First Week Back on the Trail

And so it was, after a fun few days in Bend catching up with an old friend and making some new ones, that I began again from Big Lake Youth Camp near Sisters, OR. This place was rockin. They have an entire cabin dedicated to PCT hikers and served us free dinner and breakfast. Why? Because these people rock. I was there during a camp dedicated for Preachers and their family. So there were a ton of nice people and adorable children running around. Rush, Snake Charmer and I took advantage of their disc golf course and their loaner discs. I had been working on my frisbee skills with Snake Charmer for quite some time at this point and so was feeling pretty good about it. I met a girl named Blueberry who had also had to miss a month and was just recently back on trail, and a couple named Kaboose and Sacred Cow who were super friendly and funny. Snake Charmer and I waited for Doc to show up (Snake Charmer's best friend from college and who he started the trail with) then we grabbed dinner and hit the trail late in the evening. This was my first night using the new tarp Gizmo let me borrow. The setup went well and I slept soundly.

The Lake at Big Lake Youth Camp

The next morning Rush, Doc, Snake Charmer and I woke up early and broke camp. Since I was just starting out again, I was considerably slower than all of them. Luckily I was able to catch Snake Charmer and Rush at lunch with a surprise guest, Blueberry, also there. It was a hot day without much shade coverage and I was really pushing my limit trying to keep up with them. I later caught up with them again during a snack break by a beautiful lake. We all had a fun chat and discovered that Blueberry has dabbled in aerial silks. If you don't know what this is, google it right now. Because it's awesome and you will have a much better understanding of why Blueberry gained instant awesome points. But of course we had to make fun of her, too, so we teased that it was her stripper routine and gave her a 'stripper' name of Blueberry Pie. She hated it but we persisted and fast forward a couple weeks and you will see that she fully embraced it. As she should, because it's awesome. But for the record she is not a stripper. It was for a college credit that she learned how to do it haha. Also this name is important later in my blog.


Anyways, back to the trail.

 So at this point we had already gone over ten miles, and ten miles was what I had planned to do daily for the first week to get myself re-adjusted. I would also like to mention that before getting hurt and having to hop off trail, the biggest mileage Nick and I ever did was 19 miles, the average being closer to 13 (Not very much compared to most of the hikers whose average was 20-25). But on this day, my first day back, I did a whopping 25 miles. And success! I got to camp with Rush, Blueberry, Sacred Cow and Kaboose (who taught me which berries were edible). It was also cool because as I rolled up to the campsite I encountered a momma bear with two cubs!! It was okay because they ran away from me. But needless to say I started singing loudly to myself after that to scare away any possible other bears.

However, the next day I was utterly exhausted. I got out of camp late and moved slow. I was definitely alone, but it was good. The weather was phenomenal and the terrain beautiful. I took a lunch break by myself next to a raging river and later ran into Biscuit, Reverend Blisster, and even Pippin! (I know you have no idea who those people are but just know that they are cool). They were all planning on making it to a shelter about 18 miles from my starting point, but I made it ten miles and felt like I was going to collapse. My blisters were starting up again and my muscles were tired. Not to mention my ankles wanted a break. So I stopped at this beautiful campsite next to a good sized stream and set up camp while there was still daylight. I stretched, ate a good dinner, read my book (True Grit) and went to sleep. Yay for the first night camping alone on the trail!

^Pictures Left to Right: Socks and a note left for me by friends. The river where I ate lunch. My campsite where I camped alone.

The next day started right off with the most challenging climb of the week, but also the most rewarding views. I ran into several snow patches and a ton of gorgeous, open fields with little streams running through them. Simply beautiful. I stopped at a lake and took a bath, dried out my clothes, cooked lunch and patched up my feet, then kept going. I hadn't really seen anyone except a few day hikers all day, but a few hours later I heard voices coming from a lake, and went to refill my water/ seek some much desired company. To my surprise it wasn't hikers, but a family with three children, the youngest being and infant and the oldest looking about twelve. As I filtered my water, we chatted and they informed me that a cabin getaway/lake house/ convenience store was just 50 yards down a trail right across from us. Say what!? I immediately went to check it out. And whoop! Who was there but good ol' Stomper who I hadn't seen since Idyllwild!!! The trail is a funny thing. We chatted for a while then walked to camp together. I was so excited to see him, having a friend was amazingly refreshing. However, two miles from camp my ankles were shot. I had once again pushed myself over 20 miles. So I had to stop and told Stomper I'd see him in a minute. But when I rolled up on camp he wasn't there. Instead an unfamiliar hiker was pitching his tent and told me that my friend had found some other friends and they were camping very near by in some "awesome hidden campsite". I went up the trail a little ways but saw no sign of anyone, so I turned around and went to camp with the other guy. Turns out he was a southbounder traveling by the name of Alaska Joe. He was thrilled to have me camp with him and we had a ton of fun chatting as I set up my tarp. He gave me a lot of great tips about where to stay in the upcoming towns and such. Then the following morning he taught me the name of some very friendly birds (camp robbers) and wished me well. It was a good time.

Mt. Jefferson (I'm pretty sure)

The Lake where I ate lunch

That day was challenging. My feet hurt. My ankles hurt. I was tired. I was alone. I was ready to get to town. I passed a dirt logging road and heard the distinctive sound of trees being cut and felled not too far off. I contemplated going and asking the workers if they would give me a hitch into town, but just took a snack break instead.Then at lunch time I came upon two other hikers. I wasn't planning on eating lunch there but I hadn't seen anyone since breaking camp that morning and was excited to see people, so I stopped and ate with them. It was a relatively quiet lunch but I learned that their names were Landfill and Apache and that they were going 50 miles that day....Say what! That's intense even for hikers who didn't have to take a month off. So anyways I got to eat lunch with two badasses, no big deal. Then we parted and I continued trekking. I had planned specifically to do less than 20 miles that day because my body was screaming at me to stop. But of course, the trail had other plans for me. So I made it to this spot labeled as a campsite on my app and what do you know, there was no water or campsite. So I saw on my map that there was supposed to be a road in two more miles and thus kept going. When I got to the road I started crying for no apparent reason except that I was in pain and exhausted and lonely. So naturally I tried to hitch, but no luck. Finally I just signaled that I needed to ask a question, and someone pulled over. I inquired as to which direction I should be hitching. Naturally it was the opposite one from which they were traveling. So I stayed about 30 more minutes but still no one picked me up. It was getting late so I decided to give up on hitching and walked another mile or so to a water source and camped on the side of the trail because I no longer cared about finding and actual campsite. But what do you know, as I began cooking dinner in the fading light Two Feather's comes around the corner and we both freak out (in the best way). I hadn't seen her since Lake Isabella! She was also having a frustrating day and happily camped next to me. we did a lot of catching up and I even found out that she is writing a novel! So cool. Two Feathers is this amazing woman from South Africa who is currently living in Hawaii and runs ultra marathons, tangos, and is just generally awesome and friendly and amazing. So all of us should buy her novel when she publishes it.

The next morning we woke up to a drizzly rain and thus stayed in our tents way too long just being lazy. We only had about 10 miles to walk before hitting the freeway, and 20 to the infamous Timberline Lodge itself. So we weren't too concerned about time. Well, two-feather's wasn't anyways. I was really just avoiding having to get up and walk on all of my deep heel and ball-of-foot blisters while also trying not to cry of sheer foot and ankle pain. So needless to say by the time we were all packed up the rain had stopped. But, we were in a rainforest. And how do you tell if you're in a rain forest? By whether or not its still raining underneath the trees regardless of if its raining from the clouds. But the drips weren't enough to make me want to wear all my rain gear (which was a bit of a pain to put on and remove), so I just started walking without it. Soon enough, however, the rain started up again. So I stopped and put it on. And then of course the rain stopped again and I got hot and sweaty and in want of a snack so I had to stop and take it all off again. Now mind you, at this point in time my rain gear wasn't exactly practical or adequate. Well, it had worked for me so far, but I also had not yet had to deal with long lasting and cold rain. I had simply these two things: a trash bag that fit snugly over my pack which I had cut two slits in for my shoulder straps as a pack cover, and a rain jacket that was in questionable working condition and with zero ventilation (which meant if I wasn't get drenched by the rain then I was definitely get drenched by my own sweat). And so I decided since the rain was not too bad, it was relatively warm outside, and I was going to be able to get to town that day anyways, that I wouldn't put my rain gear back on. Looking back I could say this was a bad decision, but really my mistake was in not having adequate gear to begin with that provided full-body coverage (as you might have noticed there was no mention of pants), breathability, and quick pack accessibility. But moving on, I ate my snack and kept walking. As I walked, the rain picked up again. I mean, what else could it have done..stopped?! Pssshhhhhhhh as if. But like I said, it wasn't cold. And as many of you probably already know I'm actually quite fond of the rain. So I told myself that wet shoes helped reduce the friction on my ever-present blisters and I kept walking.

Walking through a cloud

But then it got colder.

And then windier.

 I crossed two paved roads that I stopped at in hopes by some miracle a car would drive by and pick me up. But it didn't. And so before hypothermia set in I kept walking. It got to where my feet hurt so bad I was walking like I was a victim of the zombie apocalypse. My clothes and face and hair (all soaked and filthy) probably only added to that effect. Which, come to think of it, may have really explained why it was so hard for me to get a hitch when I finally reached the freeway.....which took forever. I kept moving to keep from going into hypothermia but was in so much pain I was practically passing out and not really making much progress. Needless to say, by the time I got to the freeway I was really, really ready to not be walking. I immediately started trying to hitch, but no one was stopping. I stood there for quite some time as car after car just drove by. And I decided I couldn't stand on my feet any longer. There was a fairly large parking lot only about 100 yards away so I decided to go there instead and see if I could get a hitch with any of the people visiting the trail. The answer was no. No, no and no again. People just looked at me like some deranged dog with rabies and pulled their children closer. Great. So I sat down on my pack and just started crying. And then, discovering I had cell service, I called my mom. My poor mom haha. But it helped.

I stopped crying, I got back up, and I hobbled back to the highway. And what do you know, there was a wooden board laying there that said "PCT HIKER TO GOVERNMENT CAMP" with a smiley face. I picked it up, smiled, and stuck my thumb out. In less than thirty seconds this young guy pulls over and offers me a ride. I was the happiest girl you've ever seen.