Day 10 (August 26)

Woke up to smokeless skies -- maybe the firefighters have finally won? The morning is bright and hot, and we're enjoying our sunscreen. A bit of wind, and in ten minutes' time the temperature's down 20 degrees and the sky's completely clouded over. "Like God switched on the AC" says a passing hiker. We're steadily climbing up to Shale Lake, and before long we're in the clouds, mist in every direction. This is a gorgeous piece of trail, and we love the misty mountain lakes and meadows, and sudden cliff views into the distance.

One step further and we've entered a ghost forest -- trees either bone white or charred black, as far as we can see in any direction. We've reached the edge of the great B&B fire of 2003, which destroyed almost 100,000 acres of Oregon forest. The contrast of today's chilly winds with 2003's inferno plays bizarre tricks on the mind, like we're stuck in a dream. The landscape is utterly otherworldly.

We finally end our day at Rockpile Lake at the top of Rockpile mountain, a small high island of green that miraculously survived the fire. The winds are fierce but we find a campsite with some shelter and hunker down.

Real bacon - how does she do it?

We settle in to a delicious dinner of ramen carbonara, which takes a little longer than we'd planned... we're not actually carrying a stove, or even a cookpot, on this trip. Deb's designed all the dinners to be cooked just by soaking in water. A brilliant and well-researched endeavor, she filled up pages with notes on various grains and pastas and their soaking times. This seemed like a great idea in July in Brooklyn, and it's been good eatin' for the last week.  Now, though, we're faced with weather we did not anticipate, and the cold takes a toll in both speed and satisfaction. Granted, tonight is still delicious, but if the weather continues to head in this direction we'll soon be longing for a hot meal.