August 28

8/28

19 miles (1978 to 1998, hwy 20)

We got up super early to hike into hwy 20 early to meet up with Mary, Ryan and dahlia! We are staying the night in Sisters at our friend Nancy's house. We are so excited to meet with friends and enjoy the comforts of home for possibly the last time on the trail. And of course, baby D!

Tough but beautiful lava walking

August 27

8/27

28 miles (1951 to 1979, dry campsite about 2 miles south of road 242)

Today was beautiful! The trees opened up to show beautiful volcanic landscapes. There were fewer lakes than yesterday but in there place were large mountains, obsidian paths, and lava flows. I'm not really sure what the geologic history of this area is but it seems like it was pretty active at some point. It was a cool area and I couldn't stop taking pictures, the smoke even cleared out a bit. 

August 26

8/26

28 miles (1923 to 1951 dry campsite near elks lake resort)

Both times I have worn out my shoes and bought a new pair I've been so excited to start wearing them. Hiking in new shoes is terrible, when will I learn! My old shoes were riddled with holes.  My feet push against the fabric of my new pair, trying again to break free. They rub in weird new places and the stiffness of the unworn sole hurts the balls of my feet. Hopefully it will be a different story in a few days. 

We are in the three sisters wilderness area. I've heard about this area for a long time and of its beauty. We have been passing by lake after lake, more than we have seen since the sierras. It's not warm enough to really want to swim, plus many have soft silty bottoms that don't beg for me to wade in. They are beautiful though and it's nice to have plenty of water available. It's still smoky but there aren't currently any fires close to the trail at all. I wonder if we will have any smoke free days for the rest of our time on the trail. 

August 25 back at it

8/25

17 miles (1905 hwy 58 to 1923 charlton lake)

We are sore. A week off and I feel like a total softy. My hips hurt, the meat in the back of my knees hurt, and my feet. The bottoms of my feet ache and blisters threaten in my new shoes. We are happy to be back on the trail but it only took 3 hours and 51 minutes before I was asking "why are we doing this?". 

We spent last night in Portland with our friends chip and Michelle last night. We sat in the adirondack chairs in their yard drinking beers. It was lovely. This morning we woke early to catch the 6 o'clock train back to eugene. We literally had to run to catch the train. We were greeted at the station by a super nice section hiker who drove us the hour and a half ride back to the trail. 

August 24 Tim's Wedding

8/24
Tims Wedding! 

Had the best time at home being with everyone and seeing my little brother so happy! Welcome to the family Catherine, we love you!

August 13

8/13

30 miles (1771 to 1801, dry camp on side of trail)

We have had really good weather for a long time. It's been super lucky. We haven't gotten rained on in weeks, hooray! Yesterday for the first time since also in weeks we saw blue sky. It's been smoky for ages, must be something shifted in the wind. Today was blue and beautiful as well. 

Tomorrow we hike into and resupply at crater lake. It'll be my first time seeing it, I'm excited. 

August 16

8/16

27 (1859 to 1886, summit lake)

A lake! It's been ages since we camped at a lake, it's beautiful! We camped with a group of hikers last night. We all had breakfast together this morning. It was a nice, slow, social start to the day. We walked and ate and walked some more. We met a small man with a giant white beard hiking south, billy goat. He spends time in Syracuse with his "lady friend" and recently walked 330 miles on the Erie Canal between Albany and Buffalo after having heart surgery. We could have talked with him all day. 

We got to the lake just before sunset, we ate chili with fried up bits of tortillas then made pasta. Double dinner! We washed our legs and faces and climbed into the tent. We really stink. Our bodies, our clothes, shoes, insoles, even our backpacks. Our plan is to hike to hwy 58 tomorrow and get a ride to Eugene. We are staying the following night with my friend Michele who just moved to Portland. We want to clean up real good before we go anywhere near Portland and travel across the country with all of our stench. 

I'm excited to be clean, to eat, to see my family and to see some of Oregon and just do something different for a little while. 

August 15

8/15

22 miles (pct alternate to mile 1859, dry camp with smoky view)

So. Tired. 3 days of 30 is too many. We slept in this morning getting a late start to the day. We weren't moving very fast either. We didn't get in that many miles but we are feeling good about making it to the road in time to get off the trail for Timmy's wedding so there's not much of a hurry. 

August 14

8/14

33 miles (1801 to pct alternate mile 11)

We had no intention of hiking our biggest day so far today. We hiked 17 miles into mazama village in crater lake national park. We beelined into the restaurant and ordered all of the things. A burger each, soda, milkshake, salad bar and a 16" pizza. After, we headed across the parking lot to a herd of hikers and got our resupply box. Here we learned many things:

1. The pct was closed due to a fire in the west side of the park. This didn't really matter as we planned on hiking the alternate, the rim trail, to see crater lake. 

2. You are not allowed to camp on the rim of the lake, the next camping is in 15 miles. 

3. A ranger said the trail might close tomorrow due to the fire so if we wanted to hike north we should leave now. 

4. The next water is in 27 miles. 

None of this was the best news. Lots of hikers were planning to hitch around. But crater lake! So we packed up and by the time we headed out it was 5. The trail along crater lake was beautiful. The sunset was amazing. Then it was dark and cold, we were tired and still had many miles to go. We made it to camp around 11:30, pooped but glad we pressed on. The trail did end up closing, we were happy to make it through. It's probably inevitable that we will have to miss some of the trail use to fire closures, but not yet!

August 12

8/12

31 miles (1740 to 1771, near hwy 140)

What better way to celebrate 31 years of life than to walk 31 miles! I just can't think of any. The terrain today was pretty mellow. I'm not going to claim it was easy but it really wasn't bad. We are trying to get to hwy 58 by the 18th to start our travels home to New York for my little brothers wedding. We left Ashland with 7 days to go 190 miles. Only 134 left to go!

 

August 11

8/11

24 miles (1716 to 1740, Hyatt lake campground)

Clay and I have been in awe over how wonderful and helpful and kind everyone in our lives has been. It's crazy! You're all crazy nice to us. I'm not going to list everything amazing everyone has done but it's a lot and it blows us away. 

The latest, being surprised by Emmett and Magui with dahlia in Ashland. It can't be easy to surprise meet up with us. It's hard to actually plan to meet us because we never know how far or fast we will be walking. To surprise meet us is impressive at the least. 

We all spent the day together in Ashland yesterday. Clay and I had a bunch of logistics to sort out and replacement gear to buy. We went out for dinner and explored the cute town of Ashland. It was amazing and homesick inducing. 

I'm still glad to be out here but I think I'll be very happy to go back to Tahoe in the end. 

After a tearful goodbye, we headed out with super light packs on our backs. We've discovered the secret to not feeling extremely lazy hiking out of town, slack packing. Magui and Emmett drove our gear to a campground 24 miles ahead.  We arrived to find a set up tent with gear laid out inside and a styrofoam cooler hanging from a tree. Sushi, satisfying beverages, cake, chocolate, we ate it all. It as the best present a hiker could ever receive, thank you!!

August 9

August 9

28 miles (1688 to 1716)

To Ashland! We kicked butt today and hiked 28 miles before 6. We wanted to make sure we got to the interstate to get a ride to Ashland before dark. No fun was had. Just kidding, it wasn't that bad. We put our heads down, music on and powered through. 

We passed the border into Oregon before 7 this morning and had a celebration dance. Finally!

August 8

8/08

28 miles (1660 to 1688)

I'm switching from 2014 mileage to 2015. Every year the PCT is remeasured and it is found to be a different length. Some of the change found is the length of the trail actually changing due to improvements made to the trail but I think most of it is just differences in measuring. 

Our paper maps are in 2014 mileage because I bought them before the 2015 maps were out. At first the other information about the trail was using the same mileage but now things like the water report are using the updated numbers so I'm switching over too. Its just easier to have every thing the same.

Anyway! Today we hiked from high above Seiad valley to about 1.5 mikes from the Oregon border, almost walked California!

August 17

8/17

19 miles (1886 to 1905, hwy 58)

We made it to hwy 58 on time, even a little early. We wanted to get to eugene the day before we headed to Portland to clean up ourselves and our gear. We woke up super early and started booking it to the road. We were making good time with one goal in mind, getting to that road. We passed a small pond and realized the ripples we saw were being made by a family of otters. We stopped and watched them for an hour, they were so cute! They swam together, dove together, and sunbathed on half sunken logs climbing on top of each other. I realized I wasn't that interested in going back out into civilization, I'm going to miss the woods. Good thing im coming back. 

We got a ride to eugene fairly quickly. Figuring out how to get back to the trail will be a much more difficult task. We got a hotel room and got to work, socks in sink, packs in the tub, and we went across the street to the goodwill for new outfits. We are as ready for the real world as we are going to be.