Bend to Cascade Locks

I'm feeling structured this week so am going to provide some sections! This blog will cover four main topics:
1. Our bender in Bend
2. Miles
3. Staying sane while doing the miles
4. Hodge podge

1. The bender in Bend

So our last blog post mentioned that we'd arrived in Bend, and had even stopped by a brewfest. It also mentioned that we were struggling with boredom on the trail and needed to refresh a bit. Well, we figured out a way: just stay in Bend. We ended up staying in Bend for four days. Maybe more. Let's just say it's lucky we didn't move into one of the craftsman houses we saw advertised for 250K (SF prices, these are not!).

In hiker terms, we did a nearo, zero, zero, nearo. A zero is when you do zero miles. A nearo is when you do "near zero" but at least get a few miles in - when you get to town before lunch, or maybe leave in the late afternoon. Usually, when hikers arrive in town, they do a single nearo or maybe if they're feeling crazy, a zero, then hit the trail again. Instead, we basically took four full days off. That's what a delicious brew fest will do for you.



Just what these tired hikers need.

And the best part was getting to spend the last day with Amber and Adam! Wonderful friends from the desert, Amber and Adam are perpetually a day or two behind us - so close, but we never get to see them. Thankfully, once we settled in hard to Bend....they caught up!! Amber has been struggling with some serious plantar fasciitis since we met them, back around mile 150 (imagine walking 1850 miles on an injured foot....Amber is amazing). She and Adam had just made the incredibly difficult decision to suspend their thru hike at mile ~2,000 and finish up the rest next year, when she has had a chance to heal. So it was a bittersweet moment, and only one way to commemorate: back to the brew fest! After tasting some great brews, we had a delicious Mexican dinner (highlight: after ordering almost everything on the menu, the waitress jokingly asked us if we'd had enough food. Adam sincerely responded "no." We then went to Safeway for a second course of donuts, ice cream, and other hiker treats), then a sleepover at the Sisters Inn. The next day, after several more gargantuan meals, Amber and Adam drove us back to the trailhead where we said goodbye with lots of hugs and promises to visit in Montana next summer.



Until 2017!

2. Miles.

As we looked ahead to the next section, we realized an unfortunate consequence of the bender in Bend.... To get to the next stop and pick up our resupply box before the post office closed for the weekend, we'd have to do 150 miles in 4.5 days. That's an average of 33 per day. Ooof. Time to start walkin'! We laughed as we remembered how we used to whine about days over 20 miles. We laughed as we thought about how we used to sit in front of a laptop all day. We laughed as we thought about being in business school and our whole life was an extended Bend visit. And then we pounded our feet down the trail. All day. Break for lunch? Make it quick. Break for a snack? Eat while you walk. See a cool campsite? Can't stop until it's completely dark. In the tent, my feet and legs throbbed so much that I had difficulty sleeping through the night. But we did it! Never have I been so happy to walk through the door of a post office.



Lava fields outside Bend



Golden hour



Mount Jefferson - awesome to walk around for a morning. Jefferson Park is really beautiful.



Oregon alpenglow, not bad



Old school PCT trail marker

I have shared with Justin, and now I share with you all: I do not want to hike beyond the hours of 6 am to 8 pm anymore. Apparently public commitments work better than internal ones, so please help me stay accountable. #smilesnotmiles



More golden hour



We ran into a guy wearing a FedEx uniform on a day hike. Apparently his route takes him near Mt Jefferson so he often goes on a lunch break hike. Saw his truck later at the trailhead. So inspiring!



Getting cold in the mornings!



Another Mt Jefferson shot



Majestic trailhead




Justin has staged two two gu packets and a bag of popcorn in his backpack snack pouch (intended for a single granola bar). Hiker hunger is real.

3. Staying sane while doing the miles

Doing those kinds of miles, day after day, was hard. I would wake up in the morning and my first thought was typically a variation on: I can't wait for today to be over so I can be lying down again. I recognize that we are on a ridiculously amazing honeymoon, that we elected to do this journey (and made significant sacrifices to free up the time and resources), that my life is pretty much incredible, and that I'm going to miss the trail desperately in just a few weeks. All of those rational thoughts aside, all I could think about was how great sitting down is...and how even better lying down is. So to get through the section, we went even deeper into some trail pastimes. We made a playlist, titled "What's another 650 miles?" and played this on repeat (songs of the moment: "Ballad of Oregon" by River City Extension for Jenny and "As We Enter" by Nas & Damian Marley for Justin). We bought an Audible account and listened raptly to our first book: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (a must read for every American. Except that Real Housewife who thought the Underground Railroad was a real train, as this book will just confuse her). We went deep into podcasts (NPR Politics still a favorite, though the NYT politics podcast "The Run Up" also excellent. Also really enjoying going deep into the archives of "Another Round with Heben and Tracy" and the now sadly defunct "State of the Re:Union").

And, on Wednesday, we got the greatest pick-me-up of all Oregon.... TIMBERLINE LODGE!! Timberline sits in the shadow of Mount Hood and is an incredible WPA-built lodge. FDR, what a guy! We arrived around 7:30 pm and got to watch Mt Hood go dark with the setting sun, while we sipped Moscow mules in copper cups and ate fondue. Remember that pity party I was having last paragraph? You're right, it was undeserved and I'm the luckiest. We slept in a campsite right next to the lodge and then hit the AYCE buffet breakfast the next morning. AYCE is an important acronym for thru hikers. It's like a dog whistle, and brings in all the hikers within 50 miles. We drank coffee, tea, smoothies, waffles, pancakes, croissants, eggs, potatoes, and a bunch of breakfast meats (Justin only). Then we went back for seconds. Then we hiked another 30 miles. We were really tired because a) the buffet and b) it had been a super windy night and we'd actually gotten up and moved our tent around 2:30 am to a more sheltered spot. The wind was blasting the tent so hard that the "ceiling" was smacking us in the face, tossing around our belongings inside the tent (a half-filled water bottle got picked up and knocked me in the face), and worrying us that the poles would break. Come on, Wind! Don't you know lying down is my favorite part of the day? Don't ruin it for me!



Suddenly we turned a corner and BAM! There's Mount Hood looking all amazing and huge.



Timberline Lodge and me looking like a gnome.



Moscow Mules to celebrate the miles



Inside the Lodge. We will be back.

4. Hodge Podge

A. We're looking for book suggestions for our new audible account! Want to prove you've read all the way to the bottom of the blog? Send us a book rec!

B. In Memoriam: Cajon Pass McDonalds. There have been two major wildfires on the Southern California section of the trail this year, devastating large sections for future hikers. The most recent fire, the Blue Cut Fire, burned down the beloved McDonalds at Cajon Pass last week. This place is a mirage in the desert, a beacon of civilization, joy, and free water in an otherwise challenging and bleak section of desert trail. We are so grateful to this McDonalds for opening itself up to dirty hikers year after year, giving us free water and an air conditioned spot to hang out as the heat of the day passes over. We hope you rebuild and that all of your employees - who were so kind to us - are safe.

C. Eagle Creek alternate trail! Most PCT hikers take this alternate down into the Columbia River Gorge because, well, it's incredible. If you're ever in Portland, it's worth the drive + day hike! The trail goes behind a waterfall!!
















D. Oh yeah, and we finished the state of Oregon. Today, we start our third and final state! Washington, here we come!



Famous ice cream in Cascade Locks. Despite the size of those cones, we also both got milkshakes. Because hiker hunger.



Justin's legs pre shower.



And us in front of mount hood so your lasting memory is not of Justin's dusty-as-heck legs.

Crater Lake to Bend

Last you heard from us we were happily eating hash browns in the front country majesty of Crater Lake National Park's Mazama Village. (Funnily enough when you are thruhiking a "campground" with a store and restaurant in a national park is in fact a "town" stop. When you have access to outlets, cold beverages and omelets you are most definitely in town, in the front country.) We have since made it 160 miles north to the beer capital of Bend, OR, which true to form kicked off a brew fest the day we arrived. Winning. But before we made it here, we had some run ins with boredom, fire closures, alternates and finally some epic scenery.



Mazama Village isn't exactly situated with a gorgeous overlook of Crater Lake, and by the time we hiked up the thousand feet to the edge of the crater it was nearly 5pm. We decided to hike out on a PCT alternate trail, the Rim Trail around Crater Lake to take in the views, and camp early so that we could wake up to see the sunrise over the lake. The National Park has strict no camping rules up on the rim of the lake itself, which hikers are known to flout regularly by stealth bivvying far from roads.



As rule-abiding hikers, we looked into legal camping options and decided to stay at Lightning Spring, a little site with water a few miles into the 12 mile alternate, and also the only spot with water in 25+ miles once we returned to the trail. Feeling very pleased with ourselves that we'd only have another three miles to hike until dark, we bought a bottle of wine and $1.99 opener, poured it into a Gatorade bottle and gave the opener to a tourist from Mt. Shasta. We ambled around the start of hike, taking lots of pictures and enjoying ourselves. By the time we approached the turn-off for Lightning Spring it was nearly 7:30pm, and there was a problem: orange tape over the trail with the sign "closed" due to operations around the Bybee Fire that had been recently put under control nearby.














At this point, a short aside: it's nearly impossible for thruhikers to follow all rules in every park we cross into because we simply cannot get the latest information. Most of the time the little signboards with pieces of paper are hopelessly out of date (though not always), and we don't have cell service. Typically this is only an issue with the ever changing fire regulations, and we defer heavily towards no campfires unless its freezing outside, extremely clear that we can make them, and/or it's raining. However, in this case we hadn't seen any information about a closure on the public information boards in Mazama or Rim Village, hadn't seen any information on our PCT apps (Halfmile and Guthooks), and had no cell service at the entrance to the springs. We needed to figure out where to camp and also needed water for the next 25+ miles of hiking. In addition, the good folks at Crater Lake NP do not allow hitchhiking, which meant that following the rules required backtracking several miles to just get water, and then several more to camp. The kicker: a sign on the Rim Trail that said "Road closed at 5pm." To this day we have no idea what it meant given that neither the trail nor the road seemed to in any way be closed. Even if we wanted to follow the rules, we felt thwarted at every turn. No bueno.



Date night = off. Night hike = on. Booya. We got some stealth water, and started the truly scenic night hike around Crater Lake. Besides being bummed that we were missing out on the epic scenery and not enjoying the delicious Pinot Gris - Crater Lake vintage, night hiking that close to the thousand plus foot drop around the rim of Crater Lake was not what we had hoped to sign up for. It ended up being an eerie and memorable hike. Dozens of cars kept driving around the Rim Road late at night, parking in pull-outs -- presumably to see the sunrise in the morning or because they couldn't find a place to stay, and generally making us question whether we too could sleep in parking lots or whether only cars had that privilege. We made it the remaining 8 miles to the Grouse Hill campsite just before 11pm having kicked it into gear.

Sunset from stealth water


Going down


Night hiking


The next day, we woke up super late and began to be overwhelmed by the boredom of the north-end of Crater Lake National Park, a flat expanse with thinning trees that provided no shade from the sun. It was hot and dry again with dust turning our legs black. When we looked forward to the next 50 miles we saw several 16+ mile stretches without water, and only small sitting ponds to fill up in. We were not thrilled. At the last flowing creek in a while we were chatting with other hikers and learned about a magnificent thing: the Oregon Skyline Trail, an alternate to the PCT with much better water access. Yes, please. We camped early that night 24 miles into the day near a pretty overlook of a nearby valley.

You can sort of get a sense of how dry it is


Harder to tell from above


Mount Thielsen


Blue ridges in the distance


The PCT high point in OR and WA... 6,000 feet below CA


The next day we started the alternate, which we would take until we reached Crescent Lake, a big enough lake to attract water enthusiasts in the area. Unfortunately, the map pages for this alternate were not in our possession (it turns out they we had unhelpfully put them in the next resupply) and the signs from the trail to the campground by the lake were anything but clear. We hit a wall of mosquitos, took several wrong paths, I ran half a mile up the road, and an hour or so later we stumbled into the campground. We set up camp away from the crowd of hikers there -- the alternate was popular -- and called it a night.

Green tunnel


Lakes taunting us in the distance


Filling up in a pond


It was a short 12 miles from Crescent Lake to Shelter Cove, where our next resupply box was, and we got up early for the first time in a while to make sure that we could wash our clothes and charge our devices without zeroing. On our way back to the trail we spooked a horse, which jumped up on its hind legs, got untied from a trailer and started making a ruckus. Once the owner calmed the horse down and tied him back up, we had to walk through a gauntlet of a half-dozen horses. It's one way to wake up in the morning. The hike took us along the beautiful Trapper Creek, while we talked about making the outdoors a consistent part of our normal lives.

Still a tunnel


Reflection of Diamond Peak


Shelter Cove was an unexpected surprise: a beautiful set of log cabins on the shore of Odell Lake, with a general store, Adirondack chairs around a flagpole with the American flag, and a refreshing breeze. It felt like summer camp. We plugged in our devices, put in laundry and showered within the first 20 minutes of arriving. It turns out, however, that a lot of other hikers are truly disinterested in both showering and doing laundry at the same rate as us. We like to wash our clothes and shower at least once every 80 miles or so, otherwise we start to feel particularly grimy. Other hikers seem to be content to wait for 160 miles or more. I don't get it. Showering is so great. It's a favorite part of life.

The charging situation


The waiting game


Hiker trash loves the magazines


The entrance to the resort


Even though we arrived around 10am we had to kick it until 5-6pm when UPS arrived to deliver Aidan's care package for us. The downside of being ahead of schedule is that we had to drink a six pack of beers and read in Adirondack chairs. The price we pay. It felt downright like vacation. When the package arrived early at 4pm we were delighted to see an US Weekly for Jenny, salt and vinegar chips, dark chocolate with orange, and lemonade drink mix. Definitely winning.



We hiked out a couple of miles and camped on a gorgeous spot overlooking the Rosary Lakes. The mosquitoes agreed with our choice, and decided to join us for dinner. They were not welcomed guests, and they decided to continue harassing us the next day through camp the next night at Cliff Lake.

Rosary lakes in the distance


In the morning


Burn area


Moon rising


As we got into Three Sisters Wilderness area the mosquitoes began to disappear and the scenery began to get epic. Sisters is a volcanic area with glaciated peaks, and thinning trees. In other words, we were finally out of the green, mosquito-infested tunnel of Southern Oregon and into some wide-open mountainous wonderland. It felt like Argentine Patagonia, and we couldn't have been happier to be there. We walked through a singular spot, the Obsidian Basin, in the midst of the wilderness area. It's a special use permit area that the PCT goes through, and besides having obsidian everywhere, including a beautiful waterfall, it feels like the landscape is out of a movie. It would be an incredible place to explore on its own. That night we feasted on mac and cheese and a dehydrated package of creme brulee. Yum.

Getting epic


Patagonia?


Soaking it in


Trucking


Meadows!


A sister


Epic hiking shadows


Obsidian waterfall


Sierra-like stream


Laying down to get water


Mountains ahead with Mt Jefferson on the right and Mt Hood in the far distance


South Matthieu Lake


The last few miles of trail to Highway 242 at McKenzie Pass felt like we were on a Martian volcano, lots of red, grey and black volcanic rock tearing at our shoes. We had been corresponding with UberDucky, a trail angel, since Shelter Cove to organize a ride from the Pass to Bend. UberDucky picked us up around 10am along with two other hikers he dropped in Sisters (the town). A huge Oregon Ducks fan, he is not in fact an Uber driver, just an uber fan and a wonderfully kind man.











We started the tour of Bend's beer right after showers, because a PSA: showers are wonderful treasures, and everyone should appreciate them... in moderation when droughts are involved. Our first stop: Silver Moon, a brewery recommended by Gourmet that happened to be right across the street from a laundromat, where we (gasp) did laundry again. After we finished there, we had an unexpected delight and surprise: Jenny's friend Emily's brother, Jerry was here in Bend. We met up with him and his girlfriend at the Brew Fest down by the river, and spent several hours sitting in the grass, drinking beer and talking about managing the tension between academic / corporate life and being outside.

Leaving Three Sisters Wilderness


Milk!


Slurpees!


Floating down the Deschutes River


Food trucks


Brew fest


Night time


The day ended with a food truck dinner, more beer and a late night run across the street to Safeway. Have I mentioned my craving for milk these days?