Day 118
Mile 1853 to Oregon Skyline Trail (mile 4.4 miles), 26 miles

Cost: camped, free

My alarm went off at 5 but I couldn’t wake up and slept until 5:30am – I was really tired because I’d been up at 3am taking photos of my view out of the tent.

Starry skies over Mt Thielsen

It was another cold morning and a cold night. I’m sleeping with my balaclava on again and sometimes my down jacket – I haven’t done this since being in the sierras.

KC and I left just before 7am and picked up some more water from Thielsen creek for the 16 mile stretch without water.

I found phone service on a ridge about 9:40am and updated my blog while KC had a nap in the sun. We stayed there for 2 hours.

One for you Howard:

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I love seeing old PCT signs

We got moving again and had a late lunch at the Six Horse Spring around 3pm. The spring was a 0.8 mile return trip down a steep hill but great water (always prefer a spring) so it was worth the walk. We decided to have dinner here instead of lunch using water to cook so we wouldn’t have to carry the extra water because the next water source is 16 miles away on the Oregon Skyline Trail which is an alternate route. 

We didn’t know about this alternate option until today when Humpit mentioned it, then we saw info about it on halfmiles maps. Halfmile said it had more water sources and prettier views as it passes a few lakes and even one with a beach, then goes into Shelter cove. We didn’t need to go to Shelter cove as we were carrying 7 days of food to get us all the way to Big Lake Youth Camp (unlike everyone else who had sent a package to shelter cove so they were only carrying 4 days of food) but you had to use UPS to send it here so I didn’t… Anyway we would end up going right through it tomorrow so we decided we might as well take this trail for the views and get whatever food we could there for lunch and charge our electronics before moving on.

 Around 8:30pm we found a flat spot to camp and set up before it got dark. I’d already eaten dinner so I just had a few snacks in my tent before going to sleep.