Month: August 2022

Yesterday we got to my brother’s place in Portland. It was/is great to see him. That means we did not spend much time at all in Bend.

Today we took a trip to the beach and yesterday went to dinner at a place I really enjoyed. We also did some shopping and packed up seven+ days of food to mail to Muir Ranch in buckets. The goal was high calorie density so this is not the most tasty resupply I’ve done.

We did some replacement gear shopping. I needed new pants that fit. The 34-30s I had were really too big now.

REI allows you to choose to buy online and then pick up the gear you bought in a store. This lets you check to see what is in stock before you get there.

The REI nearest my brother had 30-30 Sahara pants available when I checked. When I went to buy on line for when we arrived it then said they were not in stock.

We decided to visit so I could just get whatever would fit. At this point I was just willing to get whatever product would fit. Surprise, they had the pants I wanted in my size in stock again (but only one pair). I grabbed them.

So I now have brand new pants that fit. ??. Win has a new pair of ininji toe socks. I was going to buy the thermarest thermacell mosquito repellent but they were sold out. They were also sold out of all chemical mosquito repellent.

Looks like I will leave my hiking shorts behind and replace the pants I got from the hiker box (new, with tags on them even when I got them) but I have shrunk out of. I’ve been wearing my new pants for two days now and like them.

The color wasn’t my first (or second) choice but it was what they had. I’m getting used to it. Heck, I like it now. Especially compared to the alternative (either no pants or heavier, more expensive pants).

I will probably replace my current shoes in Seattle but I’m happy with them other than how much wear and tear the first couple hundred miles have put on them.

Tonight I lukotape my heels, repair a gaiter and get ready for sunrise. I will also clean up my food bag. We have a resupply box where we are going and only two days to the next stop.

We go back to the trail tomorrow, north of the fires. We will be in Washington shortly and then the Sierras to finish and head south towards Campo.

Getting excited to start hiking again. Grateful to my brother for this visit.

We had a late morning. We ended up packing up around 6:00 with the temperature around 39 degrees. We then started looking for a hitch to Bend. A man whose brother is hiking the PCT with the ashes of his dead wife picked us up just outside of Elk Lake and dropped us at the bus station in Bend about 8:00 am. We were so grateful.

In Bend we found out that there are only two transits to Portland a day. A bus at 7:00 and a shuttle at 8:30. Nothing else.

The 7:00 had been oversold and the 8:30 was sold out. Since the shuttle does take walk ups for cancellations and such so we decided to roll the dice and see if we could get lucky with seats.

It turned out that two people had double reserved seats. With those voided there were two free seats and room for us. We are now on the road to Portland where we will see my brother and then be able to head back to the trail.

Two people signed up twice, which left spaces for us. Otherwise no transit to Portland until tomorrow morning and both providers were kind of sold out.

Our original plan had us camping a mile from one of the current arc of seven fires that just sprang up.

So. Win could smell smoke and we were in forest and could not get a clear view. Then we broke out into this zone and could see smoke across the sky.

Then we pinged the InReach fire line. Seven fires in range pinged back.

So. Instead of hiking on to our planned campsite (which is a mile from the current edge of one of the fires) we dropped down to Elk Lake.

We are reassessing.

At least there are a number of other hikers here we can talk with and good internet access.

But we are being safe and not taking risks.

Elk Lake had a great restaurant. They close their shower access at 7:00 pm and do not reopen until 9:00 am. They oversold showers, so none for us.

They have 4-5 campsites for PCT hikers. No sharing (the new franchise holder, who wants to be called the owner of this national forest service campground, has decided to bring hikers under control).

Felt sorry for the employees. They were very uncomfortable especially since they had been told to tell hikers to just go across the road and camp in the woods. No real flat and safe campsites there.

Luckily, the guys who got the campsites yogied a ride to Bend and gave the slips to another hiker who gave one to us. So we were able to take down our cowboy camp and move into the much safer campground.

I went up and got Win’s backpack and the sleeping bags and tent while she rested and tried to recover from the pork nachos she ate.

I had a cheeseburger and no problems.

We shared our campsite with our trail children: Squeezy and Sunnyside. Kept under the two tent limit per site, though since they shut down at 7:00 and don’t start until 9:00 the management only saw the campsites completely empty.

It was an easy early morning start. We started from the park headquarters where the rest room and the road out of Shelter Cove both are.

Gandalf followed us to the trail to avoid getting lost as he had not hiked in.

The trail is interesting right now. The Forest Service was right. Lightning started some fires—one dramatic that a heavy micro burst of rain put out. One smoldering in the PCT campground at Shelter Cove that some hikers put out with water bottles.

But we went from an artificial bubble of over a hundred hikers to a lot less. Most did not wait the full day. Many caught rides to the city of Bend.

A very large group coordinated room sharing in Bend and several large groups set up travel from Bend to Cascade Locks. I listened into one group of close to sixty people coordinating that approach. Talked with others.

Some of those skipping wanted no more to do with possible fires. Others looked at the Lionshead closure. The shuttle around that costs around $200. You can get to Bend and then Cascade Locks for less.

Someone keeps pushing a 70 mile walk around the closure. Except it is the same route that goes through different parts of the closed area and includes a very dangerous roadwalk.

With all the maintenance being done right now it is not an area you can sneak through. The people using power tools have to stop when hikers come through. That makes them inspired to call the rangers.

It is also really easy to get to bend right now. Especially with the trail angels coming in and just looking to take carloads to Bend. You also have hikers asking around for people to share a ride to Bend.

So the big group is just looking how Bend to Cascade Locks is the easiest route and what “everyone” is doing.

Other people have never been evacuated or dealt with fires before and were pretty freaked out. They just want away from fire. Finally, so many are getting tired of hiking or of Oregon.

Oregon has few grand vistas. More the same tree and many mosquitoes. It is as if they just took one tree and a copy machine and made a forest.

I find Oregon pretty but it fits the same place as the “green tunnel” fits on the Appalachian Trail.

Back to our hike. Stopping for lunch and our one hour mid-day siesta we got to our planned stop for tonight at 3:00. Shelter Cove is 20.0 miles behind us.

Charlton Lake (1925.1) is beautiful. the Shelter Cove junction at 1906.6 is 1.5 miles up from Shelter Cove. We passed on taking the train tunnel to shave off half a mile as it gets too exciting if a train shows up.

Not to mention all the people who had a negative experience with bushwhacking out the other end.

It has been a beautiful day.

The last five miles were tough. Mostly exposed areas that were filled with blow downs and dead trees.

One stretch had 45 blow downs in fifteen minutes. But I was glad we did the distance from our earlier stop at Carlton Lake. Now we don’t have to deal with that mess in the morning and have what looks like great and easy trail tomorrow. I’ll have earned my sleep tonight.

Really enjoyed dinner. Stuffing mix, chicken, vegetables and olive oil. Some cookies for dessert.

We are making excellent mileage for this stretch and for the food we sent out.

??

Funny story (the hikers involved thought it was funny as did the crowd of evacuated hikers they were talking to). A helicopter dropped this message for some hikers as the efforts continue with the fire and trail closure.

Luckily the forest service figured out that the hikers trailhead was the wrong way and they had no vehicle. The forest service got the couple to Shelter Cove yesterday where the two hikers shared the message they received.

We met the hikers this morning and I took the picture of the bottle.

Currently the heat advisory for this part of the state is supposed to end tonight with a cold front taking over. We are taking a zero at Shelter Cove and waiting out the weather.

As a general rule we try to take one zero (rest day) a month. We got one rest day in June. It may be August 1, but today is our zero or rest day for July. We are taking July’s zest just a day late.

When our zero ends, tomorrow morning we will be up at 5:00 am or so. We have a series of about almost five 20-23 mile days. So tomorrow we start the five day hike to Big Lake Youth Camp.

We have the food we need packaged up and in our bear bags. The excess we have went in the hiker box. Other hikers were glad to get it and it is all gone now.

Our date for BLYC and the Lionshead bypass means that we have about two weeks left in Oregon before we take The Bridge of the Gods and cross out from Cascade Locks and into Washington.

At Cascade Locks we will resupply. Will will also probably also send a bucket of food to our next isolated resupply point (but not our next resupply) in the Sierras. The bucket location requires advance planning and shipping with a long lead time.

After we reach Canada we head back to Tuolumne Meadows in the Sierras. There we will need only two days of food to our next resupply.

That trip south is going to be a long series of bus rides from Seattle to Tuolumne Meadows. But with cooler weather and fewer fires and less smoke than right now it will be a great time to hike the Sierras.

I am very much looking forward to tomorrow.

Equipment notes.

1. Still figuring out where to have my replacement tent storage bag sent. My current bag is wearing out but it isn’t urgent to get the replacement to us.
2. Same for a replacement 5’ x 7’ tyvek groundsheet. Figuring out where to have one sent.
3. At some point I need to replace my pants with 30”x30” pants. My 34” waist pants are really baggy. My new shorts are also now a little big. One properly fitting pair of convertible pants would replace both of them.
4. The Speedgoats (my new shoes) are working out well as are my gaiters. I probably will replace them in Seattle (they will wear out by then), but with just another pair of the same.
5. There are a lot fewer mosquitoes than Oregon usually has. Still too many though. ??
6. Win’s new trail name of “6” fits her well. She remains a gazelle on the rocks too.

The hike is really good. We are enjoying the people and the huge crowd has dropped off. Behind us with the fire at Crater Lake and on the trail hikers are being turned back and shuttling forward.

Going north a lot of hikers have picked up shuttles to Bend or other places to avoid fires or threats of fire or to get around all the closures.

It will all get sorted out by Cascade Locks.

As to fires, with the rain and an end to thunderstorms/lightning strikes the actual fire risk has dropped a lot.

The problem areas are all behind us except for one area where they are cleaning up. But that fire has been out for a year.

PTCA closures updates web page.