Day 113: Sunday, August 25

In a shelter at Breitenbush Lake Campground (2047.1), walked 22.0 miles today

It rained off and on starting around midnight last night, but I was well situated so everything was pretty dry when I packed up. (If only I could be saying the same now at the end of the day.) The morning was on the easier end ... It was cloudy and cool but not raining, the trail went mostly downhill, and I had good company in the form of Pete, an older gentleman from Portland (originally I thought he said Poland because he has a holdover British accent and I figured he was just a Polish guy speaking good British English, but then when I asked what part of Poland he said, "Beaverton"). Pete and I hiked a few miles behind four guys from Gresham who were coming down from summitting Mt. Jefferson. They had overnighted without sleeping pads and were unfamiliar with the PCT, despite walking on it, but they were nice to talk to. Pete and I split off around Milk Creek, at the beginning of a 2500-foot ascent, and that's when things got exciting.

One wave of heavy rain slowly took over and lasted about 45 minutes as I was starting the climb ... Trees sheltered the trail most of the way at that elevation, so I would've been okay except that the trail was overgrown, so I got soaked through from being in constant contact with all the wet brush, which is always somehow ice cold even if the rain isn't. That wave ceased and some blue sky even poked through, so I was optimistic regarding the rest of the afternoon. Made a character-building ford of Russell Creek, the color of milk and swollen quite a bit from the rainstorm, then delayered and kept climbing. Just as I started to get nice and high up on the shoulder of Jefferson, in the part that doesn't have very many trees and is totally exposed to the west, clouds rolled back in, except I was in them at this point, and rain started again, with thunder and lightning for good measure. I was hoping, baselessly, that the second wave wouldn't be as bad as the first, but I was very wrong ... I got annihilated. The very top of the climb was on a high, thin ridge and then it descended over treeless lava fields, and right about then the rain and wind and soupy fog was at its peak, so it was ridiculously fun but at the same time not a little scary because I got very cold and wet and the trail wasn't easy to follow in those conditions, and it even went under snow for the first time since the Tahoe area. After a mile or so of descending I got down under tree cover, and the rain concurrently subsided, but I was soaked and decided to cut the day shorter than planned and see what the alleged "shelters" at Breitenbush Lake were all about.

They turned out to be nothing special, but nonetheless adequate for my purposes of hanging stuff up to "dry" and being out of the rain. Spit Walker, Broken Toe and a chap named Sherpa C were already here ... Broken Toe walked back out just as the third round of maelstrom was starting around 6pm, but the other two and I said, approximately, "Fuck that noise" and got settled in for the night. Had a good time eating and shooting the crap under the shelter for a few hours before bed, just like old AT times. If tomorrow's any nicer when I wake up I'll be on the on the road early, but if the weather stays like this it could be a somewhat delayed start. Spit Walker and I both agreed that, after today, we are taking advantage of any nice days in the future and walking as far and fast as we can when the weather's good.

Day 112: Saturday, August 24

Tenting in a nook between some firs (PCT mi 2025.1), walked 17.6 miles today

Slept til 8 and then ate more meat for breakfast in the form of two leftover bratwursts, sliced up to look like breakfast sausage. All in all I might have eaten two pounds of meat during my time at Lost Lake Campground. Owen dropped me off at the trailhead around 9:30, and to say my motivation was low today would be an understatement. I think it's directly correlated to pack weight, because the last time my mind was this bent on taking breaks and staring off into space was after coming back in from Kearsarge Pass (mile 790), which was easily my heaviest food load of the whole hike.

I dawdled, dithered, dillied, dallied, tarried, then after all that I burned some daylight and pretty soon it was the late afternoon and I'd only gotten 15 or so miles done. The day had started out very sunny and clear, to the point where I was actually too hot sitting in the full sun on one of my breaks, but by 4-ish there was bad weather a-brewin' to the west, which was consistent with the forecasts I'd heard two days ago down in town. I looked up the mileages to all my main goals for the next few days and rationalized stopping soon after. But first I ran into Scott Williamson, Mr. PCT himself, actually taking a break with his partner, Zeke the Freak, on the trail. I eyeballed him for a second, pretty sure that that's who he was, and then without me saying anything Zeke said, "The answer is yes." We shook hands and chatted very briefly, but I was all flustered in the presence of hiking celebrity and forgot what the questions I had for him were. It turns out that catching him on a break is a bit of a collector's item, especially this year, because I heard from another hiker, Broken Toe, an hour later that Scott only started from the Canadian border 14 days ago and is averaging 45+ miles per day trying to beat Anish's new record.

So they took off, muttering something about how camping at Three Fingered Jack for the night would put them at 47 for the day, and I went my separate way. A few miles later I was being hammered by a very cold, ominous wind and decided to set up at the next protected-looking place I saw, which ended up being down from the trail on the leeward side of the ridge in a tight spot between some conifers. The first spot I picked actually failed on account of being too small and potentially kind of puddly in the event of rain, but I persisted and set my tent up nicely in a second location nearby. This is as bombproof a pitch as I can make with this tent, so bring it on, weather gods! (I probably shouldn't say that.) Tomorrow I ought to be able to muster 29 to the Olallie Lake Resort and General Store, assuming I wake up on time.

Day 111: Friday, August 23

Tenting at Lost Lake CG (left PCT at mi 2007.6), walked 19.8 miles today

Checked out of the hotel around 8:30 feeling spotlessly clean after a second shower, then moseyed to the nearby McDonald's for breakfast. After several Egg McMuffins I was sated and I made a move to start hitching back to the trail ... After about 15 minutes, Scappoosers (Scappoosians? Scappoosites?) Denise and her friend picked me up and went 15 miles out of their way to drop me off at the PCT. Unbeknownst to anyone, me included, I was actually being dropped off about 2 trail miles before McKenzie Pass, where I had intended to start from, so I got a little extra exercise in today.

Was in a hurry most of the time to get to Santiam Pass, 18 miles past McKenzie, to meet Owen at 5 for our grill-fest--not in too much of a hurry, however, to take pictures of the unearthly black lava-flow landscape that the trail impossibly was carved out of for the first few miles. Ran into a couple of very old faces from 1200 miles ago, two guys named Butters and Rocks, as well as Banana Ripper and Songbird (only 650 miles since last sighting) and a young whippersnapper named Sagi. Sagi and I walked and talked for most of the last 8 miles or so talking about his love for farming and how he's going to start a smallholding when he moves out to Bellingham from Tennessee in the next year. Passed the 2000 mile mark as I was walking with him, and there was much rejoicing ... Yayy.

Owen drove up in the Silver Beast within 2 minutes of my arrival at the Santiam trailhead and we drove not very far down the highway to this campground, which isn't one of the developed ones so it's not swarming with redneck families on a Friday night. He and his girlfriend Colleen had already set up the grill with a massive steak roasting on it, and this is a man who does not fuck around when it comes to grilling, so when it was done after an hour or so it was perfection and I would bet, conservatively, that I ate a pound of it in both straight-up and sandwich form. Brats were subsequently put on the grill and when those were done I also had one, and there will be more for breakfast. We hung out for a while catching up, they imbibing their real beer, I my root beer. Observations on the inferiority of the Northwest to the Midwest were made and enthusiastically assented to by all parties. Around 10 it was time for bed and sweet baby Jesus is my new sleeping pad comfortable compared to my old one. Tomorrow I'm trying to get back to the trail early-ish and still get in 25 miles or so, fueled by leftover bratwurst and a good night's rest.

Day 110: Thursday, August 22

At the Sisters Inn & Suites in Sisters, OR ... Walked something like 9 or 10 miles today but they weren't on the PCT

Our campsite was quite rudely rained upon at 5am and I never got back to a good sleep after that. Around 6:45 we started to get ready, but we didn't leave til 8 largely because I spent a lot of time cooking and eating breakfast (potatoes again because that was the only thing left in my food bag). From South Matthieu Lake, our campsite, we were supposed to leave the PCT for a "7-mile" stroll, "downhill all the way" according to Jenna and Scott's guidebook, to the trailhead where the Jennamobile was parked. That was all damned lies and, guessing by the time it took to do it, it was at least 9 miles away, maybe more like 10, and not especially downhill (read: it was uphill) for long stretches. Along the way I talked to Scott about his totally awesome penguin research in Antarctica that he's done for the past few seasons and will be doing again this winter. He's based out of the same hut that the film crew was in Frozen Planet and he knows the penguin researchers featured in Encounters at the End of the World. His research uses a kind of penguin weigh station to passively measure food intake among individuals, and then he has to wade into the colony to periodically capture penguin chicks and make measurements on them. I asked Scott if he'd ever had two chicks at the same time and he said he had ... What a man!

Once we got to the car, we set off for Bend and once there, I ate a Jimmy John's sandwich and went into the adjacent REI to upgrade some gear. I came away with a tennis-ball-colored Patagonia wind shirt and a new Z-Rest sleeping pad, the firmness of which shocked me in comparison to my old one ... I had no concept of how far that one had faded until today. Jenna and Scott then dropped me back off in Sisters, where I spent some time observing the local hoi polloi at the laundromat. While there, I made the executive decision to stay in town for the night because there were thunderstorms all over the area and I'm just not going to deal with that crap in August if I don't have to. September maybe, August no because it's supposed to be dry right now.

Put out a call on facebook for other hikers in Sisters to join me at the Sisters Inn but I don't think many others are around and I didn't get any bites. Cleaned up in the room, in awe at my own filth, and then went to the nearby supermarket, Ray's, and paid their lousy prices for a 160-mile carry to Cascade Locks, my longest of the trip. This was my most expensive single day of the hike so far, what with the REI run, the hotel room, and the huge grocery haul, but thankfully there shouldn't be any more days like it. It might be my last full grocery shopping trip til the end, and that's a chore I can't say I'll miss. Tomorrow I've only got to hike 18 miles and then I'm meeting Owen, my Carleton friend who now reps Corvallis, at Santiam Pass for burgers, brats and (root) beer (can't drink real beer on the Flagyl). Then at some point after that I'll start doing the mileage I need to get out of Oregon.

Day 109: Wednesday, August 21

Tenting at South Matthieu Lake (PCT mi 1985.4), walked 21.5 miles today

Broke camp around 7:15 again and walked about the first 11 miles straight without taking a break. Not very long after getting started, the trail left the green piney tunnel and jumped out into the more open and very easy-on-the-eye Three Sisters volcanic plain. We were treated to many, many views of the Sisters all day, hence the probably high number of photos at the bottom of this entry. Started south of the South Sister and finished the day north of the North, with at least one of them always in view, including now at the campsite. The lava flows that we walked through in the mid-afternoon around Collier Cone were nuts--nothing like anywhere else on the trail or anywhere I've ever been in my life.

Today's big event came just as I was looking for a break spot after those first 11 miles ... I rounded a bend and almost tripped over my friend Jenna from back in Eugene, and her fellow ornithologist friend Scott. Jenna is an enthusiastic follower of this blog, as evidenced by her comment from day 81 about my ringtail cat sighting, but she swears she wasn't stalking me or anything by being in just the exact spot on the PCT that I happened to be on some idle Tuesday in August, and heading northbound to boot. I naturally didn't believe a word of it, but I played along anyway and the three of us ended up hiking together the rest of the day. This included several sudden, excited stops having to do with bird calls, sightings or near-sightings, which I enjoyed because I usually don't have much of an idea what I'm seeing or hearing regarding our feathered friends. Cool fact: approximately 99% of birds are Clark's nutcrackers or stellar jays.

It turns out that these people, Jenna and Scott, have a car waiting for them at the end of their three-day loop. So, being a thru-hiker/parasite for whom no one is worth a second of my time if they can't provide me with something I want, I decided to hang out with them not just for a few miles, but for the rest of the day and part of tomorrow as well. We're going to depart the PCT straight away tomorrow morning and walk seven miles to their trailhead, then head to Bend for a dip into the REI (my wind jacket's zipper has recently become an ex-zipper) and possibly a brewpub or two, then they'll drop me off in the town of Sisters and I'll shop and then do my best to hitch back to McKenzie Pass in the afternoon and keep hiking (experienced readers of this blog should be laughing right now at the specificity of those plans).

After we set up camp, Jenna mentioned that, tragically, she was overburdened with food and fuel for her final day and that I was welcome to some of it. Not normally being a stove user, I was like ehrmagerd hot food and I cooked up some great hot Idahoans for a change and threw in bits of her surplus sausage and cheese. It was so good that it has me thinking a stove may be a worthwhile investment for this final month, when I am almost guaranteed a chilly evening every day. In the summer I can't be bothered to give a shit about cooking but now I must brace myself--winter is coming.

Day 108: Tuesday, August 20

Cowboying in front of a view of Mt. Bachelor (PCT mi 1963.9), walked 26? miles today

Was all ready to walk out at 7:15 this morning when Simon and G-Bird (last seen in Sierra City, day 68) strolled in, seven miles into a planned 40-mile day that I have no doubt they ended up achieving. This is not typical Simon behavior--by his own admission, his two favorite things to do while hiking are sitting down and smoking cigarettes--so I can only surmise that he's got a rather extreme case of pink-blazing (G-Bird is a nice girl from Sweden). I stayed around them for the next ten miles, took a break with them but they were off long before I wanted to get up and I never saw either again. It was more gentle Oregon forest all morning, with a small lake here and a small lake there to break up the green routine.

Somewhere in the middle of my second 10-mile block, I ran into Spit Walker. He wasn't even fighting a skin infection this time, so this signals progress in our relationship (see day 88 for explanation). He had a good story, actually a miserable story, about his attempt at illegal camping on the Crater Lake Rim--he was woken up at 1am by a ranger who had found him with a heat sensor (a heat sensor!), who then proceeded to search his pack, confiscate all his weed, and write him a $500 citation for possession on federal lands. And here I figured all the no-camping-on-the-Rim stuff was just empty threats. He and I carried on for a bit down to the turnoff for the Elk Lake Resort, which is something over a mile off trail. We made it down around 4:15, not really knowing what to expect because Yogi's guide has some mixed reviews on the place, with prices and small portion sizes being the chief complaints. The prices were indeed high--$14 for a burger--but mine was some delicious mango teriyaki thing and I was pretty happy with it. I asked for a refill on my root beer after the meal and our very friendly waitress, Jonah, offered to throw in a scoop of vanilla ice cream for free. So Elk Lake gets Scrub and Spit Walker's stamp of approval at least.

Called home and then got back to the PCT proper around 7. Got a few more miles in, all uphill, caught up with old Otter at the top of the climb and pretty soon we both came upon this great aerie of a camp spot, with a look at Mt. Bachelor to the east and the Sisters if you kind of poke your head around the corner north of that. Tomorrow is supposed to be extra spectacular ... I may or may not go to town, depending on when I reach McKenzie Pass. Possible night hiking of the exposed lava flows between McKenzie and Santiam Passes if I'm there at the right time with the right amount of gas left in the tank.

Day 107: Monday, August 19

Tenting at Brahma Lake (PCT mi 1939.7), walked 25.7 miles today

The PCT threw a welcome back party for me today ... Everything was just right--temperature, light, scenery, lakes, huts, you name it--and I felt fully hale and healthy for the first time in a good ten days. Was hiking by seven, having made it through the night and early morning hours without detection from the Willamette Pass security team. Passed the tidy Rosary Lakes after a few miles, then after a few more came to the Maiden Peak Ski Hut, which handily wins the prize for most awesome shelter on the PCT (Eugene people: we need to come back in the winter sometime). Took a long break there, then pushed on through the most benign, sun-dappled conifer forest you can imagine for 7 or 8 miles.

At length I made it to Charlton Lake, which was very blue and very soothing. Remembered as I was sitting there a conclusion that I've previously drawn, which is that lakes are my favorite body of water ... I was raised near the ocean and I like it, I've worked on rivers before and I like them too, but with apologies to my many friends who are enthusiasts for either of those, I can't think of any place I like more than a lake surrounded by big green trees. They're what started my love affair with the North Shore in Minnesota, and I was really very happy sitting by Charlton Lake in the sun today. I started out my break there alone but was soon joined by a middle-aged couple who are bikepacking (a new term to me) the area with their dog, Wiley. We talked for awhile about thru-hiking ... The husband even shouted, "Jesus Christ, man!" when I told him I did 25-30 miles per day normally. Normally I get expressions of impressed-ness or disbelief from non-thru-hikers when I give that number, but his reaction was especially notable for its vigor and profanity. They may also be reading this blog, because I gave them the address, in which case ... Hey, guys!

Eventually I had to leave old Charlton and keep hiking. By the time 7pm rolled around, I had attained Brahma Lake, my goal for the day. Again, the PCT rolled out the red carpet and offered me a postcard-worthy campsite right on the lake with the evening sun accenting everything just so. Washed my legs in the lake (it's been so dusty that I feel like Pigpen from Peanuts because I literally am travelling in my own waist-high dust cloud most of the time, especially if there's a breeze at my back) and then chatted for a bit with my campsite neighbor, Ken, a section hiker from Eugene. Mosquitos feasted upon my blood during this time but they're still mild compared to anything from the middle of California. As I was writing this and it got dark, another couple named Brad and Melissa showed up and set up camp. Tomorrow the goal is to get a little past Elk Lake Resort after 20 miles in order to be in range for McKenzie Pass and town the next day.

Day 106: Sunday, August 18

Cowboying at Willamette Pass (PCT mi 1914.0), walked 15.8? miles today

Felt very nauseous thanks to the Flagyl this morning and couldn't roust myself until 8:15 or so, and it was slow going after that. We packed up and headed out some time after 9, making a pit stop in scenic Chemult so I could pick up more Pepto and punish one of the toilets at the Pilot trucker-style. By 11 we were back around to the Crescent Lake area and I said my goodbyes and got dropped off and started hiking. I was slow and weak thanks to some combination of lingering nausea, a week of undernourishment, and the trail itself, which was uphill and very loose and sandy and really freakin hot for some reason for the first several hours. Had to take breaks often, and on one of them Chozen One walked by and he rattled off the names of some other hikers in the vicinity, many of whom I knew ... This was good news, because I really had no way of knowing what crowd of people I'd be dropping myself into after a nearly four-day break. Didn't actually see anyone else besides Chozen One the rest of the day, however.

Was forced to take a nap break around 3 and afterwards I felt almost peppy for the seven miles or so to Willamette Pass. The mileage and route-finding got confusing at the transition between the OST and the PCT by Shelter Cove but I'm guessing there were an extra 2 miles of trail in there somewhere. Once back on the PCT proper, I only had 1.5 miles til I popped out at Willamette Pass, home to my former employer, the Willamette Pass Ski Area. Their sign out front a) was riddled with basic punctuation errors, and b) claimed that they were open for dinner until 8 on Sundays all summer, and I was getting there at 7:30. Unfortunately, this proved to be false advertising--the whole lodge was fully closed up when I approached. Did some snooping around and found phone service, a working bubbler, and a power outlet on a lightpost, so it seemed like a nice place to spend the night anyway even if I didn't get food out of the deal. Set up camp in a little copse of trees that's sort of hidden from the road and parking lot, called up Kristin before bed and then turned in. No idea what tomorrow holds ... It largely depends on whether the first few hours are a PCT-pre-Brown-Mountain-Shelter type morning or a PCT-post-Brown-Mountain-Shelter type morning.

Day 102 to 105: Wednesday-Saturday, August 14-17

One 7-mile day on the OST to Crescent Lake (OST mi 8.9), followed by three zero days

Woke up on Wednesday and immediately had bad diarrhea, lost my appetite and strength, got nauseous--all the usual bad stuff. Struggled to get the six miles done to Crescent Lake and, once there, struggled a while longer to find the alleged hiker campsite with toilets and running water. Had a second bad diarrhea there and started to think, "It's been almost a week now. Enough is enough, there's probably something actually wrong with me that I should see a doctor about." So even though I'd planned to go back to Eugene on Saturday, I started to look into my options for getting back that day. Surprisingly, there was great cell service at Crescent Lake and I was able to find a Eugene friend, good ol' George, to drive up and pick me up that afternoon. Waiting for him was kind of a drag once my phone lost the rest of its battery and I had to resort to throwing small rocks at signs and trees to entertain myself for two hours, but by 4 he had found me and by 5:30 I was back home, having had to break into my own place because Kristin was still out of town.

Went to the doctor next morning and they gave me a stool sample kit. This was a new experience for me, but I neglected to photodocument the process by which I obtained my sample--a sad oversight for the sake of this blog, I know. I apologize. Anyway, it didn't sound like they were going to have lab results back by the weekend when I planned to hit the trail again, but on Saturday morning they did call me up and say hey, you tested positive for giardia! So I'm a real hiker now. Giardia. Yeah, I've had it, kid. I now have a 10-day prescription for Flagyl, a drug whose primary side effects are, of course, nausea and diarrhea.

The zero days were spent lounging around a little, watching torrented replays of the major sporting events I'd missed that I heard were good--Champions League Final, Stanley Cup Game 6--and eating nice food when I felt up to it, which was only about half the times I should have. I made a spreadsheet with every single ounce of food I need for the rest of the hike, then Kristin and I went on an epic trip to Costco and Winco and got it all purchased and organized. On Saturday, today, we teamed up with George and another friend, Corina, and drove out to the trailhead near the Hwy 138 crossing (see day 100) to camp and deliver some trail magic in the form of soda, water and watermelon to whatever PCTers came through. Over the course of two hours, we met five, including Verde and Johnny Reb, whom I'd met before but neither in the past few months. We left a buttload of soda and water behind at the trail for those further back. So tonight I'm back almost at the trail, except it's a part I've already done and I'm car camping with a bunch of Eugene friends ... tomorrow we're driving back around to Willamette Pass / Crescent Lake to drop me off and they'll go home. My legs feel rested in a way that they haven't felt basically since the beginning, although I'm still anxious about having to hike with the long spells of no-appetite (and therefore bad calorie and water intake) that I continue to have. But if the prescription does its job, I should be a fresh daisy by the time I get to the Washington border.

Day 101: Tuesday, August 13

Tenting along the Oregon Skyline Trail (OST mi 2.3, left PCT at mi 1884.0), walked 27.4 trail miles today

Woke up without even an alarm around 6:15 and was out before seven. My stomach and I were engaged in a pitched battle all morning--I sending it food, it sending me volleys of belches and acid reflux--and at length I was victorious, meaning by lunchtime I could eat in total peace. The morning was cool and sunny and gentle ... There was a barely perceptible climb that nonetheless took me up to the high point of the official PCT for both Oregon and Washington. Talked to a section hiker named Sam, and Ian't Nothin' Wrong With That (actual spelling) passed me, but otherwise I saw no one.

That changed when I walked nearly a mile off trail to Maidu Lake to get water and ran into a Boy Scout troop whose leaders were way into asking questions about my hike. It was typical Boy Scout theater--loud, huge packs, low mileage, 14-year-olds smashing big sticks against trees for no reason--and I had "Be Prepared" by Tom Lehrer stuck in my head for the rest of the day. After returning to the PCT from that lake (it was enthusiastically recommended in Yogi's guide, I don't know why), ran into a thru-hiker named Cinco and she and I walked and talked for cinco miles, más o menos. She told me about a section hiker she'd just met named Paul who had a massive backpack and made ursine grunting noises as he walked ... Sure enough, I was taking a break later when I literally thought I was hearing a bear come down the path, but instead it was just Paul. In addition to grunting, Paul SHOUTS when he talks, and if that habit bothered me before I started spending months in the woods alone, it really annoys me now, so I ditched him and let him toil on at 1mph.

Continued alone after that, and around 6:30 I came to the junction with the Oregon Skyline Trail, which goes to the same place as the official PCT (Shelter Cove / Willamette Pass) but does so in 10 fewer miles, at 1000 feet lower elevation, and passes more water in the process. So I'm taking that and feeling pretty damn good about it, because sometimes the PCT is routed so indirectly and inconveniently, thanks to its insistence on staying on high ridges, that it feels good to skip out on it. Tomorrow I'll hit my old stomping grounds at Willamette Pass, but they won't be open. Hopefully I'll catch up to some others and maybe camp at the Rosary Lakes or Maiden Peak Hut.

Day 100: Monday, August 12

Cowboying at the Mt. Thielsen Trail junction (PCT mi 1859.0), walked 25? miles today

All four of us got moving by six just in case Crater Lake NP was serious about sending rangers out in the morning to levy fines. There was a sunrise across the lake, but it was dulled by smoke, as were pretty much all our views as we walked around it this morning (hence few pictures). We ran into an extremely knowledgeable old man, a walking history book about the lake and Oregon more generally, who is involved with a Crater Lake trust of some kind. He talked to us for about 10 minutes, dropping crazy science the whole time, then we climbed the Watchman, then a few miles later departed the Rim on a beeline north for Highway 138. These were 15 of the easiest miles in PCT history, and we all got to the road around 1:30.

I was in favor of attempting a hitch 5 miles west to South Shore Pizza at Diamond Lake, not just for the pizza but more importantly so I could charge my phone as I consumed the pizza. HB said he'd try with me for 20 minutes and give up and keep hiking if we failed after that. We failed. He went on (with my new huckleberry hat in his backpack, no less) and I continued popping the thumb, because I don't really have much of an option ... If my phone dies, there go a lot of very important things, not least of them the journal entries. About ten minutes later, Floridian heroes Gary and his girlfriend pulled over, almost wrecking their Ford Escort in the process, and offered me a ride. I gormandized on pizza and root beer, got some charging done, and even made a phone call and surfed the interwebs with the 3G connection that existed down there. Around 5, I harangued Andrew and Nikki, a couple from Forks, Washington, in the parking lot and they generously went out of their way to bring me back to the trail. All in all it was an excellent side trip, even though I was doubting it at first when I left a perfectly good group of friends behind and was failing at the hitchhiking.

Six miles up the trail, I came to the redonkulous view of Mt. Thielsen, which I first experienced last year around this time on a day hike that I took on a whim on a day off. Only once I got here did I remember that there was a great bivy spot nearby and that last year I had told myself something along the lines of, "I will camp in this exact place if I ever do the PCT and make it this far." My original goal had been Thielsen Meadow 2.5 miles onward but it was drawing late and this is too good to pass up, not that the meadow is any slouch. Crater Lake Rim followed by Mt. Thielsen--I'm on a hot streak for bivy sites these last two nights. And I have my huckleberry hat back as well, because HB was kind enough to duct tape it to a sign right next to where I'm camped.

Day 99: Sunday, August 11

Cowboying on the trail on the Crater Lake Rim (sshhh) (PCT mi 1834.9), walked 18?? miles today

Woke up at 7 after a very nice sleep but didn't feel good at all, so I lay back down until about 8:30. At that point I didn't feel any better, but it was 8:30 and I couldn't really condone staying in my tent much longer. Got up and was on my way by 9 ... Had no appetite whatsoever all morning and only managed a few handfuls of nuts and gummy bears for the 12 miles to Mazama Village. By around noon I started to feel better, which was a plus because I was getting to the restaurant within an hour and it would be a shame if I still couldn't eat. Pulled into the village around 1 ... I always have the same unfounded worry when I get to places like this, which is that I won't know where the other hikers are or there won't be any around or something like that. And then always the first thing I see is a gaggle of hikers taking over some picnic area drinking beer with their gear spread in every direction, and my heart is warmed and my fears put at ease. The same thing happened today--the crew was HB, Halfway, Feather the other Swede, a dude named Lightning Rod, and two sobos whose names I didn't catch (not that it matters because they're subhuman).

I showered, threw in laundry, got my maildrop box and then realized I had the appetite for a meal, so I went over to the restaurant and got a sweet-as pork sandwich and a milkshake that took me longer to finish on its own than the rest of the meal. They were remarkably friendly to me as a lone scraggly hiker and let me charge my phone in some random outlet without me even asking. As a hiker, you really never expect anyone to be especially accommodating to you at any major tourist attraction that deals mostly with clean, car-driving people. And no one expects the food at a national park reataurant to be a good deal. But I guess the good Lord was on my side today.

After the meal I passed some time at the picnic tables with the other hikers, who were mostly in the bag by that point. Even feeling better, I wasn't going to try to stomach anything stronger than a soda. I left my Outdoor Research hat, which had been with me since Mexico, at the shelter a few mornings ago when I was especially discombobulated, so I needed a new headpiece and scored one in the gift shop--a little purple number with a bear on it and the words "I'll be your hucklebeary." If Huckleberry was my new trail name, as was immediately suggested by others, I would not complain.

HB, Halfway, L-Rod and I hiked out from the Village at about 6 and went uphill to the Crater Lake Rim over the next few miles. Once up, we hiked along the Rim for a bit until it got dark, then dropped our stuff and called it a night on a flat part of trail. HB, who claims to wake up several times a night to pee, said he'll give a holler if the Perseid meteor shower is good at any point.

Day 98: Saturday, August 10

Tenting in a very flat forest (PCT mi 1818.3), walked 26.0 miles today

A thunderstorm rolled through at about 10:30 last night, but I stayed dry despite alarmingly intense rain and the fact that I wasn't sheltered by trees at all. HB left at 7 and I around 7:15, but I never saw him again the rest of the day, including now. The morning was gray and still, not much happening but the rent, but then at 11 things did start to happen! More thunderstorms! And they lasted for way too long and were way too wet and cold to be the enjoyable kind of thunderstorm. Kind of charged through this whole time because there wasn't much point in stopping, but by 2 the rain had let up and there was even direct sunlight after a time, so I took a big break (1 1/2 hours) to relax, warm back up and dry everything out. After that, I had something like 8 more easy miles to get to this area, which was my minimum goal for today. Made it by about 7 and immediately set up my tent (HB and I were talking last night during the storm about how we'll never feel safe cowboy camping again ... When we set up last night there hadn't been a cloud in the sky or a breath of breeze for hours, then three hours later the heavens were falling on us) and assumed a supine position.

Had I been feeling normal I could've blown past here for at least another hour and 3 more miles, but my body crapped out again in the afternoon. In the morning I was feeling almost 100%, the aches and stomach problems nowhere in sight, but on my first break in the morning I ate a bunch of Skippy and Nutella (which has been a reliable trail snack for, oh, the last 3500 miles of hiking for me) and within half an hour the malaise had returned. It hadn't shown up after dinner last night, nor breakfast this morning, only after my beloved peanut butter and chocolate hazelnut snack later on. I also ate a bunch of PB&N the evening before I threw up, so I'm wondering if it's the culprit. For now I'm not touching that stuff. Skippy, I don't know when I did you wrong--I've always enthusiastically preferred you to Jif and inveighed in the harshest terms against anyone who wanted to argue otherwise--but hopefully you'll be nicer to me somewhere down the line.

Tomorrow is Crater Lake Day, which I am genuinely excited about. The last time I was there I was snowshoeing in January and it looked quite different (see picture). May be camping somewhere on the Rim tomorrow night, which HB indicated yesterday was also his plan.

Day 97: Friday, August 9

Tenting at Christi's Spring (PCT mi 1792.3), walked 22.5 miles today

Woke up at 1 a.m. last night with about a half-second to get my bearings before I started vomiting. Still have no idea what caused this--it only happened once and was a a very small amount. Had to clean it up then go outside to clean myself up, and succeeded in not disturbing the other shelter-dwellers in the process. Then I popped some Pepto and went back to sleep, but it was never a restful sleep and I woke up at 7 feeling like garbage. Had what we can politely call a very bad bowel movement before starting the trail. All this had me wondering if my luck's finally run out and I've picked up a waterborne illness from not treating anything, but I didn't experience any repeats of those symptoms the rest of the day. What I did experience was a very annoying persistent feeling of weakness and achiness, probably because my body has more urgent things to devote its energy to than walking.

At 9:30 after only a few miles, I had to stop and lie down next to the side of the trail to rest and sleep some more. After that I felt almost normal, and thankfully the trail was easy going. It would have been impossible going over lava flows were it not for some more excellent trail building (see picture) ... essentially a raised, red, clean sidewalk through fields of black lava boulders. Got to the highway crossing two miles from the Fish Lake Resort around 1 p.m. and was quickly given a hitch by local hero Eric, who called me bro at least a dozen times in our 3 minutes together. Got to Fish Lake and despite my lack of appetite forced down a burger ("forced down a burger": sadder words were never written by a thru-hiker) with HB Special, who had also made his way there for lunch a few minutes ahead of me. He and I got a ride back out to the trail with a family and walked together most of the the rest of the way.

The clouds, which had hung around all morning, finally cleared out and the late afternoon was pure Oregon summer glory--clearer air than you can possibly imagine, only about 75 degrees, and the trail lazily drifting through the evergreen forest with occasional views out over more endless forest, sometimes dotted with a lake or two. Got to Christi's Spring with HB around 7 and after a little poking about found some grade-A tent sites in the vicinity. With any luck I'll feel more normal tomorrow and be able to walk 25 to 30 miles to get to within spitting distance of Crater Lake.

Day 96: Thursday, August 8

Sleeping in the Brown Mountain Shelter (PCT mi 1773.4), walked 23? miles today

As I was sleeping last night, a woman named Anish (her real name is apparently Heather) was finalizing her demolition of the PCT speed record for an unsupported thru-hike. She got to the Canadian border at 11:30 pm last night, finishing in 61 days, 17 hours and change, which is almost a 3-day improvement on Scott Williamson's old record of 64 days, 11 hours, which I think is still mentioned somewhere in my FAQ page. There is also a dude named Josh who is going for a speed record who is/was on pace to finish today, but Josh is lamer than Anish for two reasons: a) his hike was supported, meaning he never had to carry much on his back and a crew met him at every road crossing to feed and shelter him, and b) Whole Foods sponsored his entire hike, and Whole Foods can go eat bags of dicks as far as I'm concerned. I saw Anish once, on July 3, as I was finishing up a siesta break and she, unsurprisingly, was not stopping. I was looking at history but didn't know it. Congratulations to her, and you can read more about it at facebook.com/anishhikes

But back to me, glorious me. I woke up around 8 (the past few nights had not afforded me much sleep and I was on the softest, spongiest ground they make) and then the shower building called to me again, so I didn't actually start walking til 9:15. From there it was a half-mile back to the trail, where I realized that yesterday we had missed the side trail to the official PCT hikers' campsite, so I had to wander down there to check that area out for the record. Fast forward to 10 a.m. and I was just getting underway for real. The trail climbed a bit, wound around a bit, dropped a bit, and then at 1 p.m. the trail gods decided it had been too dry lately, so they supplied me with a cold, hard, hail-infused, drenching rain. It's really the first such rainstorm on the trip; all the others have been light by comparison and when I got soaked on the second day, way back in May, it was a few hours in the works. This only took 5 minutes to get me thoroughly wet ... I watched a mini-flash flood wipe out the trail and turn it into a muddy torrent. I had my pack cover and fleece/windbreaker on by the time it hit, so my belongings and I were fine, but it was a nice warning shot, as if to say, "You know, Washington could be like this for days at a time if you dilly-dally too long."

The hard rain lasted a half-hour or so and then tailed off, it stopped for good after an hour. For the whole afternoon, including the rainy time, the trail finally looked like what I imagine it to look like in Oregon--gentle tread amidst dense fir forest. Hadn't seen the firs much in the first 50 or so miles of Oregon, as the trail wasn't really on the proper Cascade crest yet. But now it very much feels like the Pacific Northwest. Had a nice cool last few miles of walking, until reaching the turnoff for this shelter, one of the only ones on the whole PCT. The section-hikers that were already here had fired up the wood stove inside the building for drying out gear, which was clutch, and there was room for me, so I decided to call it a night here. As I arrived, I met a southbounder named Vogue who told me that I was "lucky number 180" of nobo thru-hikers he'd met, "but not as lucky as number 179 and 181, because those are prime numbers. Twin primes, in fact!" Ted Kuhn's laugh echoed in my ears the rest of the evening. Anyway, I ate, got dried out, chatted with the section-hikers, then turned in. No predictions or even suggestions for tomorrow; today's was horrendously wrong, as usual.

Day 95: Wednesday, August 7

Tenting at the Hyatt Lake Campground (PCT mi 1750.0), walked 23.6 miles today

It rained a respectable amount last night but my tent did what I pay it to do and I stayed nice and dry. Woke up at 7:30 to Flower leaving, doubtless for some end goal 35+ miles away. Kicked around in the backyard and the lodge itself for an hour or so, ate the remainder of yesterday's chips and guac for breakfast, then skedaddled. Had an interminable road walk next to the interstate (not on it though) just to get back to the trail, then it climbed uphill for awhile. It wasn't steep but my legs couldn't tell the difference, they were dead and stiff and weak the entire time because of the Zero Day Effect, wherein the body gets used to moving around without a pack on, then not only do you have to put the pack back on the next morning, but it's significantly heavier than the last time your body remembers it because of all the new food that's been acquired. So every step was more of a struggle today than it should've been, but I did my best to ignore it and take care of business anyway.

The trail passed through a lot of small-time woods today, not especially scenic but not especially ugly. Not many other hikers about because no one staying in Ashland proper would've been all the way back out to the trail by 9. VP and Lucky Man were the only northbound thrus I saw today ... Crossed paths with a sobo named Forrest and he gave me some reassuring info about the mosquitos up ahead. Straight Jacket (2010) in Yogi's book eloquently summed up the mosquito situation for the 50 miles before Crater Lake by saying, "Carry DEET, and a gun to shoot yourself with." But Forrest told me it wasn't too bad for him, and that means it'll be even less of an issue for me, arriving a week later than him. Granted, southbounders on any trail are categorically a deceitful and discord-loving lot, but I liked the cut of this fellow's jib. I trust him.

Got to this fantastic campground by Hyatt Lake around 7:30 ... There is a separate area for walk-ins and the bathrooms are heated and have power outlets and the showers are piping hot and completely free and unlimited. Words don't begin to describe how rare and luxurious all of those things are. Lucky Man and I are the only ones here, aside from an obese family of car-campers who either ignored or were incapable of reading (it's southern Oregon; the latter's totally possible) the Walk-Ins Only sign. Tomorrow I don't know for sure what I'm doing but a 30 to Fish Lake Resort for dinner is a strong probability.

Day 94: Tuesday, August 6

Tenting behind Callahan's near Ashland, a zero day

Went to the legendary Morning Glory Cafe with Kristin for breakfast first thing this morning and it exceeded my expectations considerably. Had a ginormous coconut-almond waffle with lemon butter and a nearly as ginormous mocha and felt immensely satisfied. Got laundry and other errands done the rest of the morning and she dropped me off at Callahan's around 11. Immediately I ran into HB Special, whom I had not seen since the Saufleys' (mile 454, June 1). As we sussed out, he's been just behind me for quite a long time. He and I had lunch on the patio (I got literally 5 bites of veggie lasagna for a cool $10.50 ... no one ever said that Callahan's, for all its friendliness and convenience, has good deals on anything), shot the shit, and decided to go back into Ashland proper for the afternoon. He had errands to run, I really had no reason to go except that I didn't want to hike (tired, hot) and I'd be bored hanging around Callahan's.

Got a ride into town with one of the employees who had just gotten off the clock, along with Egg (last seen a week or so ago) and Flower, whom I first met today because she's trying to do the 1450-mile Kennedy Meadows - Cascade Locks section in seven weeks, so she's moving just a little faster than average. Got dropped off at the Rodeway Inn with HB and spent more time doing absolutely nothing of value in one of the rooms there with Dandy Greens/Oatmeal and Britta. Eventually we peregrinated to the Shop n' Kart discount grocer across the street, where I obtained dinner for myself and beer for the masses. Drank some more of that in the motel room, then hitched back to Callahan's courtesy of a ride from local hero Chuck (PCT class of '94). Sat in the gazebo in the backyard with HB and Flower, ate a bunch of chips and guac, and consumed more beer as dusk set in. A nice zero day, an unexpected zero day, but Jesus I've got to get out of here. Also, no more predictions at the end of journal entries about what I will and will not do the next day, because they're always wrong. Recent examples are:

Day 79: "Burney is probably out of reach for tomorrow because we'd have to hike through the heat of the day to get there." (Reality: hiked all the way to Burney through the heat of the day with Shorts)
Day 86: "Etna is definitely out of reach for tomorrow, it's 36 miles away and that's too far." (Reality: hiked all the way to Etna with Shorts)
Yesterday: "I'm not going to take a zero here tomorrow, I have nothing left to do in town and I love hiking oh so much." (Reality: took a zero because the thought of hiking on these legs in this weather made me sick)

Day 93: Monday, August 5

In the Columbia Hotel in Ashland (left PCT at mi 1725.8?), walked 22.8? miles today

Woke up at 6:55 to find the others gone, was on my way myself by 7:20. Lately I've felt great in the mornings, with no need to break for the first 2 hours at least; went over 8 miles before my first stop at a spring today. Was around Team Real Names (I don't know what to call them as a group, they're the people I was around in Etna: Robin/Laptop, Travis/Coca, Maddy/Sailor Moon, Adam/Dinnertime) for most of the day because Travis also was meeting someone in Ashland this evening, in his case his mom. The miles just sort of floated by again ... At the top of the only real climb today, near the Mt. Ashland ski hill, someone had put out a few coolers of soda. Sucked down a Mountain Dew in about 2 minutes, then took a Pepsi for the road, and so much caffeine and carbonation so quickly absolutely ravaged my digestive system, which doesn't see anything stronger than the occasional stiff mixture of Tang these days. The afternoon miles passed less easily because I was in constant fear of spontaneous explosion from somewhere in my midsection. Eventually once my stomach settled down I walked the last 3 miles or so with Travis, then we took the weird shortcut trail across the railroad tracks and the junkyard and under I-5 to Callahan's Lodge, which is kind of like a home base for PCT hikers going into Ashland.

Travis' mom met everyone in the parking lot bearing pizza, cold soda and fruit so we trashed up the pretty nice-looking Callahan's front lawn by being all dirty and shirtless and sprawly and gluttonous all over it for an hour or so. Eventually those guys all went off to Medford with Mama Coca for a motel stay and a trip to Winco to buy food for the rest of their maildrops to Canada ... Kristin showed up for me 10 minutes later. Drove the few miles down the freeway to Ashland, checked into our hotel, had dinner at the Caldera taphouse, then did 200 miles' worth of grocery shopping at the local Safeway. Back at the crib, took some time sorting it into what I will carry out tomorrow for Crater Lake (the first 100 miles) and what I will ship to Crater Lake for the second 100 to the Willamette Pass area. Getting to bed way late because we always have a hundred things to talk about. Planning on being back on trail tomorrow; it feels like every PCTer takes at least one zero day in Ashland--I think Spins and Baboon might have taken 4 last year--but beyond that little bit of resupplying and maildrop-sending, and spending as much time with Kristin as her schedule allows (i.e. not much), I don't really have a lot to do here. And I've come to accept that I like the actual act of hiking the PCT more than I like anything else about this whole adventure, so I don't sit around Not Hiking if I can avoid it.

Day 92: Sunday, August 4

Cowboying in the parking lot at Sheep Camp Spring (PCT mi 1703.5), walked 30.3 miles today into OREGON (!!)

Slept for about 11 hours and got hiking by 7am, feeling resplendent. Met a lot of neat people today--the first was VP, Vegan Paul, with whom I walked and talked for 5 miles or so at the beginning. He had his first restaurant meal on the entire trail yesterday, at the Seiad Valley Cafe of all places ... The chef/server/head honcho lady told him that he could buy tofu in the store next door, a surprise in itself if you've ever seen that store, and she whipped up a veggie-tofu scramble for him on the spot. It's a huge surprise that anyone in that town would even know what veganism is, much less would accommodate it so easily. He and I talked about this and that, then I left him behind and in an hour or so met my next person, a very old section-hiker named Hard Tack who is out to finish Oregon and in the process the PCT. He knew "all about" Carleton, which was my first clue that he was awesome, then we got to talking about his round-the-world bike tour, his trip to Sri Lanka, his climbs in the Himalaya, his various careers. I hope I'm something like that when I'm 75.

Also met the Ginger Beard Man, a chap about my age from Palo Alto ... In general, everyone, me included, seemed in such a cheery, chatty mood today, probably because of the Oregon border. Hadn't really thought about it much beforehand, but it did end up making me really happy to get there. There was a register book with many funny remarks in it, like "Glad to be in Oregon, but I hate your fucking college football uniforms" or "I'ma be hitching on the side of I-5 tomorrow with two middle fingers pointed SOUTH, baby!" I got my picture made by the sign, ate a celebratory handful of mixed nuts, left a snarky remark about hikers needing attendants to come hand-feed us any time we want to stop for food or water in Oregon in the register, then moved on the last five miles to this spot, the Sheep Camp Spring with its very high-quality water. The rumors are true and the nighttime temperature is already way lower than California's even though we're only five miles across the border. Camping with Ginger Beard Man and Lucky. Ashland tomorrow.

Day 91: Saturday, August 3

Cowboying on the tread of the old PCT (near new PCT mi 1673.2), walked 17.6 miles today

Woke up around 6:15 and ate only a bar for breakfast, supplementing with blackberries from the ditches next to the road, as I walked with Halfway down the 6-mile roadwalk to the Seiad Valley Cafe. Got there around 8:40 and sat down with him and Otter for a fantastic breakfast ... None of us tried the 5lb pancake challenge, and I'm glad, because something tells me the rest of the menu is better than their pancakes. Had a solid omelette with potatoes and washed it down with a ginormous blackberry milkshake. Didn't have to eat anything besides a Snickers bar the rest of the day until setting up camp.

The cafe seemed especially devoid of local intelligent life--the main threads of conversation we kept overhearing were a) how many loads of crushed rock Bill hauled yesterday and b) tricks and tips for removing the bed of a pickup truck. All of this conversation had to be conducted at a shouting level for some reason. I thought about what my life would be like if I lived somewhere where these were the only types of things people ever talked about, and I began to feel more thankful for Eugene than I usually am. After breakfast and a short resupply trip at the adjacent store, took off around 11 for one of the worst climbs on the whole PCT, the 8-mile, 4500-footer up from the valley floor. It was hot, but not as hot as I gather it can be in Seiad, which was a blessing ... All in all the climb was indeed steep, but it basically took care of business and with a big break thrown in the middle I was up at Lookout Spring near the top in as much comfort as could be expected.

Took another long break, elongated by the discovery of cell phone service, there, then kept going up some more. It became even more clear that we are now in the heart of the whitebread, stuck-in-a-time-warp Northwest when after a few more miles I passed the junction with the Darkey Creek Trail. The climb finally over, the trail descended a bit to Kangaroo Spring, which had repulsive water that I didn't even bother with, then about a mile after that I was flagging--still feeling my 36-mile sprint to Etna, I think--so around 6pm I turned off the PCT onto a disused trail tread to look for a bivy site. Found a good spot, then later noticed a big old PCT sign nailed to a tree, meaning I'm on some part of the old route. Still in good shape to get to Ashland in 2 days, but I need to do a 30 tomorrow to make it happen.

Day 90: Friday, August 2

Cowboying at Grider Creek (PCT mi 1655.5), walked 27.8 miles today

Slept like one of the many rocks out here and woke up at 7:50, which is quite late by my PCT standards. That sort of time was completely normal on the AT; in fact, we used to set our alarms for 7:48 because of A-Game's ability to recite an OutKast skit that starts with a woman waking up at 7:48, but that's neither here nor there. My point is, it was an indulgent morning today and by 10 I'd barely made 4 miles. Got on my proverbial horse after that and set a much faster pace for the afternoon. This pace was aided by the fact that, after spending the first 10 or so miles climbing up and down in the high country, the trail started a 16-mile descent down to Seiad Valley. It was knee-cripplingly steep and relentless at first but the last ten miles were more gentle as the trail paralleled and sometimes crossed the Grider Creek. Right now we're a 6-mile roadwalk (the road is the PCT for awhile) from the town itself, which everyone is planning to do tomorrow morning to work up an appetite for the Cafe. Camping here with Redbeard, Halfway, and an old dude named Otter.

The trail seemed to have more wildlife than usual today--practically teeming with it, if I may say so. I was noticing a ton of birds and birdsongs that I hadn't seen/heard before, and I might have seen a bear in the thick tall brush once I got down near the river, but I never got a good look at it except to see that its fur was coarser and a slightly blonder color than a deer's, and it made a shitload of noise crashing away from me. Redbeard did see a bear loud and clear up in the high part in the morning, and he and Halfway both followed mountain lion tracks down the trail for two miles in the morning. We all saw a lot more deer than normal. We were talking at the campsite this evening and everyone agreed that the terrain and wildlife the past two days seemed even more unspoiled than what we're used to. Robin Hood had been saying before we got to Etna that the Russian Wilderness, which was a few days back, has the highest conifer diversity of anywhere in the U.S. All of this has been a really nice surprise, because I knew nothing about this part of the trail coming into it and wasn't really expecting much except more hot weather (which wasn't even the case) and a slog to the Oregon border.