PCT Day 59

Y’all. A catastrophe has occurred. I don’t know how to move on from this. My. Garmin. Watch. Died. DIED. It is D-E-A-D. I woke up and my watch screen was blank, nothing I did would turn it on, even connected to power. I think the charging block I ordered must have fried it somehow, and I was so upset over this whole favorite watch dying business that I seriously wanted to cry. Over a watch. God help me.

We left around 8am to head back to Cascade Locks. Curmy brought Doc, and they hung out for a bit at the post office with us. One of our two box destinations doesn’t except USPS, so when panic set in, Curmy offered to take them to UPS for us. We quickly packed those boxes for him, put the address on and he and Doc were on their way, after hugs and goodbyes and lots of thank yous.

I mailed my darn tough socks back to their warranty program, sent my dead watch and it’s charger home (maybe it’ll be revived, I just couldn’t throw it away), and then my one resupply box to Crater Lake. While I was waiting in line to do all of this, Marquis appeared with a double shot espresso with one Splenda. I swear, I love this guy.

He and Margot shipped their boxes too, and then Margot realized her two packages didn’t show up. The lady told her to come back around 2pm to see if they arrived with today’s delivery. While she looked mortified and stressed out, I was happy and content to not hike out yet. Like, really happy. Looks like it’ll be a late day out!

We walked to a breakfast place and ate. It was a cute little restaurant right on the water. The food was good, nothing incredible but it definitely met my needs. We sat around awhile, not wanting to walk more than necessary. Eventually we had to, though. We left and moseyed through town to the opposite end where the marina is. We explored there, then sat at picnic tables talking, watching storm clouds roll in.

Annie and Riley came by and told us that the brewery offers a free beer to thruhikers. Enough said. We walked back to the middle of the tiny town strip and found the brewery, got our free beer (not Margot, she doesn’t drink alcohol), and waited for a table for lunch. When we were sat, we ordered burgers that were absolutely phenomenal. Man I love town days, and see-if her packages had arrived as they were supposed to, we’d have missed this. What a shame that would have been.

We walked back to the post office, only to be told that one of her two packages showed, but the other one probably wouldn’t come until tomorrow. Margot and the sweet woman talked it out and they decided that she could call the office in a few days and then if it did arrive, they could forward it for her to another city for her, for a small fee.

Once the plan was made over the lost package debacle, we sat on a bench and pondered our situation. It was almost 5pm. The trail out of Cascade Locks is several miles of uphill climbing, known for gorgeous waterfalls. The storm clouds were very ominous looking, rolling in over the mountaintops. What good would it be to hike out this late and miss the opportunity to see the beauty of the falls if it were pouring down rain?!

We decided to walk back to the marina, pay $5 to camp, and set up our tents in the PCT hiker area. There ended up being over 25 tents by nightfall, Annie and Riley being one of them. The day turned into an accidental zero, but one I was quite thrilled about. Another contributing factor was that we needed to camp at the 50 mile mark, regardless, so we can wake up and eat breakfast at the buffet at the Timberline Lodge. So, we might as well sleep here and get an early start tomorrow. Yeah, I really like this plan. And I’m also super tired, like my zero yesterday and today didn’t catch me up on any sleep. Haha. So it’s off to bed I go. Goodnight, y’all.