Just before hitting the PCT’s highest point in Oregon and Washington I saw a guy walking towards me. In short shorts, a casual t-shirt and with a pack so small I couldn’t see it behind him I assumed he was a day hiker. As he got closer I recognised the tall lanky fellow as none other than Scott Williamson, the only guy ever to yo-yo the PCT (Mexico-Canada-Mexico in one year). He stopped and talked for a little while and I took a photo so I can document someone crazier than me

Scott Williamson

See Hiker Completes First Round-Trip of Pacific Crest Trail

The high point was an easy stroll compared to California’s 13,500ft Forester Pass but at 7,500ft there is still plenty of room for undulation between here and the border. Not much later I finally caught Angelhair and Rigatoni, last seen in South Lake Tahoe some 700+ miles ago. I was glad for the company and walked and talked with them for most of the day. I really wish I’d done the same with BlueSky, maybe she’d have stayed longer. They were both sporting the super-light hiking poles from Gossamer Gear. I had a go for a while and it felt like I was just swinging my arms, switching back to mine and I was lifting weights! It’s too late in the game to be worth $110 though.

At lunch I took another stab at making instant pudding, this time with fresh spring water and more milk powder. It worked wonderfully and I ate the lot.

Scott, Angelhair and Rigatoni do not treat or filter their water. I’d like to be that carefree and save the weight of the equipment, but two of those three have gotten sick and I don’t want a week off puking my guts out.

Noodleheads, Rigatoni and Angelhair
We parted ways at Windigo Pass. The Noodleheads taking the alternate route that is 7 miles shorter, flatter and passes more lakes. I’d like to have done so too but since I’m logging the trail I feel I need to be on the official path as much as I can.

Quotes of the day:
“You know you’re a thru-hiker when someone writes “wash me” in the dirt on your legs” ~Angelhair
“I’ve got a king-sized Snickers in the queue” ~Rigatoni (actually talking about snacks, I thought he was meaning something else)

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Mt Thielsen to Bend

Dawn over Crater Lake

Today I nearly climbed Mt. Thielsen. I say nearly because the last 40ft or so was simply too scary for me. It had been a CARS (crazy arse rock scramble), steeply up for more than an hour and following the recommended route I veered right at the top until going forward would mean crossing a vertical drop of hundreds of feet before bouncing the next few thousand. Mucho kudos to Rolling Thunder and his buddies that reached the summit last year. I have no idea what route they took but if it was the one I was looking at they are insanely brave. I’d have done it over deep water but not at the top of a 9,000+ft mountain. Anyway I turned back feeling ok about it, preferring to walk rather than slide down. The view was fantastic, I could even see the surface of Crater Lake. If I’ve given the impression that Oregon is all flat and boring then I have misled you. It sure does have some spectacular parts.

Q: Mt. Thielsen? A: Insane!
With that diversion I decided not to reach the next water source and camp here on the ridge instead. As I was tidying away dinner (Claudia, I used your dried tomatoes to liven up my couscous, thank you) a chilling breeze came through and I was glad for it. Next to me was my sleeping bag and I love being cozy and warm inside it as the evening settles in.

When I was at the cabin I caught a news report about the death of a bird in Oregon from West Nile Virus. They were telling people to avoid being outside at dusk/dawn and stay away from stagnant water where mosquitos hangout. Hmmmm, I’ve looked ahead for water sources and most of then end with ‘lake’ or ‘pond’ :-/

One more thing. While rounding the Crater Lake Rim this morning I came across five bikers doing a big tour around the country. One lady asked me two questions I haven’t been asked before. Was someone doing a write up on me back in NZ? Do I feel blue sometimes? I started to tell them about feeling bad on the way into Castella but the feelings came right back so I changed course and talked about the memory card with all the videos on.

Friendly bikers
They were incredibly enthusastic about my trip even to the point that one of the ladies gave me a hug goodbye. It sure gave me a boost and for a while my enourmous pack didn’t weigh so much. They called this couragous, but really it’s just a bunch of consecutive camping trips.

Mt Thielsen

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Crater Lake to Mt Thielsen

Today was mostly about departures. Levi and Sarah flying home to Boulder. Claudia and Vic heading north to a big RV gathering and my return to the trail.

I gots my slushie!

At the ranch I repacked everything. Claudia gave me bags and bags of dried fruit from their trees and I ziplocked up a selection to take now and mail ahead. From Crater Lake I’m taking six days of food and five liters of water. I’m back up to 143lbs (still down seven from the start) and my pack is back up to 56lbs. The good news is it’ll never be this heavy again. Water shortages will never reach 25 miles again and I’ll only do one more six day stretch.

The Lively’s backpack

The Lively RV is quite a thing to behold. A wonderful home on wheels and I was treated to a couple of hours in it today. It’s the other end of the scale for taking your life with you compared to my backpack, and I could easily be tempted to do it their way next time. First we dropped Levi and Sarah at the airport then headed east-ish to get me back to Crater Lake Rim Village. It was good to be back on my feet. I’ve had a great break and a lot of fun, really been made part of their family but the trail goes on and so must I. With pizza and blueberries stuffed into my pockets I waved a final goodbye and walked north. I did less than two miles and found a great spot from which to watch tonight’s show. It’s cold now so I’m hiding in my sleeping bag but in a few hours I’ll wake to see the Perseids lighting up the night sky.

Crater Lake
*early the next morning*

Well the shower wasn’t as impressive as I had hoped and I didn’t manage to get any of it on my camera but I did see quite a few shooting stars and one directly overhead left a smoke trail.

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Crater Lake to Mt Thielsen

The scenery sure changed for the better today. Within the first few miles I was seeing far distant horizons, lakes down in the forest and modest but jagged peaks. In the afternoon I saw two more southbounders that briefly had me wondering about yo-yo-ing the southern two thirds of the trail Would that qualify me as a thru-hiker?

Oregon hills
Those two girls, and four horse riders are the only people I’ve seen all day. The trail register at the Pumice Flat trail junction showed a bunch of PCTers that I know are only a day or so ahead. Speed Stick, last seen at Agua Dulce, and Jacob, last seen at Rodreguez Spur (day 4!) are among them. I’ve stopped a couple of miles short of Highway 62 near Mazama Village because I don’t want to do 30 miles today, no matter how easy it would be with this flat terrain. I’ll roll in tomorrow, reach Crater Lake rim with a nearly empty pack and start finding a way back to Ashland.

Oh, the “Oregon desert” is just an area where pumice and ash from the Mazama volcanic eruption in 5700 BCE covered all the streams in a big-ish area and now there is no surface water. Plenty of trees though so I hardly noticed the change.

In Oregon even the desert is green

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Ashland to Crater Lake

The red scoria path continued for most of the first hour this morning. It was cold again but the sun was doing its job by the time I crossed highway 140. Like yesterday I spent most of my day trotting along with no views to speak of and no-one to speak with about the lack of views. At lunch time I was passed by a group consisting of father, son and three twenty-something guys who may have been friends or brothers I couldn’t tell. I saw them again at Christi’s spring and heard one complaining, quite rightly, that the guide book spends more time on the alternate routes than it does on the genuine PCT. I’ve noticed it too and I’ve hardly read section C of Oregon because of it. The trail is marked well enough and I use the data book to know about water sources.

I saw my first southbound thru-hikers today. They say the snow won’t be an issue by the time I get there and the mosquitos are dying rapidly. This is good because they were biting today, even getting me while I walked, which is unusual.

I pulled off the trail to a viewfull overlook at 5pm and I’ll sleep here. The trail continues to be easy so I’m racking up miles with time to spare. There’s enough light to walk until well after 8, but I’m enjoying having lazy evenings. Reading Shogun, cooking dinner and ruining my instant pudding. It turns out that I didn’t have nearly enough milk powder so it hasn’t set. Maybe it will overnight.

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Ashland to Crater Lake

Oregon has wasted no time in living up to its reputation. The walking is easy, the weather is cooler and the sights aren’t there.

Little Hyatt Reservoir in the morning

I woke to see the early morning mist wafting across the reservoir. There was a definite chill in the air and I walked quite a way still wearing my thermal top (mmmmm, merino wool). I stopped for a little while to send messages via the telephone at Hyatt Lake, where I’ll return to this weekend to visit Levi and his family.

strange pyramidical plant

It did warm up eventually and with the trail being so flat I found it pretty easy to get where I wanted to be. Unfortunately flat amongst trees means no views and the walk became tedious after a while. I really wish I had someone to talk to or something to occupy my mind. Songs are an ok distraction but I’d rather have an audio book or two.

Unfakeable proof of 2/3s

Not much further

Things picked up in the late afternoon. I passed mile 1770, the 2/3 mark! Then ran into Gary who gave me some useful pointers on edible plants. We were near some thimble berries which I tried. They’re like bland raspberries but will do in a pinch. He also confirmed the ones I’d seen earlier were huckleberries and a little while after leaving him I found some more. Those things are delici-most! Tomorrow night I’m making up some instant pudding (assuming I camp with enough water) and a handful of huckleberries will go down nicely.

a thimble berry

I started looking for a camp just as the trail hit the slopes of Brown Mountain. Great boulders cover the ground here as if the whole mountain was flowing down through the trees. Across these solid rivers the trail has been beaten flat and then topped with red scoria making it look like a fancy driveway. If the whole trail was marked like this the guidebooks would go out of print.

follow the red scoria road

I eventually found a flat spot that some previous hiker has cleared and as I settled into my bag Troll and Oblivious came by. I told them about Caitlin going home and they presented me with my lost ground-sheet.

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Ashland to Crater Lake

The bed was so comfortable, the duvet so thick and soft. I can’t remember the last time I slept on something like that. I miss my bed. But as I wrote at the CA/OR border, the trail goes on and so must I.

Laura had prepared a hearty oatmeal breakfast with fresh apple and strawberries. I finished my bowl, then the pan and she drove me to the trail. I said goodbye to Blue Sky, now back in the real world as Caitlin. Hopefully not for the last time. Both she and George have said they’d come visit me on the trail though you can never hold someone to that. People get jobs and commitments and the hike they did over summer becomes less important. I’ll do my best to visit them on the way out which I guesstimate to be the last week of September.

I walked alone up the road from where we were picked up yesterday. Caitlin and I didn’t walk side by side but it still felt odd to be without anyone at this point. At the sign I stepped back into the forest and more pressing things came to mind. Avoiding poison oak, where the next reliable water was, when I could stop for a snack. The walking was incredibly easy. If the rest of Oregon is like this I’m not surprised that people say it can be done in 3 weeks. I could have done a lot more today but there’s no point. I only need to do 20s until Thursday so by 5:30 I had settled next to Little Hyatt Reservoir to cook dinner and sleep. Then I discovered I have lost my ground sheet. That was really useful, and worth the few ounces on my back. Maybe someone will overtake me with it tomorrow. A few cars, a truck (that almost got stuck in the mud) a quad and a motorbike have driven past while I’ve been here. Though the setting is nice I regret being off the trail and near ‘civilisation’.

Apart from Gary, the only other hikers I saw today were from a near-by church camp. A very cheerful bunch they immediately offered to take my photo, then got one for themselves with the strange explorer guy they’d found in the woods. A nice bunch of people, very interested in the trail and gave me some fresh water which was very welcome as the next source had lumpy bits.

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Ashland to Crater Lake

I’m glad to be in Oregon that’s for sure. It’s not that the landscape changes right on the border but I’m happy to know that I’m in a new place.

We took a while at the border, writing in the register, taking photos and leaving a note to the effect of ‘Oregon is closed for the season, please return to Campo and try again’.

There were two serious climbs today but with my food supply almost gone they weren’t much of a problem. Unfortunately we managed to miss the recommended spring and had to back track most of a mile. The water was worth it though, so cold and fresh, ahh the source of life.

A little later I met a weekend hiker from Ashland who proudly told me that they are the largest town in America without a McDonald’s. Thankfully they still have Burger King and I can see a Whopper in my future

Strangely they also have no library. All the ones in Jackson county closed due to lack of funds. That’s pretty terrible really.

Mt Shasta

On a saddle above Grouse Gap (where a shelter with an incredible view has been built) I found a cache of beer and soda apparently set up by Tadpole, Milkman, Scout and Sandy. The latter two being the trail angels that hosted me in San Diego. I had hoped to see them on the trail, but I’m too far ahead now I think.

Well inside Oregon we’re preparing for a town day tomorrow. I have a lot of food to organise, packs to swap and gear to do away with. I hope I have time for the burger and slushie I have been dreaming about.

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Etna to Ashland

Blue Sky and I are now camped about 4 miles from the Oregon border. It has taken nearly 1,700 miles and over 15 weeks to get here though I’m not feeling much worse than I did in the first week. I’ve learned to feel the onset of shin-splints, which I can do right now, and to slow down when I get that familiar pain. Today we pushed to 27.5 miles and it was plenty.

From my sleeping bag I could smell the forest fires were still burning. It didn’t seem very thick but as we climbed past the Devil’s Peaks and looked back we could see it was getting pretty bad for those in Seiad Valley today. It was near white-out conditions to the south and east and a good northerly wind kept it all back there and off the ridges we were on.

Finding water is getting to be a problem again. There are sources up here but no-one wants to carry more than they have to so we need to guess whether the next spring is still running. South bound hikers are good for that.

After crossing Cook and Green Pass we climbed up towards the day’s high point and had lunch. I mostly ate food other hikers had offered because they bought too much. Freeze-dried fruit from Troll, tortillas from Dr. Bug and apple sauce from Blue Sky.

I noticed with a smile that Riddle has passed through here recently. The trail-side art of a sunrise made from the brilliant white rock chips (quartz?) could only be her.

The afternoon walk was along the crest and it literally sparkled. Like heavy sand sprayed silver, the mica dust looked solid but gently padded the trail. It turned my shoes back to their normal grey from the red they had become after crossing Copper Butte. When the slabs of it by the side of the trail caught the sun they really shone. It probably won’t come out on camera but I tried.

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Etna to Ashland

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Today definitely had the slowest miles so far. I didn’t go for the pre-dawn dip I had planned last night, instead just washing my face before starting the 6.5 mile road walk to the township of Seiad Valley. Along the quiet gravel road were numerous patches of great blackberries and luckily I had already selected a large zip-lock (note: I used Hefty brand and it leaked) and set about collecting my breakfast. Blue Sky caught up quickly as did Troll and Oblivious so we all walked to the highway together eating juicy fruit the whole way.

Blue Sky and Troll blackberrying

The Seiad Valley diner is famous for its pancake challenge which is to eat five 1 pound pancakes in two hours. It’s been done a dozen times in as many years and the first non-through hiker to do it was just a few weeks ago. Panther is going to try tomorrow. I had really wanted to have a go when I started this trip but I came to the realisation that even if I did complete it, which is unlikely, I wouldn’t enjoy it. So instead I bought almost half a gallon of ice-cream and ate it all myself, along with almost a pound of blackberries and the freeze-dried fruit Troll was giving away. Yes I felt pretty close to exploding afterwards, but you can’t argue with 2240+ calories in one sitting!

More hikers came in and some from last night left. Dr. Bug and Stud were the first to go at what seemed to be totally the wrong time. There’s a 4000ft ascent north of Seiad Valley and it was crazy hot today.

Blue Sky and I got the diner to make milkshakes with the rest of the blackberries and filled up on huge sandwiches before closing time. That’s something I really like about American cuisine, great sandwiches.

SunWalker and Blue Sky

We were now below 2000ft and throughout the day it got hotter and more humid which just made it harder to leave. Even by 6pm it was still a lot hotter than I’d have liked but we had to get some miles in if we’re going to reach Ashland on Saturday. So we did and now we’re on a thin saddle halfway to the top of our climb. Mosquitoes are swarming but a head-net and deet should see me through.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that last night at Grider Creek Campground I had less than 1000 miles to reach the Canadian border. I’m trying not to get too numbers oriented but that one is worth noting.

More photos of this day’s journey can be found at Etna to Ashland