Day 89-90 (August 6th-7th)
Mile 2001.9 – 2001.9
Today: 0 miles
Total PCT: 1546.7 miles
Rest! After 16 days straight in the woods, we hitched into the beautiful city of Bend to rest and recover! We had a beautiful airbnb (with a sunroom and hottub), we visited the only remaining blockbuster, Charm Pony and I went to see the Barbie movie, and we all ate lots of food!
The combination of hiking/ pushing yourself hard and these wonderful relaxing days makes the relaxation all the better! Time to tackle the last 160 miles of Oregon!
Note: I have been told that my access to cell service will be much less frequent in the coming sections, so my posts will sadly also be less frequent. I am not sure how bad it will be yet, but I will do my best!
Day 91 (August 8th)
Mile 2001.9 – 2016.4
Today: 14.5 miles
Total PCT: 1561.2 miles
Back to trail! The transition back after a longer town break is always a little bittersweet. Ill admit that I had the sunday scaries about getting back on trail, but at the same time I was itching to go. We got a ride from Trail Angel Jessica who we met in a park a couple of days ago. She gave us some free ‘shrooms and her number and told us to give her a call when we needed a ride back to trail. Since we all wanted a little sleep in and because it was a 45 minute drive back to trail, we got back to hiking just before noon. Since there was a nice lake coming up, we decided to take a bit of an easy day and to stop there to enjoy our evening– and the gift that Jessica gave us! The hike up to the lake was covered in blow downs. It was an obstacle course of old burnt trees laying across the trail. Our new friend Popsicle told us that she counted over 190 blowdowns between the highway and our campsite! We arrived at camp around 5:30pm, with plenty of time for a swim and a long dinner with lots of belly laughs.
Popsicle was (hopefully) entertained by our antics and took notes on some of the ridiculous things we said in her journal. She would then read them back to us a few moments later to great laughter. I love these people. Sometimes I am just overwhelmed by how lucky I am to have met them and to get to hike this trail with them. ❤️
Day 92 (August 9th)
Mile 2016.4 – 2048.3
Today: 31.9 miles
Total PCT: 1593.1 miles
This morning my tramily woke up to sanddunes of dirt which had blown into their tents. But by a happy accident, I had oriented my tent a different way and so was spared! Woohoo!
It was a hard day of hiking with a big climb in the middle of the day. I had planned to hike 19 miles by lunch time, but I didnt actually reach that point until 3pm. I was tired and my feet are very sore again, so I was moving slowly. The tram was also moving a bit slowly and so I saw them several times through out the day.
We had planned to hike to the rustic Ollale lodge to camp tonight and the last 8 miles or so of the day were through a burn, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to cut the day short for fear of dead and dangerous trees around my camp spot. I was feeling quite demoralized. With about 6 miles to go until camp, I came across Thunder, Salty and Corpse enjoying some trail magic! After a banana, some pickles and some chips I was feeling a bit better. Then the amazing trail angels told us that they are staying at the lodge and they offered to drive our backpacks there for us so thay we could slackpack the last 6 miles. Without our backpacks we all but flew down the trail. Thunder and I hiked together and everytime there was a nice downhill section we would jog down the trail. It was so freeing!
My feet were finally (mostly) not hurting! When we arrived at camp, we got our bags back from the angels and they invited us and the other hikers to dinner! They made ribs and tacos for everyone and even had some tofu for me!! A very hard day turned into a wonderful night!
Day 93 (August 10th)
Mile 2048.3 – 2078.6
Today: 30.3 miles
Total PCT: 1623.4 miles
Three months on trail! It is hard to believe! I’m proud of this milestone and proud of my achievements so far, but also, I spent today exhausted, sore, and wondering how I could have possibly made it this far.
I know a big part of my low morale today was because I didn’t see my tramily after we left camp this morning. I tried to make it to their camp, but I was unsure where they were camping and totally exhausted, so I pulled over when I found a half decent spot.
I did see my friend Sweetblood though! She is a SNOBO (someone who hiked the desert northbound and then flipped to the Northern Terminus and started hiking south to avoid the snow in the high Sierra). She was the first SNOBO that I have run into on trail and it was a really nice surprise. Tonight I am camped next to a beautiful lake and I ate my dinner while watching gulls dive into the water for fish. Even hard days have silver linings — especially once I am sitting down!
Day 94 (August 11th)
Mile 2078.6 – 2105.2
Today: 26.6 miles
Total PCT: 1650.0 miles
Having entered the Mt. Hood area, we encountered a lot more of the public today– whom we call muggles. Upon leaving my tentsite on Timothee Lake this morning I walked past huge cathedral tents and families who had brought lawn games and chairs with them to camp. This was not a car camping area, but rather a short hike in from the nearest road, so I was quite impressed.
I was only 21 miles from Timberline Lodge, which I knew was Salty, Corpse, and Thunder’s lunch plans. Even at a breakneck pace, I knew I wouldn’t arrive until at least 1:30pm, but I wanted to spend some time with everyone at the lodge, so I did my best to rush. I ended up arriving at about 2:45pm exhausted, sore, and very tired. The last two miles were up a steep, loose, sandy path which broke my spirit a little bit.
Before I went and said hello to the tram, I went to the bathroom to splash some water on my face and to try and get my energy back up. I felt like the trail had chewed me up and a spit me out. As I stood, staring in the mirror feeling downtrodden, a woman approached me. “Are you a PCT hiker? (Yes) Well I just found this 5$ bill on the ground. You should take it and use it to get a nice drink or something.” Five dollars richer, I left the bathroom in a more cheerful mood. The trail really does provide. I met up with the tram and was treated to a nice drink, good food, a couch to sit on, and the presence of my friends! After a couple hours relaxing on the couch, we finally got up to hike the last 5 miles to camp and had a nice tramily dinner.
Day 95 (August 12th)
Mile 2105.2 – 2134.3
Today: 29.1 miles
Total PCT: 1679.1 miles
Alternates galore today! Sometimes, mysteriously, the PCT winds through a beautiful area and manages to miss the most beautiful sights– and so we hike alternates! Our first alternate route took us to Ramona Falls. This was only about 5 miles from camp, so we got there at the perfect time to enjoy a sit down breakfast! Usually I eat my 3-4 breakfast bars while hiking, so this was quite a luxery!
Unfortunately I walked past Salty’s lunch spot without seeing him so I ate lunch alone, hiding from the annoying flies by wearing my tent ground sheet like a maxi skirt. As I enjoyed lunch, a couple of trail maintainers walked past and let me know that they had spent the morning removing one log out of the way and that there were about five ahead of me still. Every little bit helps! They were heroes in my eyes!
Our second altenrate route wasnt until the very end of the day. Instead of taking the PCT into Cascade Locks, we turned off onto the Eagle Creek Trail which will take us past some beautiful sites tomorrow on our way into town. This side trail started with a 3000ft descent which occured in just 2.6 miles. It was STEEP! It was here that I took a photo of some exemplary water engineering– someone made a water spout by using a ‘no campfires’ sign!
With my sore feet, I couldn’t quite make it to the tentsite the tram wanted to stay at. Instead I joined another hiker named Happy Hour who was camping near a water source abour 2 mikes before the tentsite. Happy Hour was great company! He is a LASHer (Long-Ass Section Hiker) who carries a ukelele– which he played for me while I ate my dinner. He also shared a couple mouthfuls of yummy whisky, which will hopefully put me right to sleep!
Day 96 (August 13th)
Mile 2134.3 – 2149.5
Today: 15.2 miles
Total PCT: 1694.3 miles
I woke up this morning to hike the last few miles of Oregon alone. The alternate route I was hiking on was so beautiful that I was feeling sad that I didn’t have my tramily there to enjoy it with.
Suddenly, about 2 miles after where I had camped, I came around a bend and saw Thunder relaxing on her tent footprint. I looked around and saw Corpsi’s tent and Salty waving at me from the water source. They had all decided to sleep in and wait for me before hiking into town! It was so sweet I genuinely could have cried.
We continued on our way together, pausing to enjoy several waterfalls including the beautiful tunnel falls, which has a secret tunnel behind it!
As we approached the parking lot, we saw more and more muggles hiking and running– and lots of dogs to pet! A park ranger was out hiking and had brought some cool, sliced watermelon for hikers! She hiked the PCT last year and knew exactly what hikers wanted! We hiked out of the woods and then along a paved bike path to town. As we approached Cascade Locks, we got our first glimpse of the Bridge of the Gods! This is where Cheryl Strayed famously ended her PCT section hike in the book and movie Wild.
The day was getting to be boiling hot, and we were happy to enjoy the air conditioning and free ‘pay it forward’ hiker beers at the brewery! While we were sitting enjoying our lunch, a woman walked up to our table, placed down some crumbled bills and without pre-amble said “I hiked in 2007. Best summer of my life. Enjoy it! Hope you can buy yourselves a treat with this.” With barely time for us to thank her, she walked away! She gave us $25 which we will be putting towards our ice cream and beer fund.
But the miracles weren’t over! Our old friend Slim Jim suddenly entered the Brewery! We hadn’t seen Slim Jim since the middle of the desert when we went our separate ways! It was so nice to catch up and hear about his last 1000 miles!
At the end of all our visiting, it was still not time to check into our AirBnB (who puts check in at 4pm!?) So we went to find a shady spot to sit. It was 95 degrees F and it felt like an oven. We sat at the edge of a parking lot like true hiker trash and commiserated with the homeless people about the heat.
Unfortunately, our AirBnB does not have air conditioning, but it does have a semi-cool basement that we hung out in for the evening, happy to be off our feet and clean!
