The wind shifted in the night but any wind on an exposed ridge like that is enough to keep the mosquitos and dew at bay.

I trundled off down the hill by myself as usual, expecting it to stay that way all day since most of the PCTers take the easier more scenic route. Over the undulating path I met nine southbounders some more talkative than others. I found a nice cold creek for lunch, even took the time to read my book, then ambled on and on through the woods until reaching Willamette Pass. I tried going up to the ski area there to use the payphone but the place was closed. A guy came out to meet me and offered fresh water. The lakes seem clean enough but I still prefer running water.

I set up camp next to the very lovely Lower Rosary Lake. I’d eaten dinner and was doing my dishes when the Noodleheads and Rumble came along and convinced me to go just “1.4 miles” to a hut. Normally I’d hate to repack and move on but I like these two and the hut sounded nice so I got moving, and moving, and still moving. It was well over two miles later that I found them without the hut. Rigatoni had run on ahead and came back soon, also without a hut.

So we set up here by the trail and by my estimate this is my longest day yet. 32.5 miles!

It’s been a little while since I camped with people. We’ve been talking for a while and Rigatoni said if he found a kiwi on the trail without a trailname he’d name them “Heaps” because kiwis say that a lot. It works pretty well for me because of my superlarge pack so I’m thinking of adopting that one. SunWalker has always sounded a bit too new-age for me, and I expect people to give me the peace sign and say “right on” to me.

Today’s food fantasy: Roasted vegetables. Kumara (a New Zealand sweet potato), garlic, parsnip, carrots. Slightly marinated in ruby wine, Worchestershire Sauce and a bit of malt vinegar, then slathered in olive oil.

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

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

Today we swapped ranch for cabin and after settling in we took to the bikes. I was worried at being offered the “two wheeler”. I’ve not done much (any?) off road motor-biking and I’d be risking my whole trip not just my ankle. It turned out to be a two-wheel drive ATV (all terrain vehicle a.k.a quad-bike). I took a little while to adjust to driving again, especially with a clutch-less, thumb-driven handle bar but soon enough I was tearing up the dirt road and rolling to a stop at where it crossed the trail I had walked a week ago.

Kicking dust
We had lunch there and I’d really hoped to see a hiker or two. Alas no-one came but I got the chance to be on the trail with friends from the outside which was pretty cool.

On the way back we took a gravel road and I was really able to pick up some speed. I even started drifting around the corners.

Drifting

Memories of walking the woods alone are beginning to fade. I don’t think it will take long to adjust after I get home. I’ll certainly miss the trail but I’m easily distracted.

Levi, Sarah and SunWalker

Hyatt Lake Resort does indeed serve great pizza, but the real winner is the sundae as prepared by the cheerful waitress. Strawberry and chocolate sauces oozed down the glass. Huckleberry ice-cream was burried under mounds of whipped cream and glacé cerries. This is the sort of thing thru-hikers dream about.

Quite a sundae

Again I was looking around for dirty hikers. I know Rocket-Cop came in when he passed and I’d hoped to see some others. People further back on the trail are seeing much larger groups and having a much more social hike. I’m glad I’ve gotten to know those I have and being a small troupe like this has been nice. But I’m interested to re-connect with some of those I saw early on and to find out who else is out here.

Quote of the day:
Claudia: What are ya doing hun?
Vic: Just making sure the door closes

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

A soft bed is never a bad place to wake up, even if it is not yet 6am. Despite not have any distance to go or much to do I got up and began pottering around. The view from the deck is certainly impressive. The manicured green grass lies thick around the the house. English and Black Walnut trees dot the lawn and beyond them are fruit trees laden with apples, pears, plums and peaches. Over the white fence a high power sprinkler is ticking away in the horse pasture.

The household, consisting of Claudia, Vic, Levi, Sarah and the miniature dog Tory, slowly came to life around me and after all the morning stuff was done Claudia drove Sarah and I to Ashland so I could do the rest of my Washington food drops. With that done I’ve only got two points at which I’ll have to buy food. Everywhere else should have something waiting for me.

Lucky Joe, Samurai Joe and Two Dogs were in town too. I briefly met Samurai Joe and his fiance at Evolution Creek in the sierras. Since then she has fallen and broken her foot and returned home to New York. That group is hitting the trail tonight and they shouldn’t be too far behind when I get back on.

I spent a fair bit of the rest of the day online and catching up with Levi while he was working from home. After a great dinner and dessert of homemade peach ice-cream I found Dad online and video-chatted with the family. As I expected things are just the same as they were before.

Mmmm. home made peach ice-cream
Right now it’s hard to remember how I got here, Have I really walked this far? Have I really been out here this long? I feel like it’s always been this way. Working and walking are a distant memory. Soon I’ll be back on the trail and I feel like I’m starting again. I’ve only 830 miles to go and this time I’ve been training very hard for 6 months.

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

It’s amazing how quickly I can be removed from the wilderness. Just this morning I was fighting off the mosquitoes alone in the woods trying to convince myself to get out of my sleeping bag. Now I’m at Claudia and Vic’s ranch looking down on the town of Talent. There’s manicured grass, fruit trees and WiFi! So how did this happen?

Tiki came by as I was packing up. We walked down to Crater Lake campground, just a couple of miles, and found Troll, Oblivious and Anchor (the wife and mum of those two) already in residence and sharing out BBQ spare-ribs and chicken. Quite a breakfast. I basically spent most of the morning eating, using the phone, picking up and sending on mail. I’ve forwarded on my next pair of shoes to Cascade Locks so hopefully the ones I have on now will get me there. An impressive 1000 miles since I put them on in Truckee.

lolly scramble! (for hiker foods donated by Gary)

Eventually I got things sorted and made a dash up the hill to the crater rim. I’d left my bag with Troll so I climbed the hill pretty fast but wow did the view ever take my breath away. The lake that has formed in the shell of Mount Mazama, that erupted and collapsed in 5700 BCE, is the most beautiful shade of blue imaginable. I’d seen photos of this before but they can be tinted. I was awestruck and just sat there staring at it until Troll drove up to get me.

Crater lake

He and his wife then kindly drove me all the way across to Medford where Claudia, Levi’s mum, picked me up and took me back to her ranch.

Levi and Sarah are here now too. I haven’t seen them since I stayed at their place in Boulder a few years ago. If you’ve heard the story about the couple that abseiled into their wedding, this is them. We’re going to go ATVing, eating, general time-off stuff and when I get back on the trail in a few days I swear I’ll be a new man. And this time I’ll only have 830 miles to go. It’s hard not be super confident at this point.

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

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