Day 18 (September 3)

Another beautiful hot day in the Sisters Wilderness. We pass a lot of horses (rather, we stand aside and let them pass us) on the dusty hills west of the Rock Mesa lava flow. One big group has about 6 riders and 12 pack horses; they're going to make a pretty serious camp somewhere.

Lunch at Sisters Mirror Lake, in full reflective splendor:

A huge grey ten-point buck crossing the trail just behind us -- maybe an elk? I've only experienced elk as lasagna, so I'm not sure.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound? Of course it does, anything moving in a non-vacuum makes a sound, and even if you could suck all the air out there'd still be the sound of the tree hitting the ground, which would travel through the earth. I know I'm making a lot of assumptions here, but I stand by them.

Deb's pretty cautious about our campsites whenever we're in areas of sick forest, pushing on dead trees and rating their root structure, lest we be crushed by an errant lodgepole. Thousands of downed trunks, including some real giants, attest to the possibility. Today for the first time we hear one crash down not too far behind us. We do not head back to investigate.

Despite the heat we make good distance today, 18 miles. Had actually planned another mile and a half to get to Dumbell Lake, the next known water, but happy to stop a little early after finding a small stream that's not on the map. Back to using the cookstove as it's cooling off a little now: red lentil soup with fat cous-cous for dinner, warm and elegant.