Start: 1768.2
Stop: 1774.4
Today’s miles: 6.2
Total PCT miles: 187.8
Another beautiful night of sleeping like a baby.. I was sleeping so good I didn’t get up until 8am. I even reasoned with myself, it’s only 8 miles.. if I get there too early I’ll get bored and spend more money-my budget wants and NEEDS me to sleep in..
And it was GLORIOUS. I packed so slow that if I didn’t already let the air out of my mattress I would have fallen back to sleep! But finally, at 8:30, I had my stuff packed, my teeth brushed, and was on trail. Because of not taking my synthroid earlier, in between snoozes, I had to wait until 9am to eat anything. No worries, I had a bar for that 😉
The trail was surrounded by rocks again. Into the forest with a blowdown or two, immediately back out into a valley of broken rocks that literally looked like someone jackhammered the mountain, picked all the pieces back up and dropped them through their hands like you do when you make a sand castle. And magically, the trail wound right through it all, with packed dirt and those weird fake looking red rocks. That’s the difference between the AT and the PCT.. the AT would have you scrambling through those shattered and sharp boulders.. the PCT created a legitimate trail to walk on through them. Just the thought of all the work put into making this “walkable” and not “scramble-able” or mostly “get-through-able” had me delighted the entire time.
Even when I turned a corner and had a Texas sized tree to climb over, and maybe scrape a new spot on my calf, I was happy. Fun times. Even with the blow downs I was making great time. I got to the trailhead after 6 miles where I needed to turn off to go to Fish Lake Resort. The two miles of trail to the resort were pristine! A wide path that looked like it had been, dare I say it, recently RAKED? No way?!
With less than a mile to go, I walked into the man with-you guessed it-the rakes! He had a contraption that held two rakes that he swept the whole trail with! He was so nice, told me good luck and we went our separate ways. Before I knew it, and before noon, I had hiked 8+ miles to the resort, had swapped out my shoes for my crocs, and was sitting pretty at the cafe waiting on my appetizer basket and burger.
I all but devoured the app basket: mozzarella sticks, jalapeño poppers, Mac and cheese balls.. and then because I ate that so fast, I only ate half of that beautiful burger! I should feel like such a failure. Hiker hunger hasn’t set in yet, even if the desire for town food has!
I paid up, got quarters and my resupply box I shipped here, then headed down to the shower and laundry house. The resort has a campground, cabins, and then free PCT hiker camping on the backside of the lake, “up the hill some.” I figured I’d get clean, do my laundry, then venture to the other side of the lake.
My shower was hot! I had to pay with quarters to get it going, and then pop one in every now and then to get extra time. Once I felt clean enough (that shower wasn’t all that clean feeling to begin with), I stood in the stall in my crocs and nothing else, drip drying. I don’t hike with a towel. After awhile of standing there and starting to freeze, I pulled out my thrift store tshirt I wasn’t going to wash, pat dried myself as much as I could, got my rain gear on and then washed all my dirty clothes and the now soaked t shirt too.
Clothes were washing, phone was charging, I moved my pack outside to get more room.. life was good! I was sitting on the counter in the laundry room, staring into space (my phone was charging at the outlet too far away to reach) when Tashina and Romy walked in! They had hitch hiked here after raccoons got into Tashina’s food bag and destroyed everything she had! As sad as I was that her food was gone, I was THRILLED they were here with me!
The problem: they had walked all over this resort and couldn’t find the free camping! I put my clothes in the dryer and then went to look too, for myself and pretend budget purposes. There was a picnic table and no room for tents anywhere that didn’t have a blown down tree or overgrown bushes everywhere. Oh darn. Looks like we have to share a cabin now! Hahaha
We all left our stuff there, walked back to the cafe/lodge/everything for the resort area, and (after quite the wait because their internet went down) booked a one room cabin for the 3 of us to split! Heck yes! I got my stuff from the dryer and brought everything back to “home base” and then once we had our cabin cleaned and ready for us, we took all of our stuff over there. The girls went to shower and do laundry and I went back to the cafe to hangout with the WiFi for awhile.
I was desperate to figure out a plan. The snow north of here to Crater Lake is “awful” per sooo many people. Tashina and Romy were planning to rent a car, road-trip for a week or so, then get back on trail at the Washington/Oregon border and hike south.. because Romy’s flight would come sooner or later and they’d have to get her to Portland regardless. While that sounded like a blast, A. I didn’t want to interfere with their plans and B. If I hiked SOBO from that border, I’d have to get back up to that border to get across Washington to Canada and then back again to fish lake to go south.. the logistics seemed too difficult and expensive for me to manage.
Like I’ve been saying, I’ve been watching the intel for the Canadian border and the idea to hike south from there straight through to Mexico (skipping the almost 200 miles I’ve already done, of course) was sounding best for me. However, looking up rental cars was almost $800 to drop off in Seattle in a few days. And then I looked at buses: Medford to Seattle-very cheap but very long and just sounded miserable.
As I was about to give up completely, I came across a post in one of the PCT groups from a guy named Thomas. He and his girlfriend were going to be in Sacramento today, getting a rental car in the morning, driving straight through to Seattle, had a trail Angel picking them up the following morning and taking them to Mazama to the Lions Den hostel.. which is right where you start to get to the Canadian border! They were looking for 1-2 more hikers to help split the cost..
I messaged him, and got no response. I was back to feeling defeated. Like what even is this year on trail?! And then, a few hours later, as the 3 of us girls are eating dinner.. I got a response! 2 had backed out, so I was in luck!! Thomas and Steffi would pick me up on their way through Medford (roughly 5-6 hours north of Sacramento!)! All I had to do was pitch in $100 for the car/trail Angel! Done and done!
Suddenly, I had a plan but didn’t have any real preparation done! I downloaded the Washington maps in the app, made sure the topo showed up in airplane mode, and Tashina talked with Big Mama.. she’d come pick the 3 of us tomorrow by noon, drop me off at REI in Medford, and take them where they needed to go for the night, because they couldn’t get their rental car until the following day. YAY! Plans! Made!
We went over to a campsite and hung out with the couple that Tashina and Romy hitched in with. We had a great time chatting and laughing until sunset.. and then as required, we had to go see the sunset over the lake, snap a few pictures, and then get ready for bed. The cabin has a bed, sink, microwave and mini fridge. Romy took the bed, Tashina and I set up sleeping pads and slept on the floor, all of us happy to have the next 24 hours sorted out. And thank goodness, because I’m exhausted!
This one is making you be very nimble with all the plans so far. Happy this worked out.