Day 96 - Sunday, August 1

Cowboy camping at an open shelter (mile 1708.2). Walked 29.0 miles today.

I woke up about 1 am to a very strong smell of smoke. Alarmed, I got up and went outside to see if I could see a fire anywhere near. I couldn't, so I went back to bed. We got up a little later than normal and staggered out of camp a little later.

After four miles, everyone met up at the first water source and when Frank rolled up, she asked if anyone else had seen the fire at camp. No one had. It was apparently right near where the lightning had struck but down the hill slightly so it was out of our view mostly. Frank didn't have service but Hocus Pocus did so they used her phone to call it in.

We hiked on, descending for a while through a forest before climbing up again. Then, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, we reached a sign and trail register.

We had walked across a line on the map and were now in the state of Oregon. We had just walked from one side of California to the other (I pointed out that if we had wanted to walk across the state, it would have been easier to walk from the coast to Nevada). We cheered, took pictures, and signed the register before sitting down for lunch.

After lunch, we hiked on through terrain similar to northern California's. This eventually gave way to more open rolling hills.

I'd been a bit of a mood all day. The excitement of reaching a new state wasn't enough to mask the mental exhaustion I'd been feeling lately. Frank and I kept hiking as the rain clouds rolled in and we hiked through a steady rain.

This lasted maybe 20 minutes before stopping; however, there was still thunder and lightening around and we became a little uncomfortable as we climbed up a semi exposed ridge and watched several lightning strikes hit the next mountain over. Near the top of this climb, we hit our second milestone of the day: 1700 miles.

After a very quick picture, we kept hiking quickly and eventually the sun came out after several more miles, we made it to a spring and stopped for water where we met Hocus Pocus. I was physically and mentally exhausted but after eating and drinking a bit, I was feeling better. We did one final climb and had not only gorgeous sunset views, but views of smoke to the west.

Apparently some of those lightning strikes had started somw fires and planes were flying over doing recon. They seem to be fast to respond to fires out here. Prime had called in a fire a few days before and within an hour, he saw smoke jumpers parachuting out of a plane toward it. We had cell service here and I saw that the fire Frank had called in had been given a name: the Scraggy Fire. She was excited that "her fire" had been actually named. We kept hiking and reached a shelter a little way off a gravel road. Here, we met Dirty Knuckles and Matador, and after a bit, Hocus Pocus and Lenore turned up. Frank set up her hammock and after a quick dinner, the rest of us set up to cowboy camp on the hut's concrete floor.