When my alarm went off this morning, the very first thing I did was put on my awesome bug repellent. Not today, skeeters.

With that out the way, Scrappy and I hiked the boring 18 miles to Elk Lake Resort. There, she'd find a hitch to town because sadly, today is her last day on the trail. Her real life is calling and she must answer. Oh well, I've been solo for like a thousand miles -- what's another couple hundred? :-)

Once we got there, we immediately set about getting some lunch, naturally. We also met up with a fellow hiker that I hadn't seen since ... before Belden, I think? It turns out he's also leaving the trail (temporarily) and can give Scrappy a ride! Thanks, Skyhiker! With that sorted, we ate.

After lunch, Scrappy and Skyhiker headed off to find a hitch into Bend, and I headed back to the trail. Tomorrow, I want to be at Big Lake Youth Camp, and I want to get there early -- I'm not camping more than 30 miles out tonight.

Thankfully, as soon as I left Elk Lake, the trail got really pretty, which made it much more fun.

The reason it was so pretty good because I'm finally in the heart of the Three Sisters Wilderness area, and above the tree line.

After dazzling sunsets and fields of flowers, I bedded down (hammocked up?) a short 28.80 miles from Big Lake Youth Camp.

There's a lightning storm going on just around the bend, but I'm too lazy to set up my tarp -- I hope it doesn't come this way in the middle of the night!

Oh yeah, and while at Elk Lake, I was texting with Monk and learned that Crater Lake has been reopened! Great news for him, but it's selfishly very irritating for me.