Day 139, mile 2,491 (94% of the trail)

Crazy past few days. Hiked for 11 hours in straight rain. Five hours in, I passed a southbounder who said, "it's a little damp, but it smells amazing!" I could have punched her. My phone died in the rain, so once I got to Leavenworth, I took a bus to the nearest medium city and bought a new phone plus waterproof case, and a new service plan, all for $640. Ouch.

While I was hitching out of Leavenworth, Ambulance came ambling out of a hotel and joined in the fun. She had a terrifying experience falling into raging, freezing cold whitewater, holding onto a log to keep from drowning. Probably the closest call I've heard this year.

Everyone's talking about the weather. I'm camped at 5,500 ft and there was a brief but scary thunder hailstorm a few hours ago. We all watch multiple forecasts like hawks, looking for windows. Stressful, but only eight or so days until I reach the end. At which I take a few trains and buses to Northern California to southbound the 301 miles I skipped due to injury. 

Day 128, mile 2,266 (86% of the trail)

Blow by blow account of a typical day. Been meaning to do this for a while. 

Woke up at 6 am. Slipped on shoes and stood outside to pee. It's maybe in the upper 40s °F. I'm wearing my thermals and down jacket. Condensation is on everything, including the outside of my sleeping bag. Grass is very wet. I fire up the stove to make coffee. It's Starbucks Via with lots of sugar. Delicious. Watch the sun come up from behind Mt. Adams. I chug the coffee and rinse out the pot and begin packing up camp. At 7:35, I start walking. 

The trail winds a lot and passes several milky streams. I get water from a non-milky one. Suds is there. I say Hi but mostly finish filtering my water and snacking. Run into Snuggles a bit later. He notes how empty the trail is since he took an 8-day trail break. The herd has passed I tell him, and will probably finish in 6 or 7 days. He passes me while I'm on a break, I pass him later while he's taking lunch next to a creek. I see a couple of bowhunters in camouflage on trail carrying a small, mottled-grey bird. I don't see Suds or Snuggles for the rest of the day. 

The trail stays mostly flat and crosses a couple of dirt roads. At the second one, there's a picnic going on with some thru-hikers and their friend from Washington. They take my trash and give me chocolate. They also offer to take my picture with my camera, figuring that I'm a solo hiker and don't have many photos with me in it. Sure. I keep walking. 

Several miles later, there's a creek with good logs for sitting. It's 5 pm. I anticipate a dry camp that night so I decide to eat dinner there, saving me from carrying an extra liter of water (2.2 lb). Socks shows up 10 minutes later. I thought he was ahead of me since I went into a town that he skipped, but it turns out he got up really late that morning, and I probably passed him then. Dinner is two instant ramens (chicken) with soy protein flakes, olive oil for fat, freeze dried veggies (running low), and curry powder. The veggies add nice color to the starch. Handful of M&Ms and dried apricots for dessert. Rinse out my pot and pack up. 

I push on, hoping to make it 7 miles to the next campsite before 8:30 pm. The trail opens up to some incredible views of forest around a lake with Mt. Adams in the background. I could get lost staring at those trees. Glaciated Adams looks like it's on another planet. I arrive at the campsite on time by the light of my headlamp.  

I unpack and setup my tent. My InReach weather forecast says there's a 10% chance of rain at 6 am. NOAA forecasts aren't terribly accurate in mountainous regions, so I put my tent rainfly on any way. Expected low is 43 °F; water filter is definitely going into the sleeping bag tonight (freezing damages them). Socks passes by. He's going farther to check out the lake, which probably has better campsites. I've walked 32.4 miles today so I'm good. Average speed including all breaks was 2.5 mph. I put on my synthetic thermals and get in my sleeping bag. Hear someone coughing nearby, guess I have a neighbor. Typed this in 30 minutes, going to sleep at 10 pm. 

Day 124, mile 2,152 (81% of the trail)

Took the Eagle Creek alternate and made it to Cascade Locks. Eagle Creek is a very pretty trail with Tunnel Falls, a waterfall with a trail passing through a cave behind it. Lots of other falls and bowls carved out of the stone along the trail as well. Pretty much every alternate to the PCT in Oregon is said to be more scenic than the PCT itself, which makes me wonder why the PCT was routed how it is. 

The trail eventually became a road walk entering the town of Cascade Locks (at sea level). A guy at a fruit stand gave me a peach. Good sign. I walked to the trail angel place with free camping. Ran into Silent Bob there, who gave an understated, "holy shit" when I told him who I was. Haven't seen him in months. Got dinner and drinks with the Optimist. He and I have been hiking around each other for a few days. We like to shit talk about hikers who have skipped large parts of the trail, especially the ones who are cagey about it, though honestly it doesn't bother me. HYOH. We've concluded though that many southerbounders can't be trusted. The burger, crostini, salmon chowder, and strawberry cider were all very good.

The next day I found out one of my packages was missing. While I waited behind the bar to see if my it had been misrouted there, Ambulance was frantically trying to sort out her phone service. Her British mobile plan was inexplicably shut off yesterday, and so the bartender from the place we ate at yesterday was going to give her a ride to Troutdale to get her a new plan. My package had my warm layers. I really needed them, so I decided to join them and make it to whatever sporting goods store Troutdale had. While there I got a call saying they found it. It was with a camp host at the RV park, who had been holding onto it for the last four days instead of giving it to the office. Unbelievable. 

The bartender was awesome. I couldn't believe someone would just go out of their way to help hikers like that. She's been stocking the hiker box in the back room with condoms and pregnancy tests, which disappear pretty quickly. We ended up going to REI to pick up some stuff for Optimist and stopped at Chick-fil-a, which I have been craving for months. 

Got back in the afternoon. Took down my campsite and loaded my pack for an hour and set off to cross the Bridge of the Gods. Crossing it has less fanfare than entering Kennedy Meadows, it's just you plus cars, but it did feel pretty great knowing I just walked across a whole state. Now I am camped 5 miles into Washington. 

With the addition of my warm clothes and an 84 mile food supply, I'm really feeling the weight of my pack. I'm beginning to think double wall shelters are just overkill for thru-hiking. 2.5 lb/person for a shelter is a lot, plus the tent, rainfly, and poles take up a ton of pack space. Starting over, I would definitely shell out the $500+ for a ZPacks cuben fiber shelter. They pack up tiny and are around a pound. Grass is always greener though. When it's dry out I love having just a mesh tent where I can see the stars. When it's wet, I wish I had my TarpTent with the pre-attached rainfly. When I'm walking, I just want the lightest damn shelter out there. Mostly I am walking. 

Day 121, mile 2,094 (79% of the trail)

The trail has gotten very cold. Maybe 50s °F in the day, 40s at night. I'm still in Oregon, two days from the Washington border. Took a zero in Portland, spending the entire day running errands. Washing and drying my down quilt took four hours but now it's super puffy and warm. Nothing interesting happened in that city though. 

I'm back on trail but camped at Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood (11,171 ft.). Taking what amounts to another zero today because I need to be in Cascade Locks on Tuesday when the PO is open (Monday is Labor Day), and it's only Saturday. Segment will take less than two days. Very annoying to take days off waiting for mail, but it's a pretty common trail delay. I'll also get another incredible buffet at the lodge. 

I left Portland with some new Arc'teryx windstopper gloves and a synthetic baselayer tshirt from REI. This should suffice until I get my new much warmer layers in Cascade Locks. 

Day 115, mile 2,001 (76% of the trail)

Camped 20 miles from the road where I hitched into Sisters, Oregon. Dreadfully kitsch town, but I got to eat lots of fruit and drink soda. The motel didn't have my package. I asked them to forward it if they receive it tomorrow but I suspect that will fall through, in which case I'll have to buy a new set of merino baselayers in Portland (not too hard to get to from Cascade Locks). $100 shirt doe. I shared the motel room with Dirty B and Spoon Train. The debauchery they've gotten into since Campo is a side of the trail I haven't seen. We drank and mused on how many hikers have quit so far. He thinks around half have left, I think at least 20%. On the way out of the motel this morning I ran into Pineapple getting breakfast with her boyfriend, who's joining her on the trail. Offered them the rest of my bourbon, which they accepted. Not carrying that glass bottle, my titanium flask is full. My ride back to the trail hiked in 2000. He told me of the Washington storms. I'm wondering now how many days, if any, I'll spend in motels waiting out bad weather.

Day 108, mile 1,818 (69% of the trail)

Made it to Crater Lake. Knee is holding up, I've now over 200 miles on it. Trail is very hot with not much views, but I found raspberries and huckleberries that made it all worthwhile. 

On the way up here I stopped in Ashland, Oregon. That was a cool town with nice people, pourover coffee, and bumper stickers that said, "be weird." I swear the day hiker I met on trail spoke in NPR voice. Welcome to Oregon. Stayed at a hostel where I was bunk mates with Quick Change (Switzerland). She was shocked that I was this far behind the herd, since we crossed paths in the desert a few times where I was pretty brisk. Explained the injury and the off-trail time. She's trying to catch up with her hiking partner, I'm just trying to book it. Next morning I took off. 

I've been looking at the trail registries and have noticed a lot of names absent, including many strong hikers. Overall with fewer people in the trail, it's gotten quieter and less idle. I'm pushing for high miles so I'm either walking, eating, peeing, or sleeping. It's a little less fun being rushed, but the earlier I get to Washington the more likely I'll avoid the waves of cold fog and rain. I miss my trail crew, but I'm foremost trying to complete the hike efficiently. 

Day 101, mile 1,647 (61% of the trail)

I got back on the trail three days ago at Etna, mile 1,597. My mileage for these days has been 7, 18, 24 (today). My body feels like it could do 6 more miles today, but my feet do not. After my two week break, my soles have softened and start aching at 20 miles. Before all this I was hiking marathons with ease. I predict I'll be in the low-mid 20s for at least a week, and hopefully consistent 30s by the time I finish Oregon. The Oregon Challenge (crossing the whole state in 14 days) is out the window though. 

My knee has the slightest twinge of pain at the left edge of the patella. When I left Bishop it was extremely faint and I figured it'd be gone by the time I'd start hiking three days later (two days to get to Etna via bus and train, one rest day in Etna). Can't really tell if the pain is different now. Not good that it's still there, on the other hand it hasn't flared up after a 19 mile downhill. Will just have to hike and see. 

So, about the trail. NorCal is really hot. It's not as drab as I expected, but it's about as hot as the desert was. There's more water though. The views haven't entirely ended, and today I passed by the Marble Mountains, which are these lumpy peaks of white marble. I've realized that the second half of the PCT somewhat mirrors the first. This time it's an 800 mile gauntlet to Cascade Locks, at which the trail enters the Washington Cascades.