Day 82- ducks vs. BEAVERS

The Russian wilderness and the trinity alps are both amazing places to hike. I went through both of them today. I got to walk on these amazing cliffs and ridges while looking down into basins with meadows, lakes and streams. There were also some snow capped mountains around to add to the scenery. This does not stop my desire to get to Oregon, but it does muffle it. Acorn, who I camped with got an early start and was on the trail before I was up. I made coffee for the first time on the trail this morning due to the fact that acorn mentioned it last night and it sounded good. It also gave me an extra boost. I caught acorn in the mid morning around highway 93 and I did not look back. I kept in trekking all day in the great scenery. A little before lunch I saw postop and homemade walking south. They said they got to mt Whitney and decided that it was not for them. So they took some time off and are now going south from ashland. They also said only about 15 true thru hikers are ahead of me. The day closed with a 12 mile waterless stretch. No big deal. I didnt even make it all the way to big bear spring(end of stretch) but I had overestimated how much water I needed so I had enough to camp. Right before the road to etna, I met 4 day hikers from Oregon (2from Corvallis and 2 from Eugene). So along with the millions of questions they asked about how I'm doing this hike, I finally got one thing I knew I missed about Oregon: ducks vs. BEAVERS!