Cascade Locks & Trail Days

Sept. 3, 2014

The lovely gentleman who gave us a ride into Cascade Locks decided that he was going to up his status from 'awesome' to 'absolutely freaking amazing' and bought us all lunch with dessert at Char Burger. Then he topped it off with a $15 certificate for the fudge flavor of our choice! Crazy, I know. People never cease to amaze me with their generosity. 

Snake Charmer and Trail Angel

The dessert!

Karaoke and Doc pointing to fudge certificate

We used the fudge money to buy postcards instead and had fun chatting with some other hikers who were there. Then it was time to find a hotel room and get the scoop on some free places to crash. Because, as chance would have it, our arrival coincided with the famed Trail Days. Trail Days is an annual hiker party that involves a ton of vendors getting together to give out, promote, and/or receive feedback on their products. We had been hearing that it was something we shouldn't miss, and it was to start in 2 days (Sept 5). So I decided to stay for it. Doc had to leave to go to a wedding and Karaoke also had to take off to meet up and hike with an old friend from back home. So just Snake Charmer and I were left from the crew, but hikers hitched in from all different locations on the trail so we were not in want of friends. Within the first two nights our friends Hugs and Pockets showed up, as well as Pippin, Merica' and Rush.

 The first two nights we rented a hotel room and took full advantage of the shower, laundry and television. Oh, and also the coffee pot...but not to cook coffee (see picture below). Since Snake Charmer had not felt the need to use his clever birthday gift (a bunch of fake mustaches (it was funny because he can't grow one), Hugs, Pockets and myself decided to use them instead. We proudly wore them over to breakfast and later to the local brewery.

Dimples, Pockets, Hugs. All rockin' the stache.

Snake Charmer, Merica, Hugs, Pockets

Merica with the ramen noodles he cooked in the coffee pot.

Our prime hotel spot put us right next to where the Pop-up Trail Angels had their hiker-feeding station set up. So both mornings we walked across the street and up a small hill to their RV which was camped at another trail angel's house (who goes by the name of Shrek). The food was absolutely delicious and she even made us banana-schnops coffee to start us off. Talk about a good morning! 

Merica, $inyk, Pippin, SinBad, Lobster, Lobster's mom, ?

Biscuit & Chef

 We then spent a lot of our time at the Cascade Locks Ale house. A lot of time as in, yes I am friends with the bartenders on facebook and, yes, I have been told I can visit their place in Portland whenever I want. But on a serious note, it was the best place in town to hang out. Right by the river and super friendly with both food and excellent beer.

My second night there I met two wonderful ladies who not only invited me to sit with them but also shared two carafes of wine with me! One of these ladies is named Pam and the other Linden Gross, who wrote a book called "The Legacy of Luna" which you should go buy right now. Like right now. Why are you still here reading my blog? She is currently writing a travel guide, which is why she was visiting the brewery in Cascade Locks.  We talked a lot about travel, life and woman power. It was this night that I became friends with Veganaise, who joined us for wine at some point.  Anyways I love these ladies. Absolutely love them. I was even able to catch them again the following night and hang out for a bit with their four dogs who were fluffy and adorable and provided some much needed puppy-love.

Me with Linden

It was also here that I first met Handstand, a beautiful woman with a huge personality, a Tennessee accent and a smile to match. I didn't know it at the time but we would be best friends in another 100 miles.

Handstand

The Brewery

Pockets showing off her sweet hair style

And then, finally, the festivities began. Trail days was being held on "The Island" which is just a man-made strip of land built to help regulate the ship channel. First thing was first: claim a sleeping spot. At this point I was still relatively new to the whole 'tarp' thing, and my skills at setting it up in the wind needed some work. And naturally, being a tiny sliver of an Island and all, the wind came in some very nice gusts. So needless to say I provided some great pre-party entertainment for the hikers around me. I ended up moving my tarp three times before finding a spot where my ties actually kept it tied down. But rest assured I did get it to work eventually! And I wasn't the only one, one of the vendor's shade covers was flat-out blown up and into the river while I was talking to them. Crazy.

That night there was dinner along the river with the Pop-up trail angels who had re-located into the parking lot across the bridge followed by more time spent at the brewery and then completed by an epic dance party. Whoot! The next morning was go-time for all the vendor booths.

Chef playing her didgeredoo

A man and his electric unicycle? 

I don't believe I have commented about it yet on this blog, but my backpack at the time was giant. I was wearing a Gregory Baltoro75 in a Men's Medium. That probably doesn't mean much to you, but just picture a kindergardender trying to wear a high-schooler's back-pack and you'll have a decent idea. This caused a lot of problems for me. For instance, the wrong size pack means that it pus pressure in the wrong places causing bruising and discomfort, distributes weight the wrong way for your spine and generally causes chaffing issues along with a number of other things. I had shopped for a new one all the way back in Bishop but they didn't carry my size and I couldn't find anything I liked better. So I had just stuck with it. But on this glorious day in September that was remedied! I approached the Gregory booth and asked if they could take a look at my pack to help me adjust it properly. Of course they said yes. So I brought it over and immediately Aaron, the man in charge there, was like, "Oh no. No. No this is all wrong. Why are you carrying a gorilla on your back?!" (Okay those weren't his exact words but that was the gist of it). So he re-measured me and took my contact information and then told me he was going to have their new model of the Gregory Diva65 sent to my next town-stop. FOR FREE. And I would get to keep my old backpack (most people make you trade yours in). He did ask that I pay it forward and give my old pack to a different hiker who needed it. Which I did! Then he also gave me a Gregory baseball cap! *Victory dance* I had been trying to get a free baseball cap all day...haha. So that was amazing. I also was handed free beers all day long. Seriously, I didn't even get the chance to think about maybe buying my own. If I wasn't carrying a can or bottle someone would offer me one, be it a vendor or a friend. But I somehow managed to not be silly drunk that day. Though by the end I was incredibly thirsty . They had forgotten to provide any type of water there. By the afternoon I went and filtered water from the river which felt weird because I was in town but who cares!

A view from the bridge

That night I skipped out on the video they were showing and had dinner and more free beer with some friends down at the brewery. Guy on a Buffalo, someone who I cannot recall and a stranger we picked up at the bar all played giant Jenga with blocks so big that we had to reach way far up over our heads to stack them by the end of the game. And when they came crashing down we were just thankful no one got hit in the head. After chatting some more with the bartenders, Biscuit, the Gregory crew and some others I meandered back to the island. I discovered that some new people had pitched camp next to me, but it was too dark to see who they were and by their conversation I gathered they were not through hikers. So without saying hello I began to walk past them to my tarp and that's when a magical voice called to me through the darkness saying, "Hey, would you like some smores? I made the marshmallows myself!"Yep. It was settled. We were gonna be friends. I accepted her generous offer for smores and then had about 3 more (she insisted).

Smores! 

The next morning was clear-out day. We couldn't camp there again because they were turning the sprinklers back on, and most of the hikers were hitching back to where-ever they had come in from on the trail. Snake Charmer and I decided to wait another day for Doc to get back from the wedding and then hike-out with him. And good thing we did because none other than Goldmine rolled up! I hadn't seen this crazy piece of hiker trash since I had been taking care of Oatmeal (remember the baby Kangaroo Rat?) But more importantly this day was awesome because it marked the first day Blueberry and I actually became friends. We ended up walking and talking together for a bit and going down to the river with Veganiase (who Blueberry had hiked with around the John Muir trail). Blueberry was ahead of us on the trail though, so that evening she caught a ride ahead with Rocco Shun. That night I ended up getting another hotel room and a pint of ice cream to go with it. Gotta live it up!

Timberline and Tunnel Falls

The young man who picked me up was super nice. He didn't even know I was a PCT Hiker but he picked me up anyways because "You looked like you could really use a ride". True statement, bro.  As is customary with all hitches I apologized for the way I smelled, to which he responded, "Actually, it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be." I gave him $10 for gas and he drove me all the way up to the Timberline Lodge, where my friends had reserved the last available bunk in the last available room for me. Friends are awesome! Also, just to show how magical Trail Magic really is, that last room was given up by an individual who decided he didn't really need to stay at the lodge more than us very stranded hikers, and so he gave up his room to us. It was about an hour and a half before the room was ready though, and I was still wet and freezing. By this point my exhaustion combined with mild hypothermia resulted in me being pretty disoriented. I apparently just kind of sat in a corner while my friends tried to get me to move over to the fire burning in the center of the main hall. Tried being the key word here haha. After a hot shower and some food I was doing much better.

Timberline Lodge was amazing. Expensive, but amazing. They had three floors which included two bars, a restaurant, an outdoor heated pool and hot tub, a sauna, and a games room with a ping-pong table, table shuffle board and movie screen. Needless to say I ended up staying three nights. The first night I shared a room with about 20 other hikers and watched Lord of the Rings on the big screen. Luckily the next two nights were spent shared with only 5 of us (Snake Charmer, Doc, Karaoke, Slack and myself). That second night, after Slack and I kicked Wisdom's and Snake Charmer's butts in table shuffleboard, we watched the movie 'Room 1408', shared some beers, played some music, and generally had a good time.

The First Night. From Left to Right: Wisdom (aka Sal-Put), Sacred Cow, Kaboose, Rush, ??, Slack, Reverend Blisster

Doc, Snake Charmer, Slack

The amazing breakfast buffet. Take note of all the homemade whipped cream.

??, Dust Bunny, ??, ??, Slack, Danger Poon, Cracker Jack, Snake Charmer, Me, ??, Doc, Karaoake

Sept. 1, 2014 our gang of four finally departed Timberline. And what a glorious day to do so! For the past three days it had been grey, rainy, windy and freezing. But not this day. So with rested feet and full bellies we began our trek towards the Oregon/Washington border. There were so many blueberries that I kept stopping to eat them. Again, glorious day. After 10 miles we came across a river that had no distinct crossing point. After wandering around for a bit we finally found some small logs next to a cairn that someone had make a crosswalk with. Awesome!.....except then we couldn't find the trail again on the other side. After some serious bush-waking and GPS usage, we found our way.

At this point in the trail an alternate route was available for Ramona Falls and we took it. Worth it!  About a mile past it we found a sweet campsite with a make-shift tarp shelter someone had left. So we claimed it, built a fire, shared some laughs and went to bed.

Ramona Falls

My tarp!

The next morning we discovered that we had to cross a pretty serious log elevated over twenty feet across the river we camped next to. In fact, there were actually two logs, one of which had a rope attached to it that you had to grab onto while you scooted your feet along the one underneath it. Luckily the rope held and we all made it across. The next few miles were practically vertical and so I fell behind the rest of the group. Then I ran into Dust Bunny, who I had met but didn't really know at this point, and so I stopped and ate a snack with her at a very unexpected but welcomed picnic table. We then proceeded to walk together for the next 7 miles and talked about carrot cake almost the entire time. I was super excited just to have found someone who had the same pace as me. I'm always the tortoise among hares. We then stopped to eat lunch, which unfortunately included no carrot cake. However, where we stopped was very cold and windy so I finished quickly and kept trekking without her and eventually caught up with my crew.

Finally we approached the trail head for the Eagle Creek alternate. No one warned us it was going to be insane. It was almost two miles of vertical decline! But eventually we made it down and found a sweet place to camp. Since I was behind everyone, Snake Charmer laid his bright yellow frisbee in the trail to signal me that they had taken a side trail to a campsite (take note future hikers!). Dust bunny also joined us that night and we all sang some songs, ate dinner, shared snacks and went to sleep.

The next morning we all took it slow and stuck together. We only had about 10 miles to walk before reaching town and also wanted to see the famed Tunnel Falls together. As we walked Dust Bunny taught us a whole bunch of new trees and plants I didn't know and told us about the area, which she knew all about because she lives there! And then finally we reached Tunnel Falls, so named because they blasted a tunnel behind it so you can walk through.

Tunnel Falls

Snake Charmer, Karaoke, Doc

Me standing in the Tunnel of Tunnel Falls

After ooing and ahing at the falls and walking through the tunnel no less than five times we made our way towards Cascade Locks. As we walked I ran into an old friend, Pilgrim, and we also made a new friend who ended up being a trail maintenance volunteer and gave us a ride 2 miles early into town! Yay!

Snake Charmer and I

Rejoicing in the sunlight that had been hiding for three days

Myself, Dust Bunny and Doc

Dust Bunny and I at a bridge

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. 

Starting again in Bend

Before heading to Bend I spent a couple more days hanging out. I went on a hike to a giant spruce tree, ate pounds of whipped cream, and planned. It was pretty awesome.

Giant Spruce Tree

from a Hawaiian food cart, so delicious

Just the good stuff

Deer right by Aunt Laura's House

Bend was fantastic. So fantastic, in fact, that I managed to spend 3 days there before hitting the trail. Snake Charmer, Rush and I all got a Hotel Room about a mile from the center of Bend. Right beside our hotel someone was having a garage sale, where everything was a dollar. This is important because that is where we found the lady bug costume....which Snake Charmer bought and wore all day. What a dork! (It's why we're friends). We spent the whole day exploring the breweries, the river, and some shops. To list some of the awesome things that happened, we played frisbee at a park, discovered a candy shop that was playin the original willy wonka which we hid in while it rained, and sang at a karaoke bar. We also rented a bike one day so we could zoom around town and waste even less time between beers. All in all it was a great time.

Bible from the 1700's ($800)

First edition of the first Perspective Arts ($14000)



Sharing a sampler at the Riverbend breweing company

Soakin' it up at the Roman Hot Tub

At Deschutes Brewery