Month: August 2022

Original plan was 24 miles. I had no idea that we would cross snow, do a rock scramble up a mountain side without a trail and cross a pretty dangerous snow field or two.

The town is 11.6 miles ahead. We are going to do a rest day. Our zero for the month of August.

I slept in until 5:30. We were on the trail around 6:08 am. Strong hiking until we got to the new PCT and the “Old Snowy” blue blaze.

Far Out/Guthooks had a lot of comments. We went with that and did the PCT instead of the by pass that is .3 miles longer, a little higher and easier.

Is the trail actively sliding and collapsing as you walk on it?

✅ or ☑️?

When you get to the snow fields are they melted with no path and everyone sitting there or is there a boot track?

✅ or ☑️?

When you get to the end of the second snow field is the scramble up the mountain side stable with foot holds or is it dry, sliding gravel with some rocks not all of which are stable?

✅ or ☑️?

Sure. If all three break your way it isn’t hard. Otherwise, to quote the guy with the guitar and the professional photography equipment “sketchy as the worst of the Sierras but without crampons or am ice axe.”

Then the Knife’s Edge Trail. Miles. Not well maintained and completely exposed. Belonged in New Hampshire. Coming off of it the trail was as rough as the roughest parts of the Stansbury Front Trail.

Abear and the crew invited us to hike three more miles and camp with them. What we discovered after we said no is that the site is a no camping area.

We had beef and potatoes for Sunday Dinner (mashed potatoes and beef jerky). It was very good.

I have breakfast and a snack left (besides some dinner food). Glad to be going in for resupply.

But the views were incredible. We get internet and Win’s videos get posted I will have a link.

Going to sleep early.

It has been a day.

On the other hand, bracing cold morning, 5:43 am start, Lava Springs was pretty neat and the views were spectacular.

The early start got us to our two serious water crossings before the glacier melt picked up. Later in the day the water runs up to two feet higher.

It was challenging to do the log crossing as it was without having to be knee deep in the water.

At Mile 2262.2 to end the day. About four hundred miles left of Washington. Trout Lake is 32.28 miles behind us, White Pass Cracker Barrel is 33.7 miles ahead of us.

We had pastry and pepperoni and fruit snacks for dinner. That was our anti mosquito ? meal.

Thinking of our kids and grandchildren.

So we got a good 5:35 am start and hiked ten miles to where the shuttle to Trout Lake picks up. Arrived an hour early but managed a hitch in the back of a pickup truck.

In Trout Lake we did laundry, showered, had street tacos and huckleberry milkshakes and were back on the trail about 4:10 pm and at a campsite about 6:15. Beautiful open field with soft grass.

Of all things we ran into Bambi who recognized Win from meeting her at Kennedy Meadows North. Like many hikers she skipped the fires in Northern California and all of Oregon.

Trout Lake had over ninety hikers yesterday and more today. The bubble has hit in force about 2-3 weeks or more early.

We continue to meet SOBOs. For the most part, unless they flip or skip they are too late to get through the Sierras in time. The late, late opening of the Terminus really has blown up the SOBO class.

We are lucky in that we’ve already done the middle, so to speak. We will clear Washington well before the end of September and finish the Sierras in time.

Then we will be in the desert after it cools off some with those SOBOs who made it through in time.

2235.5 is our Milepost for tonight. 2653 is the terminus. About 21 days at our pace which is now around 25 miles a day, ~15 mile Neros.

We will finish Washington by (on or before) our target date of September 14.

Then Mile 942 and south to the finish. A finish by the end of October looks possible. We will see.

We could have slept in town but there wasn’t a good reason.

BTW, next time I will have a hamburger and ice cream. But it was a good change.

Funny moment. Someone called it quits and donated all their food. The store owner gave it to me to distribute. Of course I took the good stuff —the empty zip lock bags (which no one else wanted) and other hikers were delighted to get the food.

With all the town food dinner tonight was water and some mango slices and a granola bar. I think my weight is around 150 something (159?). I’ll eventually get a good measure. Win appears to have lost fourteen more pounds.

A beautiful day. Met lots of people. The early bubble has resources slammed but people are acting in good grace.

We did another 25+ mile day today. Stuffing and chicken tonight.

On the Appalachian Trail:

• <2k vertical ascent didn’t count.
• 2k to 3k was a normal day.
• 3k to 4k was noticeable but not notable.
• 4K+ was notable and memorable.

But those were for 10-12 mile days.

On the Pacific Crest Trail we do 20-25 mile days. And yesterday, in a 25 mile day, we broke our all time high and hit 2k more feet than out biggest AT day.

So, fewer feet of ascent per mile, but often more in a day.

It has been a day. A very good day. Mile 2194.1 is where we are camping.

It has been a great day. We made it to our goal tent site which has camping and water. Lots of spaces. Six tents already set up when we arrived.

Abear (in the woods) showed up after us. His trail family was hoping to catch up with him here.

Win was just a perfect joy today. Her long blond hair and shrinking self regularly gets taken for forty years old now.

Mashed potatoes with beef jerky, olive oil and cream cheese for dinner. Beef jerky really works well with the mashed potatoes.

August 10. Only four days to two months on the trail. We are about halfway done, once the fire closures are added in. Not taking very many zeros helps.

We had our first real rain where we needed our rain jackets. Crossed the Bridge of the Gods (don’t look down) and started climbing out of the Columbia River Gorge.

Washington was rain forest like I kind of expected from Oregon.

We are just past forest road 2070. Sharing our tent site with Resilient who survived a pretty horrific accident. She started around June 14 at Tuolumne Meadows. So she has covered about the same amount of trail but without the flipping and jumping about.

Juicy and Monarch (Butterfly) just joined us.

5,014 feet of ascent. 20.3 miles from the town (plus miles in town and from one wrong turn on the trail).

Others missed getting rained on where they were on the trail.

Last night we had a lot of wind and the trains rain right by the tents all night long.

I am hoping to rest better and have a better day. Though we are looking at over 6k feet of climbing (633 flights of stairs for the Fitbit crowd).

Our next resupply is Trout Lake in 61.5 miles.

My little finger is recovering well.

We had huckleberry licorice for dinner.

Abear in the Woods joined us as did Peg Leg. We have six tents set up here and a couple that are deciding between cowboy camping and setting up a tent.

No mosquitoes yet. Everyone jokes it is the Washington taxes keeping them out.

We had our first real rain where we needed our rain jackets. Crossed the Bridge of the Gods (don’t look down) and started climbing out of the Columbia River Gorge.

Washington was rain forest like I kind of expected from Oregon.

We are just past forest road 2070. Sharing our tent site with Resilient who survived a pretty horrific accident. She started around June 14 at Tuolumne Meadows. So she has covered about the same amount of trail but without the flipping and jumping about.

Juicy and Monarch (Butterfly) just joined us.

5,014 feet of ascent. 20.3 miles from the town (plus miles in town and from one wrong turn on the trail).

Others missed getting rained on where they were on the trail.

Last night we had a lot of wind and the trains rain right by the tents all night long.

I am hoping to rest better and have a better day. Though we are looking at over 6k feet of climbing (633 flights of stairs for the Fitbit crowd).

Our next resupply is Trout Lake in 61.5 miles.

My little finger is recovering well.

We had huckleberry licorice for dinner.

Abear in the Woods joined us as did Peg Leg. We have six tents set up here and a couple that are deciding between cowboy camping and setting up a tent.

No mosquitoes yet. Everyone jokes it is the Washington taxes keeping them out.

We took the alternative route and saw all the waterfalls. Much of the trail is rough like the Appalachian Trail but the last part was more of a roadwalk.

Finally saw the Bridge of the Gods. We cross that into Washington tomorrow.

Had second breakfast and later a burger. That was it for my appetite.

The hiker crowd at the RV park is great. Endless hot showers. Laundry. Probably take off around 5:30 tomorrow.

Possible lightning/fire tomorrow—but only to the south. Washington awaits us without fires.

Portland to Sandy to Timberline Lodge at 2097.9. We got a noon start and some good miles.

The lodge is historic and currently has a lift open and the upper slopes running. The lodge is in the middle.

We saw a lot of day hikers. Probably as many as we saw on the entire trail before August 6.

We reached a campsite at 2112.4 and started sleep early. Late, after dark, Win invited a couple to share the campsite. They were kind of confused and really needed to camp. They put up their Double Rainbow and immediately went to sleep.

We were on the trail at 5:31 am and left them sleeping.

We took the Eagle Creek Trail to see the waterfalls. Well worth the trip. Timberline is 37.1 miles back.

We had planned to go a little further but those campsites are full and none had good reviews.

Win spotted this one that is beautiful.

A couple going SOBO asked if they could just sit a while. Win invited then to use the other tent site on the other side of a large log.

They had gone further South because of the congestion. While there are some beautiful views of waterfalls and deep gorges further south, it is a ways to a place to tent.

Last night we just had cold food for dinner to escape the mosquitoes that suddenly came out. I ate mostly nutter butter cookies. Tonight we had mashed potatoes and beef jerky with electrolytes for dessert and appetizers.

Tomorrow we will get up early, eat some breakfast and head in to Cascade Locks. Then we begin Washington.

Funny. The best thing in Oregon was seeing my brother. But I’m excited to finish a state.

On the Appalachian Trail that is more common. The PCT has only three states and they use different benchmarks here. But I’ll have finished a state.

First real injury. I fell and had my little finger on my left hand trapped in a hole. Dislocated it to a right angle. Immediately popped it back. Used some Tylenol this morning and ibuprofen this evening as an anti inflammatory.

I will see how it goes tomorrow.

I’m pleased with my pants. They help with the scrapes and bruises. The trail was rough today. Climbed under blowdowns at least six times. Two miles of pretty steep Appalachian Trail style trail to start off the Eagle Creek Trail. There is a smoother route. It adds seven miles to skip two (net of five extra miles).

It was rough but not that rough. My fall happened on a normal stretch.

I’ve never had a dislocation like this. Yes. I find it stressful.

Otherwise I’m missing yesterday’s post. I spent some real time and effort editing it.

Timberline still has a ski lift running and people are still skiing the higher runs. Quite the historic lodge.

As Happy 6 said “now it is August, Spring has finally arrived.” Some snow patches, lots of nicely flowing water.

Been a beautiful day so far, even if we got what was really a noon start.

More day hikers than I’ve seen on the rest of the trail put together. (ok. Slight exaggeration when I wrote this, true by the time I edited it). Really beautiful.

Though there were parts of the trail I had to Tarzan and there were several steep verticals that started to slow me down on the last uphill water carry. We had one ford of a stream and some more crossings.

We hiked to a peak top campsite. Mike 2112.4. Got water at a stream and carried five liters a mile and a half to where we stopped.

With the mosquitoes that suddenly started to swarm around 6:00 we decided on a cold dinner. I had two packages of nutter butter cookies and called it a day until later when I had water and some more.cookies and a protein bar.

The cookies were no where near as tasty as the sandwich Kris (my sister-in-law packed me for lunch. That was like manna.

We are in a tent site near the trail. It is fun to see hikers walk by. But we put the door out eventually so we could change clothes. Then folded it back for ventilation.

Napped for a bit. Now back to sleep.

Timberline is 14.52 miles back. Cascade Locks is 35.2 ahead. We made the fourteen miles I hoped for and more. We have water filtering and chemically treated and are ready for the morning.