Great campfire last night and we were toasty warm when we went to sleep, but I awoke several times during the night with cold spots where down feathers were clumped together elsewhere. At 6:40am Tabasco asked me if I was awake, then said it was still too dark for him to get up, so we slept until 7am. We were on trail at 7:55am, both bundled up because it was cold and damp next to the lake.
The pace was slow because Tabasco has an injured left calf muscle. Interestingly enough, the original injury was the right calf, which got better, but the compensation injured his other calf. We had level to descending terrain for a few miles, then a nice gentle ascent for 3 miles. We stopped for a break and lunch at a beautiful lake with Diamond Peak in the background. An eagle flew over the lake, landing on a tree on the back side. Tabasco drove himself crazy trying to get the eagle to fly again so he could get a picture, to no avail.
After lunch we again hiked fairly slowly with Tabasco limping along every time we started after a quick stop at junctions on the Oregon Skyline trail. At 2pm we arrived at Shelter Cove Resort and hiked up to the store. We relaxed on the deck, collected our resupply box, spread out gear to dry on a sunny picnic table, split a six pack of Pepsi, and ate a couple hot dogs.
The afternoon hours passed quickly and as we were beginning to stuff our gear back in our packs, the Korean couple we had passed miles back on a day hike, showed up at our picnic table. They asked us lots of questions about our hike, then invited us to eat dinner at their rented cabin at the resort tonight at 7pm. We got busy at 4:30 with quick showers and threw in a load of laundry. Around 5:30pm we set up tents in the $8.00 PCT hikers site, then returned to the store to settle our tab and to get our six pack of Sierra Nevada to split. It is now 6:20pm and we are sitting on the lawn next to Odell Lake with a couple campers hanging out by the camp fire. They are actively listening to the Oregon-Arizona football game. We are drinking beer and watching eagles snatch fish from the lake for dinner. Life is good tonight! More later after our Korean dinner.
Well, dinner was awesome. Sukdong Kim and his wife and son were waiting for us when we arrived at their cabin just a little after 7pm. Dinner was on the table waiting for us. We had Kim Chee (which I have loved for years), Korean rice, a staple in the Korean diet, beef ribs that were pressure cooked with potatoes and onions in a broth and soy sauce, an egg based side dish, pear wine and yams for dessert. We cooked the yams in the wood stove in their cabin after I rekindled the fire. We had a great evening sharing stories from the trail as well as learning a lot about South Korea. Tabasco may go there as early as next month to visit his sister and brother-in-law who live there and are in the Air Force. After dinner we visited until about 9:30pm.
We were going back to our tents, but remembered that Cathey and Kent, the folks at the camp fire, had invited us to come by their cabin for post dinner cocktails. We walked from cabin A to Cabin D and had a couple of beers with them while we shared trail stories and talked for a couple of hours. Finally around 11:30pm we headed to our cold campsite far away from those toasty warm cabins. But the trail magic from our newest trail angels left our stomachs full and our hearts warm. Shelter Cove Resort is a really nice place and I would love to come back in the future and stay in a cabin for a few days.
There are dozens of trails to hike and cross country skiing would be very enjoyable in the area around the beautiful lakes. Today’s weather: sunny. Low 30, high 58. Today’s miles: 24.6; cumulative miles 2055.7.
