Good Evening,

As many of you following along with this blog know, I fell completely off the wagon with my updates.  The truth is, with journaling on the trail, and the ruckus of getting into town, resupplying, and prepping to hit the trail – keeping up with my blog seemed to be a bit much.  However, I’m going to do my best to give you a snapshot into the remainder of my hike from Crater Lake through to the finish and beyond.  I began the following blog awhile back –

Well, I’ve crossed the halfway point, I made it into Oregon, passed by Crater Lake and three sisters wilderness and landed in Cascade Locks, OR and am about to cross the bridge into Washington on this rainy Monday morning leaving 500ish miles to reach the Canadian Border and northern terminus of this trail.

During this stretch, I’ve connected with some wonderful friends; Jan and Charlie Mangum during their cross-country trek who waited 3 days to see me at Crater Lake and most recently my dear friend from Auburn; Patrick Mardis who decided to join me for 2 weeks of hiking 200 + miles together (averaging 25+ miles per day). Little did he know what he was about to get himself into…

This experience has very clearly been difficult, but with the challenge there were many things beginning to shift inside of me; making this trail much more enjoyable and exciting as it came to a close.  Challenges brought on by the weather certainly made this last several weeks tough, almost so that I left the trail once again, but alas – I am here for the long haul, and have some great trail friends around to see out this last 500 miles.

 

 

  
As I approached Crater Lake – I pulled a 37 mile day out of my back pocket and made in that evening with hopes of connecting with Jan and Charlie, as well as finding Patrick so we could begin our hike.

 

And that we did – we had a meal together, caught up on the Mangum’s cross county excursion, and had a great visit – I am thankful for my time with them, it is always a pleasure getting to see and connect with them.  Patrick and I then set our sights on beginning our hike together with a slow crawl out and around Crater Lake.  (Mind you the PCT had a fire closure at this time around Crater Lake because of the pending fires in the northwest part of the park).

 

 

So we began our trek north in hopes for good weather, great views and to experience a place that neither one of us had ever seen – Three Sisters Wilderness (volcanic rocks).

 

 

While I wish I could tell you I have several photos of the Three Sisters Wilderness area, I can’t – simply put – this section with the weather we experienced was the most difficult time I had on the trail.  (and for Patrick – let’s just say his luck when hiking with me always seems to take him through the most challenging of times, but I can tell you – despite how scary the pre-hypothermic conditions of 40-60mph sustained winds, rain and freezing temperatures; I cannot think of another individual I’d rather be with in a situation like this one.)  Patrick and I literally ran through 21 miles of pure HELL – in 7 hours. Mind you, this area was the most exposed and rocky ground on the trail.  Something of this magnitude truly makes you feel alive, and gives you the appreciation of how raw mother nature can be – it’s also a real awakening of just how small you really are in comparison to the mere size of this earth.

Although I have backpacked many miles; and have another thru-hike under my belt, I can say I was not prepared at all for this kind of weather.  I did not have sufficient gear; no rain pants – and just a crappy rain jacket that didn’t hold up to Mother Nature’s Fury.  An awakening that I’m sure most long-distance backpackers have had at least once in there time outside.  So, after shoving two guys in a two person tarp tent soaked to the bone; we made a quick dash the next morning into town for a hot breakfast and a ride into Bend, OR to the REI for some better gear.

After buying a new tent, rain jacket and pants, I felt much better about my bad weather preparation than I had prior to the nasty weather in Sisters, but that didn’t keep me from deciding that I was leaving the trail and going home.  So Patrick and I rented a car, and drove to Eugene, OR – where we toured around town and crashed for the evening.  That night, I grabbed our bags out of the trunk and realized my good buddy, Breaks had left his trekking poles in the car when we gave him a lift to the hotel just before we left town. When we awoke the next day, Patrick and I drove into Portland, OR with the intention of finding flights home and getting out of town.  But after a conversation with my mother (who has always known how to put me back together) and time with good friends from the Appalachian Trail – (FIG and Wet-Bag) I made a decision not to go home, and to head back to the trail the next day after Patrick made his way to the airport.  (Wet-Bag, aka Nik Tucker – a true friend and Trail Angel agreed to drive me the several hours back to the trail and dropped me off)  Shortly after he left, the rain began to pick up; but I was just a mile away from the 2000 mile marker and my buddy Breaks who had already hiked 20 miles in the nastiness of the day.  We hiked a couple of miles together after celebrating the 2000 mile marker – and set up camp just as the rain began to turn to snow.  A few slugs of Jim Beam and we were off to sleep only to wake up to some cold snowy weather the next day.

As you can see from the photos above – the following day was quite chilly and snowy – but it didn’t slow us or our moral down as we continued to drudge north on the PCT.

 

As we continued trekking – fall color was beginning to set in in early September and we were beginning to realize that Mother Nature was not going to allow us to drag our feet forever – we knew that we would hit a wall at any given point and that wall wouldn’t allow us to finish our hike.  So we continued to move closer and closer to Washington; doing our best to soak up the lasting miles in Oregon.

As we continued moving, we had the pleasure of backpacking through wilderness areas that ran close to Mount Jefferson, Mount Hood, Mount Adams, Mount Rainer and Mount Saint Helens.  Most of these mountains were visible for many miles traveled and would be visible for weeks on-end.

Traversing through America’s scenic and dramatic landscapes, I was moved as each day passed with our surroundings – wide expanses, open views – quite different than that of the Appalachian Trail.

Inching closer to Washington – we came up on the one place we were looking forward to as our time in Oregon was coming to a close; Tunnel Falls.  This is an active waterfall where the trail leads you down a path with a shear drop-off and meanders around and behind the falls – simply put, this was amazing.  An additional highlight leading up to this amazing trail was running into my good friends; River Jelly & Chopsticks – the same couple I began this hike with had ‘flipped’ up north and began heading south to finish off their hike.  We had a moment to catch-up; which was not even close to long enough, and then we were off and on our way again.

After a quick jaunt passed Tunnel Falls, I ran into Cascade Locks – the last town before crossing the “Bridge of the Gods’ – and gateway into Washington for a hot breakfast at the Cascade Inn… (Chicken Fried Steak – a staple for me on-trail was where I began my feast in town with my buddy Bison who had already been in town for a day.)  Later in the day the rest of the crew we had been hiking with finally made it to town and we all got together for drinks and food that evening.  What began as a quick in-and-out of town stop was quickly changed by some rainy weather which kept us at bay for three days longer than expected, continuing to gorge ourselves silly with as much food and beer as we could successfully manage to get down – followed by lots of wasteful television time.

After the bellies were full, and we had held onto town much longer than our budgets wanted us too, we began our jaunt across the Bridge of the Gods, and into Washington to start our trek through what I would find to be the most enjoyable state I’ve backpacked through to-date.

A slow beginning into Washington- Breaks and I took a quick detour off trail and into a small town for breakfast just one day out of town – and had quite an interesting hitch back to Panther Creek Campground – only completing 5 miles that day(pouring rain) – we decided to have a little wine(well… maybe a little more than a little) that evening after we got back on trail- and hit it hard the next day.  Over the next few days, we made up for some slow mileage days and cranked into another unexpected small stop for some real food – Trout Lake.  We were welcomed by Love’s (another hiker, her mom and grandma) – who refused to do anything less than buy our lunch(a lot of lunch at that).  After lunch we tooled around grabbing a few extra goodies to take back to the trail – and connecting with one of the coolest couples on-trail. (FILL IN NAMES HERE).  We took some time and toured around town, finding a ‘bed & breakfast” called Trail-Head.  What an amazing place with some eclectic and interesting people – I think we were all in awe and shock at this place, truly a one-of-a-kind stop in an awesome town. One that I am sure Breaks and I will return to one of these days.

After a few hours of fun, Breaks and I finally made it back to the trailhead only to once again settle for a low milage, belly-full kind of day and made a fire, enjoying some delicious beer and whiskey, having a ‘race’ to see who could set their tent up faster – (I set mine up on a whole load of horse poop) but all the while laughing and enjoying each others company.  Quick hiking over the next two days brought us to our first planned resupply at Whites Pass – arriving after our friends, Breaks and I splurged a little and got a nice room with a loft and many beds expecting a quiet evening with no much company, but that was a pipe dream as our room quickly filled by the hiking family we had been surrounding ourselves with for awhile – (Bison, Cheese, Genie and Taxi)

After taking a zero day and eating once again; more than any human should, we were back at it hiking in force with our crew.  As we left the pass, we were looking north as our next stop was 100 miles away in a small town of Snoqualmie, WA.  The days leading up to Snoqualmie were simply beautiful – the weather still treating us well but the reality of this trip coming to a close was ever-present.

Upon our arrival in Snoqualmie – a short walk right off trail into town – several of us short on food – we went directly to the restaurant connected to the hotel we would later rest our heads that night, for a late breakfast.  For me – the usual, Chicken Fried Steak with eggs, has browns, toast smothered in good ole’ country gravy, and a side of bacon. and Yes – I finished it all.  After rolling out of the breakfast nook, I slowly worked my way over to the Chevron/Post Office where I found my box tucked away in one of the refrigerators with many additional boxes and mail for hikers. Ironically, they did not even require an I.D. to pick up your box – which left me feeling uneasy on how someone could just walk out with your box – nonetheless, I still retrieved my box and made my way to the hotel to find a room with Breaks.

We also were excited to rejoin hiking with Bison and Taxi, who had arrived in Snoqualmie much before Breaks, Cheese Genie and I had.  While we secured a room, Cheese and Genie were leaning heavily toward leaving town and getting back on trail – but after some much needed rest, beer and pool time – we got them to stay – even if we were dealing with the wrath of Khan that evening in our hotel.  The next day we all slowly trickled out of town after another good meal and extra resupplies to push us toward our next stop, Skykomish about 175 miles north of Snoqualmie.