July 3rd
Elevation: 5720 ft
Trail Miles: 865.1 miles

Back to the trail. I tried to lure my friend onto the trail to join me, but I guess she could not. Oh well, I will continue solo. With all the emails of encouragement I received over the last few days, I really felt blessed to have so many people interested in what I was doing. Several people saw the trail trying to beat me down, and they wrote in to build me up. Sincerest Thank You.

My side trip down to Bend was rather delightful. I spent most of the first day writing my last journal, and when I stood to pay my tab, I was informed that the “friend” from the bar payed for all of my meal and drinks. A little trail magic from a past long-distance hiker.

As I went to check into the hostel, the person at the front desk informed me that someone called for me to offer me a place to stay. I figured out it was my friend Christina and called her up to take her up on the offer.

When we arrived back at her place, she was incredibly hospitable. She showed my around, gave me soap, and said “You probably want to take a shower.”

Oddly, I thought to myself, “I have only been out for two days, I don’t feel too dirty…ah, perhaps she probably wants me to take a shower.” So I did, and it was great. As it was getting late already, I only stayed up for a short bit enjoying drinks with her equally hospitable roommates.

When I awoke in the morning, I stepped out of bed and as I opened the door, Christina came up the stairs with a bacon & eggs breakfast. “Rise and Shine.”

Going downstairs to eat breakfast with her I planned my day. Since she had to work, I wandered around town doing small things here and there. While at the Bend Library, I looked up at the wall and saw 6 quotes, four which struck me as something worth sharing.

“Continual is the journey:
Past sunset toward morning”
-Willis Eberman

“The storyteller is the person
who creates an atmosphere
in which wisdom reveals itself.”
-Barry Lopez

“What are we doing here?
We’re reaching for the stars.”
-Christa McAuliffe

“You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait…
What the river says, that is what I say.”
-William Stafford

Take from it what you will, but they seemed to strike a chord within me and my travels.

After the library, I picked up a lightweight longsleeve shirt to keep the mosquitos off my arms. Then I relaxed in a park and returned to the house. Within a few hours several of us were loaded up in the back of a truck with rafts to float down the river in.

Slowly drifting downstream, I realized that I just had my most relaxing “Zero” day, and was quite happy to have the snow to redirect my path to Bend.

Returning to the house, Christina made me a dinner. We then decided to go out and play pool, but were quickly diverted to ice cream and a movie. Falling asleep to the movie, I went upstairs to crash, for the next day, today, I was to hike.

In the morning, Christina drove me up to Willamette Pass. She felt bad leaving me stranded up in the mountains alone, but I assured here I would be fine. I don’t quite know if I was trying to convince her or myself. Time will tell. We said our goodbyes and I hit the trail at about 10:45 am. (Thanks Christina for putting me up, and treating me wonderfully)

The guidebook described this section as generally viewless. Todays hike was just that. I did have one nice view, partially obscured, to the south of 4 or 5 lakes. But there is so much more to the trail than the views.

As I walked up the hill to the first lake, I took an early second breakfast. I saw someone, so naturally I decided to eat with them. A little company can go a long way on the empty trail. We sat there and talked of the area, our fathers, bears, books, and fish.

But, all too soon, I had to leave the clear blue-green lake to continue hiking. As I walked past the three small lakes, I wondered how often I would see weekend hikers and dayhikers now that the weather is good. Perhaps often enough to not be too lonely.

I climbed up the hill, listening to the hollow thud of my boots on the root-filled earth. My trekking poles clicking in a secondary rythem to my boots. I rested at the one view of the day, a view back to the three Rosary Lakes and Odell Lake.

As I continued I slowly made my descent down to another lake, where I would end my day. Sitting on a choice log, I watched two people fly fish. I chose to sit there so I could watch them swing the line and fly fluidly mimicking an insect on the waters surface. Sadly they left to another spot just after I arrived, but I saw enough to remind me of my brother and our trips when he would fly fish.

I set up camp and had dinner in my tent to avoid mosquitos, and now I write.

July 4th Evening
Elevation: 5500 ft
Trail Miles: 887 miles

Happy Independence Day! How did you celebrate it? Did you have a barbecue, drink some fine american beer, and light stuff on fire?

I celebrated in the woods, by feeling completely independent. I woke, I walked, and I write about the day where I did not see a single person. I heard voices for a short bit, and I saw an airplane, but I did not see anyone or speak to anyone. Independently lonely in the woods.

Sure the mosquitos kept me company, but there not much for conversation. They just whine in your ear all day, and occassionally bite you to demand your attention. Oh there were the tadpoles in the pond I took lunch at, but they mostly just wagged their tales and went about their business.

Then there were the frogs on the trail, tiny little ones searching for a pond to hangout in, but they just hopped away when they saw me coming. Alot like the two fawn deer and their mother I saw frolicking through the woods, unaware of my presence, or so it seemed.

I guess the most interaction I had with anything was the small butterfly who came and sat on my socks while I ate lunch. I don’t know why it would want to sit on my socks, hell I don’t even like putting them on. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my lunch while she slowly flapped her golden wings.

Todays hike was rather viewless, though I did walk past a good number of ponds and lakes. How does one distinguish between the two, I’ll never know. My guess is that a pond is a big mudpuddle, stagnant and green-brown. A lake is generally larger, stream fed, and quite often blue and clear. Then again, I have seen alot of lakes that are brown and unclear, but those generally have people driving boats in them and larger rivers filling them.

I walked past one particular pond that had lillies in it, those big leaves that hang out on the waters surface waiting to have a frog rest on them. It wasn’t too pretty, but it sparked my childhood memories of Alaska. I believe that the preschool that I, or my brother, went to, had a lily pond near it completely covered in lillies. I would walk around it amazed at these simple plants providing a pad for the frogs. I am sure that is not their purpose, but I imagine frogs love kicking on the pad, soaking in some sun in the midst of their afternoon dip.

I also had a short hike through a burned area. I don’t know how long ago the fire was, but it was interesting to see all the trees dead with their bark and limbs missing. The sun had bleached what remained of the trunk, and all that was left was thousands of these white branchless trees, like oversized toothpicks poking into the ground. Some had fallen over the winter, making my traverse a little more difficult, and me more thankful of the people who do upkeep the trail.

I planned to stop at a campground at Island Lake, but I missed the campground. So I looked over the guidebook and saw that Dumbbell Lake was just .7 miles further. I hiked on, and was glad I did. It is, by far, a much nicer lake to camp at.

Tomorrow I hike 7 miles into Elk Lake for a resupply…

July 5th Late Morning
Elevation: 5100 ft
Trail Miles: 894 miles

I am now one-third the way done with the whole trail. If the plan is to do the whole trail, then I must do all the miles I have already done two more times. That is a lot of miles, especially alone.

The hike down to Elk Lake was an easy hike, but now I have decisions to make. What to do from here. Yesterday, I was ready to leave the trail. I had made the decision to hike to Elk Lake, hitch to Bend, and bus to Portland. But this morning things changed.

I was not ready to leave the trail, I was just ready to stop hiking alone. My package has not arrived yet here, so I must wait. I can not mail from here, but I need to. So, this is my tentative plan.

Wait to see if it arrives today.
Hitch to Bend.
Mail some stuff.
Hitch back up to Elk Lake.
Catch Earl and Kyle and hike the rest of the way to Cascade Locks with them.

This of course may change.

Oh yeah, the trail as well as the psyche. It was a typical hike through a dense wood with a few stagnant ponds and a nice big lush green meadow. And, of course, there were mosquitos.

There once was a young mosquito,
Who dressed in a red and black tuxedo.
He bit me through my hat.
With my hand, he went splat.
I bet he did not find that too neat-o.

As I approached the trail down to Elk Lake, I entered another burn zone. All the sunbleached limbless trees offered me views to Bachelor Butte, The Wife, and in the distance more peaks of the Three Sisters Wilderness.

Arriving at Elk Lake, I was greeted by Mike, a fellow thru-hiker I met back at Crater Lake. He is laying over here a couple of days, working for the owner to make a bit of money to help fund the rest of his hike.

Now I sit at the small resort, deciding how to carry out the next couple days, and how to meet up with Kyle and Earl.

July 5th Afternoon
Location: Bend…again?!?

So I called the resort a few days back and found out that Kyle and Earl hitchhiked to Eugene to hit the trail somewhere else. Where? I know not. That means, should I continue, it will be a lonely hike. Am I up for the challenge? Well, we will see. I have to repair some gear, sort through my food, and then return to the trail. It will be 35 miles to the highway where (if I want) I can hitch down to Eugene and see an old friend.

But the trail requests that you look at each day as it comes, and so I must not think too far ahead, or else I might miss something important today.

Happy Trails, Inner Peace, & Harmony