Mile 1912 to 1941 Horseshoe Lake.

Bedazzled, Duces, Pascal, and myself set up our sleeping bags on the ground floor of the shelter the previous night and left the sleeping loft to the southbounders who were already setup when we arrived.

Over the course of the night, one of the southbounders kept turning on his headlamp and rummaging through his pack and the other one snored off and on. It was pretty annoying and reminded me why I like stealth camping so much.

Bedazzled and I left the shelter early in the morning and I had no energy after a poor night of sleep. We did however make it to Irish Lake for lunch. Duces joined us as he waited for Pascal to catch up, but he was soon fast asleep.

After lunch, I rinsed my socks in the lake and then went in for a swim. Bedazzled looked at me suspiciously from the shore when I told her it was warm, but she soon came in for a swim too. It was nice to finally be semi-clean.

I forgot to mention that we are in the middle of a no spoon challenge, which means you must each all your food without using a spoon and you have to cook at least once. I cooked ramen at lunch and it must have taken me 30 minutes to eat as I tried to shimmy it out of my pot and into my mouth without spilling it. Bedazzled hasn’t been cooperative when I try to take a photo of her eating, but I got a few in anyways.

We left Irish Lake refreshed and carried on another 14 miles to Horseshoe Lake. We have passed so many lakes today, I swear every hiker could have their own to camp at tonight.

When we woke up in the morning, we hiked the 9 miles to the fire closure in the Three Sisters Wilderness at mile 1950. Then we took a side trail to Elks Lake Resort.

We tried hitching unsuccessfully for while when a couple from Georgia came down the trail to the roadway. They asked us how long we had been trying to get a hitch and we told them 30 minutes. They then proceeded to go 50 feet down the road toward the flow of traffic and start sticking their thumbs out when the occasional vehicle came along. A big no-no in the hitching and thru-hiking community. They were trying to steal our hitch by being the first people the drivers saw.
Sure enough, a truck pulled over and they went up to the driver. They didn’t even look over at us until they realized there was enough room for all of us.

The ride to Bend was just over 30 miles and pretty long. Sunburst was in the cab with Bedazzled and me and it turns out her and her boyfriend had already been through Bend when they hitched up to see the eclipse. In other words, they know the city. When the driver asked us where we wanted to go, she quickly answered on Highway 20 towards Sisters. We had no clue where this was, but it turns out it was literally on the city limits of Bend in a suburbia hell of a giant shopping center that you need a car to get around. When I realized what was going on, I asked if Bedazzled and I could get dropped off in the downtown area where things are walkable, but the driver said, “geeze that’s kinda far.”

We ended up getting out with the others and Sunburst had the nerve to go, “I hope this spot was OK for you guys.” To top it off, it turns out her parents were coming into Sisters for the next few days and could have easily picked her and her boyfriend  up from anywhere in Bend by car. Trail trash.

Bedazzled and I found a Chipotle like restaurant and ate lunch while we figured out what to do. It turns out Bend has a bus system, thank god, and we used it to get to downtown Bend. We also booked a night at the Econo Lodge and tickets for a bus ride to Government Camp, which is near a part of the PCT that is open just beyond the fire closures. I also picked up new shoes and insoles, and we ate at Deschutes Brewery. Apparently, Bend has 18 breweries so we will have to come back some time and try the others.