Day 113 - Wednesday, August 18

Tenting at Midnight Lake (mile 1904.8). Walked 26.6 miles today.

Well our plan worked and we stayed fairly warm last night. It was chilly out today and we got moving early, planning for 33 miles in order to stay on track to be at Santiam Pass on Saturday, now only 122 miles away. We dozed a bit after our alarm and got on trail later than we wanted, just after 7am. We climbed up and passed a great view of Diamond Peak.

Soon after, we passed That Lake Over There...at least that's what the sign said.

We took a short break at Summit Lake which was warm, but we didn't have time to do any swimming.

As we hiked on, Frank developed a bit of a headache. We kept going, but it kept getting worse. By the time we reached Diamond Peak and the creek that runs down from it, she was really hurting and looked really awful (I'm sure she'll appreciate this description of her...).

We got some water and then I insisted that we go down to the campsites 100 yards away for her to rest. 33 miles was not going to happen today. She lay down and fell asleep almost immediately. I ate some lunch, journaled, and tried to stay warm in the sun. Frank slept for almost an hour and felt a little better when she woke. I think it was lack of sleep and exhaustion that caused the headache. Shortly before she woke, the smoke rolled in again, making for less stellar views of the peak.

After Frank got up and ate, we hiked on with a new, shorter goal in mind for today: Midnight Lake. As we walked, I pulled up The Longest Joke In The World and read that to her. In the middle of this epic story, we passed 1900 miles (and because the marker wasn't exactly at 1900, Frank made her own.  We passed the other one a few tenths of a mile later.

We continued on and finally reached Midnight Lake just after 8 pm as an orange moon was rising over the lake. The picture doesn't do it justice.

We set up our tents and went to bed very quickly, hoping for a big day tomorrow.