August 15th Evening

After hiking the Eagle Creek Trail, I headed into Portland to take care of some business and take in some entertainment. One of the forms of entertainment was going to a White Stripes concert. I had fun, but noticed a peculiar change in the concert.

In previous concerts, the concertgoers would light up their lighters and hold them up in the air, in some bizarre hommage to the band. While this did occur at the show, something else occured. People flipped open their cellphones, and held up the glowing cellphone screens. Just an odd event which somewhat led me to a conversation about the trail the next day.

I was sitting with a friend talking about how being on the trail has had positive effects on my senses, most noticably smell and sight. I have notied improvements in both these. This led to a conversation about living away from society and if it was possible. In turn, my friend argued that we have slowed or stopped evolving. Our brains have developed to the point of being able to adjust the environment we live in to suit our physical needs (i.e. heat and air conditioning). While it was an interesting conversation, impossible to conclude, it had me thinking of technology and advancement in technology. Is it good? Or is our technology preventing us from evolving into something that can handle the changes that are occurring to the earth.

Well enough ranting.

I returned to the trail today at McKenzie Pass, where “Boone,” “Sas,” and I had left over a month ago. I was shocked to notice a whole month had passed and I had only hiked 47.8 miles. I have definately not been hiking as I had planned.

However, I have enjoyed myself in the last month. I took some new friends around my home time, showing them the best of the best. I visited Eugene, where I went to school and saw a firedancer perform. I was taken to a lovely cabin. I went waterskiing. I went wakeboarding. I went to a family reunion. I even took in a couple concerts. It was a busy month, and a definate vacation from the trail. But now I return to the trail with hopes of doing the rest of Oregon and Washington.

The hike started at the pass in the middle of vast lava beds. As I ground my way across the old basalt flows, I had a hiking partner for the first couple miles. He was out for the day, so we walked along admiring the views of the various peaks of the volcanic Cascade Range.

We made our way to Little Belknap, a small red-headed peak that has lava flows from 2900 years ago, some of the most recent outside of Mt. St. Helens. Enjoying his company, I took the short spur trail to the summit where I had a fantastic view of Middle Sister and North Sister to the south and Mt. Washington, Mt. Jefferson, and Three-Fingered Jack to the North.

After relaxing for a short bit at the peak I continued on. I met a couple that have been section hiking the PCT over a few years, so I stopped and chatted with them a bit before continuing on.

The rest of the hike was pretty much devoid of people. After I had my dinner I met a southbound section hiker. We chatted for a short bit about the trail ahead for each of us. He recommended taking the Alternate Route along the old Oregon Skyline Trail. As there is more water along this route, I imagine that I will take it.

I continued my hike through a rocky forest of Hemlocks with a dusty trail. While the soft tread is nice on the feet, the muscles have to work abit harder to push me forward. Add that to extra dust in the air, and you find yourself not liking the trail as much. Nonetheless the scenery was spectacular with the occassional meadows and views of Mt. Washington.

As I arrived at a water cache, I saw only one gallon left, so I decided to leave it for other hikers and descend down into the Big Lake Youth Camp for Seventh Day Adventists. Upon arriving and resupplying with water, a counselor came to inform me that in the morning I could get a breakfast and a shower. I would also be able to do a small resupply at their general store and use their phone, should I desire.

That sounded nice, so I wandered down to the lake to find an adequate place to camp.

Tomorrow, breakfast and shower it is.

August 16th Evening

Before I left for the hike back in April, a friend told me to convince myself at least three times to not get off the trail.

Today, strike two. The first was more or less an arguement with myself as to how to find another hiking partner, as I was not enjoying hiking alone. Today it was similar. Not enjoying the hike alone, having sore feet in boots that are ready to be retired, and a highway home only 5 miles back.

But first, the day up until my struggle.

I woke this morning at 8am after a poor nights rest full of tossing and turning. I think the ground I slept on was too soft. That sounds odd, but I have grown use to a harder surface for sleeping. In fact, when I visited my parents, I preferred the floor to the couch.

Anyway, after dragging myself out of my bag, I packed my gear up. Then I walked over to the Big Lake Youth Camp, where I paid $5.50 to have a hot breakfast, a rare treat for me since I do not carry a stove. I enjoyed the sausage and french toast, and actually wished I had gone back for seconds. I also had fruit and yogurt, two other treats I do not get too much on the trail.

After breakfast I took a shower and hit the trail. Wandering down a trail of dust and burnt trees the sun beat on me. Shade was few and far between (for Oregon), so I rested whenever I had some. Continuing along I started to get lonely. I still had 2-3 days hike to the next stop, and only five miles or so back to a highway home.

I sat there with a coin in hand thinking “Heads I go home.”

Flip. Tails.

“Ok, best two out of three, heads I go home.”

Flip. Tails.

“Ok, best three out of five, heads I go home.”

Flip. Heads.
Flip. Heads.

“yay, I might be going home.”

Flip. Tails.

“Ah, screw it, why trust a coin when you can trust yourself.”

So I donned my pack and turned around to hike back to the highway and hitchhike to Portland. From there I would wait until someone I wanted to hike with arrived in Cascade Locks. I would then continue through Washington with them, unless I got too tired or poor.

After hiking three miles back, I ran into a couple of thru-hikers I met briefly back in California. I chatted with them a bit and told them I was getting off the trail. Inside my head I was thinking, “no, don’t get off yet, hike with these two, finish Oregon, and then decide.”

So I let them continue on, telling them to not be surprised if I came up behind them. Then I sat on the rock conveniently located there and weighed my decision. Sure enough five minutes later I was hiking north again. Because of all this, I wound up hiking an additional six miles. Indecisiveness, one of my weakest traits.

I continued on, leap frogging Mary and “Guinness” to our campsite at Bowerman Lake. I arrived at a decent place to camp and enjoyed a dinner with a couple of section hikers I met the day before.

Sitting on the lake shore, we had a fabulous view of Mt. Jefferson. Smoke seemed to be lingering at its base, and we are left wondering if we are going to be hiking through forest fire smoke.

Time will tell. As for me, I now have four hikers to leap frog the rest of Oregon with. I shall keep my pace with them so that I do not get too lonely.

August 17th Evening
Trail Miles: 1010.4 miles

Well, today I hit 1000 miles. With all my off trail lollygagging, I wondered if it would happen. Technically I have hiked 1010.4 miles on the PCT, but I have doubled back a couple times, climbed a mountain (South Sister), and taken a few side trails up or down from the PCT, so my actual mileage is probably a tad higher. Then again, I have been known to hitchhike a few miles here and there, so there is no telling my actual mileage, but I would feel safe
to say that I have walked 1000 plus miles so far.

Today was a good day, much better than yesterday. Well, in the middle of the night a branch fell out of the tree and scraped my tent before landing with a big thud, waking me at three in the morning. I managed to get back to sleep though. Later, I woke up, after another restless night of sleep, and realized the other four where getting out ahead of me.

This was good to me though, because it meant later in the day I could pass them and have a little social interaction, and I did fairly early in the morning. The rest of the day has been to myself, but I did not mind, because I only need a little company to make the rest of the day tolorable.

The hike was fantastic today. I started out with a few miles through a burn zone. I think this burn was more recent than the one back at Elk Lake. The trees still had a light yellow trunk, with burnt black bark lingering. The dirt was rusty with patches of deep reds, maroons, and browns. All through the burn zone little purple flowers, Fireweed, were sprouting up screaming, “Life will be renewed here.”

After passing through the burn zone, I entered a forest filled with life. Several streams were running through it, echoing a constant tumble of water. I took my first break on a bridge crossing the stream. The stream had several logs, laying across it, covered in thick moss.

As I continued my hike, I was constantly surrounded by the sound of the water cascading over rocks and under fallen trees. The sun still had not burned off the clouds, so time seemed to be suspended throughout the day.

I made my way downhill to Pamelia Lake, through overgrowths of ferns and berries. Finally the sun had come out. It was warming my body, and drying my clothes that had become wet from lingering dew drops on the plants that brushed my legs. Just after the sun had dried me out, the trail dove into the canopy of a dense wooded area.

Eventually I emerged back into the sun. By now it was late in the afternoon, so the sun did not bake me, but rather just kept me warm for the last few miles of the day. I made the effort to hike a little further today so that I could arrive at Olallie Lake tomorrow, rather than friday.

I planned to take the first viable camping spot I found after 7pm. I found one at 6:55, but opted to continue. Five minutes down the trail, I hit Russel Creek. Realizing that I would a have to ford the creek and then hike at least 20 minutes uphill before finding a spot to camp, I decided to backtrack five minutes.

Returning to the somewhat decent campsite, I put up my tent and ate a dinner, complete with a Snickers for dessert.

Tomorrow I will hike to Olallie Lake.

August 18th
Trail Miles: 1024.9 miles

They say that everything happens for a reason. I believe that my waver the day before yesterday had reaching effects noticeable today. Turning back for three miles and turning around again to hike those three miles for a third time, changed my hiking schedule by enough hours to change who I met when and where, as well as the timing of reaching Russell Creek. A simple three hours of my day effecting where I would camp for the next two days, and who I would run into.

The hike today was hard but good, highlighted by my interactions with other hikers. I started the day by dropping back down to Russell Creek which was now running low enough that I could walk across the rocks to get to the other side. The sun causes snow and ice to melt from Mt. Jeffersons glaciars, which in turn feed this stream. Last night the full days sun had caused the flow to be high, but with the cool evening the melt had slowed and hence a lower stream level.

Had I not turned back and doubled back I would have reached the stream near peak flow and had a dangerous crossing or a shorter hiking day.

After hopping over Russell Creek, I walked into the Mt. Jefferson wilderness. This area the trail led through was a flat land freckeled with pristine mountain lakes. The sun had not yet cleaned the moisture out of the air, so radiant sun beams shined through the tree limbs. I was constantly thinking of Robert Frost’s poem (if I remember correctly):

Natures first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold
Her early leaf’s a flower
But only so an hour
As leaf subsides to leaf
So Eden sank to greif
Nothing gold can stay

There are two times of the day I love hiking: early in the morning when the sun casts golden shadows, and into the evening when the leaves of the trees and plants echo the golden shadowns. In all this beautiful light, I saw five grouse wandering through the brush.

Soon after, I climbed up to a pass where I had a magnificent view of Mt. Jefferson to the south and Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainier (I think) to the north. Lingering around at 7000 feet, I thought this would make a worthy day hike in the future. The air was perfectly crisp, not to cold, but cold enough to feel pristine, clean and pure.

Working my descent down the rocky scree covered trail on the north side, I slipped every several steps. Its an odd thing, the trail, you want to look at the magnificent view, but if you take your eyes off the trail you step on the wrong rock and lose your footing. Constantly juggeling my eyes between the trail and the view, I made my descent to a more easily traversed trail. Sadly, by this time, the view was not as great; still good, just not magnificent.

Working my way down into the shade of the trees, I met a section hiker taking a lunch break. I asked how far he was heading, to which he replied just south of Russell Creek. I informed him of the adjusting flow during the day and suggested he find a campsite just before the creek.

Had I not turned back and doubled back, I may not have had the knowledge of the creeks flows for him. He would have had to do a deep swift ford of the creek or backtracked half a mile to find a campsite. I wonder if he heeded my warning.

Further along the trail, I passed by Breitenbush lake where another Oregon thru-hiker was waiting for his parents to arrive. I met his parents along the trail and stopped to chat with them a moment. A lovely chat ensued, and soon they offered me a slice of pizza. Happily I accepted and one of my trail goals was accomplished. I often wondered if I could get pizza delivered to me on the trail, and I’ll be damned if that wasn’t the best slice of Pizza I ever ate. (Thanks Jim and Shelly)

Had I not turned back and doubled back, I might not have passed them on the trail. My dream of pizza delivery on the trail may never have occured.

After breaking the last seven miles in half with a rest, I broke the last 3.5 miles in half with another rest. I then took another break with the last 1.5 miles. For some reason taking four breaks in the span of a usually one break distance sounded good.

Finally I arrived at Olallie Lake, happy to find my package waiting here for me. Originally I was supposed to arrive July 10th. Its now August 18th and the package was still here. Mmm, fudge from mom, what a nice delight. I then sat in the sun for the rest of the afternoon enjoying a beer or two while my tent dried out.

While watching the day drift by, I met two other hikers (James and Lydia) and chatted with them. Soon I found my way to a campsite, where I put my gear. I then walked over and chatted well past sunset with James and Lydia. The two of them are from Hood River and are walking Oregon and maybe Washington with their two dogs (Teva and Murphy).

If I had not turned back and doubled back I might have continued hiking further today. I may have missed the opportunity to meet these two great hikers.

Everything happens for a reason. We may not see why and may not like whats happening, but the effects of the action ripple through time, perhaps endlessly.

Happy Trails, Inner Peace, & Harmony