Oregon Archives - Yeti Hikes

PCT Day 124 – Eagle Creek

Yeti — Sun, 28 Jul 2024 03:00:01 +0000

Day 124

Start: Muddy Fork

Finish: Eagle Creek

Daily Mileage: 25

PCT Mile: 2130.3

Another chilly night that made me regret sending my puffy home in the morning, but once you are out of your bag it is alright. I can make due.

A healthy climb to warm us up first thing in the morning with a couple views back to Mt. Hood. We were starting to leave the mountain after circling it for miles.

The trail took us for miles through bright green PNW forest. Flowers were blooming, berries were ripening, and everything else was glowing green. No views, but the forest was nice and pleasant. And there was the bonus of grabbing berries on the go for snacking. Salmonberries, blueberries, huckleberries of a few different varieties, mulberries, and some other mystery cluster berries that should be safe to eat. We will see tonight.

The few views that we did have showed Mt. Hood quickly receding and forested hills around us with lakes in the valleys. There was some burned around us, but the trail itself was pretty clean.

After running the ridges for the morning and early afternoon, we diverted down the Indian Springs trail as an alternate to the PCT. Up ahead the Whiskey Creek fire was burning below the PCT. The trail remains open and upwind of the fire, but the side trail was supposed to be more scenic in addition to being further from the fire, so it was an easy decision.

We grabbed lunch at an actual picnic table in the middle of nowhere, a rare luxury out here before heading down.

There were a lot of complaints about the Indian Springs trail regarding its steepness and blowdowns. Once again, I’m not sure what the problem is since it was pretty easy trail. It was slightly steeper than the PCT, and had blowdowns through a burn area that were easy to get around. At this point, I take everything I read and hear with a grain of salt. Much is overreactions and fear mongering.

We joined a better maintained trail and the descent lessened and the trail was mostly cleared of blowdowns. It was a rather uneventful downhill until we approached a stream running in the valley.

The entire valley was filled with an old lava flow, and the stream was carving its way through it. The entire bed of the stream was the top of an old lava flow, so the look of it was quite different going over the sheet of lava instead of rocks and sand. A nice change in scenery.

The trail got more serious, being blasted out of the steep lava lining the sides of the creek. It can be really impressive the lengths they used to go to to build trail; I doubt they would do anything like that today but it was great trail.

The stream dropped away below us, and we came to Twister falls which had two different streams that diverged and then one crossed over top of the other. It was all due to the unique nature of flowing over a solid sheet of lava, and quite an impressive sight.

Here, the trail was carved out of the lava with a straight vertical drop below. It must have been interesting to build. I’m immune to this type of trail, but I could see it making some people nervous.

Continuing downstream on the carved out trail, we quickly came to Tunnel Falls. Here the trail continued to be carved out of vertical lava, but it had to get past the falls. To make that happen, a tunnel was blasted that passed behind the water fall! Quite impressive. I’ve only seen something like this a couple times in my life.

The falls themselves were very tall, definitely the highest pure waterfall of the trip so far, though there were many huge cascades in the Sierra. All in all, it was an immensely impressive sight between the falls themselves and the engineering of the trail around and behind them.

After Tunnel Falls, we were nearing where we planned to camp for the day. We were intending a shorter 25-26 mile day today to get close to town, but not too close. There were many other hikers around, so we opted to grab an open site a little sooner than we had planned, just to make sure we got a good spot without winding up at a full site. It is the weekend, though that isn’t relevant to us.

A relaxing evening, and early night to bed to try to recover some sleep.

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PCT Day 123 – Mt. Hood

Yeti — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 03:00:01 +0000

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.

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PCT Day 122 – Timberline Lodge

Yeti — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Day 122

Start: US-26

Finish: Timberline Lodge

Daily Mileage: 10.3

PCT Mile: 2099.6

Though we camped near a US highway with plenty of traffic, it was not hard to get the rest we needed last night. In the morning it was chilly, but good hiking weather.

Forested uphill we hardly noticed, across a gap and another highway, and then we started the climb up the flanks of Mt. Hood in earnest.

The grade was once again easy as seems par for the course in Oregon, and we flew up that as well. In no time we were closing in on Timberline Lodge which was 10 miles distant this morning, but nearby when the clock struck 8.

As we climbed up Mt. Hood, the trees parted and became more sporadic, allowing us to see what we were doing. The trail was climbing between some steep sandy gullies, with glacial runoff in the streams far below. Way more dramatic than anything we had seen in the past few days, and it was great to have a change in pace.

We continued up the sandy trail with Timberline Lodge quickly coming into view, along with the ski slopes filled with skiers behind it. The lifts were still running and everything.

Arriving at the lodge, I found that my second attempt at getting my shoes replaced had failed due to an incorrect address in Farout. That app is completely unreliable, and I should have known better than to have trusted it. My shoes were a couple hours away with no clear way to get them. Thankfully, my girlfriend Kate who had shipped them was on it and hopefully got them redirected here either today or tomorrow which should work out. As of right now I have 2 pairs of shoes somewhere in the void that I’ve attempted to have shipped to me now. I really need the shoes as mine are shot, too tight, and hurting my feet. I hope I can get them before I leave.

Honeybun and I decided to splurge and get a room in the pricy Timberline Lodge since we were here and it is a historical building with fantastic timber and stone construction. It was a bit more opulent than I was even expecting with massive beams and fireplaces. Quite the place to explore.

The hotel allowed us to check in very early since our room was available before heading to the fabled lunch buffet which is purported to be the best and most filling meal on the trail.

The room was full of hikers but also many other families, and the food was good and filling.

We relaxed in our beautiful surroundings for the rest of the day.

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PCT Day 121 – Timothy Lake

Yeti — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 03:00:01 +0000

Day 121

Start: Warm Springs Indian Reservation

Finish: US-26

Daily Mileage: 33.5

PCT Mile: 2089.3

We were both out cold last night after our long day yesterday, but we got up and planned to do the same thing again today. We awoke to the smell of smoke in the air, and were unsure if a new fire could have popped up that we didn’t know about. There was nothing to do but keep hiking and keep our eyes peeled for anything unusual. When we did get some cell signal, we were able to confirm that we were in the clear.

We hiked through forest, forest, and more forest. In the first half of the day, the only view or notable feature was a from a small clearcut area which offered limited views of the surrounding forested hills. Nothing too exciting.

There were some scattered ripe huckleberries along the way that we could pick at, and the area definitely had the feel of northwest forest though the trees weren’t huge.

It turned into just cranking out the miles. Thankfully the treadway was easy and the miles flew past much more quickly than yesterday, bringing us ever closer to Timberline Lodge and its buffet. Oh yeah, and Mt. Hood. Priorities.

We crossed a road near Timothy Lake and had our first Trail Magic in a while, with a cooler full of soda and grapes. Quite a score. We continued onto the lake for lunch 2 with views of people windsurfing and paddle boarding.

We had been debating our end point for the day again. Climbing up to a spring with campsites, it was nearly full, so we took that as a sign to press on to our furthest potential camp.

Chafing had become a major issue today, especially with the big mileage we were doing. It was al I could do to keep lubing up and trying to find that ideal positioning of everything to minimize it which usually works, but not today. I just had to suffer through it. On top of sore feet from my too tight shoes I’m desperate to replace, it was not the most pleasant end to the day.

However, as we were nearing camp, Mt. Hood jumped out in front of us, now taking up most of the horizon since it was the next mountain over. We had quickly approached it and hadn’t really noticed since we were buried in trees the whole day. At least that was some sort of redeeming feature of the day.

We arrived at our camp after 33 miles tired and sore, but knowing that we did well for the day and were set up great to get to Timberline Lodge early tomorrow. Hopefully it was worth it.

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PCT Day 120 – Mt. Jefferson

Yeti — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 03:00:01 +0000

Day 120

Start: North Cinder Peak

Finish: Warm Springs Indian Reservation

Daily Mileage: 34.3

PCT Mile: 2055.8

A colder than normal night. First time I wished for my puffy, but made due. I even zipped up my sleeping bag which is unusual for me. Usually quilting is more than enough. It seemed slightly warmer in the morning, so not hard to get up.

A nice easy downhill past some scenic but buggy ponds to the first glacial runoff creek of the hike coming off Mt. Jefferson. The trail circled the mountain which is the second highest volcano in Oregon.

There were many views of the glacier covered volcano as we started a long climb to a ridge north of it. The area was partially burned, but that ended up affording more views of the surrounding area.

We came to Jefferson Park which turned out to be a fantastic series of small meadows that was the perfect setting to the backdrop of Mt. Jefferson. It was extremely idyllic, and quite apparent why it is a limited access area. Everything was flowering and bright green, which was a great contrast to the gray and white mountain behind it.

Climbing out of Jefferson Park, we finished scaling a high ridge we had been climbing 2,500 feet up to. Probably one of the bigger climbs in Oregon, but still not a big deal due to the easy grading of the PCT.

Reaching the top of the ridge, we were presented with phenomenal views to the north. Most prominently, Mt. Hood stood out in the foreground, and it was actually the first time we had seen the volcano on this hike. All of the sudden it wasn’t that far off.

Staring deeply into the light smoke in the air, you could just make out Mt. St. Helens and even Mt. Rainier far to the north in Washington. I was not expecting to see Rainier quite so soon, and it impacted me since it is quite prominent where I live in northern Washington. I could veritably see all the way back to home from here!

We took a break to take in the view and appreciate our progress north before starting down the ridge.

Flipping over to the north side of the ridge, we were revisited by our nemesis, snow. There was the remnants of a large and steep snowfield to cross. It was not easy to get down. I tried to traverse it to a shallower section, but fell and decided to just glissade down. Yes, at the end of July. Way too late for snow travel.

There was even a half frozen pond up there, and snow in flat areas, which was just too much.

We picked our way down the snowy and rocky trail, making slow progress. When the trees reemerged, they were all burned, adding blowdowns to the mix. We made progress, but we were hoping for more with a bigger mileage day planned for today.

The trail eventually improved, and after Olallie Lake we finally reentered unburned forest. It was getting late in the day, around 7 which is after we normally stop. However, we hadn’t made it to our goal of 34 miles. We went back and forth but decided to press on, with trying to get the most out of our upcoming Timberline Lodge stay in the forefront of our minds.

W cruised through forest and arrived at a primitive road some hikers had mentioned camping by. We scratched out a couple spots on the side of the road and finally at 8:30 called it a day having covered 34 miles in 14.5 hours. Exhausting, but we did well.

While Mt. Jefferson and Jefferson Park were fantastic today, seeing Mt. Rainier far to the north and near home really made the day for me. We are quickly closing in on the end of this long journey.

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PCT Day 119 – Three Fingered Jack

Yeti — Tue, 23 Jul 2024 03:00:01 +0000

Day 119

Start: Sisters, OR

Finish: North Cinder Peak

Daily Mileage: 19.6

PCT Mile: 2021.5

We had some packages to ship to the trail ahead so we couldn’t get going first thing. Had to wait for the Post Office and UPS to open. Then our hitch out of town took longer than expected, about 20 minutes before a trail angel driving around looking for hikers to shuttle grabbed us. All in all it was 10:30 by the time we started walking. It can be so hard to get out of town and hit the trail.

Back on trail it was a little less smoky than it had been yesterday, with a breeze rolling through and carrying it away. Good for us, but bad for the fires it is surely stoking.

We started out in a burn area that took most of the morning to clear. The climbing was gradual, and the distant mountains were still cloaked in smoke, so there wasn’t much to see. You could barely make out the shadows of the sisters which we passed only two days ago. It was still really thick to the south of us.

We escape the burn area and entered good forest as we started around Three Fingered Jack. When we finally got a view it was quite stunning with jagged peaks reaching to the sky, with bands of colored rock.

Heading around the north side there were some bands of snow yet to still traverse. It is almost August and relatively low elevation in Oregon. I’m amazed snow has stuck around so long. There was even a pond that was still partially frozen.

However, the late melting snow left the ground still damp, so the bushes were verdant green and wildflowers blooming. A nice change from some of the scorched earth feel further south.

We then continued on a ridge for the rest of the day, alternating between forest and burn area. The wind was howling across the ridge, and the rest of the smoke rapidly clearing such that we could see the distant mountains better and better throughout the day.

The ridge had a lot of old volcanic rock and nice coloring, so it was a good rock. It took us towards Mt. Jefferson which is a large glaciated mountain quite prominent from the rest of the terrain. When we started today, it was barely a blip on the horizon, but at the end of the day it filled most of our field of view.

We camped at a viewpoint, with Mt. Jefferson front and center. Quite an amazing spot. Some wind but not bad with some trees to partially block the gusts. It has been a while since we camped at such a scenic spot. It is easy to get lazy and camp near the water sources, but the dry camps can be so much better.

We carried heavy loads out of town today, to keep us going for the next 160+ miles to Cascade Locks. It now amazes us that we carried so much more weight through the Sierra. With our summer loadout, the 5 days of food feels heavy, but it is all relative.

The scenery was good today, but the type that pictures can’t really capture. The subtleties of the distant mountains layered in blue smoke. Volcanic caldera covered with vegetation. The bright green of plants just emerging from the snow, growing as fast as they can before it dries out. These and many other aspects of hiking can’t really be frozen in an image, only memories.

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PCT Day 118 – Sisters

Yeti — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 03:00:01 +0000

Day 118

Start: Mt. Washington

Finish: Sisters, OR

Daily Mileage: 9.6

PCT Mile: 2001.9

Good night sleep and a slightly lazy start since we were headed to town. It was a quick downhill and we arrived at Big Lake Youth Camp which offers showers, laundry, a kitchen, and package holding to hikers. It was a great place, but unfortunately UPS delayed my replacement shoes twice and my package wasn’t there yet.

I had really been looking forward to the new shoes. Mine are narrow since it was all I could find since Brooks decided to discontinue my shoe for a to-be-released next version that isn’t out yet in the middle of the hiking season after being available for less than a year. I’ve cut up my right shoe to give my foot room, but I still have foot pain every few steps from the shoes being too tight. I’m pretty tired of it after 500 miles on these shoes and was really looking forward to the new shoes. They are rescheduled for delivery tomorrow when I will be 20+ miles down the trail, so that won’t really work, and they are closed Sundays (today) so I can’t even talk to them. Pretty disappointed because I will have to continue walking in pain for the next 100 miles until I can possibly get another package.

We did the chores we could at the youth camp since it everything was available in a PCT hiker hut and we wouldn’t have to run around town later to do all of the same things. We even got some camp breakfast.

Then it was just a few short, flat miles to the highway into Sisters. My stomach was acting up which keeps happening after I have town food about half the time. No good, but it usually clears up.

We arrived at the road into Sisters, and it was quite the fast 2 lane highway. There was no shoulder at the trail crossing so we hiked to a slightly wider spot on the road where we got a hitch in about 10 minutes from a couple whose daughter hiked the PCT a few years ago.

Nice easy ride into Sisters and we got set up at the campground there and did our camp chores around town for the rest of the day.

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PCT Day 117 – Lava

Yeti — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 03:00:01 +0000

Days 117

Start: South Sister

Finish: Mt. Washington

Daily Mileage: 24

PCT Mile: 1992.3

We awoke under the sisters, though also within the watchful gaze of The Husband. Neither of us slept well or enough after our challenge yesterday. I actually felt more tired and worn out this morning than I did when I finished last night. We didn’t set a wakeup time, but were still up about the same, and left only slightly later than our normal 6am start.

We were stiff and still had sore feet from yesterday, and just didn’t have a lot of energy. We stumbled into the day with even the easiest climbs seeming steep and unable to get momentum.

We quickly came to Obsidian Creek, and it lived up to its reputation with obsidian scattered all about. Though we had travelled through much lava on this trip, this was the first time I’d seen obsidian with its striking black shiny appearance.

The creek also had some nice falls over a lava flow, though not obsidian, where we grabbed some nice cold water.

The land after the creek was littered with obsidian for some distance, with some small hills appearing entirely made of the rock. I hadn’t seen quite the extent of obsidian like this before and it was quite amazing.

We then came to our first large lava field of the day where the trail tried to stay away for as long as it could before succumbing and switch backing straight up a lava chute to cross over the field. This was a little more work than normal trail, but manageable since it was brief.

On the other side we took first lunch. We were still dragging and we had our dinners that we hadn’t eaten last night due to lack of time. That really picked us up and gave us more energy to continue on.

We started down, away from the amazing peaks of the sisters. Aiming for an easier day today to make up for the exertion of yesterday, we were shooting for 24 miles which would get us right where we wanted to be for town tomorrow anyways.

We filled up with water with 12 miles left in the day to get to the next water source. It was a good bit of downhill with not too much climbing, so it didn’t seem like it would be too hard. How wrong we were.

The trail down went through some light occasional lava, but as we were nearing a road crossing, the trail went straight up a wall of lava and into a large lava field. The trail was cut into the field, but essentially paved with rocks 1-2” in diameter, ankle biters. Each footstep had to be considered, and our sensitive feet from yesterday kept getting irritated as inflamed spots got hit or bumped. It was quite tedious and progress was slowed. It was interesting hiking over the lava, but I didn’t quite have the energy for it, and my feet with too small worn out shoes weren’t having it either.

We crossed the road which was cut through the field, and continued on the other side. There was a brief patch of lava free trail, and then it started a 4 mile traverse of an enormous field, up to its peak and back down. There were definitely some cool sights, but most of the focus was on our feet which limited our ability to look around. It was excruciating and I kept bumping the sore spots on my feet and feeling stabs of pain. Also, since the lava is black and it was sunny, it seemed hotter on the field due to the absorbed light of the rock.

The field seemed to endure forever, but at long last we escaped its clutches and went on to our last climb of the day.

It was supposed to be in the 90s today, and it sure felt it climbing through a burn area. I had no energy left, and was more trudging than walking. The sky was increasingly hazy with smoke from wildfires, and I checked air quality was unhealthy in this area. So many things holding us back.

At long last we made it to a pond which was the first water source in 12 miles, and there were some campsites right next to it. Good enough, and we were glad to be done.

Today was quite scenic with amazing lava features, but our tiredness from hiking 50 miles yesterday and soreness of our feet made the second half of the day more of a grind. However, we hiked as far as we needed to so we are set up for town tomorrow.

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PCT Day 116 – Mileage Challenge

Yeti — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 00:41:06 +0000

Day 116

Start: Bobby Lake

Finish: South Sister

Daily Mileage: 50.04 (per GPS watch)

Hiking Time: 17:23

PCT Mile: 1968.3

Honeybun and I had briefly discussed a few times whether or not to try a mileage challenge on the trail. Oregon is stereotyped as flat and easy, though this isn’t always true. Regardless, many hikers were going to take their shot at a 24 hour challenge today starting from Shelter Cover or shortly later on trail. We weren’t going to participate since we didn’t want to mess up our sleep schedules by trying to hike through the night and then trying to recover after the fact. However, I proposed to Honeybun as we were nearing camp last night that we could do an “old man’s” 24 hour challenge, and only hike during reasonable hours and not overnight. We would also take breaks and either one of us could call a tap out for any reason and we would both stop.

Honeybun wanted to get a 42 mile day, a metric marathon in miles, but I said if we were going to do that, I’d like to beat 45 miles which was my previous high, from the 4 state challenge on the Appalachian Trail. We settled on attempting a 75k since that was a relatively round number at approximately 47 miles.

With that decided in the waning hours of the night before, we got to bed early and hit the trail just after 5, still slightly shorting our sleep.

It turned out to be a pretty good day to try it. The elevation profiles look similar to California except for some of the bigger climbs there, but there seems to be more exaggeration in Oregon’s steepness in the hiking app which I still haven’t adjusted to. We headed straight up the biggest climb of the day first thing, but like many in Oregon the grade wasn’t too noticeable and before we knew it we had topped out.

The trail made gradual ups and downs over the course of the day like this, and we didn’t pay much attention until later on.

Early on, we passed through a recent burn area that appeared to be originally burned and then burned again when it was starting to recover. The ground was covered in ash and decayed trees, and it like an apocalypse scene like in video games or movies. No other burns quite had this appearance yet on the trail, and it was creepy but interesting.

We took our first break at 10 miles, not really deciding yet how to handle the day. We were going to take breaks, though short, during the day and not just pound it out endlessly as I think that can end up being more tiring. At our first break we were averaging more than 3mph even including the break which I was happy with.

We finished up the burn and entered forest that wound endlessly around small ponds and lakes. We just stayed buried in the forest for hours, with few unique or notable features. The mosquitoes came in waves as well and it became apparent that we weren’t missing much by hurrying through this section of trail.

We took lunch around half way for the day, still taking a quick break while also refilling on water at a pond. More easy, cruisy trail with not much to note. We kept moving well with a good pace as the mileage kept ticking away. I made sure to keep eating throughout the day, especially since I was carrying more snacks than I needed since we ended up doing this challenge.

Lunch 3 we took with 13 miles left to our goal of 47, within striking distance and still doing good on daylight near Elk Lake. For the first time of the entire day, a couple brief views of the approaching volcanoes opened up for us, but they were limited through the trees.

The last stretch of trail had a couple climbs to it, and I wasn’t sure how that would go since we were already into the high 30s for mileage. However, we went up them and still cruised straight up at more than 3mph. I’ll take it.

Heading down we were suddenly attacked by a wall of mosquitoes. They hadn’t really been bad all day, and I hadn’t put on bug spray or my headnet yet today. Those were quickly remedied and we just couldn’t believe how many mosquitoes there were so quickly. Shortly we arrived at a lake which was probably the answer to the question, and there were many sad looking hikers hiding in tents or in full bug suits to keep them at bay.

We grabbed water from the lake and didn’t even stop to filter it because we would have been eaten in the meantime. Over one more bump and down to a couple streams before our final climb of the day.

We were walking through the forest on a flat plain when the trees ended and the trail went straight across a meadow. Right on the other side hiding behind walls of lava were South and North Sister suddenly in all of their glory, with snow reflecting the golden light of the near setting sun. It was an incredible walk through the large meadow with the sisters looming over us, and it completely made the day for me. It was all worth it because we got to see them in the perfect light.

We had reached 45 miles by this point, and we were both feeling strong and great, despite some foot pain from all the pounding. Nothing we couldn’t handle though. I mentioned that 47 miles is an awkward number, and 50 is much more of a round number. Honeybun thought the same, so in the waning hours of the challenge we updated our goal to 50 miles.

We started up the last climb 45 miles in still feeling surprisingly fresh and strong, and maintained a good pace of more than 3mph on the way up. I was amazed it was going so well. When I did 45 miles previously, though not in conjunction with a long distance hike, I had been hallucinating and seeing things by this point. Now I was feeling as if that day was not that old still.

We sped up the climb, donning our headlamps as the last of the sunlight went away and a convenient full moon came out. There was just not enough light in the forests to see and I didn’t want to eat it on a rock or blowdown.

Towards the end of the climb, I was getting tired, but not from the exertion, just from it being past when I normally went to bed.

We started looking for campsites as we neared our goal, since there wasn’t anything marked around our finish. We finally reached 50 miles after 17 hours and 23 minutes, and surprisingly, Yeti and Spätzle were at the same spot, just reaching their 100k initial goal, wondering how much further they would go.

We felt strong and I could have continued, but we were entering a scenic part of the 3 Sisters Wilderness Area, and I didn’t want to speed through it in the dark.

We found a flat spot just above the trail where we finished, quickly set up our tents, and went to bed at 11. Not quite within our normal sleeping hours, but not too far off either.

It was an amazing day to feel so good and strong while hiking so far, with over 6,500 feet of elevation gain and our full packs on our backs. I’m glad we tried this challenge and got through to successfully and without hurting ourselves too much.

The post PCT Day 116 – Mileage Challenge appeared first on Yeti Hikes.

PCT Day 115 – Shelter Cove

Yeti — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 03:00:01 +0000

Days 115

Start: Diamond Peak

Finish: Bobby Lake

Daily Mileage: 22.6

PCT Mile: 1918.6

I didn’t sleep well last night. It could have been the constant drone of the mosquito horde outside my tent, the intermittent smell of smoke, or the unconscious worry about the proximity of wildfires. Either way, the result was the same.

I did everything I could packing up in the morning inside my tent. I made the mistake last night of using the bathroom before bed and breaching the tent door for a couple seconds upon exit and entry, and that resulted in 50 mosquitoes entering that I had to kill one by one. There were even some greedy ones that sucked so much blood they couldn’t fly. Next time I will just use the lazy guy trick.

When Honeybun was at about the same point in packing up, I rushed out of my tent, and another 50 mosquitoes went right in, I wrapped up the tent with them inside since why not?

We hurriedly left camp and headed down the mountain. Moving it is generally ok, but we definitely used our headnets and spray. We crossed a couple more snowfields which didn’t keep them at bay before we descended more out of the snow and they gradually disappeared.

Then it was just a quick downhill and slight jog off trail to Shelter Cove Resort where we had resupply boxes waiting. We captured our loot, ordered some breakfast, and caught up with the hikers that were arriving.

We learned that the PCTA had just closed the section of trail we finished at around the same time, due to the proximity of the fire I reported and several others. There were two other closures behind us due to new fires, along the Crater Lake rim and Mount Thielsen that we were ahead of by a day. We got through all of these sections of trail just on time, and just ahead of the fires. It was probably the difference of us deciding to do the afternoon Crater Lake traverse on a whim that saved us. Hikers a couple hours behind us were diverted off trail yesterday by rangers. We were among the last through.

However, the good news was we were on the northern edge of where the storm passed through, and there were no more fires north that were caused by that storm at least. Many due to other reasons, though it didn’t look like any of them would presently affect our route.

The hikers kept pouring in, hitching in from down the trail as they got to the fire closures. We had broken out ahead of the first hiker bubble, but it apparently caught back up to us as hikers were forced to skip ahead. It is slightly frustrating that we did all the work and distance on the trail to get out ahead of the hiker rush, to have it skip up to catch us, but it is part of the trail and closures that happen every year on the PCT.

We grabbed lunch and a beer and finished recharging before we headed on down the trail. We passed a couple big lakes, and are beginning to see the stereotype of the multitude of lakes in Oregon.

Otherwise, it was mostly a forest walk. The Rosary lakes were incredibly scenic with rocky bluffs overlooking idyllic lakes, but then just back to the forest.

We ended up camping next to Bobby Lake with many other hikers. Lots of flat area next to the lake, and the water was relatively warm allowing for a swim and the first scrub down in a week or so. Definitely refreshing, though back into the same dirty clothes I’ve been wearing.

Today was another day of dynamic changes on the trail. It is always difficult to adjust, but all you can do is accept the differences and continue hiking. At least nothing is stopping our route presently.

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