Day 40

20 miles
Luckily, no deer last night. We continued the climb up to Harts Pass in the morning. The clouds around Azurite Peak rolled around, so each switchback gave a new view of the mountain. A long ridge walk over to the parking lot at Harts Pass. We had hoped to meet up with Yardsale, Chickadee, and Raiden at Harts Pass, and sure enough, they were there! We caught up real quick as they tried to hitch a ride into Mazama. A car pulled over, but instead of giving a ride, gave trail magic. We all got beer, chips, and candy. It was quite a treat. The gang eventually got a ride down the mountain, but we hung out for a bit longer with all of the other hikers who had gathered. A couple Czech hikers passed around a Gatorade bottle of whiskey to the group. We eventually left the group and signed the trail register. Checked the hiker box for any last minute goodies, and then started hiking again. We still needed to eat lunch so we grabbed water at the next stream and then stopped in a shaded flat spot. The views all around were great the rest of the day. We weaved around on a ridge eventually stopping just before Shaw Creek. There’s another deer near camp and it’s even more comfortable being around humans as last night’s deer.