Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike 08

P.C.T. Mop -Up Tour Finished!!!!

2010-08-12T14:41:00.000-07:00

We started hiking north from Sierra City on 7/23/10 and 6 days later we reached Highway 36 (Chester) finishing that 138.2 mile fire section!!! Met some great 2010 thru-hikers and stopped at Buck's Lake for a night of rest and relaxation with the wonderful trail angels there.

Another ride (HUGE thanks to Jim) brought us up to Etna summit (after visiting the Heitman's in Old Station and then a nice rest day at the Hiker Hut in Etna) On 7/30/10 we walked into the absolutely beautiful Marble Mtn Wilderness......wow, what a great section....55.5 miles later on 8/1 we walked into Seiad Valley@ 8 am........with big smiles on our faces! Enjoyed breakfast at the cafe, showered up and hitched a ride out of town. P.C.T. Mop-Up Tour DONE! :)

Had a wonderful roadtrip after the 190 miles were done, saw the Redwoods, drove the whole Oregon Coast, saw Mt. St. Helens and an elk and then spent a few days in Portland, OR with Dandy..........what a great trip!

Total Stats for our P.C.T. hike are as follows;

2,655.4 miles

154 days complete

133 of walking

21 zero days (rest days)

2009-06-11T18:01:00.000-07:00

Ocean Beach in San Diego finishes up our mtns to sea tour!!!

2009-06-11T17:11:00.000-07:00

Checking out the big fence! Border patrol seeing what we were up to!!!

Monday June 8, 2009

2009-06-11T17:03:00.000-07:00

Having finished the 39 miles, we decided to take the scenic route back to San Diego. So, Monday morning we got up and drove south through the Anza-Borrego desert, crossed the PCT a few times, checked out the Mexican border in Jacumba (and border patrol checked US out!!!) got a room in SD, had more Mexican food in Old Town San Diego and then went to Ocean Beach to round off our Mtns to desert to sea tour! We flew home on Tuesday, all smiles, full of Mexican food and already thinking of our next PCT "fire miles section"!!

2009-06-11T08:03:00.000-07:00

Kathryn and Steve......our trail angels!! :)

2009-06-11T08:01:00.000-07:00

More Fuller Ridge!

2009-06-11T07:59:00.000-07:00

Fuller Ridge

2009-06-11T07:56:00.000-07:00

Fuller Ridge

Sunday June 7, 2009

2009-06-11T07:40:00.000-07:00

Great night sleeping, heard a deer snorting at one point, beautiful full moon when we woke up. Walking before 6am and quietly passed by Strawberry Junction where all the campers were still warm and cozy in their sleeping bags. Great view into the valley of clouds as we made our way to Fuller Ridge. Another cold morning walking with our winter hats on! The 5 miles along Fuller ridge were just one beautiful sight after another, definitely a highlight of this section as we meandered along below the towering peak of San Jacinto, lots of nice little spots to camp on and a river....waterfall almost at the beginning of the trail (coming from the south). Looking to the north and far below, we could see I-10 and the windmills we camped under last year, it was funny knowing exactly what the trail looked like ahead, but we where wouldn't be going this time. :( We got to Black Mtn Rd (officially connecting the dots from last year) and started walking down the road. About 4 miles later, we saw Steve and Kathryn driving up the road to pick us up! This great couple Neighbor met through a San Jacinto hiking board and they arranged to pick our sorry butts up and bring us back to our rental car (waaaaay back where we started the 40 mile hike)! Great feeling knowing that we didn't have to try to hitch on the side of the road for endless hours! We all went out for Mexican in Idyllwild and then back to our car. It was great meeting them and you never know......we just might see them again someday!! After this full day, Neighbor and I drove back to Idyllwild and crashed in the State Park. What a great 3 days back on the PCT!!

2009-06-11T07:33:00.000-07:00

Look how far we've come!

2009-06-11T07:32:00.000-07:00

Clouds coming in from the West, hitting the Desert Divide and drying up on the East/dry side of the range. Magic!

2009-06-11T07:30:00.000-07:00

So many beautiful sights along this section!

2009-06-11T07:23:00.000-07:00

burnt trees from last year's fire, but new growth already taking place.

2009-06-10T06:26:00.000-07:00

Sat June 6, 2009

2009-06-10T06:08:00.000-07:00

After quite the windy night, we woke up to a beautiful sunrise over Palm Springs area, packed up and got walking northward again. Cold morning, no one else on the trail, just amazing views all around, walked through the small section of trail that was on fire last year (1 mile out of the 39) near Apache Peak. Didn't go down to the Apache spring as we didn't need water and we heard it was quite the elevation drop to get there. Meandered along, following the trail, enjoying every step of it. Came to Saddle Junction around noon, lots of hikers here, had a bite to eat and decided to keep walking. Found a great little spot to camp around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and called it quits for the day. 15 miles for the day only left us 8 to get to Black Mtn Rd in the morning.

2009-06-10T06:07:00.000-07:00

2009-06-10T06:05:00.000-07:00

2009-06-10T06:01:00.000-07:00

Friday June 5, 2009

2009-06-10T05:46:00.000-07:00

We were up bright and early on Friday, drove to the trailhead and started our 39 mile walk to Black Mtn Rd. Chilly morning, but we moved right along, taking lots of pictures and enjoying being back on the trail again. As we climbed higher up the ridge the views were awesome, we could look back and see the trail to the south, peaks all around, the Saltan Sea, just beautiful. The wind picked up in the afternoon and made it cold on the shaded side of the mtn, but still roasting on the sunny side. We stopped at Fobes Saddle for water, Neighbor got us 4 liters with no problem, I stayed with our packs at the junction and flipped through the trail register of whose been through the area, fun to see all the 2009 PCT hikers and their comments. We noticed another message for today's date and come to find out "Nitro Joe" PCT 2008 was out here hiking also hiking these missed miles from last year!! Small world. After the climb out of the saddle, we hiked a few more miles to Spitler Peak and found a great camp spot off the trail, with a nice view of San Jacinto and all of the Palm Springs area. Had some dinner and called it quits, quite early for the day (around 3pm.......but we were trying to stay on east coast time!!) Made it 16 miles for the day, not too bad!

2009-06-10T05:44:00.000-07:00

The ridge we'll soon be hiking over!

June 4th, 2009

2009-06-10T05:34:00.000-07:00

It was finally time to head back out west and hike a few of those miles of the PCT that were closed due to wildfires last year! We decided to start with the 39 miles around San Jacinto/Fuller Ridge area. So, we flew to San Diego on Thursday 6/4/09, picked up our rental car with Enterprise (Neighbor and Dave the Enterprise man in photo) and drove north to Idyllwild to camp in the state park for the night. Long day of travelling, I think we were sleeping by 6pm (west coast time......would have been 9pm for us!!)

Airport greeting crew!

2008-09-17T12:23:00.004-07:00

Chief, Chickety and Neighbor in Seattle, WA

2008-09-17T12:23:00.001-07:00

It was great to see The Great Chief-Chi-Hua-Hua Rainbowtoes in Seattle., it was the icing on the cake. Hi Chief!!!

We're home!

2008-09-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

Just a few details about the week that followed our "Big Finish" at the Canadian border! We took the Greyhound to Vancouver the next day (about 210 miles to the West) and stayed at a "backpacker's hostel" nearby (scary!!). We said good-bye to Slider. Thrust, Neighbor and I then took a ferry from Vancouver to Vancouver Island where we stayed in Victoria for 2 nights. Then we said good-bye to Thrust and we took a different ferry to Seattle, WA for 2 nights. Seattle was wonderful! We went to Pike St. Market and were in awe of all the fresh fruit (great peaches and apples), fish and flowers the market had to offer! We went to the REI headquarters and ran into Antfarm and Swiffer! We went to The North Face and saw our friend Numtum from the AT in 2005! Then on Sunday, we were leaving the hotel to go to the airport and were walking down the street when we saw Chief and Sarong walking up the street to meet us! What a great way to end the trip, seeing Chief again! We hung out with them for a few hours and then took a bus to the airport hotel. Flew home on Monday, saw the most amazing full moon setting with the sun rising by Mt. Rainier as we took off and then saw the Northern Cascades in Washington that we had walked right by, it was awesome! Landed in Manchester to see our families and HikerEd were there to greet us home, how great was that! Thank you everyone for the support we received while out on the trail, it's great to be home and see everyone, what a great trip it was! :)

DAY 143 MON SEPT 8th!!!!

2008-09-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

So excited! Up and hiking by 6:15 (we slept in a little on our last morning) The miles came fast and easy, it was COLD, I mean there was frost on the plants on the side of the trail! Our feet were wet in no time from brushing the plants as we walked. Neighbor and I saw the border swath just ahead of us and knew we were soo very close! Then we saw part of the monument through the trees and we were there! 0840am, we were standing at the border swath and end of the PCT, the end of our long walk. We took a few pictures then Slider and Thrust came along and we took more pictures and signed the register and hung out for 40 min or so, but it was too cold to stay any longer, so we started our 7 mile hike to Manning Park which couldn't come fast enough (for me). I wanted DONE (Neighbor says that he wanted to yo-yo...) We got to the pavement a few hours later and walked the 1 mile to Manning Park resort and got a room for the night. Washed our clothes and enjoyed the hot tub. I started feeling just awful and realized that I had caught some kind of stomach bug (bad food or bad water somewhere) but thank goodness we were in town and done, so I could rest!!! What a day to remember!!

Day 142 Sun Sept 7th

2008-09-10T22:10:00.000-07:00

Chilly morning, had the mittens on. Sunrise reflection on the big peaks around us and we could see Mt. Baker off to the West. More amazing views on this eastern side of the Cascades where the air is drier (and the weather is nicer!!) We hiked over the highpoint in WA of 7100 feet and we could SEE Canada!!! Amazing views (which I'll attatch pictures to soon) We took picture after picture this day, in all directions, just beautiful! So glad we had nice weather on this last week of hiking. Camped by Hopkins Lake for the night a mere 6.8 miles from the END of the PCT!! What a beautiful spot for our last night on the trail (camped with Slider and Thrust)

Day 141 Sat Sept 6th

2008-09-10T22:07:00.000-07:00

No mice! Pretty big climb out of Rainy Pass, but it was easy walking as usual, this is where the amazing views on this stretch started, what beauty all around. We just meandered along the mountainside for endless miles today taking in the views. Ended up hiking close to 30 miles by the days end and camped at Harts Pass (at a small campground) It was downright cold out this night and we were at 6200 feet. Only 30 miles left to the border from where we camped!

Day 140 Fri Sept 5th

2008-09-10T22:03:00.000-07:00

Warm night sleeping with lots of active mice around, beautiful stars and first night in a VERY long time without the rainfly on! Up at 6am and had one last breakfast at the Landing, then caught the 8am bus back to the trail (with a quick bakery stop on the way!!) On the homestretch, 89 miles to go! Pretty easy hiking, we camped at Rainy Pass (Route 20) basically at the picnic area after a 19-20 mile day out of Stehekin. Lots of Canadian Jays around just waiting to steal any food you might drop.

Day 139 Thurs Sept 4th

2008-09-10T21:59:00.000-07:00

Got to sleep in and it felt great! Packed up and were out of the room by 1030, decided that we liked Stehekin so much that we'd spend another day here! (but would camp for free instead of spending more money on a room) So, we moved down the street to the Purple Point campground where the free camping was and set up shop. I jumped a ride to the bakery with one of the same ladies as the day before and saw Flippy, Swiffer, Antfarm and the 3 guys from Washington there. I got one of the bakery's famous cinnamon rolls (they are huge!) and took the bus back, basically hung around and relaxed the rest of the day away. Neighbor got an e-mail from Chief that he was leaving Skykomish today (so he's only 4 days behind us!!) We might get to see him again afterall!

Day 138 Wed Sept 3rd

2008-09-10T21:50:00.000-07:00

Had a great night's sleep, went to the Landing for breakfast (amazing food there) I had pancakes with berries and cream on top! Neighbor had the French toast, yummy! Then we finally hit the showers and did some laundry (though I think our laundry may have been cleaner when it went in the washing machine than when it came out) We got a room at the Landing Resort for the night and were able to enjoy a real bed for the night. The PO opened at 10am and we picked up our many packages! Almost missed one from Yappy (because she addressed it to "Neighbor and Chickety" :) ) Gram and Papa mailed some homemade cookies! Letters from Chels, Grammy Peg and Mom (with $$ in it that we put towards are night's stay!!) Thanks!! Then we caught a ride to the bakery with a couple of nice ladies and had a great lunch there. Managed to get a ride back to "town" (the bakery is almost 2 miles up the road) and bought a few postcards, hung out on the deck and filled them out while taking in the beautiful day. Our buddy MJ bought us a gift certificate for the Landing Restaurant (where the food is amazing) and we had a great dinner on him and even split a bottle of wine :) Thank you MJ!!!

oh canada!!

2008-09-09T19:56:00.000-07:00

we finished on 9-8-08 at 8:40 am. more from chickety later. she's whooped!!!
p.s. we're in von - cuckoo (vancouver) headed for victoria tomorrow

Lake Chelan/Stehekin, WA

2008-09-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

What a nice last stop on the trail in the US!!!

Big trees!

2008-09-03T13:52:00.000-07:00

Day 137 Tues Sept 2nd

2008-09-03T13:45:00.000-07:00

Slept like a rock. We were hiking by 6am, more uphill, but by the end of the day today, we'd be in Stehekin, so were were energized and ready to go! I was feeling great and motored right up Suiattle Pass. It was a cold morning, plants were covered in frost and we were in hats and gloves, brrrr, it feels like September in Washington state, that is for sure! Once we were at the top of the pass, it was basically all downhill the whole afternoon! Beautiful blue sky today, this is the type of weather we were looking for! Nice! Lunch break by Hemlock Camp and only 12 more miles to the road to town! By 5pm, we were at the ranger's station waiting for the busride to town! We loaded up at 6:15 and enjoyed the ride! Camped out for free on the outskirts of town after a great dinner at the Landing, what a day, and boy are we happy to be here!!!

Chickety scooting across the Suiattle River!

2008-09-03T13:44:00.000-07:00

Don't fall in!

Day 136 Mon Sept 1st

2008-09-03T13:29:00.000-07:00

In the middle of the night, I felt something "land" on my feet.....ahhhhh, MOUSE! Headlamps were on and stuff was flying, luckily it had escaped...through the same HOLE that it chewed right through the side of the tent. Great! We taped up the mouse hole and went back to sleep, but it was tough to sleep thinking the little guy would break in again. It rained on and off during the night. Morning came early and we were hiking by 0550, lots of ups and downs today, like 2,000 foot climb up and then 2,000 foot climb down! We hiked down to Kennedy Creek where there was a bridge over the creek (a broken in half one, but a bridge!) Then we climbed up to this beautiful glacial bowl with Mica Lake, then down some switchbacks that were half washed away and down to Milk Creek (which I forded and Neighbor found a couple logs to cross on) Before that creek we walked through lots of overgrown trail sections with steep drop-offs on the side (like scary drop-offs!!) Then we climbed back up to a ridge and had lunch and the sun came out, so we pulled some gear out to let it dry out a bit. Then we followed a ridge through a huge bowl for miles through grassy meadows and boulder strewn river beds, amazing how the scenery changes so quickly! Then we went back downhill towards the Suiattle river, but first walked through a few miles of HUGE, (I mean massive) downed trees, some were so big it was easier to just bushwack around the whole darn thing! All the guys ripped their rainpants climbing over and under trees today. (today was a looooong fun filled day) Then we finally came to the Suiattle (the river that EVERYONE talks about for miles and weeks before you even get to it!!) The floods of 2003 completely washed out the river, but there is one big tree for you to cross the river on. The guys (Thrust, Slider and Neighbor) walked over this log, I scooted across, there was no way I could have walked this log and not fallen off. I'll attatch a picture! By the time we got to the other side, it was 6:30pm and we were all exhausted and just camped right there on the banks. Good-night!!!!

More flood damage of 2003

2008-09-03T13:26:00.000-07:00

Day 135 Sun Aug 31st

2008-09-03T13:16:00.001-07:00

It didn't rain last night! How great it was to wake up and not have a wet tent! Hiking by 6am, we saw a patch of blue sky and there was hope! Then it started to snow (yes, snow!) Hiked up to Red Pass in fog, windy, chilly, spitting snow type of weather. We entered Glacier Peak Wilderness area and you could tell it was a beautiful area, even if you couldn't see all that far. This area was hit hard by storms back in 2003 and the trail is still under construction, new bridges are being put in and blowdowns are being removed slowly, but it's hard work for the crew. We saw one of the old bridges that was swept away in the rainstorm of 2003 stuck right in the middle of the river (see picture above) Some of these crossings would be insane without the bridges, Thanks trailcrew!! Around 3pm, we realized that we were about to climb up 2,000 feet and it was already hailing down low where we were, so we decided to camp right there instead of hiking uphill into the snow and freezing for the night. It was a good decision, we even started a small campfire and dried off some gear!

Day 134 Sat Aug 30th

2008-09-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

Woke up around 7am and decided to make a go for it! Eric D was driving up to the pass, so he gave us a ride back to the trail and we were hiking by 9am! We said good-bye to JZ, JB and Boomer earlier and off we went. Easy hiking to start, overcast, but not a bad day, took a lunch break at noon by Lake Janus and it started to sprinkle a bit. More uphill hiking after lunch with rain showers on and off all afternoon, we even had freezing rain once too! Brrrr! Ended up hiking close to 25 miles this day and camped with Dave, Andy and Ryan (3 guys out hiking north to the border) Hi guys!! Peeled off our wet shoes and socks after dinner of Mac n' cheese/tuna and called it a day.

Day 133 Friday Aug 29th

2008-08-29T16:54:00.000-07:00

No hiking for us today, it was an errand day! After trying to hitch a ride to Goldbar and realizing that all the traffic was going in the other direction, we went to the deli and grabbed some breakfast. Then decided to buy our supplies for the next stretch out of the deli and the Chevron station (for a pricey amount of cash) Then Mike came into the deli and noticed that we were hikers and asked if we wanted a ride to Goldbar........well, sure! His wife Maurisa was going there to go shopping and was more than happy to have the company! We picked up a few more items to add to our already heavy foodbags and some goodies to munch on for the rest of the day. Maurisa ran a couple errands while we shopped, then came back with Boston Creme Eclairs for the both of us from a nearby bakery! Oh, how I love bakery food! (I have to get my share of bakery products in now while we are still hiking 25 miles per day!!) Thank you Mike and Maurisa! We are back at the Dinsmore's right now, updating this blog, relaxing and still letting things (like our shoes) dry out. We bought our flight home! September 15th is the date! Very excited to have those purchased! We have a couple "bumper days" in there, just in case the weather gets bad/worse and this way we'll be able to take a day off and not HAVE to push on through a snowstorm or something crazy like that! We have decided to come back some other time to hike the 233 miles of trail that we missed in California due to fires. Enough is enough and we are ready to go home! I miss wearing cotton clothes and cute shoes! :) Still trying to decide if we are heading out in the morning or taking another day off (snow in the forecast for tomorrow....) We'll see.

JB

2008-08-28T22:20:00.000-07:00

JB has been hiking with us for some time now and here in Skykomish he is getting off the trail to go to a wedding. We will miss you JB. The rest of the trip just won't be the same without you to pick on! Enjoy your time off and your return trip.

Day 132 Thurs Aug 28th

2008-08-28T22:10:00.000-07:00

Well, I left some trail mix in my snack pocket last night and now there is one very fat mouse somewhere out there in the Washington woods! Packed up and hiking by 0545 by headlamp. Drizzling and cold again. Yuck. Our feet were wet within minutes, which isn't always that bad, we could stomp right through the mud puddles and didn't have to worry one bit about the water! Crossed a couple creeks, climbed a few hills, walked past quite a few large boulder fields, really foggy and I never took my camera out of my backpack all day long. 26 miles to Steven's Pass where we hitched into Skykomish. 6 of us (JB, Slider, Thrust, Neighbor, Travis and I) all fit into a nice man's pickup truck. Travis is a hiker we just met recently and he also hiked the AT in 2005! It was fun to talk to him and find out that we knew some of the same people from the trail! Small hiking world out there! So, we got dropped of in Skykomish (a very small town) and quickly found the Cafe for dinner where they were having a steak special! Sign us up!!! After dinner, we went to the Dinsmore's (a nice couple that lets hikers stay with them) and picked up our MANY packages!!! Yeah! Postcards from Stinky and Gram and Papa. Letter from Chels and Grammy Peg. Packages from Kate and Libby, Numtum, Mom and Dad, and Neighbor's Dad! Thank you guys! Neighbor's dad mailed us our passports and our Canada entry papers! We are sooo ready for the border!! Just showered and now we are heading to bed! Tomorrow we will find a store to buy food for the next stretch to Stehekin! The end is near!

2008-08-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

Just another pretty view!

Day 131 Aug 27th

2008-08-28T22:02:00.000-07:00

Well, it started raining around 1030pm....and it never stopped. Packed up the tent in the morning and tried to keep it from getting too muddy. Started hiking by 0645 and my shoes were wet by 0647. Uphill climb in the cold, wet, drizzling, windy weather. Saw a rainbow! While back in Snoqualmie, we sprayed our rainpack covers with silicone spray because they were not one bit waterproof, today tested the new spray job.......and it worked like a charm! We tried to stop and dry gear out once, but it started raining again, so that idea went out the window. Foggy, not much for views, made it to Deep Lake and climbed up a big hill (lots of climbs in this section) Around 5:30, we came to 2 guys camping with a fire....and we decided to stay there with them for the night! Nice warm fire....couldn't pass that up! It was around 25 miles for the day and that was enough in this weather. Cold wet feet, gotta love it!

Enjoying the views!

2008-08-28T22:00:00.002-07:00

Gotta love Washington when the weather is nice!

Mountain goat!

2008-08-28T22:00:00.001-07:00

Day 130 Aug 26th

2008-08-28T21:48:00.000-07:00

Up early and enjoyed one last breakfast at the restaraunt before heading back to the trail. Had a 2,000 foot climb, but it wasn't bad at all. Chilly out, had my gloves on, blue sky and more and more views the higher we climbed into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Quite a few people out and about on the trails. Neighbor came around the corner and startled a mountain goat! We got a few good pictures of the little guy before we moved on, nice walking, great views, feels good to be out of the fog and enjoying our surroundings. At one point a jet airplane came right up out of the valley heading right towards us before veering upwards and flying right over our heads! What a cool sight. Big granite jagged peaks above and blue lakes below, what a beautiful area. Hiked 22.5 miles down to Lemah Creek and camped nearby with JB, Slider, Flippy and Thrust for the night.

Day 129 Mon Aug 25th

2008-08-25T17:27:00.000-07:00

Up and about at 0530, eating breakfast by 0630........noticing the cold, fog and drizzle by 0730.....decided to take the day off around 0830! The next stretch is supposed to be just beautiful and we already missed part of Goat Rocks Wilderness due to fog, we don't want to miss much more (because we don't have much trail left!!) So, we mailed some maps that we've used home and a few other papers once the PO opened at 10am. Had a lazy day of hanging around, went on to Southwest.com and started to price the airfare home (doesn't look to be that expensive!!) Basically, rested (which is what we are supposed to do on a REST day!!) Here is the one picture I took from today......a rainbow from our room window!!! Hope the sky clears for tomorrow morning, we are hiking northward!!!!

Slider/backpack with legs

2008-08-24T15:13:00.000-07:00

Stongest guy on the trail.......hands down.

Day 128 Sun Aug 24th

2008-08-24T15:08:00.000-07:00

We were up at some ridiculous hour and hiking by 0530 by headlamp. Another amazing sunrise and only 17 miles to Snoqualmie Pass. Easy terrain, lots of friendly folks out on the trail by Mirror Lake. Got to the Pass around 12 and it started raining by 1pm.....phew! We are here now, getting stuff together for the next stretch to Skykomish (75 miles which will take us about 3 days!!) We are starting to count the days down now.......it's only a matter of miles and walking them. 255 miles to CANADA!

Day 127 Sat Aug 23rd

2008-08-24T15:00:00.000-07:00

Packed up early and started hiking by headlamp at 0545, as we climbed the sun came up and we got to experience another Washington sunrise! The sky is just beautiful in the morning, and we climbed higher and saw Mt. Rainier back to the south and the pink sunlight reflection was just spectacular!

More easy walking, but then quite a few ups and downs, but it was an enjoyable day. We made it to Tacoma Pass for lunch and then we found out that we were in the middle of the "Cascade Crest 100" (a 100 mile trail race!) (Stinky....you should have crewed this race!!) What fun! The people at the road were great, so friendly and interested in what we were up to! We chatted with them for 45 minutes and then hiked on passing an aid station along the trail and they gave us hummus and cucumber sandwiches! Then to Stampede Pass where when we got to the road, everyone cheered for us! Ha ha! And then, remember the trail runner from yesterday (Jeff and his wife Julie) well, they were there and they brought beer! Too funny and normally I wouldn't drink beer while hiking, but we were only going another 2 miles and I was thirsty......so beer it was! Oh, and brownies that Julie had made.....yummmm! We hung out there for the longest time, cheering on the runners. It was a great day. The runners and the energy of the crew was great, it made me want to ditch my pack and run with them! I actually found myself almost jogging at one point! It made today's 30.2 miles just fly by! Everytime a runner would come, we'd jump off the side of the trail and let them go by and cheer for them.

I love this trail!

2008-08-24T14:59:00.000-07:00

Neighbor and Chickety with Mt. Rainier in the back.

reflection in a pond

2008-08-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

On the way down to Chinook Pass

Day 126 Aug 22nd

2008-08-24T14:44:00.000-07:00

Brrr, what a chilly night it was. In the morning, we put on our wet shoes and our clammy rain pants and saw the most beautiful sunrise! (things were looking up already) The sky was blanketed with clouds and the sun's reflection was purple, then pink, then reddish orange in the sky! Amazing! Hiked downhill to Dewey lake, then climbed up and saw Mt. Rainier, huge and covered in snow (as it always is.......but it just stood out so much!) Down to Chinook Pass where we took a short break (because there were toilets and trash cans!!) Then we climbed up on the other side of the pass, ever so gently and saw 3 mountain goats! The hiking was easy as we contoured the side of the ridge, miles and miles of easy walking! I love the PCT again! Amazing how the weather really effects your attitude and mindset! Climbed up to the top of a peak and WOW, Mt. Rainier, right there in our faces! We took a lunch break and met 2 trail runners who took our pictures and said that they would be on the PCT the next day and would meet us at the road with beer! (yeah, right we thought) What a great day though! We hiked 28 miles to Camp Urich (an actual cabin on the PCT!!) where there were a bunch of Friday night horse trail ridders (so Neighbor and I tented outside) Great day!

Day 125 Aug 21st

2008-08-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

Woke up to rain........but you can't take every rainy day off, so we started hiking around 7am. Yuck, what a terrible day, it was one of the only days that I really could have just gone HOME! It was cold and wet and just

plain awful. The only picture I took all day long was of Neighbor as we were leaving White's Pass walking back to the trail. Then the camera went into a ziploc bag and didn't come out all day long. We hiked 25.3 miles with minimal breaks and minimal views. Neighbor didn't seem to think this day was all that bad.........but I still think it stunk! Walked past a few ponds and crossed a few creeks and swatted a few mosquitos and that was about it.

Day 124 Aug 20th

2008-08-24T14:39:00.001-07:00

Woke up to RAIN, so we decided not to hike today! Took the whole day off, relaxed and let the rain come down!

The guys in the mist!

2008-08-24T14:38:00.000-07:00

Day 123 Tues Aug 19th

2008-08-24T14:31:00.001-07:00

Well, we woke up to just as much fog as went we had gone to sleep.......oh well. We started walking around 6am and tried to keep the 6 of us together as much as possible, so we wouldn't get lost in the fog! We climbed over snowfields and loose gravel and over what is called a Knife's Edge (though it isn't anything like Katahdin's Knife Edge) Thrust took a slide off the trail and down a snow patch, Boomer helped him back onto the trail, yikes! It would have been a wild ride in slippery rain pants! A ton of rocks came loose and went tumbling down the hill in front of Neighbor. This was a cold, wet, foggy day and I was happy to have my mittens on. We had about 19 miles to go to get into White Pass (where we'd stay for the night in a warm room!!) Lots of switchbacks down to the highway, but we were there by 2pm, got a room and called it a day.

tent spot in Goat Rocks

2008-08-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

Day 122 Mon Aug 18th

2008-08-24T14:19:00.001-07:00

It rained on us last night! Thunder and lightening, but it had stopped by morning, so we got to pack up when it wasn't raining! (which is always nice) We are officially in Goat Rocks Wilderness (supposed to be a beautiful section of trail). Walked along and realized that all the rain on the bushes was actually soaking us as we walked by, our shoes were wet in no time, yuck! Still cloudy out and it started to drizzle, not bad, but just enough to get the mosquitos going, so on went the bug spray and headnet, then it started to rain, yep, rain! So, we put on the rain jacket and pants and kept walking, atleast the rain kept the bugs away! We haven't had all that much rain on this trip, so it was actually fun (for a little while) and I said, "I'd rather have rain all day long over mosquitos" :) We started coming out of the trees and into the wide open beautiful terrain of Goat Rocks and the rain stopped! Beautiful views, the valley below filled with giant pine trees, craggy, rocky peaks above us, green grass and wildflowers everywhere! I took tons of pictures! The fog and clouds rolled back in around 5pm and it was pretty chilly with the wind, so we decided to just camp instead of climbing any higher and push our luck. Slider and Flippy went on, ended up on a different trail and just as they were checking the map, heard some guy calling for help!!! The found a guy who was in the begining stages of hypothermia and brought him back to his family! Then they ended up coming back about 2 miles to where we were camped and stayed the night near us, it would be safer for us to go over that terrain together in the morning when the fog hopefully clears and you can see something!

PCT

2008-08-24T14:17:00.000-07:00

Trail in Washington.

Day 121 Sun Aug 17th

2008-08-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

Up around 5:30 and we did a quick breakfast in town before we hit the trail. Tripod dropped us off at the trail at 8am and away we walked. Couple of sprinkles here and there, mosquitos here and there too, a great view of Mt. Rainier in the distance. Lots of purple lupine and some Gray jays!! (they are almost as friendly as back home) Walked past Mt. Adam's and saw Mt. Adam's glacier and we heard rocks falling from the peak (and saw the dust cloud) Crossed a couple of glacial creeks, the water is really milky and you can't see through it, but all the crossings were on downed trees, so we didn't have to actually get in the yucky water! Camped at Lava Spring, an amazing COLD spring, this water was so cold, we couldn't even keep our feet in it for 30 seconds! Stopped hiking a 4:20 for the day after 20 miles, it felt good to have an easy day! Some clouds in the sky. Mt. Adam's glacier photo attatched.

Day 120 Sat Aug 16th

2008-08-24T14:03:00.000-07:00

We got to sleep in! 7am felt great! Hoped a ride to town (Tripod and Dawn let us use their truck and Thrust is a great driver) and grabbed some Huckleberry pancakes for breakfast. Then had to check out the Saturday Farmer's market and had a nice homeade cinnamon roll! Hung around and relaxed most of the day, really hot, like 100 degrees of HOT. A good day to take off from sweating uphill with the backpacks on! Later on in the day, Slider, Thrust, (Thrust's b-day), Neighbor and I all went downtown for Huckleberry shakes! Yummmm! Huckleberries are in season and in everything! Tripod's 40th b-day party was fun, and the barbeque was up and running! It was a great stay at their camp, lots of ice cream for desert, what a day!! We managed to get our calories back up to par and are ready to hike in the morning! Picture of their "camp" attatched!

Day 119 Aug 15th

2008-08-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

Up at 5am, hiking by 0530, mosquitos were up before us! Ahhhhh! Started hiking in long pants and long sleeves, but it was sooo hot out, eventually we had to switch to the short sleeves and DEET! Found a nice breezy spot to take a break at, then the bugs seemed to fade away and the breeze stayed with us for the rest of the day. Made it to Road 23 by 3:15 and tried to hitch into town, but in the end just waited for Tripod at 4:30 to squeeze 10 of us (plus him =11) into a pickup truck! I'm sure in a different state, we were breaking tons of rules, but it was a short 15 mile downhill drive to his camp and that was it! Tented in the yard, ate spaghetti for dinner and taking tomorrow of to rest after hiking 83 miles in 2 and a half days!

Day 118 Aug 14th

2008-08-16T10:40:00.000-07:00

Up around 5am, hiking by 0550 walked through a field before starting the climb for the day. Lots of uphill, hot and the mosquitos are back! Took a break by a dirt road and found a cooler with sodas in it on the other side! Yes!! Walked past a few swampy ponds and had to pull out the headnets! Eeeeek, more mosquitos! Camped by Blue Lake for the night, buggy as all heck, managed to hike 29 miles this day and all we'll have to do is 24 tomorrow and we'll meet Tripod by the road and go into Trout Lake and camp at his place!!

Mt. Hood

2008-08-16T10:39:00.001-07:00

Bridge of the Gods

2008-08-16T10:38:00.000-07:00

Yeah!

2008-08-16T10:37:00.000-07:00

Day 117 Aug 13th

2008-08-16T10:24:00.000-07:00

Up for the continental breakfast and heading for the bridge at 8am. Felt pretty cool to be walking across the bride and into the final state of Washington! (there were only 3 states.....but, it's the last one!!) Took a few pictures on the bridge and of the "Welcome to Washington" sign on the other side!! Lots of poison oak on the trail (because we are at about 500 feet elevation). We could see Mt. Hood back to the south and Mt. Adams ahead to the north. Extremely hot out, we were sweating like mad, lots of climbing to get up to 4,000 feet elevation and with lots of food in the pack, it felt like slow going. We took a break and everyone had one of Chelsea's "Magic Bars" delicious! Everyone loved them (they were heavy.....it lightened my pack to share them with everyone) Climbed even higher and we could see Mt. St. Helen's in the distance, wow! The top was just blown right off! Walked through some logging areas and were going to camp about 25 miles in, but.....(get this) We came across this man on the side of the trail with 3 suitcases, 1 duffle bag and 1 backpack eating random berries on the side of the trail talking all strange and looking like a lunatic. WOW! The luggage was all torn to pieces, one had a huge hole in the corner, and another the handles were broken off! Someone talked to him and he said it took him 14 days to get there from Cascade Locks (the town we just left that morning) Sooo, after that encounter, we decided not to camp 1/2 a mile away in case he got a burst of energy and caught up to us while we were sleeping.........so we hiked on another 5 miles and camped by a road and creek, it was a long day and we ended it by headlamp, but we felt safe for the night!!! Welcome to Washington state!!

The Bridge of the Gods

2008-08-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

This is the bridge we'll walk over tomorrow morning and see those trees??! That is the state of Washington! (not a very nice picture of the bridge, but I'm too lazy to walk over there right now and snap another picture!) It's a pretty cool bridge.

Aug 12th some trail food!

2008-08-12T13:02:00.000-07:00

Look at all of our goodies!

Trader Joe's stuff from Neighbor's dad and MJ!

Homeade cookies and bars from Chels and Priscilla! Phone calling cards from Bootz and Bluelight and Chels! Bars from the Fam (that were MIA for 3 months!!!) and Priscilla. Picked up our rain pants for the state of Washington (cause once in awhile....it rains here) MJ has hiked this part of the PCT and we have a gift certificate waiting for us in Stehekin! Yeah! Grammy Peg and Bootz and Bluelight mailed us some cash that we'll spend on.....FOOD of course! The trail is all about food when you get to town, taking in calories that you can burn when walking the next 100 mile stretch. Our diets are terrible and it's great! Ice cream? Bring it on! The more calories the better! Thank you everyone for the packages, we just repacked it all and mailed some ahead to different stops that we'll be making in Washington where you can't really buy food or there isn't a big variety. It's 1pm here and we have the rest of the day to do something that we rarely do and that is RELAX! Ahhh! I'll put up some more pictures while no one is waiting for the computer and that's it!

Neighbor and Tunnel Falls!

2008-08-11T21:59:00.000-07:00

Day 115 Aug 11th

2008-08-11T21:54:00.000-07:00

Good night's sleep, little chilly. Up early and walking towards town. Basically it was 22 miles of DOWNhill! Cascade Locks is the lowest point on the whole PCT at about 200 feet. We took a side trail off the PCT to town along the Eagle Creek Trail.....what an amazing trail! I'll attatch pictures! We walked behind a waterfall! It was sooo cool! Got into Cascade Locks around 4pm, booked a room at the hotel and then went to the Post Office and picked up 7 (yes 7 care packages!!) Came back to the room and tore into them like it was Christmas! What fun! Bootz and Bluelight, MJ, Neighbor's Dad, Grammy Peg, Chels, Priscilla, The Fam (finally....one of the packages from Echo Lake finally showed up!!) It was just wonderful! Tomorrow we will spend all day sorting the packages and mailing food ahead to the final 4 or 5 stops we have along the trail! Off to bed for me for now!

JZ and Thrust crossing the creek

2008-08-11T21:53:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful sight along the PCT!

2008-08-11T21:52:00.000-07:00

The Crew! (minus flippy)

2008-08-11T21:50:00.000-07:00

From left (in the back) to right.
Neighbor, Slider, JB, Chickety, Thrust, JZ,
Antfarm, Boomer and Swiffer.

Day 114 Aug 10th

2008-08-11T21:42:00.001-07:00

Slept pretty good on the floor, the window had to stay open because someone (or a couple someones) had some really bad gas! We went up to the All You Can Eat breakfast and boy oh boy was it great! I had 4 pancakes with strawberries, blueberries, maple syrup and real whipped cream! There was bacon, eggs, homefries, brie, smoked gouda cheese......just wonderful! I left there and felt ill, but we still managed to hike around 21 miles. Started hiking around 9:30 and snapped a group photo (minus Flippy) that I'll be sure to attatch. Hiked under the chairlifts with skiiers and snowboarders heading up the mountain....seems funny to see people skiing in August! But they ski year round on Mt. Hood due to the Glacial snow, pretty cool. Lots of ups and downs, as we hiked away from the mountain, the fog finally cleared and I got a pretty decent shot of the mountain. Camped at Salvation Spring.....11 of us! Black flies were out in force, but we threw on the headnets and had no problems! Only 22 miles to Cascade Locks tomorrow and boy am I excited to be heading there!!!

Mt. Hood in the far distance.....

2008-08-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

JB and Flippy trying to find the trail!

2008-08-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, snow!

Chickety and Mt. Jefferson

2008-08-10T07:07:00.000-07:00

other stuff

2008-08-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

For some reason, the computer that I am on isn't showing a few of last week's posts (pictures of us at the 2,000 mile mark and pictures from Elk Lake Resort, along with the text.....) Maybe you guys can see it at home and it is just this computer, who knows!

Neighbor found $10 last week and you'll never guess where........in the trash at Crater Lake! Yep! He went to throw something away and there was $10 dollar bill sitting right there! yeah for us!

Day 113 Sat Aug 9th

2008-08-09T18:29:00.000-07:00

Up and hiking by 0545, more easy trail miles. The terrain is just amazing, flat, no trees down and we just cruise! By noon we had hiked 20 miles and were on the homestretch for the day! Timberline Lodge was our destination and it was only 5 miles! This is what we thought Oregon would be like! Flat terrain, smooth sailing and big pine trees! We had one spot where we could have seen Mt. Hood from the trail, but it was all fogged in. Reached the lodge around 2:30 or so, chilly, foggy and just plain yucky outside. The group reunited in the Blue Ox (a small pizza pub) where we ate pizza and were just happy to be inside and warm. Boomer is here (he lost the trail the same spot that we lost it a few days back, but being alone, he gave up and had to hike BACK to Sisters and hitched up here to the lodge!!) Yikes! I guess the rain from that storm washed away all of our footprints and he was on his own (really)! So, then Thrust heard that there were rooms available and he jumped on one! Neighbor, Slider, JB, Thrust and I are all splitting a room. I'll be happy to be sleeping on the floor, it will be dry, warm and just wonderful! There is an All You Can Eat breakfast in the morning that we'll all be there for and then we'll start the 1.5 day hike to Cascade Locks (last town stop in Oregon!!!!) So, we'll be in Cascade Locks on Monday!

Day 112 Aug 8th

2008-08-09T18:22:00.001-07:00

Didn't sleep all that great, between some people who had a bonfire going and the lightening in the distance it was a short night. Hiking by 6am and found the trail to be amazing! We were lower in elevation now and the "Oregon Muleskinners" maintain this section of trail and it is spotless! I mean, they raked the trail and removed ALL the rocks from it! Wow and someone told us that there are NO downed trees for the next 50 miles! Smooooth sailing for us! Stopped for lunch by a nice cold spring around 1130 and we had already hiked 18 miles! Amazing! Walked through one batch of mosquitos and I used up the last of my 1.1oz can of deet! Then we climbed higher and there was a breeze and no more bugs! Yeah! Things are looking up! Stopped early (4pm) because we were near a campground and they had picnic tables! Whipped up some Chicken Polynesian, then mashed potatoes for dinner. Only 25 miles tomorrow to Timberline Lodge which is the lodge at the base of Mt. Hood. It is funny though, we saw Mt. Hood yesterday, but haven't seen it since, the trail is completely in the woods and all you see are big trees! We were sleeping by 7:45 and then the party started up with the campers, we realized it was a Friday night.....but didn't realize we wouldn't get much sleep for the 2nd night in a row! Oh well!

Day 111 Aug 7th

2008-08-09T18:17:00.000-07:00

Slept until 0520! Wow, we were tired! Hiking by 6am, more snow, more trail finding. Had to cross Russell Creek and the book says to cross it early in the morning because the water is milky (so you can't see through it) and it has a swift current.......well, I was nervous, but when we got there......it was still covered in snow! yeah! We took a break there and dried out our gear (tent, ground cloth, sleeping bag, tent fly, etc. it was all wet/damp from last night) Walked though Jefferson Park, what a beautiful area (I'll attach pictures soon) More snow, hiked up a ridge and into Mt. Hood Wilderness and we could see Mt. Hood in the distance, only 50 miles away now! Wow! Hiked downhill (actually slid down the hill on the snow) and past a few ponds, some mosquitos were out, but nothing like a week or so back. Camped at Ollalie Lake Resort (which is closed due to snow damage) and enjoyed the luxury of a picnic table to cook and eat at!!

Day 110 Wed Aug 6th

2008-08-09T18:09:00.001-07:00

Enjoyed the continental breakfast again and then caught a ride back to the trail with 2 Outward bound workers. Sky was cloudy and it just felt like it was going to rain. Luckily I had my rainpack cover with me now (just picked it up) and I threw it over my backpack. It sprinkled a bit, but we just kept walking and caught up to Slider, Thrust, JB and Flippy, took a lunch break with them then another break a few hours later when JZ, Antfarm and Swiffer caught up! All together again (except for Boomer who was leaving town a few hours later) Mt. Jefferson is getting closer and it is huge! We saw either an immature eagle or Golden Eagle fly over our heads today, it was a pretty cool sight! More snow on the trail, we came to a large snowfield and basically just lost the trail all together. We all went in different directions looking for any sign of the trail or footprints of others before us.....nothing. Eventually Neighbor found the trail down in the valley below and we were back on track. The amount of snow for August is just amazing! We made it almost to Shale Pond for the night, but the sky had been dark and we had been hearing thunder for awhile now, it started to rain and we threw the tent up quick and jumped inside! Safe! Or so we thought......
It started to HAIL! And it poured like mad and then we realized that our nice flat camp spot was turning into a large puddle........in 10 minutes, it was a 4 inch puddle outside and UNDER the tent! Eeeeek, when the hail stopped, Neighbor jumped out and dug a drainage for the small lake, but in the end, we just had to pick the tent up and move to a different spot! Cooked up some mac n' cheese after the storm was over, it was chilly out, then we jumped in the sleeping bag and slept like a rock for the night!

Day 109 Tues Aug 5th

2008-08-09T18:03:00.000-07:00

What a great night sleep in the motel! Ahhhh, the pillows were awesome! Enjoyed the continental breakfast and then ran to the PO to mail some stuff forward (and picked up a postcard from Stinky and a letter from Gram and Papa)! Thanks guys! MJ, we forwarded your care package ahead to Cascade Locks because we already had too much food and didn't want to have any more to carry for the next stretch, but it'll be waiting for us in 100 miles!! Thank you! Then we decided to just relax for the day. The rest of the crew was spending the extra day in town and we enjoy everyone's company, so we booked the room for a 2nd night and actually relaxed! Neighbor went in the pool and hot tub. We walked downtown and I ate 1/4 pound of Peanut butter and chocolate fudge! And they have llamas on the property, so I got my picture with one! (thinking of you Grammy Peg!) Chels called the room and we talked for over an hour and a half! Wow, we needed that though! Good quality sister time in Sisters, OR! :) Around 7pm, JZ, Antfarm and Swiffer showed up and they stayed with us for the night. Nice relaxing day.

2008-08-04T19:23:00.009-07:00

Lava fields.....fields of lava!

Mt. Hood on the right

2008-08-04T19:23:00.008-07:00

In the far distance is Mt. Hood!

more snow!

2008-08-04T19:23:00.007-07:00

Slider coming across a snowfield in the Three Sisters Wilderness on 8/3/08

2,000 mile mark!

2008-08-04T19:23:00.005-07:00

Slider, Thrust, Neighbor and I.

Day 108 Aug 4

2008-08-04T19:23:00.003-07:00

Up early, pink sunlight reflecting off the big mountains in the distance was just beautiful. We could see Mt. Hood in the far distance. Mt. Washington and Mt. Jefferson were there too, closer and with snow. Hiked down to Rte 242 (which was closed for construction) and through more lava fields, lots of black rock to twist your ankles on. Cruised right along, hiked through a burn area where there were purple lupine everywhere and it smelled like grapes. Around noon, we crossed the 2,000 mile mark! Yeah! Neighbor, Slider, Thrust, Flippy and I were all there taking pictures! Then 1 mile later, Neighbor and I took a left turn to the Big Lake Youth camp where we had mailed ourselves some food for the next 4 days. We got our box, sorted through stuff and were going to stay there but they don't let people stay anymore, so we decided to hike on a few more miles to Rte 20 and hitch into the town of Sisters. Yeah, town! So, with fully loaded backpacks, we hiked to the highway where cars were flying by and within 2 rides, we were in the very touristy town of Sisters. The library was only open for another hour or so, so we went right there and caught up on stuff. We have not had internet access since Ashland (30 trail miles into Oregon) After that, Neighbor made a few phone calls and got us a room at the Best Western, it wasn't cheap, but it includes breakfast and we are here now (internet in the common room) We showered and there is a grocery store across the street that we bought some food at and we are calling it a night! We will stay until about 11am tomorrow and head back to the trail. 4 days to Timberline Lodge (where we mailed ourselves a food box) and 2 more to Cascade Locks (which is the LAST town in Oregon!!!) Washington state, here we come!

Day 107 Aug 3

2008-08-04T19:23:00.002-07:00

Nice warm cabin for the night was wonderful and we got to sleep in! We left around 0630 and boy was it cold out! Back up the hill, nice view of South Sister, nice breeze and no bugs! Our luck was changing! Took a nice break by a creek with Slider and Thrust, ate some snacks and we were feeling good! Started hitting the snow patches a little ways after that, more downed trees to climb over, but that's just part of the trail. Took another break by Obsidian Falls, tons of obsidian rock all over the place (black shiny lava rock that looks like glass). Good amount of snow after the Falls, we lost the trail once but found it quickly, suprised at how much snow there really is out there that hasn't melted from last winter! Then we hiked through some lava fields, what a change of scenery, past Middle Sister and The Husband. A beautiful area, breezy and just wonderful hiking (I love Oregon again) :) Camped where there was a breeze, a few bugs found us, but nothing like a few days ago. Camped with Thrust and Slider and Flippy came along later (he got all turned around this morning and ended up hiking 8 extra miles when he climbed over a downed tree and then hiked 4 miles BACK the way he had came!) 27 miles today was pretty good with a later start!

Day 106 Aug 2

2008-08-04T19:23:00.001-07:00

We heared the strangest noise this morning.......it was raindrops on our tent! Wow! That was a first of the trip! (it has rained on us once while hiking and twice when we were in a town) This was just sprinkles, but enough to get things wet. I put the rain jacket on and started hiking around 0515, I taped my photon light to my wool hat (cold mornings) and away I went. Somewhere along the way, I managed to take a wrong turn and never even knew it until I saw Thrust coming down the trail TOWARDS me! I asked, "where are you coming from?" Ummm, the campsite" he replied. Well, that confused us both and I turned around and started hiking with him and shortly after recognized a huge tree that I had climbed over about 10 minutes before! Oooops! We both continued north and eventually caught up to Neighbor who was wondering where exactely I was by that point! Bugs came out and the rain stopped, so the rain jacket came off and the bugnet went on. Elk Lake Resort was a short hike away and they opened at 8am for breakfast and we were there by 0810! I had some new Montrail Hardrocks waiting there for me too! Time for new shoes! Elk Lake was nice, we showered, did some laundry, organized our food for the next couple days and within an hour someone suggested that we take the rest of the day off and relax and take a break from the bugs! Well, I was all for that! Relax is what we did! The place was pretty expensive though ($2 for a can of soda or $2 for a snickers basr) ouch! Pipi and Outback showed up! We haven't seen them in ages! It was great to see them and chat and catch up on old times! The store sells ice cream cones and everytime a huge bucket of ice cream was close to the bottom, they would bring it out to all of us to "clean out"! How fun, we had chocolate, huckleberry, mint chocolate chip and one other! Then Alan showed up and he had a cabin rented for the night and offered to let us stay with him! Things just keep getting better and better! There was a live band playing by the water and I borrowed Slider's phone and called home, what a great day it turned out to be! Flippy, Antfarm and Swiffer in the ice cream barrels!

Day 105 Aug 1

2008-08-04T19:23:00.000-07:00

Up around 0430, chilly out, ate some cheerios, NO BUGS! Hiking by 0515 in the dark, but only dark for 15 min or so, easy walking, moving right along today. Took a nice break on a gravel road with a great breeze around 1015 and we'd already hiked 11 miles, we stayed there for 45 minutes! The mosquitos were out in full force again once the sun came up, we put on the deet and basically didn't stop for the rest of the day! If we slowed down to climb over a tree, the mosquitos caught us and feasted! Ahhhhh! I surrender! We never stopped for lunch, just ate our snacks and finally took a break towards the end of the day in a spot that wasn't too buggy. Camped by Island Lake, no good camping spots, we were just tired of running and eventually the crew showed up, we cooked dinner with headnets on and ate dinner with the headnets on! I practically live in the headnet! The funny thing this evening was that Slider cooked too much food and offered some to Thrust (who was 2 tents away) and there were so many bugs, neither one of them wanted to get out of their tent to give/receive the free food! (eventually Thrust made a run for it, but it took awhile!)

Day 104 July 31

2008-08-04T16:55:00.001-07:00

Woke up at 0430 and started packing up in the dark. Camping by the lake wasn't the best idea, all of our gear was soaked in the morning from the condensation, soaked like it had rained out. The mosquitos were awful today, snow on the trail, lots of downed trees. We hiked to Shelter Cove Resort and dried out gear, drank some soda, ate some ice cream and then things were better. Amazing how 4 hours of relaxing from swatting bugs can make you feel MUCH better. At one point this day, I wanted to just call it quits on this whole walking thing, but I was feeling better by the days end. Hiked past Rosemary lakes and there was a nice breeze, then we camped by a ski hut and had a good day in the end :)

Day 103 July 30

2008-08-04T16:51:00.000-07:00

Hiking by 0540, mosquitos was the word of the day. Took a break around 8am and we had already hiked 6 miles. The break was on a gravel road where there was a breeze and we could actually sit and relax for a minute, not feeling like we had to outrun the bugs. Decided to go for Summit Lake for the night, a nice 25 mile relaxing day! And the guidebook says that there are less mosquitos there! Perfect! Well, that was wrong! We descended and hiked past tons of murky little swampy mosquito breeding grounds and when we got to summit lake......ahhhhh! The bugs were crazy! The only exposed skin on me (hiking in a headnet at this point) was my hands and they were actually biting the PALMS of my hands! It was enough to drive you insane, you are not even watching where you are walking, you are just running and slapping mosquitos! And there have been lots of downed trees, those only slow you down and give the bugs time to catch you! It's insane! Anyway, we camped there. The lake had dead fish and frogs in it, and smelled like fish....but a few of the guys went swimming in it anyway........Pretty sure the picture is Cresent Lake.

Day 102 July 29

2008-08-04T16:46:00.001-07:00

Awesome sunrise with Mt. Thielsen in the distance. Said good-bye to Crater Lake and hit the dusty trail. Flat walking, saw what we were later told was ELK! We thought they were big brown deer with antlers, but I guess they were elk, very cool! Mosquitos are still out in full force, took a break by Rte. 138 with "the crew". There have been 10 of us hiking together and camped together last night. Slider, Thrust, JZ, JB, Antfarm, Swiffer, Boomer, Neighbor and I. Had a 25 mile waterless stretch, ate lunch at the bottom of Mt. Thielsen and saw a dayhiker going up there! (it is a crazy steep peak) Wish I could attatch a picture of it! Amazing! Hiked a couple more miles to water which was glacial runoff and we drank right from the stream. Cooked dinner with the headnet on, mosquitos are just awful. 30 miles for the day again, we'll be through Oregon in no time with these miles!!

day 101 July 28

2008-08-04T16:40:00.001-07:00

We got to sleep in and it felt great! Went to the "all you can eat" buffet at the Crater Lake restaurant and had a blast! We used money that was mailed to us as a gift from Frodo and ate until we were going to explode! Eggs made to order, bacon, french toast, sausage, fresh fruit, yogurt, it was all just amazing! Thanks for the great breakfast Frodo! It actually powered us through the day and we didn't eat again until dinner! Around 1030 we started the walk up to Crater Lake Rim and WOW! What a beautiful and amazing place. Took tons of pictures (that I would love to attatch, but can't from this library computer) I'll save them and add them later, wow! Hiked the Rim trail about 1/2 way around the lake and took pictures from all angles. A huge group of us camped near the Rim and took great sunset pictures, chilly night. The nights have been getting colder and colder as we make our way north, but we still have our gloves and hat and our 15 degree sleeping bags, so we are warm and toasty! :)

Day 100 July 27

2008-08-04T16:37:00.001-07:00

Up with the mosquitos, they never went to sleep! Hiking by 0530, wearing the gloves, the mornings have been chilly lately. Super easy walking through the Oregon desert. Made it 20 miles to the highway that goes to Crater Lake by 1230 and walked down to the campground. Took a shower and did some laundry (after Neighbor, Milky and I split a large Chicken, bacon and onion pizza at the restaraunt) food always comes first! Got a close campsite, picked up our food boxes that we had sent here and sorted the stuff out. Grammy Peg mailed us 2 boxes here and one of them was ALL chocolate! Yeah! I put a dent in that box in a hurry! :)

Day 99 July 26

2008-08-04T16:33:00.000-07:00

Hiking by 6am, mosquitos were out in full force, pulled out the 1.1 oz spray can of deet and hoped for the best! Can see some sharp pointed peaks in the far distance, hiked down, down, down to a mosquito infested hole and camped there for the night, after a 30 mile day, once you crawl in the tent and zip it up, it doesn't matter where you are.....you can always sleep like a log! 20 miles to Crater Lake, so we'll be there tomorrow!