Day 115 - Timberline

I didn't have far to go to get to Timberline on Sunday.  I decided to head all the way there and get dinner and hope for a place to camp nearby so I could be close for breakfast the next morning before meeting a bunch of family. 

I stopped at a creek a couple miles from the lodge, washed some clothes and my feet and hung out for a few hours.  There were 3 people with 4 horses when I got there.  They rode off but about 10 minutes later the horse with no rider came galloping back up the trail.  It stood where it had been tied up earlier, neighing real loud, looking panicked.  I went over and patted it for a while, thinking the other riders would come back for it.  A rifle holster was hanging empty on the saddle, I knew it had a gun in it earlier.  After a while the horse acted like it wanted to go back toward the others, so I let it go trotting off.  Another hiker walked by soon after and I told him to be on the lookout for a loose horse and a gun in the trail.

I hiked the last couple miles up to Timberline, explored around a little while, then found a quiet spot to recharge my dead phone, which had been dead a lot recently.  I had dinner with a few other hikers, Oddball, Clay and Analog.  There were several other hikers around too.  After dinner, the 4 of us went up the hill where the PCT crosses behind the lodge and camped in a little cluster of trees; it looked well-used enough to be OK to camp there, despite being right in the lodge's backyard.