Category: Long Distance Trails

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.

Start: 505.9

Stop: 531.2

Today’s miles: 25.3

Total PCT miles: 719.1

It started raining overnight, the light pattering turning into a more steady pour around 1:30am.. waking me up and causing me to fumble in the dark to close my tent vestibule. The place we were camping was also right next to a train track, so several times throughout the night, a long train would come barreling through. Each time, it would wake me, but then the steady hum and rumble of it, mixed with the rain, would lull me back to sleep. I actually slept pretty dang well.

We overslept a bit, only by 30 minutes.. so by 7am we were walking up the road, the majority of the tenters still fast asleep, I won’t lie, I was a bit jealous. We got breakfast from a walk up burger place: bacon, egg, and cheese bagel for me, yum. Then we headed to the restaurant we ate at yesterday so Margot could get a coffee, this little burger joint doesn’t make coffee. I was drinking a Monster (thank youuuuu gas station!), but Marquis got a coffee, too.

The alternate trail, with all the waterfalls, started leaving Cascade Locks on a paved path. It was easy moving and surrounded by damp greenery. As the paved path turned into an actual trail, the views opened up. We were following along a creek, slowly ascending. It was beautiful. The temperatures were a little cool, from the overnight rain, and the skies were still cloudy, making the walking really enjoyable. We passed several small waterfalls, surrounded by huge walls of rock that the trail was carved into.

We stopped at a swimming hole and waded in waist deep. It was way too cold to swim, since there was no sun to warm us up.. but it was fun either way. Marquis and I traded shorts after we got out of the water to dry off. I had bought a new pair from Walmart, because the ones I started in have gotten so big they’re making my hips chafe from bunching them up with the drawstring. The new ones though, I can’t handle the material once they’re wet-either by water or by sweat, which is crazy, I know, but it makes them just a little too tight for walking. How annoying.

I was only joking with Marquis at first, but then once I got his shorts on and they were comfortable, we agreed to swap for a day. Yay! I was walking so much easier in them! And he got a kick out of my shorts being so short on his long legs, it was quite hysterical! Not far after the watering hole, a hiker was walking towards me, so I stepped to the side of the trail to let him pass, and the entire ground of the trail crumbled beneath my feet and I slid right off the side of the trail into a bunch of briars and downed trees. Awesome.

That dude was mortified and tried to help me up.. but the briars were digging into my skin and I knew I just needed a minute to catch my breath and think through my options. I handed him my poles, asked him to put them somewhere “up there” and then told him he could go, I’d be fine. Then, once he was gone, I slowly started to climb my way up the soft dirt, with thorns digging into my hands, knees, legs. Dammit, I JUST finally had my legs heal, and now I have a whole knew set of open wounds. There’s a word I want to yell, and Samuel L. Jackson yells it best. Ugh.

Continuing on, after my mishap, the trail went behind a large waterfall, through a tunnel. It was truly something special. It almost felt like something from Iceland, not northern Oregon. Then, there were cascading waterfalls that Margot and I sat beside to eat lunch. It was peaceful, even with my new booboos throbbing and stinging.

The trail eventually went through a burn zone with several blow downs and some overgrowth, each bush scraping my new wounds making me walk slow and wince every few steps. Then, before long, the trail grade increased tremendously and we were climbing steeply up to the top of this mountain to reconnect to the PCT. As tough as the last 2ish miles were, they were totally worth it to see those waterfalls. I could have happily done without the blow downs, though. Especially the ones requiring me to sit and scoot under them, in Marquis’ shorts no less.

The three of us stopped to eat dinner around 7:30, at a water source on trail. We still had a mile or so to go, but we were afraid the campsites would all be taken, forcing us to continue another 3+ miles in the dark. We ate, laughed, and dug out our headlamps to make sure they were accessible. I really didn’t want to night hike again, but at least I wouldn’t be alone.. assuming I could keep up with those two.

There were several blowdowns along the way, causing us to clamber over or under and all in all slowing us down. It was close to 8:30 when we got to the first campsite area, and it was a deep discussion on how to proceed. There was already 5 tents set up in this small area. Margot’s tent is small, so she found somewhere she could squeeze in, my tent being the largest, I found a spot but the reason it was available was because it was really freaking slanted. It sucked.

Marquis said he was going to continue. We were concerned that if we got there, in the dark, over more blowdowns, and it was full too.. we would be screwed. He kept moving and we stayed. Instead of setting up right where the space was for my tent, I crowded the trail and had my tent basically set up right along it, my guyline for my vestibule just barely touching the side of the trail. It seems a little flatter, laying here.. but I have a feeling I’ll be sliding tonight.

Even as I’m laying here, utterly worn out, a couple just appeared from the direction Marquis is hiking.. there’s no way he’s made it there yet, and if these two pushed past it.. why?? Either way, I think they’re trying to squeeze in as well. There’s 8 tents in a “3” tent space. It’s amazing what thruhikers can manage, especially when we’re tired and just want to set up camp.

Speaking of tired, I truly am. And my legs are stinging from my scrapes-and-surprisingly, it’s quite cold. So, time to bundle up and get some shut eye before I go sliding down this mountain. Goodnight, y’all.

Start: 531.2

Stop: 555.6

Today’s miles: 24.4

Total PCT miles: 743.5

Welp. I definitely slid a lot last night. I’d roll over and then have to kick a leg out and push my sleeping pad back up to the “flat” spot. Other than that, my sleeping quilt kept me toasty warm and I slept ok, considering. I did wake up before midnight to go pee, and was afraid I’d wake everyone else up, because it was completely silent out there. Weird.

Margot and I got moving around 7 and came across Marquis by 8. He slept in, knowing we’d be behind him, and had just packed up his stuff. Good timing indeed. We all set out hiking in the cool morning air, with frequent views of Mount Jefferson off in the close distance.

Marquis quickly got away from us, Margot and I leapfrogged each other off and on all day. We had 3 climbs of the day, the first one being not bad, the second one being brutal and the third just frustrating because I was ready to be done. The two of us ate lunch together, early, sometime well before noon. I was starving. My hiker hunger has 100% kicked in. I cannot seem to get enough to eat. I usually just stop because either I don’t have enough to continue eating or I’m just tired of chewing. My stomach stays growling, though.

At the bottom of that first climb’s mountain there was a sketchy ish river crossing. Originally I was ahead of Margot, when we passed Ramona Falls (gorgeous), but then I missed the turn and went over a half mile in the wrong direction. Once I realized it, I backtracked.. UPHILL.. and then a man stopped me to tell me in way too many words that “the Australian girl” was waiting for me at the sketchy crossing. Cool cool. Sorry Margot!

I rushed to get there, and I was glad she was ahead of me now.. because she told me where to go to safely cross the rushing water. That grey silty water is awful to cross, not only is it too dark to see the bottom of the stream bed, to know where you’re stepping, but it’s also got so many tiny pebbles that your shoes get filled with them. Meh, whatever. I got across and we walked up trail a bit and stopped, so I could clean out my shoes.. she already had while waiting on me.

That second climb was a rough one, and it came during the heat of the day. Some parts were exposed and steep.. and so much sand. This whole area looks like it’s one wind blow away from dissipating before our eyes. I got cell phone service somewhere in this second climb and called to make a reservation for us for the breakfast buffet at Timberline Lodge in the morning. I tried to do other random things, like venmo Curmy for our resupply boxes, but I lost service again.

Coming down that mountainside, we had to cross another stream, soaking our feet. It wasn’t a bad one, but I waited for Margot either way, to make sure she felt comfortable crossing it. It’s a good thing, too, because she wasn’t certain that I was ahead of her, so she would have waited for me there. Sometimes it’s really hard to remember where people are when you back and forth so much, and when she and I are both known for going down the wrong trail sometimes.

From there, we were on that third huge climb of the day. It was kicking my ass, but I didn’t have to stop and take breaks like I used to. I was able to just keep moving.. occasionally pausing only to let other hikers coming towards me safely pass. After that whole “slip down the mountain” deal yesterday, I only stopped where I knew the ground was stable. There was mud and huge sand steps to take to get up this thing, it was steep and I was exhausted. My feet were throbbing, but the only thing keeping me moving was learning that I could order a glass of wine at the bar at the Timberline Lodge until 10pm.

Every northbound person I passed, I asked them about the lodge. How was breakfast? When do they stop serving dinner? How late is the bar open? Do they serve food? Haha-I was a woman on a mission. Somewhere around the top of that last climb, I could see ski lifts and I had service. I called Mom and chatted while I walked, which ultimately caused me to go the wrong way and have trouble finding where Marquis set up camp.
Eventually I did make it, after circling the lodge twice. Margot had passed me in my wanderings.

We set up our stuff quick, and then went to the lodge. I was under the impression that I wouldn’t be able to order food, but boy oh boy was happily proven wrong. I ordered a glass of wine and a pulled pork sandwich with chips, always the epitome of class! Haha. Margot ended up getting a huge bowl of tomato bisque and it looked so good too. I devoured my food entirely too fast. Then got a second glass of wine.

We sat, ate, drank (wine, beer, soda, water), laughed and got warm enough to brave the cold temperatures outside. It’s been chilly at night here. I’m glad I kept my warm leggings, although I didn’t break them out tonight-I probably should have. In the morning we have an 8am reservation to the all you can eat breakfast buffet. My stomach just growled again while I wrote that. How ridiculous. Meh, ok, time to get some sleep. Goodnight y’all!