Month: September 2016

Leaving town is always rough, especially when there’s a seven mile long climb waiting for you.  In fact, it seemed like all day long was climbing and very little descending.  I had a hard time keeping my energy.up, but I had fun stopping alot and checking out My Adams, which we circled all day long.  And now Mt Rainier is coming into view.

I had breakfast with the local gentlemen’s gossip club and had a good time.  I learned all about huckleberries and elk and discovered that the one that bugled at me yesterday was definitely a bull elk.  They asked alot of questions about the trail and equipment and we of course had to talk quite a bit about the weather.  They said it was a tad cold for this time of year and the farmers almanac had predicted an early winter this year.  Great, now I really want to make tracks to finish before October.

Eddy showed up right at 7:30 like he said he would to have a hot chocolate.  I had two eggs, hash browns, bacon, the toast, corned beef hash, and coffee.  I was hungry.  I ran to the store to grab my pack and let the store owner know I was out.  The guy I shared a room with was looking for a ride so I asked Eddy if he had room for another and he did, so the three of us headed up the mountain.

We got to the trailhead just before nine and immediately the trail started a gentle climb.  I had not bothered to look at the trail ahead, by I stopped after about an hour and saw that it was seven miles of incline.  I had forgotten to fill my water bottles, but it was cool out so I didn’t need much anyway.  I had about a half of a liter.

The trail started out in tall pines, then gave way to huckleberries.  I was still full, but of course I had to stop and pick some.  They really do look like dark blueberries.  The trail then turned to a burn area and stayed that way for about ten miles.  The only plus was that it was easier to see Mt Adams, which we were climbing up the southwest side and would circle the beast before leaving it’s Northwest side.

I stopped for lunch after 1 PM at an overlook in a burn area where I could see Adams, Rainier, and St Helens all at the same time.  I sat and faced Rainier while I cooked and ate.

After lunch, the trail started to descend some, but I still could not get moving.  I must not have gotten enough sleep last night, because I had plenty of food.  Perhaps tomorrow will be better.

I passed a few hikers and hunters throughout the day.  Everyone was nice and I stopped to talk to all of them.  A couple late in the day took my picture in front of Mt Adams.  They make three day trips where they hike in day one, day hike the second day, then hike out on the third.  You could tell they love this area.

I hiked until 7:15 so I could descend and get as low as possible and be near water.  Where I camped there were alot of blueberry bushes, but no blueberries.  I ended up cooking dinner in the dark, then headed straight to bed.  I need some Z’s tonight.  I’m 46 miles from my next stop and want to be sure I get there while it’s still daylight.  That should be easily doable.

Another good day today.  I was able to get up and on the trail by 6:45, the weather was cool but not cold all day, and I was able to hit the road to Trout Lake by 5:30 and got a ride after only fifteen minutes.  The belly is full, the food bag is full, and I got to sleep in a bed and take a bath and wash clothes.  Food bath and laundry is the true triple crown of hiking.  A bed is just gravy.

Three other hikers were camping by the lake with me but none of them were awake yet when I set off in the morning.  The voltaren gel did not work the same wonders this morning as previous mornings, and I had a tiny bit of hiker hobble that went away in five minutes.  I guess the shorter days the last few days were a contributing factor to me feeling better the last few days.  No worries, it’s better than before so I’ll keep using it.

The terrain had a few ups and downs in the morning and I passed by several more lakes in the Indian Heaven area.  This was a nice area, but nothing special.  Most of it was in thick trees but there were some open meadows, a few streams, and some good views of Mt Adams when the trail was high.

When I stopped for lunch at a campsite right at noon, I had done 14.5 miles.  That’s fantastic considering the starting time.  The terrain had been very favorable and I had made coffee with honey in it in the morning and put too much honey in it.  I only drank less than half of it in the morning and it fueled me the whole way.  I was walking briskly all morning, even on the uphills.  They were graded well enough that it did not slow me down much and did not tire me out.  Lunch was ramen noodles and  Cheetos, two of my favorites.  I finished off the last of my freeze dried mangoes and dehydrated mandarins, too.

The afternoon left me with just about ten miles to town. It would be a big climb, a big downhill, then another big climb, and then a small downhill.  Should be cake.

The first climb was very moderate and the reward was a great view of Mt Adams.  We are hiking straight towards it now and it gets bigger each day.  You can see now that it’s multiple kinds of rock under the snow.  The downhill was cake, too.  The grades here in Washington have been quite gentle so far.

The last climb was a little steeper than the others, though.  It wasn’t bad, but I did slow down a little.  I met some southbounders on the way up and they gave me the skinny.on town.  I kept on pushing and tried my.phone at the top of the climb, just two miles from the road, but had no cell service.  The other hikers had given me the list of trail angels and recommended that I try to call one from there to arrange a ride because the road has little traffic.  I tried every half mile all the way to the road, but no service.  Great.

When I got to the road, i saw a truck going the wrong way had slowed, then kept.moving.  I set my pack by the road and went to sit on a log to write down the names and numbers of the angels on paper from the photo I had taken of the southbounders photo of the list.  A car came by, so I jumped up and stuck out my thumb, but no luck.  Oh well, back to writing.  I finished about a dozen numbers and decided I would start walking until I got cell signal.  I was getting one bar occasionally and could tell if I went down the road a short ways around the mountain that the signal would improve.  Just as I was about to hoist my pack on my back, the same truck that had slowed, came back and stopped when I stuck my thumb out.  Success.

My ride was Eddie who used to log this area, but was now retired.  He had decided to just take a drive up the mountain to look at the woods.  Lucky for me.  We talked as we went into town and as we got to the store, he gave me his card and said.to call him if I had trouble getting a ride.out of town.  On his card, it said he was a.livestock dealer.  Looks like we had more talking to do.  He said he is usually at the café at 7:30 in the morning, so I am hoping to catch him there to get a ride back up.  And people don’t believe in miracles….

Once at the store, my luck continued.  Both of the rooms they had for rent were open and there was another hiker there inquiring as well.  So we split the room with three beds and paid $12.50 each for a bed, bath, and access to laundry.  Score.

I ran to the café, and had a Vulture burger, a huckleberry lemonade, salad, and huckleberry pie with huckleberry ice cream.  Heaven.  I ran back to the store, got my.package, bought two beers and a bag of cheetos and went to the room to get a bath.  The other guy had gotten some dvd’s to watch and we watched The Martian and Hunger Games while we did chores and in-between laundry.  There is no cell service in town, but they have wifi, so emails were read and sent.  Everyone in this town is so friendly, it’s been one of the better stops so far.

I actually overslept this morning, but got out by 6:45 and hiked right up until il 7 PM.  There was alot of climbing, but it was not so steep as to bother my heel.  And even though the morning started out chilly, I swear the temperature never changed all day long.

The ridge above the river where I camped turned out to be a nice camping spot.  There was no wind, no dew, and the temperatures were not too cold.  I slept quite well and didn’t wake up until just after 6 am so I had to skip the morning music and get right to work.

After getting down off the ridge where I was camped, the trail was level for a few miles as it crossed two different rivers in a valley.  I stopped at the second one to fill up on water.  There was dew on the grass and it got my legs wet as I walked through it.  This is probably the first time.on this trip so far I have gotten wet from dew on plants along the trail.  I understand this is common in Washington.  It reminded me of hiking on the AT with the meadow, the climbs, the grasses, and the streams.  So far I really dig Washington.

At the top of the climbs, there were good views of whatever volcano I was facing, either Hood or Adams.  I did not see Ranier or St Helens today.  Perhaps tomorrow.  I was surprised how far I was able to go today.  I forgot I had honey with me, so I added honey to my cold coffee and I ate well today.  I guess if you stoke the engine properly you can motor on quickly.  My feet are pretty sore after a long day, though.  I hope I am not too sore tomorrow since today was such a big jump in mileage.  I had no idea I had gone that far until after I stopped to camp.

Yesterday I saw no northbounders and four southbounders.  Today I saw no southbounders and five northbounders.  I may not be out of a bubble after all.  

I have 23.6 miles to the forest service road that leads to Trout Lake, where my next resupply is.  It’s an 11 mile hitch so if I get there late in the day it might be a difficult hitch into town and might be an even tougher hitch back out.  I may have to make tomorrow a short day just to deal with the logistics of getting into and out of town.

Today was the first full day after returning to the trail and it felt good to be back in full swing again.  The three shorter days leading up to today worked out all the kinks and the muscle pains went away today.  The feet even felt pretty decent.  Most of the day was spent climbing up and down in the coolness of an overcast day.

I woke up about 5:00 and listened to music until 5:45, then I rolled out of the hammock, ate my breakfast burrito, and headed out at 6:30.  Yesterday had been so hot and lasted well after dark.  I slept on top of the sleeping bag until about 3 am when I was finally cold enough to get inside the bag.

The coolness accelerated in the morning.  It was probably about 65 when I set out from the campsite, but within an hour of climbing, it was probably closer to 45 degrees.  It was very overcast and even though I was not in the clouds or fog, I was right even with them.  Even wearing gloves, my.hands were cold.  The heat generated from climbing kept me.from getting too cold, but several times I almost.put my rain jacket on just for the warmth.  What a stark difference from yesterday.

All day I kept bouncing between 1000 and 4000 feet.  The climbing was a little painful on my left Achilles heel if the grade was a bit steep.  I could walk on my toes without pain, but the extra flexion if the ground slopes up more than about ten degrees would cause pain.  I found two ways to mitigate the pain.  If I could find a rock to land my heel on as I stepped to level out my foot, that would be pain free.  If no rock was at the right spot to step on, I could step sideways to shallow the angle.  Pointing my toe either left or right seemed to work equally well.

Another odd thing going on today was having my phone reboot itself while it was in my pocket.  It has done it five.or six times during the trip and did it a few times yesterday, but today it rebooted five or six times in an hour.  It seems to take a bit of juice to do a reboot, so the most worrisome part about it doing this is the extra consumption of power.  By the end of the day, it had used 50% power where it would normally be 20-25% for a day.  I took it out of its bumper case to see if that was interfering with the power button.  That seemed to work for a while, but then it started rebooting again.  I could see that the bottom side of the power button was depressed when it rebooted, so it is definitely sticking on the bottom side.  When I stopped for lunch, I cut the bottom half of the bumper button out so that it can only depress the top half and will.protect the bottom half.  That seemed to work well, but it did reboot once near the end of the day.  If I can find a pencil, I’ll try to grind some graphite on the switch.  I may also have to stop keeping it in my.pocket just to protect it.

The scenery all day was pretty good.  The view in the picture is.looking back at the Columbia river towards Mt Hood.  I was still able to receive cell signal from the river gorge, too.  The clouds lasted most of the day but did seem to break about 4 or 5 PM.  It never did actually rain, but some of the trees were dropping dew from the clouds.

The combination of thick green forest, moderate uphill and downhill grades and very little level terrain, coupled with all of the views being of rolling forest and the threat of rain all day made me think of the Appalachian Trail.  Aside from the actual species of plants and trees, you would have a hard time telling if I was hiking the PCT or AT today.

Even though I only hiked 23 miles today, I consider it a good day of hiking.  I would have preferred to hike 25, but the morning went so slowly stopping alot and messing with the phone far more than I wanted to.  I hiked until 7:15 so it was a pretty full day.  That’s about as late as I can hike and still have enough light to set up the hammock, but I’m cooking and eating in the dark.  I can probably start fifteen minutes earlier but the days are sure getting shorter much faster than I would like.  I need to knock out miles to make Canada before the snow sets in.

Another big milestone today, as Oregon is now complete and I am finally in Washington.  This is the first time I have set.foot in Washington, so this is really two milestones for me.  Kevin has headed on to Portland and I’m on my.own again.

We woke up at our usual time of 6:30 and had a quick breakfast and cold coffee and headed out by 7:15.  The evening was much warmer than the previous two nights and I slept like a baby all night.  We camped at the perfect spot.  It was just about a mile short of where all the waterfalls begin in the canyon.  We were facing eight miles of waterfalls then two miles on a bike path into town.  Today should be epic.

Right off the bat we come to a decent sized waterfall which we never learned the name of.  Even if it had been the only one, it still would have made the trip worthwhile.  But it was not the only one.  The very next waterfall was tunnel falls.  They have carved a path behind the waterfall so you walk behind it.  The canyon here is very tall and very steep.  I’m not sure how high this fall is, but it has to be well over a hundred feet.  Most of the canyons here are about six hundred feet deep and to think the tallest point.in Florida is just over half of that.  You could stack two Floridas in this canyon.

We kept on trucking down the canyon and the falls just never stopped.  I didn’t bother to count them but there must be about a dozen that are over fifty feet and many dozen small ones along Eagle creek.  We stopped to look at every one of them.  One pool that was not far from tunnel falls was a wide deep and rectangular pool that looked just like a swimming pool.  If it were not 8 am and cold, it would have been a great.place to take a swim.

The closer we got to the end of the trail and the trailhead, the day hikers got thicker and thicker.  The last quarter mile we would pass a group about every one or two minutes.  The parking area was huge and we stopped to look at the display at the salmon hatchery before heading out on the bike path.

Once on the path, we picked up the pace, as there was less to look at.  The path is apparently the old highway from the teens.  It was well graded and wound around the trees.  We saw a few cyclists on the path, but no other hikers.

We finally.made it  into Cascade Locks just after noon and after a quick break in a park to rest our feet, we headed straight across the railroad tracks to the local brewery.  They had an eight beer flight, which I got, and baby back ribs on special, which I also got.  The beer was decent.  I was not a big fan of their dark beers, and they had only one IPA, but it was a good one.  The food was also good.

I ran over to the grocery store while Kevin waited for his friend from Portland to come and meet us at the brewery.  The store was well stocked, and I was able to get everything that I needed.  By the time I returned and got everything packed, she pulled into the parking lot.  We chatted a bit, then the two of them accompanied me across the bridge of the gods across the Columbia river.  I was able to cross for free, but the two of them had to pay a $1 toll to walk across.

Once on the Washington soil, we said our goodbyes and they headed back over the bridge.  I headed north into the woods again.  It had been hot in town, and there were many open sections on the climb away from town that were also hot.  But in the trees the temperature was much more pleasant.  After two days of coolness, I had almost forgotten what it was like to sweat.  Almost.

I chugged along probably.only six miles or so out of town before finding a camping area with nice stumps to sit and cook on.  I found a spot for my hammock about forty yards further in the woods and set up quickly then went back to the stumps to cook.  

Taking over a week off has made me soft and slow, but it’s just now starting to feel normal again.  Yesterday afternoon I was stiff, but today alot of the muscle pains have worked themselves out.  The feet are a bit more sore today, though.  I look forward to having a full day in the woods tomorrow to get my groove back groovin.  But for now, I am hoping for another night of grade A sleeping.

We had a very chilly morning of hiking, took a sun break in the afternoon, and hiked towards three more volcanoes.  This picture is from a second break on the ridge before descending to Eagle creek.  If you look carefully, you can see Mt St Helens to my left, Mt Rainier in the middle, and Mt Adams to the right.  All while Mt Hood is beind me.  I hope none of them decides.to erupt this week.
We got up at 6:30, ate breakfast, made some cold coffee, and were off at 7:15.  The night was cold, but not windy so it was not that bad.  The morning still had a brisk chill in the air.  I started hiking with my rain jacket on for warmth.  My gloves stayed on until nearly 2 PM.  We had to stop for water about thirty.minutes into the morning hike and the water felt even colder with the chill in the air.

We could hear logging in the distance and could tell they were using helicopters in the operation but we could never actually see them.  We got many good views of Mt Hood looking backwards.  There was more.climbing in the morning but nothing ridiculous.  We snacked all morning but we were both hungry most.of the morning so we stopped shortly after 11:00 for lunch.  I ate my tuna wraps and Kevin age his sausage and cheese wraps.  We were still cold so we moved.on pretty quickly.

Around 1 PM we hit a rock field in the sun, so we stopped and layed out on the rocks like snakes to soak up some sun and warm up.  We rested there close to an hour and both of us probably dozed off at one point or another.  We both got nice and toasty.  Just thirty.minutes later we hit another clearing with rocks and juniper ground cover.  Kevin was able to get an AT&T signal so we stayed there about a half an hour while he checked email and such.  

We had a fantastic view of the three mountains to the north of us.  All of these volcanoes look alike except for Mt St Helens, which is missing the top thousand feet or so.  I was not sure if the one in the middle was Ranier or not, but the maps cleared up any doubt.  But Adams is the closest.one and the one I will visit next.

After leaving that.clearing, the trail started descending, so this is the last brand view for a few days.  We decided to go ahead and take the Eagle creek alternate trail into Cascade Locks.  It is supposed to be alot more scenic than the official PCT.  But the first two miles are supposed to be a doozie of a descent.  And the rumors are true.  The first two miles are quite steep but not as rocky as the rumors had indicated.

We got down to the creek level in under an hour and the trail got much easier then.  There are lots of creeks to see, and some sort of waterfall about every thirty minutes.  The forest is pretty thick but the mosquitoes are not. 

We picked our campsite and made camp.quickly.and immediately cooked dinner.  We both ate quite a bit today and dinner was no exception.  Even though we did not do big miles today, we are both getting a little stiff from the ramp up.  We both turned in before dark and plan to get up at 6:30 again to try to make the last 10 miles into Cascade Lock’s for lunch.  Kevin will be meeting a friend to.or foe for more day hiking and I will probably resupply and head out before dark.  I doubt I will be able to complete the climb out of the Columbia gorge tomorrow, but I should be able to put a decent size dent in it.  I just hope I am not too sore tomorrow.  I need to make tracks as best I can to about snowfall in Washington.

It was quite cold and windy all night and it was hard to sleep, but the wait for breakfast was worth it.  And most of the days hiking was quite exceptional with lots of good views of Mt Hood as we circled around it.  It may not have been a big mile day, but it was a full day.  And Kevin says you knuckleheads at Tipples better not be running the course backwards tonight.

We had planned on getting up at 6:30 so we could be packed and ready to roll before the breakfast opened at 7:30.  So I start rolling around exactly at 6:30 and I find Kevin is already packed up and ready to go.  He got up at 6:00 and was ready to roll.  I got ready as quickly as I could and we wandered down to the lodge to charge phones and get some coffee.

We got to the dining room line just as they opened and got seated near a window.  The valleys all around us were rolling with clouds in an undercast day.  The buffet once again did not disappoint.  I did not have any pastries last time, but did on this visit and they were quite exceptional.  We had our fill and got back to the campsite to get our packs and get rolling.  We set off at about 8:45 waddling down the trail with full stomachs.

The trail circled the mid base of Mt Hood to the west.  We weaved in and out of gullies and canyons sometimes with bare rock and sometimes in thick pines.  It seemed like every twenty minutes there was another spectacular view of something.  Every time we thought we had left.Mt Hood we would somehow get another view of it.  It will probably take a week to get away from this thing.

We took the alternate trail to Ramona falls since it was close by and were not disappointed.  It was a very tall waterfall and cascaded all over the place.  We took an extended break there to eat and take in the view.  It was quite crowded with lots of day hikers from a nearby trailhead.

We found a campsite at a road crossing that actually had a picnic table so that was a good enough reason to stop.  We talked with two other hikers also camping there and cooked dinner on the picnic table.  This area had rain last night so everything is wet.  Having a nice picnic tabke is a nice convenience.  Taking a week off has gotten me hooked on furniture again.  I need to kick the habit.

After another long day of travel, I’m back at the Timberline Lodge after they had several days of rain but the forecast for the next few days is sunny and cool.  It can live with that.  Just a few days after I left last week and up until this morning, they have had bad weather here with lots of rain and general unpleasantness.

I hopped on an early.flight from Gainesville and made it to Portland before lunch.  But I have company this time.  Kevin decided to try his hand at this hiking thing, so he flew out with me and will hike fifty miles to cascade locks.  We spent the afternoon grabbing lunch, getting fuel for the stove, and getting food for him for the next four days.  We missed the 3:25 bus and then got on the wrong connecting bus from Gresham to Sandy and ended up going back towards the airport.  We got off quickly and ended up taking an Uber to the Sandy transit center instead of waiting for two more busses to get us there.

Once in Sandy, we grabbed.dinner at a local pizza joint then nearly missed the last bus while hunting out for wet wipes.  But we made it in time, with a few minutes to spare.  We made our bus and got to the Timberline before dark.  We immediately set up camp then headed for the lodge for a beer.  The temperature here feels like thirty even though it’s only in the high forties.  I discovered I left my air mattress at.home, so I’ll have to sleep in my fleece to stay warm tonight.