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.