Pics: Crater Lake --> Shelter Cove (Odell Lake)

cool scenery

Mt.Thielsen

Mt.Thielsen up close

i don't remember what mountain that is but it was a cool view

red lava rock

Leslie!  The awesome South bounder from Banff, who was reading my blog for a while until she began her hike on August 2nd, she's making amazing time!!

glorious Oregon trees



burn areas are gnarly :(

at Shelter Cove on Odell Lake, Kyle says thanks for the resupply box and the goodies!

Typo and Super Mom (thats typo's mom, from new zealand, to came out to hike with Typo for a week, she's awesome!) looking at a map

Jeff (left) and Hee Haw (right), two of the coolest dudes on trail

one of the MANY lakes in the area along the trail

the amount of arrows on this tree was somewhat ridiculous. lol.  there were more arrows on the left side of the tree, i just couldn't get it all in the pic

Pics: Ashland --> Crater Lake

This entire portion of the hike I got sick with something similar to Giardia.  It sucked.  On the positive side of things, the terrain was mellow, the weather was great, and the scenery was *amazing*.  Too bad I couldn't fully enjoy it because I felt like death.  Lol.  Crater Lake is really cool.  It is the deepest lake in the USA and it is filled entirely by just rain and snowmelt.  Evaporation and natural seepage maintain the level of the lake.

 

 

 

Oregon = the land of christmas trees. 

these trees are HUGE!! <3

Lava rock.  Almost like Hawaii.  But not quite. Lol.

Mt.Mclaughlin covered in haze

awesome rolling ocean of trees

ooooo snap! :D

the aftermath of a forest fire

Kyle, modeling the Alite Monarch ultralight camping chair.  its amazing.  seriously.

Kyle on Crater Lake, looking at Wizard Island

Wizard Island

the west rim of crater lake

I think that is Mt.Thielson in the background.

smoky haze from nearby fires

the chair seriously inhibits forward progress... :)

Pics: Ashland Shenanigans

Thats only about 2/3 of his resupply for the remainder of the trail.  The rest of it is on the floor.

PBR, the drink of champions

Kyle said: choose One.  ONE?!?  thats cruel, these are my three favorite candies!! LOL!  PS. The Divine dark chocolate is *amazing*.

i really wish Kyle bought that hat.  it was amazing

 

Walking Stick, the Shakesperean gangster rapper (he is a Shakesperean actor in real life)

Other hikers in Ashland.  Scallywag (red bandana), Scrub Rat (behind scallywag), Easily Distracted (in front of scallywag), Neon (blue bandana), Neon's Wife

UCI Zot Zot Zot!

Interpretive Dance

Day 149: oh the lovely randomness of the trail :)

Friday 9/14/12
Miles 2042-2053 (11 miles)

Oh my god, our campsite is beautiful! We didn't get here til way after dark last night so I have no idea what we were camped around. In the morning we were surrounded by patches of snow and ice with a dramatic view of Mt.Jefferson which was right next to us. It was soooooo epic!! And as a result we didn't leave camp til 10:30am. Doh!! Dang, these late morning starts are kinda gnarly. Ugh, so hard to leave epic spots in the morning though.

Oh! Super random, we saw backpackers walking by us this morning with skis on their packs. Wtf?! I wonder where they were headed, because I didn't see anywhere skiable along the PCT.

Today was very busy on the trail. Saw lots and lots of other non-thru hikers. It's the start of the weekend I suppose. I saw lots of puppies with backpacks! Lol! Yay for hiking puppies!! Met an ultra runner too. That guy was really cool. He's from Portland and is training for a big run in October. He says he hasn't done a race shorter than 30 miles in 6 years or something. These people are NUTS!! Lol!!

The trail passed over a bunch of snow patches today. I got a video of Kyle sliding down one. I tried to make a toboggan out of my pack and rain cover but it didn't work. The hill wasn't steep enough. Maybe I should have just put my rain pants on and slid down on my butt. Lol. Or I think it would have worked if I got a running start. I was thinking of trying to use my sleeping pad as a surfboard, but the ridges on the pad were going the wrong way. Ah well. We screwed around in the snow for a bit, so I wasn't able to make 11 miles til about 4pm. Eeek!

The Ollalie Lake Resort was where we took a break at. It's cool, they rent cabins and yurts. The lady that worked there, Sam is so cool. She knew more about the other PCT hikers than I did! Lol. She has a lot of fun meeting them all as they come through during the summer, since the lake is right on the trail.

So, Kyle and I decided to hitch 50 miles ahead to Timberline Lodge. Reason being, 1)we're running behind and 2)we've decided we don't like hiking more than 23 miles a day. We've figured out that 23 miles a day is ideal for making miles yet still seeing the views. Because honestly, if you do more than 25 miles a day all you see is trail. And that's just not fun. In my opinion there's no point in hiking if all you're doing is looking at dirt. Lol.

So, this way we don't get too far behind and we can still enjoy being where we are at. Amongst trees. And beautiful scenery. Sam says she's driving to Timberline Lodge tomorrow anyways so she could easily give us a ride. STOKED!! We lounged the rest of the day at the Olallie Lake store, talking to Sam and the owner. They both have epically cute puppies!!! Sam has a white lab and boss lady has a German shepherd. Dogs are so awesome.

The view from the porch is amazing!!! You see the lake, Mt.Jefferson, and the reflection of Mt.Jefferson in the lake. It looks just like the picture on the Mountain House meal packaging! Lol! Seriously!! I took a pic of it. Bummer I didn't have time in Bend to get to a computer. I'll go upload pics when I get to Cascade Locks. Epic, epic photos. :)

Day 148: holy slow going Batman! :(

Thursday 9/13/12
Miles 2022-2042 (20 miles)

So, the problem with a really epic camp spot, is that it's really hard to leave. Lol! Oh man, it's so pretty. I got pics of Kyle lounging in the chair next to the lake and tent. By the way, I don't know if I mentioned before but I got the Alite Monarch chair that I was raving about a while ago! It's awesome because Kyle is actually carrying it. Lol! Seriously though, he has a lot more time to use it than I, since he hikes so much faster, so it's fair. :)

We didn't get moving til about 10am today. Oops. Today's hiking was really freaking cool. We were along the south side of Mt.Jefferson all day. There was a lot of glacial melt so lots of water yay! The views are pretty incredible. But we went through more burn areas. Bleh. Today's hiking was tough. Lotta rocks and steep ascents. Reminded me of the high sierras! Very similar terrain. And patches of snow and ice everywhere. Except there are a lot more trees here than in the sierras. In the sierras we were above the treeline most of the time so it was just rocks and more rocks.

The last part of the day was tough. We had a really steep ascent, and it was dark. I didn't make 20 miles til after sundown. Bleh. Dang today was slow going! I suppose starting at 10:00 didn't help either. I forgot to replace the batteries in my headlamp. So light wasn't ideal. It was really slow going. We were just going up and up and it was around 9pm and I said to Kyle, hey look there's a flat spot, let's camp! Kyle didn't argue. Lol.

I'm not really sure what I was walking through that last hour, because it was really dark. All I know it was an exposed ridge because it was really cold and there were no trees. Trees are warm!! I love trees :). There's a running creek right next to us, I hear water. Yay! I like camping next to a water source.

Day 147: huge burn area :(

Wednesday 9/12/12
Miles 2008-2022 (14 miles)

We got on the trail around 2pm today, got a ride from Lloyd Gust, legendary PCT Trail Angel. Thanks Lloyd!! Stoked we still made 14 miles. We walked through a burn area. It was a HUGE fire in 2006, and all day today we walked through dead trees. It kind of looks like a scene from a Tim Burton movie. You know, the other day I was thinking how epic it would be to have a Tim Burton/Dr.Seuss movie. So it would be illustrated in the styles of both, and the dialogue would all be in Dr.Seuss prose. That would be rad!

Today we passed a mountain called Three Fingered Jack. It's a cool looking mountain. I took pics of it. Oh, by the way, I didn't have time to find a computer in Bend, so sorry there are no pics yet :( Lloyd was telling us that about 2 people a year die while climbing 3 fingered jack. Yikes. It looks like a super gnarly approach. Everything here is lava rock so it's probably really loose too.

We ended up camping at a lake called Rockpile Lake. It's really cool. Stoked there was a flat area. Usually by the lakes there's always a flat area someone made for a tent. So that was nice. Rockpile lake was also the first water source after getting back on trail at Santiam Pass.

Oh, a while ago when I was saying how Oregon lacked water sources, what I meant was it lacked water sources *on trail*. Lol. There's tons of lakes everywhere. Just most of them are off trail and I don't like having to go more than 2/10 of a mile off trail to get water. :). But at least most of the lakes look pretty clean.

By the way, I'm carrying 6 days of food. Holy freaking CRAP I will never do that again, dear god it is so heavy!!! :( It wasn't like earlier on the trail when I'd carry 6 days of food, because back then I didn't eat as much. Now im eating almost twice a much so the weight is just ridiculous. I think my solution is, eat as much as I can the first few days and either a)hope there is food in the hiker box at timberline lodge, or b)just run on fumes the last day or two going into Cascade Locks. That was Hee Haw and Jeff's strategy. Eat tons the first two days and get into town starving. Lol. Yeah, I dunno about that, doesn't sound fun. But at least the pack weight is lighter :)

Day 146: I love Bend!!! <3 <3 <3

Tuesday 9/11/12
Miles 0

Oh my god I freaking love Bend!!! :). This town is amazing!!! <3 <3 <3. It has now become my favorite trail town. The reason I like it better than Idyllwild is because it's next to a body of navigable water (the Deschutes river goes right through town and you can paddle it). But then again it's hard to compare the two because Idyllwild is a small town, and Bend is a big city.

The B&B includes an amazing all you can eat breakfast which was delicious!!! Oh! And we saw Super Mom at breakfast this morning!! Lol!! I guess she got in late last night. It was so cool to see her again! She was staying til Friday.

I went back to REI today to get new shoes. I'm on my 4th pair of 5 finger shoes. Oh, if anyone is curious, here is my progression of footwear for the entire trip:
--> North Face Trail runners (50 miles)
--> crappy flip flops (27 miles)
--> good flip flops (100 miles)
--> Chaco sandals (100 miles)
--> good flip flops (73 miles)
--> 5 finger shoes (350 miles)
--> Montrail trail runners (350 miles)
--> 5 finger shoes (1,000 miles)

5 fingers for the win! :D People on the trail kind of freak out when they find out I've done over 1,000 miles on them. The question I get the most is, does it hurt? Well, pain is kind of relative. I mean, when you're going over large stones, it will hurt in shoes. So of course it hurts in the 5 finger shoes which have no sole. Lol! But like I said, pain is relative, and I hate wearing shoes because they totally suck, so I will go through great lengths to not wear shoes. :)

After going to REI we went to go look for a laundromat to wash Kyle's sleeping bag. You can't use a top load washer for down sleeping bags, front load washer only. And you need to use a commercial sized dryer. So we found a laundromat, it happened to be next to Silvermoon Brewery which is one of Bend's many microbreweries. How convenient. :D. The sleeping bag took forever to dry so we went to browse a bunch of used book stores (Bend has about 5 within walking distance). The library in Bend is also HUGE. I'm pretty sure it's bigger than the Hawaii State Library in downtown Honolulu. The sleeping bag still wasn't dry so we went to look for food that was good and cheap. Which isn't hard because there are lots of happy hours at all the eateries downtown. We ended up at this awesome mediterranean food place and I got this delicious cheese and pita dish for $5! Oh my god it was so good. I looooove cheese!!!! :D

Oh, by the way Bend has this thing called the Ale Trail, it's a map with a "hiking" trail around downtown bend to about 10 of its micro breweries. Lol! It's so cool, you have this "passport" type thing where you get a sticker for each of the breweries you go to. When you collect all the stickers you can redeem it at the visitors center for a cool silicone pint glass. That's cool! We totally would have done it except it would have costed a lot of money to go to all the breweries, and we didn't really have time.

On the way back to our room we were looking for a liquor store because Kyle wanted whiskey. Oregon is not like California or Hawaii where you can just buy liquor anywhere, you have to get it at a state sanctioned liquor store. Which is a horrible pain in the ass because we couldn't find one within walking distance. However, we did meet an awesome random stranger walking on the street, who ended up inviting us to a bar by his hotel and bought us 3 rounds of drinks. Thats so cool!! Thanks Scotty "Trash Man"! He earned the nickname in his days of being a roadie for touring bands and living in a tour bus.

We didn't get back til late. Dang, where did the day go?? I didn't really get anything done that I was supposed to. Dangit! Ah well, Bend is a frickin epic town <3