Day 92: Sunday, August 4

Cowboying in the parking lot at Sheep Camp Spring (PCT mi 1703.5), walked 30.3 miles today into OREGON (!!)

Slept for about 11 hours and got hiking by 7am, feeling resplendent. Met a lot of neat people today--the first was VP, Vegan Paul, with whom I walked and talked for 5 miles or so at the beginning. He had his first restaurant meal on the entire trail yesterday, at the Seiad Valley Cafe of all places ... The chef/server/head honcho lady told him that he could buy tofu in the store next door, a surprise in itself if you've ever seen that store, and she whipped up a veggie-tofu scramble for him on the spot. It's a huge surprise that anyone in that town would even know what veganism is, much less would accommodate it so easily. He and I talked about this and that, then I left him behind and in an hour or so met my next person, a very old section-hiker named Hard Tack who is out to finish Oregon and in the process the PCT. He knew "all about" Carleton, which was my first clue that he was awesome, then we got to talking about his round-the-world bike tour, his trip to Sri Lanka, his climbs in the Himalaya, his various careers. I hope I'm something like that when I'm 75.

Also met the Ginger Beard Man, a chap about my age from Palo Alto ... In general, everyone, me included, seemed in such a cheery, chatty mood today, probably because of the Oregon border. Hadn't really thought about it much beforehand, but it did end up making me really happy to get there. There was a register book with many funny remarks in it, like "Glad to be in Oregon, but I hate your fucking college football uniforms" or "I'ma be hitching on the side of I-5 tomorrow with two middle fingers pointed SOUTH, baby!" I got my picture made by the sign, ate a celebratory handful of mixed nuts, left a snarky remark about hikers needing attendants to come hand-feed us any time we want to stop for food or water in Oregon in the register, then moved on the last five miles to this spot, the Sheep Camp Spring with its very high-quality water. The rumors are true and the nighttime temperature is already way lower than California's even though we're only five miles across the border. Camping with Ginger Beard Man and Lucky. Ashland tomorrow.