And the wide selection of breakfast foods from the well-stocked hiker boxes. Probably I’ll never get rid of all this food.

I had a nice wander on some extra paths. Great big crowds of dayhikers around. I guess I’ve heard of the Devil’s Postpile. That sounds like something worthwhile to go see. I just wish they’d put an apostrophe in the name.

Why does the devil need a pile of posts? Is he building a satanic fence? The pattern of repeating hexagons bears an interesting likeness to the design on my exped sleeping pad.
You know what it reminds me of? Those old Play-do press toys. You squish the play-do into through a screen and it comes out in hexagonal spaghetti strands. 

Along the path, I interrupted a secret meeting of butterflies. They all flew off at once from the branches of the clubhouse sapling. I had a brief encounter with small slender snake. And the best was the thirsty mule at the stream crossing. That mule did not want to move until he’d had a good drink. I guessed he got loose from the corral down the path so I shooed him down that way afterwards.

Maybe he got real thirsty carrying equipment for fire fighters.

I got my feet wet more than once. There was  one stupid crossing where I thought I could bushwhack an easier crossing. Wrong! I got ridiculously hung up in bushes and had to backtrack. Great idea, Gretchen.

Different plants and animals now. Spring peeper frogs, meadow flowers, quivering aspen.

I came out on a high ridge side with a pretty view of a lake and waterfall beneath. It’d be a fantastic photo if it weren’t so smoky and hazy. I guess the smoke has its own eerie scenic-ness. I caught a smudge of ashes that floated down out of the sky.

Maybe I should catch a ride, skip ahead of this air pollution.

I found some m campsites overlooking a hazy valley. While I was tromping around looking for the perfect spot, I found the entrance to an old mine. It was a square shaped cave, full of rainwater and mud, spooky as hell. I set up my tent far away. For dinner, I made apple cobbler.