Appreciation: for Uma for her hospitality to host me for two days including taking me to the urgent care because I had a TICK deeply embedded in me. For Eiko and Yoko, for coming up from the Bay Area to support me between Ashland and Fish Lake. For a woman who told me about the PCT alternative route into the Crater Lake National Park and locations of water cash. If she didn’t tell me, I would have missed the incredibly beautiful park and had to carry enough water to cover 30 miles! For Carb, an trail angel, who gave me two fresh apples and a zucchini to fry up on his grill when I was hitting super low energy! Thank you.

Best learning: There’s nothing bad. We have feelings and just have unmet needs.

I keep hearing hikers say, “The weather is bad.” “The mosquitoes are so bad.” When I hear that I interpret these words to: “I’m scared and I have a need for safety.” Or “I’m feeling annoyed and I have a need for relaxation.” I remind myself that we are in nature. Since I began the Oregon section, especially the last 100 miles, there are a LOT of mosquitoes to the point I call my rain gear now the mosquitoes gear and I fall asleep hearing mosquitoes rain on my tent. They are doing what they are supposed to do and I am so fascinated by how they quickly sense me and outsmart me to suck my blood. It is a reminder that we’re visiting home of mosquitoes, and everything belongs to nature. If we acknowledge that we are the visitors then we can say something like, “there are a lot of mosquitoes, and I was really annoyed and uncomfortable because I have a need for relaxation and comfort.” This way, we’re taking a responsibility for your own feelings and needs, rather than putting the responsibility on mosquitoes, or weather. This way of speaking is based on the teaching of Nonviolent Communication.

I also think that when we say, weather is bad or mosquitoes are bad, it only gives a human centered perspective. When I think about western view and understanding of ecosystem, humans are usually placed on top of the chain or we are the most intelligent being on the earth. Again, that is a human centric view. I’d like to practice seeing us as just part of nature. The part of the practice is to change the way I talk about nature. If we practice, it minimizes our human centric judgement of good or bad of nature, and we can gain skills in describing what it is and expressing our feelings and needs instead. 

Challenges: lots of mosquitoes. Going over more than 1,066 down trees in three days. 

Disappointment: miss-calculated the food needs which resulted in hitting a couple of super low energy days and it was not fun. Missing swimming in the lakes at the end of the day due to lots of mosquitoes and feeling dirty going bed.

Exciting moments: seeing my friends and getting support is always special. Walking 44.5 miles – the longest distance I was able to cover in a day and know that I’m capable of doing something like that. “Keep going”sign on down tree when I was so low. There was something about it made me cry.

Thielsen Creek with the background of Mount Thielsen was stunning.

Going over the highest point of OR/WA only at 7,560 feet!  

The sunrise over Crater Lake – so beautiful and memorable. 

I made a couple of off PCT camps on this section: one was at Maidu Lake and seeing the before-sunrise morning fog in silent over the lake was serene. 

Walking through so many lakes and Diamond Peak – would LOVE to come back when there is less mosquitoes south bound. The Diamond Peak Wilderness is my most favorite area in southern Oregon. 

Funny moment: Carb, the trail angel, asked, “what do you do if you find an M&M on the trail?” Miho says, “pick it up and put it in a trash.” Carb says, “the joke goes if you’re a weekend hiker, you’ll throw it away. If you’re a section hiker, you’ll eat it. If you’re a thru-hiker, you’ll dig to find some more.”