Chief and Cookie are a hiking couple we started bumping into starting back at Siead Valley. Both are WA-based forest fire fighters -- Chief is a crew boss in the Chelan Ranger District and Cookie drives an engine for the neighboring Leavenworth district. It's interesting hearing their perspectives on the trail as they contemplate the various fire "traps" that the hikers must negotiate on the trail. One such hazard that Tina spotted and they commented on is burning in a major fire right now (the descent to Belden, CA)!!
Meanwhile, Tina hikes north towards Crater Lake as I type. She's a 100 miles into Oregon now. Yesterday was a short day (12 miles) as planned since we needed to move my camp from Phoenix, OR up to Crescent, OR. We had meant for today to be short too since we had a late start (2+ hours to drive back to the trail) but she's already 18 miles in.
She'd wanted to stop earlier but then I got these messages from her about a half hour ago:
"Was thinking about stopping here for the night but just heard horrible roar not too far away. No idea what it was! At 1798.36. 6:42 pm " "Mosquitoes have been horrible whole time. Not sure what to do. Trail starts to climb soon. Would like to stop before that!" "Think I'll go on a little ways!"
Fun fun! /David