Day 12 – Sumpter and The Who

August 26 – Trail of the blue mountainsNe oregon

# of other BMT hikers through excursions seen so far: Zero

David

Today it was going to be a fun day: a restaurant lunch and a replenishment of Mike, who was also leaving David to walk with me for a few days. I started walking along the gravel road to Sumpter, the small town that has a long history with mining. The road to the city was bordered by lots of endless lines. I do not obtain fascination with mining history, although I will admit that the large volume of tailings is impressive.

My original plan was to meet Mike here for refueling. David planned to replenish me in the second half of my trip, however, when he realized that the BMT included the scenic path Elkhorn Crest National, he asked me if I could join me because he always wanted to walk through the Elkhorn Crest Trail. Of course my answer was yes. I really wanted to have some company for a few days!

Surely it is good to have a few minutes to dry during the day!

I arrived at the stage stop early, so I decided to dry my team. When Mike and David arrived, I was all packed again. Mike did not have much time and David hesitated to go to Elkhorn’s crest with an electric storm prognosis. We quickly devised a new plan and Mike took off after I was packaged again from my refueling box. David and I enjoyed a good lunch at the stage stop. I am quite sure that this was the first wet burrito of chicken with a big ass that I have eaten. My hunger was starting to enter and I think I could have eaten a second. But I didn’t.

Creek camp

Me and David after a good lunch on the stage stop at Sumpter.

After lunch, David and I left, gently walking uphill along the forest roads to the Creek camp. We were walking through a ponderosa forest that was pleasant but had been thinned to look like a little farm. I had not seen David in years, so it was great to have this road to start catching up.

We had decided to point to the Creek camp, which would give me 15 miles for the day. When we approach the camp, we listen to bustling music. I recognized The front of the eminence of who. We couldn’t see what was happening in the camp, and after a moment doubts decided to turn the way to the camp and see it.

Calling this place a camp makes it sound much more formal than it was. It was really a loose connection of 3 scattered sites without comfort, not even picnic tables. We drop our packages on the first place and then I told David that I wanted to go see the music.

Classic rock

We wandered the farthest site and, indeed, it was a classic rock party. There was only one older couple there, and they were having a good time, with music at full volume! We introduced ourselves and the guy kept their automatic rifle that had supported a tree and offered us a beer. Definitely the best coars banquet I’ve had in my life! He said the rifle was an accessory only to scare the intruders, but it seemed real. David also thought about it. It turns out that they were from the nearby city of Baker, who were excited about the large annual flea market about to start at Sumpter, and had a lot of friends who joined them for the rest of the weekend. Phew! Our moment was perfect, both in Sumpter and in the camp.

On the way back to our site, I said hello to the woman on the middle of the medium. She was camping with her cat, which is not something you see every day. I asked him what he was doing, and she said very much of fact, «panoramic. Are you too?» I was quite sure that he referred to looking for gold. I told him we weren’t. I think she felt relieved to have less competition.

After establishing our tents, getting Deer Creek water and cooking dinner, it was getting dark. I went to sleep with the light rain jet in my store mixed with the distant strains of Aerosmith. He had made 200 miles and was starting to think that he could complete this beautiful already frustrating path.

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