PCT Day 57 (7/13/22) Mount Hood to Cascade Locks

 "Pretty great day today. Decided last night that I was gonna try to make it to Cascade Locks today. Luckily I did because the restaurant I wanted to go to is closed tomorrow.

Started hiking around 6 right near Ramona Falls. Cruised down the trail for a couple miles before starting a super steep climb. Luckily it was pretty short. In retrospect I was actually pretty glad that I crossed that gnarly river last night because it would've sucked to hit it first thing in the morning. Topped out on the climb then had a cruising descent down to a road. Lots of day hikers coming up the descent to the road. Rolling terrain after the road all the way to the turnoff for Eagle Creek.

I heard that the top of the trail was in bad shape but I took it anyways. It wasn't bad at all. I should know by now that people who comment on FarOut almost always exaggerate. Listened to an awesome podcast about BASE jumping while I did the steep section of the descent.

Got down to the river which was pretty sweet. Lots of waterfalls. One of the waterfall you actually get to walk behind which is pretty cool. Trail was pretty rocky which took a lot of my attention. That is what I've found makes the hiking feel fast or slow. This felt super slow and it dragged on for a long time. As soon as I hit the road I covered three miles in what felt like the same amount of time that it took me to cover the last half mile on trail.

Got into Cascade Locks around 5 and stopped at a fruit vendor on the way in. She gave me a peach and some cherries for free which were awesome. Walked a few blocks down and got to the brewery where they give hikers free beer. I got them to give me a free ginger beer instead and had a feast of a veggie burger, vegetarian chili, and cauliflower wings to celebrate reaching the end of Oregon.

After I ordered but before my food came, a couple other hikers came to sit at a table nearby and I invited them to sit with me. They ended up being super cool and had a motel room right down the street. Got to use their shower and hang out and now I'm sleeping on the floor inside. One of the guys is pretty into 90s mountain bikes so we had a great time telling bike stories to each other.  I spend a lot of time thinking about biking while I'm hiking and it was really nice to talk about biking too.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to take the bus into Portland because I need to get new trekking poles and an ice axe. Supposedly the snow in Washington is pretty gnarly." 7/13/22 9:57 PM

Blue skies and Cascade peaks

The famed tunnel behind a waterfall

More man-made tunneling

Thanks!

Getting into Cascade Locks... how exciting!

PCT Day 56 (7/12/22) Summit Butte to Mount Hood

 "Absolute epic today. Started a bit before 6 am with a nice gradual descent and didn't have to climb at all until about 10 o'clock. Some rolling hills began around then which took me past a nice lake and eventually up to Barlow Pass. From there it was a pretty brutal climb up to Timberline Lodge at the base of Mount Hood.

It was pretty hot by the time I got there and the last couple miles were in soft sand, which made the walking very difficult. Once I got to Timberline Lodge I took a look around and decided to get an overpriced sandwich at the restaurant. It was really good.

I left around 4 o'clock and began a long descent that had quite a bit of snow, but nothing too sketchy. Got to a glacial river and crossed it via a leap between two rocks that was near my limit. Glacial rivers are always sketchy because they are flowing over big rocks and usually the water is opaque enough that you can't see the bottom.

After some more descending I came to another glacial river. I searched for a crossing for about fifteen minutes before giving up and deciding to wade across. The river was almost waste deep and flowing really hard. It was a little sketchy. I made it across and quickly got off trail as soon as I found it. Did a little bushwhacking to get back on then cruised about a mile to Ramona Falls. I almost skipped the detour to go there since it adds a little vert but I'm glad I did. Its pretty awesome. Camping a tiny bit down trail from the waterfall. Today was my biggest day of hiking I've ever done: 38.4 miles. Also rolled over to my halfway point for the whole trail about midday. Pretty stoked and pretty tired. Gonna chow down and hit the hay." 7/12/22 8:39 PM

Frogs...

...frogs...

...frogs.

Approaching Mount Hood

Barlow Pass

Chillin' at Timberline Lodge

Wild glacier carved canyons off the west face

Psyching at Ramona Falls after my foot distance PR

PCT Day 55 (7/11/22) Mount Jefferson to Summit Butte

 "Pretty awesome day today. Started hiking in the snow just north of Mount Jefferson. Fresh footsteps in the snow made it easy to stay on route. After a few miles I was clear from the snow and into a burned are, which was actually much more difficult to navigate with downed trees and trail washouts. Got to Olallie Lake Resort about 10 in the morning. As I had heard, most things were priced high, but I found a tin of 60 butter cookies that was only 5 bucks so I bought it and ate half of them on the front porch along with a can of soda. Packed the rest in a bag and consumed them throughout the rest of the day, and they were amazing fuel. Today was the most energized I've felt in a while.

I didn't see any hikers until about 5:30 in the evening. Filled up my water and washed my feet and socks in a stream then headed up a short climb where I luckily found an awesome campsite. No snow and no bugs, which is awesome compared to last night where I had both. Tomorrow I'm going to hike to just before Timberline Lodge, where I'll have access to a supposedly killer breakfast buffet the next morning." 7/11/22 7:57 PM

Mount Hood in the background

In terms of fuel these cookies were the G.O.A.T.

???

A tree covered site with plenty of loam... mmmm, my favorite

PCT Day 54 (7/10/22) Three Fingered Jack to Mount Jefferson

 "Started the morning with quite a bit of snow. Luckily it didn't freeze overnight, so I could still dig in the edges of my shoes. There were a couple stretches that were super gnarly. At one point I had to descend way low off the trial then climb back up cutting steps with each foot to traverse above the snow. Luckily a hiker caught up with me who wasn't using his Microspikes so I got to use them. The hiker is from Larkspur and his wife owns the Wu Wei Tea Temple! I was pretty sotked when he told me.

Eventually we split up when I took an alternate route with less snow and he stayed on the trail. Descended a little ways and the snow stopped, which was quite a relief. Started a pretty gnarly climb as soon as I rejoined the PCT that had some snow and a lot of creek crossings, which made progress slow. Climbed up a tall ridge with awesome views of Mount Jefferson and Mount Hood. Camping a bit past the top of the ridge.

Today is the first day that the actually muscles in my legs were hurting the most instead of the joints or my feet, which was pretty nice. I think it was from all the steep snow. Eating a Snickers bar in my sleeping bag. Stoked." 7/10/22 8:06 PM

A ridgetop campsite off the north ridge of Three Fingered Jack

Looking back at the peak

Heading north towards Mount Jefferson

Eastern snow loading of ridgelines

Getting closer...

Glacial creek crossings... the most anxiety provoking part of the trail

Imagine getting sucked over something like this

Maybe my favorite photo from the whole trail: Mount Jefferson from the north

And a glimpse of Mount Hood, the next major peak of the Cascade Range

PCT Day 53 (7/9/22) Santiam Pass to Three Fingered Jack

 "Pretty sweet zero today. Woke up in the cool tiny house and worked on addresses for my resupplies through Washington. Went to the store right when they opened, which was great because it got super busy later. The largest outdoor quilt fair in the country was going on in downtown Sisters. I got all the food I needed for the whole rest of the trail besides one resupply. Went back to the tiny house to organize my packages. Once I was done with that I went to the local shipping center and mailed out 4 packages of food to different places in Washington. Afterwards I got some lunch then went to the library to work on orientation stuff for college.

I got computer access from the friendly librarian then grinded for 3 hours and got everything done until August. Went back to the tiny house to pack up. Got a hitch pretty quick on the way out of town and started hiking right before 5. Quite a bit of gnarly snow on the trail that I'm glad I did tonight. Camping somewhere that I think will be fine after it freezes overnight. Super windy right now." 7/9/22 8:29 PM

Tiny house interior

5 resupplies worth of food

One small area of the largest quilt fest in the country

A lack of toenails indicates some sort of cat... this one was pretty big

Three Fingered Jack in the clouds

PCT Day 52 (7/8/22) Three Sisters to Santiam Pass

 "Today was so awesome! Started off on the snow, which was more like ice in the morning. Luckily the sun was out so it thawed out pretty quick. Got off the snow a lot sooner than expected and only had a dozen or so small patches the whole rest of the day. Met a few hikers from Sisters and they gave me some fruit and told me there is a quilt festival going on.

I got caught up to by the guys I camped with just after McKenzie pass then stopped and had lunch with them. Dropped of the trail to stop at Big Lake Youth Camp, which some hikers had told me is an awesome spot. They were so right.

I showed up and was instantly greeted by multiple staff directing me where to sign in and where the "hiker area" was. The "hiker area" was a big room with a kitchen, chairs, a table, and washing machine and dryer, and two bathrooms with showers. That was all available to hikers for free! In addition, they had sack lunches prepared that we could go grab, and they would be serving dinner at 6 o'clock, also for free! Grabbed a sack lunch and ate it. Put my clothes in the washing machine, plugged in my battery, and hopped in the shower.

Got some stuff done on my phone while I waited for my clothes to finish up and for 6 o'clock to roll around. Went down to the dining hall and they had a full on burrito bar! The camp manager was serving the burritos up and he loaded mine hella heavy. Went outside to the picnic tables to eat with all the camp staff who were all super friendly. Went back for a second burrito and this time he made it even fatter! Barely finished it then packed up my stuff and hit the trail.

Cranked out the 5 miles or so from the camp to Santiam Pass while talking on the phone. Tried to get a ride for about ten minutes then got picked up by a lady in a lifted mini van. She had just gone mountain biking and we had a lot to talk about. When we got to town she offered for me to stay in the tiny house she has in her yard! Its totally sweet. Her and her husband built and and built the house that they live in. I'm staying only a couple blocks away from downtown Sisters so should be easy to get in and resupply tomorrow morning. I've got lots of boxes to send out and some schoolwork to do so tomorrow I'm taking a zero but I think I'll be pretty busy. So stoked right now." 7/8/22 9:17 PM

Breaking camp just north of the Three Sisters

Leaving Three Sisters in the dust

Three Fingered Jack to the north

Some extreme glissading (its steeper than it looks!) after a brief off-trail excursion

Crossing McKenzie Highway near McKenzie Pass

Big Lake Youth Center "hiker area"

My home for the night

PCT Day 51 (7/7/22) Island Lake to Three Sisters

 "Hard day today. Got up and started hiking a bit after six. Took a lot of breaks early on to take care of my feet and call people while I had service. Snow started a little after 11. Took an early lunch at a break in the snow. Got passed by the dudes I stayed in the hut with. Caught back up with them a few miles later where they were having lunch. Filled up my water and started hiking. That was when the snow really started. Walked on snow for 90% of the the rest of the day. Pretty sure it's gonna be about the same tomorrow. Still hit my mileage goal for the day but it took a lot more effort than anticipated. Going into Sisters tomorrow which will be good motivation to power through the snow." 7/7/22 8:45 PM

Island Lake campsite

Taking time to keep my feet happy

Easy meadow miles were a welcome sight

Most of the trail looked like this... follow the mountain flank I guess

Obsidian Falls

PCT Day 50 (7/6/22) Maiden Peak Shelter to Island Lake

 "Woke up this morning in the hut. Got the wood stove going again off the couple embers that were still hot from the night before. Got another quesadilla going on top and took the morning nice and slow. Got more of a handle of my most recent resupply. Getting out of Crescent Lake was kind of frantic so I had just thrown everything in my backpack. Didn't start hiking until almost 8 and by that time the sun has already out and most of the fog had gone away. I was pretty excited since it had been overcast or faining for pretty much the last five days. Took the day nice and slow. Both of my pinky toes had become recently irritated and I had started walking a little funny to make them hurt less. This new step was starting to affect my other toes and the rest of my foot. I had to concentrate very hard on walking normally and by the end of the day I was used to it again. I'm hoping that after a zero day in Sisters of Bend they'll be completely back tot normal. Camping at a lake tonight, probably the 20th lake I've walked by today. Mosquitoes are surprisingly not that bad. I don't think it's supposed to rain tonight but the clouds have me second guessing. I will be at Santiam Pass in two days." 7/6/22 8:48 PM

Maiden Peak Shelter

Preparing quesadillas for breakfast

My loadout from the Odell Lake mini mart

A view from inside the shelter

My logbook entry

A very glassy lake

PCT Day 49 (7/5/22) Windigo Pass to Maiden Peak Shelter

 "Pretty crazy day today. Started raining in the middle of the night again last night. Pretty tired of the rain. Stopped raining about when I started hiking again but the bugs were brutal along the trail. Got a soda and some fruit from some campground host trail angels around 10 miles in. Made it to shelter cove around lunchtime and ate a lunch out of the hiker box. Grabbed a couple other things from the box and charged stuff while it rained hard. Made it the last couple miles to Willamette Pass and had a very hard time getting a ride. The hotel I sent my replacement pole section didn't have the package so I'm still running a broken pole. Luckily the resupply was pretty good and I've got a ton of good stuff with me to make it to Santiam Pass. Carried a frozen pizza up to a ski hut I am staying in tonight and cooked it on the wood burning stove for dinner. Also made quesadillas for me and the two other guys who are staying here. Pretty stoked on the hut. It's definitely the nicest one I've been to. Stayed up much later than normal playing a cool card game called "Phase 10." Ready to get some rest and hit the trail tomorrow with fresh legs." 7/5/22 10:18 PM

My alternate route

Crossing the rail tracks near my convergence with the PCT

A snack and partial resupply from the Odell Lake hiker box

Gas station burritos on the trail

Climbing up and away from Odell Lake

A haphazardly cooked(ish) pizza that hit the spot at Maiden Peak Shelter