Day 96 Oregon Weather

Day 96

August 24th

26 miles 

PCT mile 1903.5

Spending 1700 miles in California and crossing state lines into Oregon you wonder is Oregon really going to feel different then California? Or is it all just going to feel the same on the PCT? The answer is "Yes, Oregon is drastically different." And it was apparent quite immediately. First off the terrain is much different, for the most part the trail is more forgiving, your hiking through forest and the trail is soft with pine needles and dirt. I like to say Oregon has laid out the brown carpet for the PCT hikers. The other difference is the weather, and man is it starting to get cold. August isn't even over and it appears the summer nights are gone. Nice days are still to be had, but there's no more blazing hot days, the temperature during the day probably gets into the mid 70s and it's sunny which is perfect hiking weather, but the nights and mornings are brisk. By 6:00pm the temperature drops and after sunset the temps are in the 40s, waking up to high 30s in the morning. It's cold but the benefits to the cooler nights are twofold: campfires are to be had and sleeping is very conducive to these temperatures. We've had campfires in camp the last 3 nights and I've had some of my best and soundest sleep as well. I'm still sleeping without my rainfly and staying so warm in my new sleeping bag, it's pretty awesome. Hopefully this weather is here to stay for a while and it won't get too much colder too soon. We're all aware that we are going to have much colder and soon to be wet weather on top of it, once we get into Washington.