mosquito madness

mosquito madness, originally uploaded by carolyn_in_oregon.

We wanted to eat lunch at the junction with the Pacific Crest Trail. We ended up just having an apple and deciding to hike on as the mosquitoes were insane here. Even though it was quite warm I decided to put on a long sleeve shirt and then tuck my legs into it just to get some relief from their constant biting. I had just donated a pint of blood on Monday and was in no mood to lose anymore.

We met a thru-hiker here that was hiking the entire Pacific Crest Trail. He had started at the Mexico-California border on May 7th and was hoping to reach the Washington-Canadian border within a month. He said he was averaging about 35 miles a day. My brain just about exploded in my skull when he said that. While we talked to him Gina and I smacked mosquitoes on each other. "Oh yeah, you're from New Zealand!" Smack! "Oh wow!" Smack! I'm sure we were an interesting sight.

I asked him what his name was and he said "My trail name is Pathfinder." I wasn't aware people had trail names.

photo by Gina