Day 123
Start: Timberline Lodge
Finish: Muddy Fork
Daily Mileage: 19
PCT Mile: 2111.6
It was too warm in the hotel, and I probably would have slept better outside in my tent. That happens on these long trips. You can be more comfortable on you thin sleeping pad, inflatable pillow, and sleeping bag than in a $400 per night hotel.
We had the breakfast buffet, though it was more like standard hotel fare than the slightly elevated lunch buffet yesterday. My shoes didn’t show any movement from last night, and USPS came first thing in the morning and didn’t deliver them, so I had no idea where they were. There was really nothing else to do but just hit the trail and give up on getting my shoes. I can’t just wait here forever. In the next town I could catch a bus to a city with a good shoe store, though they don’t have my same discontinued shoe model. It would have to work.
We got back on the trail which did a partial circumnavigation of Mt. Hood. The ski slopes were still busy on a permanent snowfield on the mountain as we left civilization behind and entered the Mt. Hood Wilderness area again.
The trail was absolutely packed with day hikers and backpackers. I didn’t know where everyone was going, but I was hoping it wasn’t the PCT.
The trail was sandy or ashy, I’m not sure which as we started to circle the volcano. There were glaciers up high and huge gullies periodically parted the loose soil creating enormous chutes all the way to the summit of the mountain. The streams were radiating straight outward from the volcano, and the gullies themselves and the views they provided of the mountain were astoundingly beautiful.
We had just crossed one of these gullies after having descended quite a bit from Timberline Lodge when I got a message from Kate, my girlfriend, that my shoes had arrived at the post office closest to the lodge and were being held for pickup. I looked and we were 3.5 miles down the trail from the lodge, and had already descended 1,400 feet. Not something I really wanted to backtrack. I looked, and there were no other good options to get the shoes today, since the post office would be closed for the weekend tomorrow.
After some discussion with Kate and Honeybun, we decided it would be best if we retraced our steps and I got my shoes so I could put that task behind me. I hate backtracking, but it had to be done. So, with Honeybun accompanying me, we headed back to the lodge.
I was leading, and I tore back up the mountain, motivated to get this done and move on as quickly as possible. Though it was a steady climb, we were quickly passing people going in our direction, and I think going faster than people heading down. When we got back to the lodge, Honeybun noted that we had done that 3.5 miles with 1,400 feet of climbing in an hour flat, a blistering pace only possible due to our thru-hiker fitness.
I left Honeybun in charge of our packs while holding down the bar at the lodge while I got a 10 minute hitch down to Government Camp, straight to the post office to get my shoes. When I got there, they couldn’t find my box and said they didn’t have it. I was about to flip my shit since Kate had just confirmed they had it when they found it! After a week of trying with 2 different pairs of shoes, I finally had the in hand.
My old shoes were completely destroyed and had flat soles. They were too tight and I spiked them in a trash can as soon as I found one and swapped out to my new kicks. 5th pair, and this one should take me to the end of the trail. This pair only lasted 22 days, but 550 miles in that time is more than enough to do in a pair of trail runners.
It didn’t take long to get a hitch back up, and Honeybun was just finishing a beer when I rolled back into the bar.
We quickly packed up and got back on trail. It was 2 something, and we hadn’t effectively covered any miles for the day yet, though we had gone 7.
We flew back down the trail for the third time of the day, with some people recognizing us from passing them before. It felt good to pass the point we had turned around and enter new territory as we continued on.
We circled around the west side of Mt. Hood and the forest was lush, verdant green, and flowering. It is looking more like my home in Washington every day I go further north.
We came to an overlook over the Sandy River which was one of the many streams coming down from the glaciers of Mt. Hood. The view was perhaps one of the most majestic of the entire trail with the mountain at the head of the deep valley, waterfalls, shear rock faces, cascading streams, lava flows and columnar basalt, and perfect lighting for the whole scent. It was just jaw droppingly beautiful and a sight to behold.
We dropped down and in a few miles crossed the river. There were many hikers negotiating the crossing. Taking off shoes, picking a spot, fording, etc. I scoped it out in about 15 seconds, found a spot we could rock hop, and we were across and headed down the trail before the rest of the hikers probably knew what happened.
We shortly came to an alternate route where we could take a trail past Ramona Falls. It was supposed to be scenic and about the same distance as the PCT, so there was not much reason to not go the alternate route.
The falls were stunning, cascading over an old lava formation. Quite tall and fanning out wide. A great quick detour!
Following the stream down, it was a green mossy wonderland like Washington. The forest floor was carpeted in moss and everything was bright green. There were even the first log bridges of the trail. It all brings me back home.
We left the stream and shortly got to our intended campsite near Muddy Fork. All in all we made the distance we needed despite my shoe detour. If we had waited and gotten shoes in the next town, it would have delayed us hours, spending most of the day in town. Now we will still get to that town early in the morning two days from now without the task to get shoes the next town over. It was definitely the right call.
My new shoes were definitely better, but my feet did suffer from the old pair and I have some inflammation and possibly a big heel blister forming. Will have to see what happens with that.
All in all today was very dynamic, but everything ended up working out in the end so it turned out as well as it could have. The astounding views around Mt. Hood capped off the day nicely.
