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I had a nice easy day today going into town to buy food for the last four days of this part of the trip.  Relaxing and resting was the name of the game today.

I’m not sure what time I got up today, but it was well after six.  I watched news with Pat for a short bit and he made us coffee.  I have really enjoyed not hearing what is going on in the election circus.  Pat headed off to work and I went to work on the gear.  I got my laundry going and then watched some news with Kelly.  More news than I’ve watched in three months.  After getting the laundry into the dryer, Kelly let me borrow her truck to go into Bend for grocery shopping.

Bend has grown since the last time I was here, but everything is still recognizable.  First stop was a bakery to grab a cinnamon roll.  I got an apple walnut raisin one and it was excellent.  Next was Trader Joe’s.  They have so much interesting stuff there that it’s hard to get out of there without buying too much.  I got most of what I needed there, but still needed lunches and tuna.  Food For Less was next door and I was able to get everything else right there.  I still had some time, so I decided to look up a brewery that a hiker had told me to visit in Bend, the Goodlife brewery.

I found the brewery after a little searching and had to search more for the tasting room.  I ordered a flight and they were all pretty good.  They had food, but I didn’t feel like eating there, so I left.  But right outside was a food truck with BBQ.  I got a pulled pork sammich and it was pretty decent.

I headed back and Pat was already home.  We chatted as I packed the food bags and we had to sample all the interesting dried fruits I had gotten at Trader Joes.  We tried the coconut cashews, dried mandarins, and freeze dried mangoes.  The fruits were good, but the nuts were just OK.  Everything was packed and ready to go.

One of Pat’s neighbors came over to chat about the PCT.  He had lots of questions and it was fun answering them.  With all the visitations done, it was time to get down to business.  One of Pat’s climbing buddies had opened a brewery and Pat had done the heating and chilling work for them, and they named one of their beers after him – Pat Kat Porter.

So we headed down to the Juniper Brewery to have some Pat Kat Porter.  They had flights of 4, 7, or 12 beers, so I got the 7 and made sure to get some Pat Kat.  It was pretty dark and closer to a stout than a porter, but it was good.  The others were good as well.  We went back into the brewery area and saw all of Pat’s handiwork.  They were a 2 barrel operation, which is quite small, but better to start out too small than too big.  Brewery equipment is not cheap.

We headed to a burger joint for a quick bite then back home.  We had an early wake up to get to the trail by dawn, so it was just brief chit chat before heading to bed.  In the picture, Pat is holding his boot from his Appalachian Trail hike that his mother had bronzed.  He and I both have nearly all the equipment we hiked with in the eighties, but I don’t have any footwear from that period other than one pair of boots identical to the ones I used back then, but will probably never use again.

I’m glad I was able to get Pat’s number and was able to get ahold of him.  It was a really great visit and it was nice catching up on what each of us has been doing for the half of out lives that we have missed.  He has been out here doing all the skiing and rock climbing that I expected that he would be doing out here.  All things that I would have loved to do as well.