A steady hummmmm thrummmm seemed to be flowing up from the Columbia river below.
Then the crisp, vaulting notes sailed through the air...Bag Pipes!
Bag Pipes were playing Amazing Grace!
Saturday, September 6, 2014, at 9:30 am, we walked hand in hand, Shiny & Half-Double, across The Bridge Of The Gods, into Washington.
Well folks, that's it for Oregon. We arrived in Cascade Locks 2 nights ago, and are enjoying a well earned rest. From our Motel room we can see Washington across the Columbia River.
The same river that Lewis & Clark navigated in their quest to discover a passage to the west coast...will become our passage to the last frontier of our own, personal, epic journey.
We have been anticipating this section of the trail for it's remote beauty and lushous forests. We have also been cautiously optimistic of the weather, and our chances of running into major rain or even snow. Washington and the North Cascades, have always remained, in our minds, the biggest wild card of the trip...at least as far as weather and terrain are concerned.
We are phisically stronger than we have ever been, yet our bodies are beginning to caution us. We have asked more of them than any other time in our lives. My feet ache most of the time now. Two of my toes and parts of my heals are perpetually numb. The list goes on...for both of us. We are being as careful as we can, but now we must ask a little more...25 days...20 miles a day...we start again tomorrow morning.
Cheers.
Tunnel falls
Just an FYI for all of you regularly following the blog...If my entry on August 21st (Shelter Cove) was the last post that you read...you may have missed a couple. There were two other posts that published on that day that you might want to check out, "An unexpected adventure" and "Crater lake to Shelter Cove".
Definition : "Your big toe will stop being numb by Christmas."
We arrived at Timberline Lodge Last night. Amazing place...right at the base of Mt. Hood, amazing food, epic breakfast, music festival...no rooms.
Somehow, the first person we met here was the Director of Public Relations. Jon invited us to stay at his house...uuuh, is this a trick question? He and his wife cooked us a wonderful spaghetti dinner complete with salad and wine. Somewhere after hat dinner was a hot shower, laundry and a soft warm bed. Trail magic is so...well...magical.
Here are some highlights of our trek from Shelter cove...
Awesome people...great stop
We call this "Spotted Dirt Leg"...basically trail dust stuck to sweaty legs
Dinner and Blue Grass music at Elk Lake
Epic Beard
Quick stop at Olollie Lake for food and a bowl of a Frosted Flakes
2000 mile mark
Mt. Jefferson
Obsidian Falls
Hiking through lava fields...Central Oregon
Three Sisters Wilderness
Though the word "resort" is a somewhat loose interpretation here, it's a nice place. We stayed 2 nights, rented a boat and picked up our resupply...a great little break. Here are some photos.
First day out of Crater Lake: No water for 27 miles. We got up before dawn and hiked the whole enchilada.
Crater Lake, sunrise
Day 2: 22 miles
Yeah right
Day 3: 20 miles to Shelter Cove
We are now picking wild Huckleberries along the trail
Shiny blacked out.
That was almost two months ago in Mammoth. It turned out to be rather a minor incident really. The whole story may be forthcoming...suffice it to say there were firemen involved. We're all pretty sure it came down to some combination of exhaustion, low body weight, a massive hiker meal and one White Russian.
So, two days ago, when Shiny stopped on on the trail, took off her pack and said "I feel dizzy, do I look pale?" She was. Wow, should we be worried?
We walked on. 15 minutes later...
HD: "How are you feeling...still dizzy?"
Shiny: "Yes, I feel so wierd."
Another 15 minutes...
HD: "Ok, now I feel dizzy. What's going on?!"
Shiny: "Oh no...those cookies Snaps gave us at the spring...they were edibles!"
Snaps gave us each one of these as a thank-you for hiking a quarter mile to get water for her.
"Edible" according to Webster; "Fit to be eaten"
"Edible" according to the PCT; "Cannibas in your cookies"
Yup, Shiny & Half-Double were high...high as a kite...first time ever.
All in all, I guess it was rather appropriate that we had our first experience with Marijuana on the PCT...where else?!
Ohoooo...the fun continues. Our first weeks hiking in Oregon has brought sweltering heat, delightfully cool air, unpredictable rain and fire. Yes, fire...this time on the trail.
2 days ago Shiny and I were finishing what we thought was going to be a 24 mile day. Our hiking was to end at a camp site at the top of a ridgeline. Apache and Mary Poppins were sitting there staring into the forest. We followed their gaze to see smoke billowing out of the trees. Our 24 mile day just turned into a 27.5 mile day. We took a few photos, Shiny stomped out a small flame...and we ran for it.
3 and a half miles later we pulled into the only camp site around and were greeted by friendly voices from within the tents pitched there. They were friends we hadn't seen for a very long time. What a welcome!
The next morning we woke up to a beautiful sunrise on the top of the clouds lying below us in the valley, and this little guy in our tent.
We are now in Crater Lake, and should be on our way again today.
Here are some other photos from last weeks adventures...
Mary Poppins
Hiking with "Wolverine"
A very hard day
Apache
We are in Oregon now... Callahans Lodge, actually... about 10 miles down the road from Ashland. The trail runs just past this wonderful place.
Of course, we didn't actually hike here. Those of you keeping up will have read the bit about the fires. To recap, we made it as far as Beldon, CA. From there, the logistics of trying to hitchhike around the numerous closed sections of the trail became daunting, to say the least.
Our choice...skip 437 miles of trail and start again near Ashland. So her we are. The trail sits just outside.
We have lived on that trail...really lived. Often it feels as though we have lived lived an entirely "other" lifetime. This trail is almost more familiar to us at the moment than our "real" lives. Yet, somehow at the moment, it almost feels like a stranger to us.
I, for one, never envisioned this scenario. I imagined how accomplished we would feel, stopping here for a well earned meal and showers after passing our halfway point miles ago, then crossing the border, having hiked the entirety of California. It was not to be.
Our hike is not about completing the PCT anymore. It just isn't.
The vision of crossing the Canadian border in epic triumph, having walked the PCT from the Mexican border, has begun to gracefully fade. The trail is still there, but the path has become much more broad. It has been transformed by fate and fire into what we are now learning to embrace...a journey of epic proportions.
We are becoming entwined with the lives and hearts of people we would not have dreamed of meeting in the routine of our busy lives. There is a freedom of thought, and of expression, and of acceptance we have rarely experienced. And this, not only from hikers, but also from others off trail. And there it is...the point at which our journey has now begun to include so much more than just walking a trail.
We will be back on the trail today...probably in a couple of hours. We are still headed for the Canadian border, but now with a much different idea of what that might mean.
Here are some photos. Stay tuned...
Last stop in CA...2 days hike from the half way marker
Cheap hotel room...making plans in Chico
Greyhound bus...Chico to Ashland. Who new ther was a town called Weed...and it has a bus stop
Lunch in Ashland...see below
pulled pork crepe
Shiny sorting our resupply in the "hiker room" at Callahan Lodge
In Chico, we met Cole, a welder from Washington, busking at the train station
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