Hiking through Lionshead

Day 106

Camped over the ridge from Mt Jefferson view

26.1 miles

Today we got to be one of the first thruhikers of this year to legally walk through the recently opened Lionshead fire closure from 2020. On Friday, the PCTA announced the Mt Hood wilderness area had reopened their section of the trail. The first time since the fire in 2020. We are very grateful to the firefighters, trail crews, and advocates who worked hard to get this part of the trail open.

The first part of the day was through a thick shaded fir forest with some ridge top sweeping views of Mount Jefferson. Then the burn area scars became more prevalent. Thankfully, the really exposed and hot sections weren’t too long. We did have one intense river crossing at the Russell Creek. This creek is formed from run off from two glaciers higher up Mount Jefferson. It goes through a narrow canyon so the water is faster and deeper than necessary. After rock stepping across we emerged with semi wet feet.

The last part of the day was a 3000 foot climb. It has been awhile since we have had to do that long of a climb. At the top of the ridge, the view of Mount Jefferson was phenomenal and we could see the crevices on the glacier. It was a big challenging to find a campsite on the other side of the ridge without dead trees or a wind tunnel. But finally I am warm in my sleeping bag and feeling sleep tug at my eyelids.

Back to trail!

Day 105

Camped at Wasco lake

Hiked 10.7 miles

Today was filled with the process of returning to trail. We had to drop off the rental car at the Redmond airport since they were open on Sundays. It was great to hang out in the airport for awhile to charge our devices. I never realized how perfect airports are for hikers! Bathrooms, outlets, drinking fountains, and restaurants, all while indoors and air conditioned! Then we took an Uber to the town of Sisters, OR. The farmers market was going on in the town square and there was a booth with gluten free dairy free pastries and it was heaven. So far Oregon has had fantastic food in all the towns! There we met Mick who gave us a ride to trailhead. Thanks Mick!

The trail was exposed and warm for the first couple of miles but soon cooled off in evening. It felt great to be back to the trail with 653 miles remaining, but also the body felt sore and not wanting to move. After a good dinner, we headed to bed.

Day 104

Double zero!

At PCT days in Cascade Locks, OR

Staying on Thunder Island overnight during PCT days is not for everyone. We had decided to stay one night and then drive out of town to a trailhead for the second night. Frankly, I am not sure if anyone got much sleep last night on the island. It was lively with people playing games and hanging out late into the night hours. I was super tired so I watched some Netflix in the tent, then put in my ear plugs and went to sleep. This morning, everyone was quite much longer than a usually trail morning. I could sleep in longer and was grateful for that.

We had to strategize which booths and giveaways we would attend today. A lot of the gear companies at trail days were giving away cool things and we won some good stuff. It was fun to attend a presentation by a previous thruhiker and veteran. We even saw a friend and fellow AT class of 19 hiker!

After the whole thing ended, we hopped in the car to take off feeling powerful to actually have a form of transportation other than our feet! We hit up Taco Bell and than a random trailhead to sleep before returning the car in the morning.

PCT Days

Day 103

Zero miles!

Drove up to Cascade Locks for the first day of Trail Days

Instead of walking many miles today, we drove many miles! It is hard to fathom how we drove in three hours (ish) what it will take us about a week to hike. It was hard to sit still in one place for three hours and it was a strange feeling to be driving after not for four months.

We knew we had arrived in Cascade Locks when we saw the crowds of people. On a usual day, Cascade Locks has a very small population. Today it has surged with hundreds of hikers, gear company people, and tourists. Kevin and I drove us here with Pebbles and Shuffles. We have seen a few people we haven’t seen in quite a few miles here at trail days. We wanted to get here early enough for Sawyer’s (a gear company for water filters), we got caught in traffic but still went to their booth to check if we had missed their trivia give away because we had studied for their trivia questions! Sadly, we missed the giveaway but one employee still told us the trivia questions to see if our studying paid off. In the end, they gave all of us t-shirts and filters! Sawyer is one of the most generous and supportive gear companies! We were going to buy new filters anyways but we’re so grateful for their generosity.

Big Lake Youth Camp

Day 102

22 miles

Lunch at Big Lake Youth Camp, trail magic and stayed at the Bunk and Brew hostel in Bend

Today was a very full day! We hiked as quick as we could through the morning to get to the Big Lake Youth Camp by 1pm when their lunch buffet opened! This camp is so kind to open their doors to hikers. They allow hikers to eat with their staff, do laundry, take showers, and have a PCT hang out house. We were doing pretty well on time to finish 16.5 miles before 1pm, until we reached the lava fields. The trail was so rocky with ankle turning baseball size rocks. After that it was small tiny rocks or sand while going uphill so it felt like I was taking one step and falling back two. I was so glad to be done with those painful miles even though it was wild imagining what the molten lava flow would have looked like as we crossed the miles and miles of rocks.

After we left the camp, we ran into some trail magic! We stopped and ate more food with a section hiker and her husband! She had just finished her hike and her husband picked her up to go camping and do some trail magic! They were super nice people and it was fantastic to eat two real meals back to back!

Finally, we got going again to finish the 3.7 miles to the road. There we crossed the 2000 miles marker! It felt surreal to reach this marker, in awe that we have walked here! But also because we have missed 218 miles in northern Cali so actual walked miles is closer to 1800. Either way, it is a long ways.

At the road, we spent about fifteen minutes with our thumbs out until a car turned around and came back for us! It ended up being a previous thru hiker back in the area for work. She is a dam safety inspector which I thought sounded fascinating. We needed to get about forty miles into Bend which is a long ways so the first hitch dropped us off half way in Sisters.

After another fifteen minutes of hitching, a huge earth cruiser overland truck camper thing pulled over and brought us the rest of the way to the hostel in Bend. The driver said he had a friend who had done the triple crown so he tries to pick up hikers whenever he can. Usually people who pick us up all have some connection to the trail community.

When we arrived to the hostel, I knew immediately it wasn’t mostly PCT hikers because I said hello to someone and they completely ignored me. Most hikers always say hello, the non hiker world was rude to the system! It was very fun, however, to visit Bend and stay in a neat hostel! We are prepared for our day tomorrow heading up for trail days! After a few days of feeling a dead end when figuring out how to get to trail days, we finally have a ride! Trail days is the big festival with hikers and tons of gear companies, lots of free stuff and fun times!

Three Sisters Wilderness

Day 101

26.7 miles

Camped in lava field at mile 1978.6

Day three of rain on trail

What a day! Today by 10am we had hiked five miles. Yesterday by that time we had hiked ten. Just goes to show how each day out hiking is so different from another. Today we started a bit later and also stopped at the top of the first climb to use the cell service and try to figure out someway to get to trail days. We have been working on this for awhile and are still without a solution. It seemed today as if none of the details are coming together so we need to pivot and instead just stay in Bend. I have been curious and wanted to check out both Bend and Portland which we may not be able to do if we go to trail days. Just based in timing and wanting to get through Washington before the rain and snow.

Later in the day yesterday we entered the Three Sisters Wilderness. Today I believe we saw many fine gems of the wilderness! We passed through high meadows, burn areas, giant lava flows of huge boulders and also tiny pebbles. We also went through an obsidian field and what is called Obsidian Falls. A lovely waterfall where we stopped for water and a break. Obsidian is one of my favorite rocks. It is so shiny because it has cooled so fast from being molten lava into rock on the earths surface. On the east coast, they have found obsidian from many far away places that was used for currency or sharp arrow heads and knives. Walking through fields of that being the primary rock was a neat experience.

Near the end of the day it started to rain on us as we started up an exposed twisty switchbacked section of trail. The path was so sandy and slippery it felt like a losing battle trying to get to the top. It looked like Mordor. But it was also very neat and we watched the sunset from the ridge. After a long day, I was so happy to get into camp and discuss our trail day ride fiasco with Shuffles and Semi. Either way, I am happy to go into town tomorrow and hopefully eat fresh food. Nothing in my food bag is appetizing anymore.

Elk Lake

Day 100

25 miles – 2.4 off trail miles to collect our box from Elk Lake- 27.4 total

Camped at junction to Elk Lake

We began our morning pretty early so we would have enough time to get to the Elk Lake resort. Their post on Far Out didn’t have any hours listed so we were just hoping they would be open when we arrived. The miles passed pretty quickly as I finished up the third Harry Potter book. The terrain was also mostly flat, tree covered, and well graded. There wasn’t any smoke like the day before which was pretty thick for maybe five miles. The mosquitoes definitely came out to play though.

We made it to the shop at the resort at 5:20 and they were open until 6pm. We got some snacks, cold soda, and our box!

Back to the trail

Day 99

19.6 miles

Camped at 1927.5 at LNT site

Today is Kevin’s birthday! Before we changed our plans to do the walk around the fire, we were going to be at the Elk Lake resort for his birthday. They have a restaurant there and Kevin was really excited for that on his birthday. Then we decided to do the walk around and he resigned himself to just getting our box the day after and maybe getting a soda since the day we will be to Elk Lake now, the restaurant is closed. Well, since we stayed in the tent sites at the Odell Lake resort, we could get breakfast at their diner restaurant and have warm coffee before heading out to hike! It was a great breakfast!

To get to the trail, we needed to hitchhike about five miles down this very busy road to the trailhead. From the south side of the road, the trail was closed. From the northern side, we can keep hiking!

Our group split up since it is easier to hitch hike in smaller numbers. Most of us got rides right away but Ash and Blue had to walk about three miles of the road first before getting a ride. They kindly gave the first hitch to us since it is Kevin’s birthday.

It was so nice to be back on the actual PCT again! Just one soft dirt path taking us north! The trees were huge along the trail and the lichen seemed to glow on their trunks! We passed several lakes today which were beautiful.

We are trying to figure out our rides to trail days (the PCT festival). And all of our miles before then.

Lake Odell

Day 98

25? Miles

Second day hiking around the Windigo fire

Camped at Odell Lake Resort Campground

The group decided to hike out at 6:15am this morning. It was quite chilly though maybe not as near freezing point as yesterday. We started hiking pretty fast since we all were chilly. Today we planned to hike all together again to make sure no one got lost and we could all compare maps again. Pretty soon into the morning it became quite hot. The rest of the day it felt very warm and I was very grateful to have my sun umbrella still. Today on the two track roads we saw quite a few cars and ATVs. At lunch by a creek, a couple of gentlemen who were four wheeling stopped to talk with us about the fire and how we are getting around it. They even offered us a ride to the campground we were going to for dinner. In the end we turned them down since we are walking these miles as part of our journey to Canada.

As we walked, I finished listening to “Britt-Marie was here”. Another Fredrick Backman book! It was phenomenal as always. He is such a great author because he draws a reader into the story with real descriptions of emotions and feelings while being so realistic about life.

We finally made it to the resort and campground! About half way through our day we had looked up the menu for the restaurant here. This helped us walk a bit faster and steady through the afternoon. I don’t think this place gets a lot of PCT hikers since it isn’t a common resupply spot and not quite near the trail. But they seemed to know we were hikers and not dirty people just passing through. A few of the other people at the restaurant came over and talked to us about our journey. In the end, someone paid for all seven of our checks after we had a lovely meal there. We were all so grateful and that was so unexpected!

The view from the porch of the restaurant

Our original plan for post-dinner was to get to the highway and hitch hike up to the Willamette trailhead so we would have to road walk in the dark. That is dangerous. But after a happy meal, we decided to inquire about the campsites here and save the hitch for the morning. It ended up only being a few dollars a person to stay near the beautiful Lake Odell. The campsite is on the shore and the waves will sing us to sleep. Then in the morning for Kevin’s birthday we can go get some breakfast and warm coffee! This walk around the fire closure has been an adventure of a different kind and has really been a good change of pace for a bit.

Windigo fire walk around

Day 97

27? Miles

Hwy 138 to a few miles outside of Chemult

Hiking around the forest fire

Today is the first day of our two day walk around of the fire closure. We camped at the water cache at the two track we took around the closure boundary.

All seven of us decided to stick together while hiking today and tomorrow so we could compare maps and decipher the way to go. When the PCTA gave this reroute suggestion, they made it sound terrible, dry, hot, and used the phrases “you are on your own out there” and “expert backpacking experience and navigation required”. So we take that with a grain of salt but definitely downloaded our maps and did our research. Kevin has his topographical map app still so he routed a path on there and I downloaded google maps offline which still told me my location even in airplane mode. So we will be fine, it is also all within twenty miles of a highway so we can always bail if we need to.

As we all walked together, it was really fun to talk and share stories about our times on the trail so far. The morning was pretty chilly and Semi said his thermometer was just above freezing this morning. I had been quite cold last night so I might have to get a sleeping bag liner when we get to Washington. As the afternoon wore on, it got really hot. The one stream we crossed I fell off a log and got my feet wet. So my blisters came back by the end of the day unfortunately.

In the afternoon, we reached the highway and our eight mile road walk. The highway had a wide shoulder so we could be away from the traffic but the road was hot and the cars loud. We took a break at a roadside stop and got water there. Then continued on to the small town, a few gas stations, a campground, and restaurant. We got a bit more food at the Pilot station so we have enough food to get to Elk Lake where our next box is.

As some of our group walked past the restaurant, the owner came out and told us we could charge our phones there and get water. So after resupply we went there for food, drinks, and some electricity. Then we headed out of town. Since it is harder to decipher how many miles we have gone on our maps, we just decided to walk til 8pm and then stop for the night. We found a good spot for all five of our tents and fell right asleep.