Pacific Crest Trail: August 2016

Crater lake-Shelter cove

Day 57

1818.43-1838.63 (20.47)

This morning we slept in past sunrise and then just laid around even longer. We packed up camp and walked over to the store around 7:30 to pick up food and hit the trail. Unfortunately, the man behind the counter said my box had not arrived. After making them double check, the guy told me my box was likely at the post office 4 miles away. Since there was no hitching in the park and no service I felt a bit stuck. After attempting to use a pay phone and returning to the same guy to say the pay phone took my money, a nice ex-PCT hiker offered me a ride to the post office. I waited around until he returned and retrained a wifi code from someone staying in a cabin so that I could call my mom. A few hours later I made it to the post office only to be told that the box was in fact at the first place. I took a picture of the information and returned to the store to ask the guy to check again. He looked again and what do ya know...he found my box. So yay now I have my food and have to reorganize it. While repackaging, the last trolley to the crater lake rim trail pulled up and I threw everything into my pack to hop on a bus. The bus was filled with smelly hikers and then was stopped to pick up a bunch of people who had just finished the marathon at the lake and were left by a broken down trolley. A trolley car packed with stinky people did not help with the car sickness that I was already feeling from the post office drive. We sat by the lake for a while as I organized my pack and then headed for the trail. The rim trail alternate was quite crowded compared to the PCT and my frustration with the many many lost tourists grew. I was still feeling sick and I just wanted to get out of the crowds so I moved pretty quickly around to the other side of the lake where I found a nice spot to sit and enjoy the lake in peace. It was the bluest lake I have ever seen and so absolutely stunning. I stopped to read some of the info signs along the way and learned about the naming of the lake. It was pretty fascinating to think about the first people who stumbled upon such an amazingly enormous feature. This fascination led to conversations about early expeditions, the growing population, the environment, work to help deter human effects on the environment. We walked until the next water source which was a bear box fully stocked with gallon water bottles. The rest of the evening we took easy and talked about what life might be like after the trail.

Day 57

1838.6-1870 (31.4)

We freaking made it. 31.4 miles through 2 back to back dry sections and we aren't feeling too bad! My feet and legs are killing me (of course) but I really couldn't argue that they are much worse than they would be on any other day. There were water caches along the way being generously stocked by people in the area so technically we didn't do the first dry section. It's pretty amazing to think that someone around here is driving up and down a dirt road every day to make sure that hikers have water. The whole tree vortex issue we are having in Oregon was not so bad today as we had some nice views of mount theilsen and made a conscious effort to keep each other occupied for the last 10 miles. Conversations moved from elections to history to gymnastics to coaches to relationships to college to philosophy quotes and around again. We both were getting bored in our own heads and did what we had to do to make it work. We succeeded and although the sun was almost entirely set by the time we reached camp we were pretty dang happy.

Day 58

1870-1890 (20.38)

After a pretty achy and restless night we both opted to sleep in a bit. Once I was all packed up, I walked the .4 to water without my pack and the .4 back. By the time I started walking it was pretty late and we ended up only reaching 8 miles by 12 o'clock. Lately, I have been having a bit of back pain on my lower left side and it seemed to worsen throughout the day today. I took some of my trusty ibuprofen in order to keep walking with a little bit more comfort. We moved slowly and eventually made it to a lake in the afternoon. I decided that it was a good time to go for a swim as I was being consumed by mosquitos trying to retrieve water so I got into my birthday suit and swam out towards an island. The water felt amazing on my feet and took a bit of the pressure off my back. After swimming/floating around for a bit I made my way towards camp among many ponds about 4 miles down trail.

Day 59

1890-1908.44 (18.44)

We set alarms so that we could wake up at our old early morning time so that we could be on trail before 6 am. The first 10 miles felt like I was having Sierra flashbacks as I climbed up a pass and then made my way along creeks (with mosquitos) at a higher elevation. I was ready for a 10 mile break when it came as my heel blisters are getting to be pretty painful. I drained them last night but they were not fully dried out and the dirt irritated them. I rested and ate as much of my remaining snacks as I could before finishing the 6 miles into town. We had to take an extra trail and walk the road but there were fresh blueberries all along the way! Shelter cove didn't have much but it had wifi to get in touch with society and my resupply box so I relaxed for the afternoon. We then made our way out of town for a short hike to a lake campsite. The lake was beautiful and we cleaned our clothes in the lake before making dinner and reading some magazine articles!

Timberline-Cascade Locks

Day 67
2095-2119 (24.15)

We both struggled to sleep through the night as our shelter flapped in the wind and sand from Mt. Hood blew into our eyes. We slept in after the restless night and were greeted by some tourists walking by us meanwhile the chairlift started running over our head. It was time to pack up and get moving! We came across a lot of people walking the timberline trail in the opposite direction that stopped us to ask questions. By lunch time we were realizing how few miles we had made but continued to enjoy our last full day in Oregon. We camped with some aspiring triple crown hikers who chatted on about the gear they were hoping to use for future AT and CDT hikes.

Day 68
2119- Cascade Locks
We took the Eagle Creek Alternate down to Cascade Locks and passed some amazing waterfalls through the Gorge. The whole day was beautiful and once we arrived in town we got a hitch to the grocery store where we picked up supplies and made out way down the street to our motel. It was a bit further than we expected and we ended up doing laundry in the sink but it was nice to have one last cozy bed before the push on to Canada!

Left by the side of a road...gave me a good laugh

Tunnel Falls

Rightfully named "High Bridge"

"I've never been so overwhlemed by the radio man". Ultrafast commercials playing over the loudspeaker

One squeeze of my socks...hesitant to post but hey this is the life we are living!

Ashland-Crater Lake

Day 55

1739-1764.68 (26.07)

Our morning routine is become later and later as the sun begins to rise later; however we still made our 10 miles before 10 o'clock today. We took a nice break at a water source and then moved on for another 4 before stopping for lunch. Feet were especially sore today for whatever reason so we weren't moving as quick as we hoped but in the next 8 mile water less stretch we heard of trail magic up ahead. Two places back to back! One was a storage shelter that was stocked with food and the other was a group of 2014 thru hikers that were camped out and trail Angeling. I enjoyed a delicious grilled sandwich and helped revamp their menu before heading back to the trail. We hiked until we found a reasonable camp sight and then called it a night.

Day 56

1764.68-1793.51 (28.4)

The morning walk felt the same as the evenings walk from the night before and continued to feel the same throughout most of the day. It got pretty trippy really. I was losing track of time and losing track of miles because I felt like I was walking in the same exact place the whole time. Some 4 mile sections felt like 10 and some felt like 2. By the afternoon the scenery began to change a bit and we sat by some water to fill up for the rest of the day. While at the source we looked at our options and discovered that we could walk 11 more miles to a camp that had a pond .2 off trail. Since water sources have been scarce this section we opted to go for that. We made it to the 11 miles COMPLETELY exhausted and moving very slow by the end. Both of us had about a half liter left of water and did not even make it down to the water source .2 miles away. We plopped down on some uneven grown and didn't get up.

Day 56

1793.51-1818.43 (24.9) plus a .8 highway walk

The sun and some very obnoxious birds woke me up early this morning so I began my walk with some very sore feet. The ridge line was beautiful and eventually came around a corner to overlook some mountains that Kay have been part of Crater Lake National Park (CLNP). I met a man named Iceman there and chatted with him about mt. Shasta finally appearing farther away. I made my way down the mountain to the last water source of the day and loaded up with 4 liters for 19 miles. My pack did feel heavy and I was nervous after how the last dry section went but I kept calm and tried to treat it like a normal day. I rested on a nice log for break and then continued on to a nice view for lunch. I stretched quite a bit trying to ease my tightness but noticed little effect 8 miles later. We made it to the highway around 6pm and wandered down the hill to crater lake mazama village for the night. We ate a nice dinner and showered then socialized with some hikers on the store porch. I rinsed my clothes in the bathroom sink and hung them on a nearby tree until after dark. The hiker campground was way on the other side of the village so we packed up our packs and walked on.