Mile 2295.9, Day 141

Day 126 – Day 130 Shelter Cove to Santiam Pass (Sisters/Bend) (8/1– 8/5):

Due to the Windigo Fire, I skipped up from Ashland to Shelter Cove, and I will come back and do that section another time in my life. It’s sad to have to skip such a large chunk of Oregon, but it will be fun to come back and experience it later!

Due to the fires, people have been skipping forward from all different places, so this has been the time of reuniting with old trail friends. I heard someone yell GRACE!!!!! and turned around to see Hilary (Yardy) running towards me on trail. She was my very first friend on trail, and she hiked with Kerrie and I for the first 7 days on trail. I hadn’t seen her in person since then, and it was so great to catch up on the last four months of our lives on trail! Right behind her was Pole Dancer and Scale Down, two friends I met in Big Bear, who went to karaoke and camped with my group for a couple of nights. I hiked with their group for most of this section, which made it so much more fun. Joe and Diana also camped with me for a night, and then I saw them again in Bend.

This section felt like Oregon, The Greatest Hits, and it was beautiful! Most of my days were spent hiking through lush shaded forests with lichen and ponds/lakes EVERYWHERE. That being said, the mosquitos were absolutely killer. The Central Oregon mosquitos are a different breed that seems mostly unaffected by DEET and has a tremendous ability to hang on, no matter how fast I walk. We had frequent ‘DEET drills’ where we would all stop, drop our packs, quickly spray all over ourselves, and then hike on in our cloud of DEET.

The Three Sisters Wilderness was one of my favorite section of the trail so far, we climbed out of the trees and got amazing views of Mt. Bachelor, the Three Sisters, Mt. Washington, and Mt. Jefferson. The worst-mosquito night also had the best views and sunset over Mt. Bachelor and the South Sister, so we forced ourselves from our big-free safe tents in full rain gear to take pictures (and somehow still get a few more mosquito bites).

There was a tough 10-12 mile section hiking on lava rocks (which felt like I was breaking my ankles with every slow, balanced step), but I was rewarded with some amazing trail magic and hitting the 2000 mile marker, all right before getting into town! Talk about a good day. I got a hitch into the town of Sisters from a lovely old lady named Judy with a few other hikers. She started to roll the windows up to turn the AC on and we all said WAIT! We don’t want you to have to smell us, and she replied “I have a husband” and continued rolling up the windows. If that’s not the best Quote of the Day, I don’t know what is.

I spent a zero day in Bend shipping resupply boxes up to Washington, because most of the ‘town’ stops are remote without a grocery store (gas stations or ski resorts). I also got to stay the night at an amazing trail angel’s house and we gave her the trail name Joy. She was so sweet and gave us all hugs on the way out. Flamingo saw this from the car where we were getting a ride around the fire closure and said “we didn’t get hugs when we left the Super 8 Motel!!” The amount of human kindness and generosity that exists around the PCT is mind blowing. It’s something I strive to bring back to my normal life after trail, and I think the whole world should try to emulate. Humans being kind to other humans for nothing in return!

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Day 131 – Day 134 Timothy Lake to Cascade Locks (8/6– 8/9)

Due to the 2021 Lionshead Fire, another section of trail was closed, and I had to skip up to Timothy Lake, in Northern Oregon. I hiked this section with Fiber King (Joe), Wildfoot (Diana), and Hilary (Yardy). We had the most lovely swim and lunch hangout at Timothy Lake, plus a short day with awesome views of Mt. Hood!

In this section we hit one of the most anticipated spots on the PCT: Timberline Lodge which has both a breakfast and lunch buffet! Nothing is more exciting than a buffet literally ON trail. We had been talking about it for at least a week prior. We got there for the lunch buffet and absolutely demolished plates of meat, veggies, and desserts. It was delicious in real-people-not-starving-hiker standards too! Unfortunately, we had to hike again afterwards with uncomfortably full stomachs + hot exposed terrain, and Hilary/Yardy said it best: “this is like hiking in the heat of the day right after eating Thanksgiving dinner”. Somehow we survived and had great views of Mt. Hood all day as we followed the Timberline Trail which circumnavigates Mt. Hood. Joe, Diana, and I got to camp right by Ramona Falls (a common PCT alternate) which was cool! We ate dinner staring at the waterfall like it was our favorite TV show. At the time, it was.

Also in this section was one of the most popular PCT alternates: Tunnel Falls. We got to the falls in the morning and had it to ourselves to explore a bit. Somehow a tunnel was blasted behind the massive waterfall, and so the trail goes kind of through/behind the Tunnel Falls. We were welcomed into the town of Cascade Locks by a 3 mile road walk with wild berries! Cascade Locks is the last town in Oregon as it’s right on the banks of the Columbia River and across the river is Washington. We were so excited to finally get here!

I stayed the night in Portland with my cousin Sage and and her boyfriend Luka, and it was so fun to get to hang out with them! I’d like to come back and visit again with more time.

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Day 135 – Day 138 Cascade Locks to Trout Lake (8/10– 8/13):

Sage and Luka dropped me off at the Bridge of the Gods, and I officially crossed over the Columbia River into Washington! This is quite the iconic waypoint on the PCT, to cross something literally called bridge of the gods and enter the final state of the PCT. I was feeling a little down because I was hiking alone again and intimidated by the elevation gain in Washington, but upon entering Washington there was immediately fresh berries everywhere.

Luckily my first steps in Washington also brought forests and shade, called the green tunnel. It was incredibly humid, but just having shade for the climbs really helped a lot. I came across more old friends from the desert that I hadn’t seen in months: Nico (Dirt), Emily (Big Al), Fat Dog, and Moon. I had one of my best swims of the whole trail with some old and new friends at Blue Lake. It was crystal clear, deep, the perfect temperature, and bugfree- what more could you want!

One downside to all of the fires closures in Oregon and NorCal has been the absolutely massive bubble of hikers who has skipped up to Washington. There are probably 3x the normal amount of hikers around, plus southbound hikers are overlapping with us, so camping has become quite competitive since reaching Northern Oregon and Washington. One quote of the day was Rocky getting into camp out of breath and saying “I hiked as fast as I could all day to make sure I got a camp spot”. It’s a bummer that sometimes we have to sacrifice a break or hanging out at a view to get to camp early enough to get a spot. Hikers have been amazingly creative in jenga-ing as many people as possible into small camp spots.

I did a quick in-and-out resupply in Trout Lake, in order to get a camp spot close to town so that I wouldn’t have to hike too many miles. I had a delicious huckleberry milkshake in town and learned that huckleberries cannot be cultivated, and must be wild picked, which is why they’re in such high demand! All throughout Washington there have often been huckleberries growing along trail which make for a delicious snack.

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Day 139 – Day 141 Trout Lake to White Pass (8/14– 8/16):

Immediately out of Trout Lake we began to get the beautiful views that Washington is known for on the PCT. I hiked very close to Mt. Adams, and could see Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Ranier, and Mt. Hood in the distance.

I joined up with a group for this section and it’s been a blast hanging with them! Flamingo, Classic, Omelette, and Canvas. We wake up around 4:30am, begin hiking around 5:30am by headlamp, and then get to camp early- usually around 5:30-6pm every night. If you know me, this is my JAM! I love getting miles done early and getting to camp early with some time to chill. Then I’m usually asleep by 8:30pm, and wake up the next day to do it all over again.

We entered the stunning Goat Rocks Wilderness and did a popular PCT alternate that goes up near Old Snowy, a mountain peak, for incredible 360 views of Washington, and particularly great views of Mt. Rainier. We hiked the infamous Knife’s Edge, where the trail snakes along a thin spine of the ridgeline with beautiful drop-off views on either side. This day had some of the best views of the whole trail, but was also a very exhausting day and we did less miles than we thought we could do. The elevation gains and losses were very steep and it was on a lot of shale rock that made my ankles feel like they were breaking with every step and required a very slow pace.

The next day we got into White Pass, where I had sent myself a resupply box and I was able to pay for showers and laundry from the convenience store. We headed back out on trail and hiked another 7.5 miles to complete the climb out of town and camp by a nice lake (that had a lot of mosquitos).