The Unpolished Princess

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!

We all slept in until maybe 8 ish? At best? Full bladders were the culprit for not being able to sleep just a weeeee bit longer, since we were inside and all. Oh well.

We got dressed and made our way to the bathroom, then over to eat breakfast. I wanted biscuits and gravy-they were out-so I settled for a burrito. Once I had some sour cream to go on it-I enjoyed it. The three of us sat and talked like old friends and took our time, me sipping coffee, Tashina and Romy sipping tea. It was a great morning, for sure.

We packed all of our gear, my resupply food getting shoved in awkwardly, making my pack seem super large. When we toted everything back to the main restaurant, store, lodge, area to turn in the key-Big Mama was already there to get us! How perfect! She had some gear swapping to do for another hiker, but afterwards we loaded up and she drove us into Medford.

I wasn’t expecting everyone to come in REI with me, but they all did. We shopped, I found pants to hike in, the girls found stuff they needed, Tashina gifted Big Mama something she had wanted.. it was a good time! Back in the parking lot, I shoved my new purchase into my pack and put it on, ready to hangout in this parking lot until Thomas and Steffi appeared to pick me up. Big Mama was uneasy about leaving me, but I promised her I was fine. We did hugs all around, said our goodbyes and see ya laters, and then they drove off.

I walked around looking at my options for entertainment for the next few hours, and landed on chic-fil-a. I ordered my lunch and sat at a table with my pack in the chair across from me. I worked on my blog, I ate, and I wasted a good bit of time. It was hot outside, and the REI was in direct sunlight, so I didn’t want to just sit out there and roast. Eventually I started to feel guilty and Thomas said they were about an hour away, they hit some traffic, so I decided to walk back over to REI to wait.

I found a shaded spot at the back of a different building but facing REI, and I continued to work on my blog and self entertain until they got there. It was kind of odd how fast I just jumped into a stranger’s car without question. They messaged and said 10 minutes, along with a picture of the car. They pulled up, I said “Hi!” We swapped pleasantries and I was in the backseat ready to go.

They are wonderful. Both from Germany, and they hiked the whole desert and decided to take a 3 week road-trip while waiting out the snow to melt. We talked off and on during the 7 hours to Seattle. We all 3 ooo’d and ahhhh’d when we passed through Portland, it looked beautiful at sunset. And when we finally made it to the motels side by side near the airport, we were all exhausted and talked out. It was almost 1 am.

I went inside and the lady took a while to get me into my room, saying they oversold the room I booked but instead of turning me away, they’d upgrade me without penalty. It’s a good damn thing because I was close to coming unhinged. The motel was a dump, an almost $300/night dump at that-I was tired and had to be up early. Yikes.

I got into my room and while the bed was clean and comfortable, I didn’t feel like I could walk around without shoes-the carpets felt damp and nasty. It was loud outside in the parking lot near my room. I was so exhausted I passed out pretty quick after laying down regardless. Almost immediately.

Thomas messaged me that our ride would be at their hotel at 10:30.. sweet! I rolled back over after making sure all of my electronics charged. That meant 25 more minutes of sleep!

I checked out and walked to their hotel just as Dennis was driving up. Good timing! Dennis is a trail Angel that lives in Tacoma. He loaded us up and we piled into his car for the 4+ hour drive to Mazama. I’m real tired of cars. Haha, the 3 of us hikers were in the backseat and Dennis’ roommate had shotgun. He wanted to come along for the ride, and who could blame Dennis for wanting company on the 4 hour ride back?

He stopped at the post office for Thomas and Steffi, then again at the North Cascades National Park sign. The views up here just keep getting better! He pulled in to two different overlooks and while ready to be out of the car for good, I was very thankful he took the time to show us the stunning beauty of this place. Simply unimaginable!

He dropped us off at The Lion’s Den, a hiker haven created by a previous PCT hiker. The place was awesome. I set up my tent and recharged some electronics for good measure.. then me and my 2 new friends rode bicycles into town. We looked at all of the options and they decided to bike back after not being impressed with the food options. I got a large glass of red wine and had a French dip sandwich for dinner. The wine was awesome, the food was just ok, it didn’t matter.. I made it up here-I’m happy!

I rode the bike back to camp and then hung out with the other hikers around. There were plenty. Some starting SOBO tomorrow, most SNOBO/flip floppers. I enjoyed sitting around a fire and talking and sharing experiences. Right now I’m still so tired though. I’ll be starting in the morning, I have to be up, packed and ready to leave by 7am. I’ll have a 10 mile road walk before reaching the trail and that 10 plus the other 30 miles to get to the Canadian border don’t count until I turn around and hike back. Yep. I’m tired.