Brown Mountain

PCT 2018 Day 77, July 8, Sunday

Start mile 1747.6, flat spot near Klum Landing Park

End mile 1778.0, tent site

Miles walked: 30.4

The forest here in southern Oregon has tall trees, some so skinny I wonder if they are lodgepole pine. The understory is grass and fern, and a large variety of low-light plants unfamiliar to me. The bright-green moss on trees is not as common now as a pale-green beard-like moss, that quite covers some old trees. The slopes of mountains are gentle in this region, and the rocky cliffs of northern California are gone. Water tastes funny, like silt, so perhaps my filter needs additional cleaning. In the afternoon I get to Brown Mountain, and a series of crossings of lava rock talus, on path that is packed dirt over stone, easy to walk on. Several dozen of these short talus crossings to the next stand of trees make for an interesting walk. Here is a tree with three different kinds of moss mixed together. Smoke, and sometimes the smell of wood-smoke, are still here to remind us of the wildfire to the south. The mosquitos are fierce by 6PM. This is a dry area with few water sources, so why so many of these hungry critters? A look at the map gives the answer. The trail may have much water close at hand, but several lakes, large and small, are nearby.

Finished audiobook Shadowmagic, by John Lenahan.