10 miles
We all wake up late. I can tell no one wants to get up, and assume the boys have significant hangovers. I feel pretty good, but I never want to get up. Barrel is the first one up, and sounds peppier than I expect, since he had more to drink than Knief and I combined. He convinces me to come out of my tent by telling me he bought me a peach. Fresh fruit is a delicacy I won't pass up. It's the best peach I've ever had.
I decide to take a shower and do my laundry here, even though Barrel gives me shit for having done both a mere three days ago. I seem to get dirtier than most people, and feel that it's wrong to pass up the opportunity to get clean. Even though it only lasts for a few minutes once you get back on the trail.
The showers are $1.50 for three minutes. I waste the first minute trying to figure out how to get hot water, and though I think I'm moving fast, the shower shuts off just as I've lathered up. Figures. The rest of my quarters are for laundry, so I leave the shower only slightly cleaner than when I got in. Disappointing.
Barrel keeps saying he's going to leave and do at least 20 miles today, but he's still around by 1, and I wonder what's taking him so long to head out. I've read there is an awesome shelter about 10 miles from here, with solar powered lights (for some reason, this seems awesome to me), so I tell everyone this is where I'm headed tonight. Barrel says he's doesn't want to just do ten miles, so I anticipate him being ahead of me again for a few days.
By 1:30 Barrel comes up and tells me he actually had been waiting to hike out with me, and will decide in ten miles if he wants to stay at the shelter or not. We leave an hour later--I'm happy, clean and full. Ready for some solar powered lights!
It's an easy ten, and we get there a little before 7. We make a fire, sign and read the trail registry, looking for friends who have already gone past. Soon we hear voices, and see a family coming up to the shelter. A mother and her two daughters, 12 and 17, are hiking Oregon, and have been joined by her husband, brother and best friend for a few days. They saw the smoke and followed the little known trail to the cabin. We invite them in, but since there's so many of them, they decide to pitch tents outside--which was very considerate of them, considering it wasn't a very big cabin.
They invite us over for s'mores, and soon we're all singing songs around the campfire, as the brother plays his travel guitar. They are a fun family, and we enjoy our evening of songs and laughter.
The solar lights are pretty awesome, and we putz around the cabin until it's time to go to sleep--setting up our bags in the beautiful loft. A day done well, I think.
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