Day: August 30, 2016

What a sad and happy day today.  Sad because this phase of the journey is over when my momentum is high, and happy because I made breakfast on time and I got to spend some time brewery hopping with a former coworker, Steve.

I had set an alarm for 5 am just to make sure I didn’t oversleep and good thing I did, because when it went off, I was dead asleep.  It was still pitch black, so I listened to music for twenty.minutes before rousting.  It was 6:20 by the time I had finished breakfast and set out on the trail, so it was pretty much usual time.  But this morning it seemed darker than normal.  Maybe it’s the shortening days, maybe it’s thicker woods, maybe it’s both.

The morning was cool, and the hiker hobble had me going pretty slowly downhill to the road about a mile away.  it was a pretty busy highway and I had to boogie across it quickly.  Traffic was coming from both directions even before 7 am.

After the road, the trail was officially on Mt Hood now.  It was a five mile uphill climb all the way to the Timberline Lodge.  By my best guess, I should be there by 9 am.  The trail was steeper than normal but not a bad climb, but I did generate alot of sweat.  There were two water sources on the way up, but I had enough water to get there without any more.  I did get hungry on the way up, and had to stop for a Clif bar.

About a mile and a half from the lodge, the trail popped out of the woods and went straight up an arm between two canyons.  The trail here was very soft sand and it was like climbing a giant hill on the beach.  It was a very tough climb and so demoralizing being so close to the lodge.

When I got to the top of the hill, the trail was actually above the Lodge.  It went right around back into a small section of trees that were a designated campsite for the trail, just 300 yards from the lodge.  I am sure none of the guests had any idea they were so close to a small village of homeless hiker trash.

I made my way down to the lodge and set my pack outside one of the back doors and cooled off for a few minutes.  I changed into my town shirt and went inside.  I had to wait about ten minutes to be seated in the dining room.  They like to keep all the hikers together and I sat with two other hikers.

The buffet was everything I had hoped and dreamed for.  Eggs, sausage, ham, potatoes, fruit, granola, yoghurt, waffles, and pancakes.  The coffee was good, but the food was better.  I only had two plates since this is a meal after a hike and not loading up for more hiking.  I was quite hungry by the time I was seated.

Next up was to check on the bus schedule.  I had just missed the last.morning bus and would have to hit the first afternoon bus at 2:45.  I had called Steve about a week back, and he invited me to stay with him, so after figuring out all the connecting busses, I texted him with my estimated arrival time.  It worked out almost perfectly because he works near the airport and would get off work about an hour before the last bus made it to the transit center.

I made all my connections and all the busses were on time, so Steve was right there when I arrived.  It’s been at least five years or so since I had seen Steve when he came to Florida and we went tubing down the Itchitucknee river.  I’ve gotten gray and he looks.exactly the same.

We hit two breweries downtown and had appetizers at both of them.  We got flights and all the beers were good.  One was a raspberry radler and it was quite tasty.  I still can’t believe there are 84 breweries in this town.

We went back to his house and chatted a while, before showering and starting a load of laundry.  Getting clean never gets old.  Tomorrow I will do my chores in town and fly out of Portland before dawn the day after.  So this is the last blog entry for the next nine days.  You’ll have to go back to reading about the Trump/Clinton election for your entertainment for a while.  Enjoy that.

Another long day today trying to get within striking distance of the Timberline Lodge for the breakfast buffet.  I should have stopped early and rested up, but the thought of having to eat lunch instead of a buffet breakfast just wasn’t sitting well with me, so I hiked close to an hour in the dark to be within 6 miles for a quick morning jaunt to Nirvana.

I had a really good camping spot last night.  All of the other spots that were right after where I stopped were not nearly as good.  I was out at 6:20 and inspected each tentsite I encountered and was glad I stopped where I did.

The entire day was in heavily wooded forest that was very shady and cool.  Even in the few open areas I encountered where the sun was very hot, a breeze was around most of the day to cool things off.  Even though there were several big climbs throughout the day, they seemed to just whisp by quickly.  Perhaps the coffee I made at 8 am to ensure that I did not drag my feet had something to do with it.

A very large lake was the prominent feature for the day.  The trail went half way around it for several miles with a nicely shared and nicely flag trail.  The far end had ice cold springs pouring into it so I filled up and made another batch of coffee to see how close I could get to the Timberline.  That batch helped, too.

The other prominent feature was a horse camp near the lake and I saw three couples riding horses on the trail.  On the entire previous 2000 miles, I only saw one other couple riding horses (with a mule in tow).  The trail was covered in road apples all the way around the lake and many trails leading into or away from it.  Popular place.

At about 6 PM the trail popped out on a ridge and Mt Hood came into view for the first time all day.  We were close enough now that I could actually make out the lodge.  I was twelve miles away via trail, and probably less than eight as the crow flies.  I also got good cell signal for the first time since leaving Bend.

There was flat terrain three to four miles ahead, which would put me eight to nine miles from the lodge.  That would have me at the lodge at about 11 am if I left at 6 am.  When I got to the flat area, it was pretty heavily forested with lots of dead trees.  The camping was not good, and I was feeling good, so despite it being 8 PM and almost dark, I decided to go to the next pass and trailhead which was only six miles from the lodge.  I was well fueled and hiking quickly.  There was a bit of climbing, but it whisped by quickly.  As I was getting near to the road crossing and pass, the number of tents in the woods increased.  I was not the only one trying to get there for breakfast.  I found a level spot on the ridge and cleared the twigs and set up camp just after 9 PM.  I am now seven miles away.  The next mile is a descent, but the last six are all climbing, so it will still take at least three to three and a half hours in the morning.  I’m pretty sure coffee will be required.  An alarm might be required, too.  Breakfast is served from 7:30 to 10:30 so I should have enough time to make it.

The whole reason for all this fuss about breakfast is that the lodge is very fancy and very expensive.  But their breakfast is a buffet and only $15, which might sound like alot, but it’s cheaper than lunch and their breakfast is supposed to be the best on the entire trail.  I wouldn’t want to miss out on that, would I?