9/13 Thirteen miles past White Pass in Washington

Amazingly, we have time for a blog entry from the trail. Several rips and tears on various pieces of gear are being repaired by Zm as I write this. We stopped about 45 minutes early at 7:00 to facilitate the necessary repair and enjoy the bottle of wine that I carried out of White Pass.

The weather has been phenomenal and unseasonably warm. The inevitable rain is still farther out than the forecasters can predict. The hot weather has a downside, which is fire and bugs. The nearby fires have been limiting our long distance views in a way similar to LA pollution. This morning the high pressure system relented enough to allow wind and clearer views for the first time in at least a week.

So far the Washington highlight has been the Goat Rocks Wilderness. This section was clouds, rain, and snow in 2006. Yesterday it was hot and gorgeous. Zm took the appropriately excessive amount of pictures.

Another big change has been the consistency of people. Washington has no choice of resupply points, therefore everybody seems to get in lockstep with other hikers. Also people's paces are aligning because we all know we are going to make it to the border. The difference between a 25 and 30 mile pace is a paltry 2 days at the finish. We are all dialing back to the easier 25 days to enjoy the end of this experience as well as the spectacular scenery that Washington has to offer.

Within 5 miles of us tonight are many hikers. There is a good chance that most of them will be equally as close when we finish this trail. Today we got to enjoy Seahorse, Chillidog, Han Solo, Bubbles, Boots and Pepe Lopez at White Pass. Some left earlier, some later, all knowing that we will encounter each other again in the next few days.

We are in good health and excellent spirits and in near disbelief that less than 340 miles of trail remain. Good night from mile 2317 of the PCT.

Oregon Is Complete

First, an apology for the lack of posts. We have been enjoying our experience to the fullest and blogging cuts directly into sleep time.

We are in Cascade Locks, OR, right next to the Colombia River and the border of WA. Since our last pathetic post in Ashland we have traveled over 400 miles and the entire length of Oregon. The travel has been easy compared to other sections but the days have still been long and focused.

We have seen Crater Lake, the Three Sisters, Hood, Jefferson and tons of other volcanos. We have swum in warm mountain lakes and feasted on huckleberries.

For several days the mosquitoes were really bad. We slathered on deet to ward them off. The late snow melt has delayed their peak for at least a month.

One of the big highlights was our trip to Bend. Our friends Kirk and Anthony were going to meet us at McKenzie pass to take us into Sisters but they weren't there when we got there. After getting in touch we discovered they were in Bend with a busted head gasket. However they had borrowed a car from a friend and ended up meeting us anyway. We ended up going back to Bend with them and staying with the aforementioned friend for two nights of fantastic and unexpected trail magic.

After leaving Bend we were two days behind and behind people we knew. The last part of Oregon has been great because we have finally started to hike with people again. There were a chunk of us determined to make it to Timberline Lodge in time for the breakfast buffet.

We made it but then discovered that the trail had just closed ahead due to a huge fire. The detour was way off to the East and consisted of lots of road walking. But due to the camaraderie of five other hikers the detour was actually fun and not just bearable.

So now we are waiting for the right people to show up. We want good folks around for the final leg of this trek. Either that or we get bored and go in to Washington anyway.

Just 500 miles left!

8/18 ~ Ashland, Oregon

Hello dear readers. Team Colour has made it to the state of Oregon! We have gathered all of our foods for the drops for this state and will be sending them out in the morning. Phew! It is hard work to go shopping in so many stores after only seeing open spaces for so long. This journey is moving more quickly now - under 1,000 miles to go! There is more to tell, as always, but the time to rest is upon me. <3

8/13 Etna ~ Land of the Small Town

This morning Goodness and I hitched into Etna, CA. This town here welcomed us with a space called The Hiker Hut which is a bunk-filled space with a kitchenette, shower, laundry and the wonderful pile of clothing to wear while everything gets clean. There is also a television set for VHS movies... a flick entitled Transylvania 6-5000 buzzes in my present background. :) It is quite hilarious actually and definitely from 1985.

This Hut is next to a small Bed & Breakfast run by a lovely woman named Vicki. She greeted us this morning and gave us the lowdown on the space and the local eateries. After tiding ourselves up and adorning some fun loner clothing, we rode bikes down to breakfast with HappyMeal and Overload. It was so wonderful to finally get to talk to other hikers again as we have been in a lull since the Hat Creek Rim. This place had other magic in store for us this evening when we went out to the Etna Brewing Co. for dinner.. We met Holden there and he had his girlfriend along with three other friends coming in from the east. It turns out that Holden and his gal, Loni, lived one town over in NJ from my hometown and he took his SATs years ago at my High School! I love the small world occurrences! It was wonderful to talk of all the places we knew in common, the roads and 'secret' routes to get somewhere, the small reverse theater, and the best spots for seasonal pumpkin ice cream. These unexpected visitors were a wonderful breath and amazing people with which to spend the evening. I hope to see them out in civilization again sometime.

The last few days of trail have been nothing short of wonderful. It has helped that the trail conditions have moderated and that things have become smoother. Last night we hiked until 10PM to reach the trailhead for a true zero day today. This allowed us to be atop a saddle at a time of night we would otherwise already be in camp. In one direction was the rising of the nearly full moon and on the other, the fluorescent sherbert sunset. Words will not aid me here, so please use your imaginations as you await post-hike photographs. :)

We have secured a ride back to the trailhead tomorrow morning at 9AM and will be further celebrating DAY 100!!!! Yes, that's right, Day 100. Only 1,000 miles and a day to go. Our next real stop is Ashland, Oregon which means also that ALL of California will be walked in about 5 days time. Love it! It is our hope that our Cardinals will catch us there as we got a message from Pod revealing that they should be within a day of us! It is wonderful always whether on this trail or across the world to miss and be missed. Now please, what are YOU up to? Only two states left to write letters! ;)

8/9 Castella and cell service!

Listening to the roar of trucks on I-5 as we pack in calories and deal with our resupply packages. The last few days were brushy with lots of poison oak hanging out over the trail waiting to catch the unwary hiker. It is annoying because you can't go on autopilot whenever it is around, much like snow travel.

We have been traversing high ridges south of Mt Shasta. Gorgeous views of the volcano persist into the next section. In fact it will be in view for the next two weeks of walking as we do a big half circle around it.

Our bodies are strong. The midday heat slows us down, but we make up for it by vigorous travel in the evening. Yesterday we did a 2000 foot climb from 6-8 PM. We did a similar climb around midday and it took an extra hour.

In a few days we will be at Etna and will take our first zero day since we left Tahoe weeks ago. Hopefully we will have service there. I would advise all potential thru-hikers to not go with T-Mobile as their service providers!

~ Goodness

8/6 Big Miles Have Begun

We are 1440 miles in, 3 months out, with about 1200 miles to go. As of now we have less than two months to finish the trail before the hypothetical snow kicks in. What does that mean? Big miles!

Every day we try to do a 30+ mile day. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. Usually it depends on the terrain and our general well being. The terrain has moderated in Northern California, making big miles much easier.

We are about 12 miles past Burney Falls State Park where we grabbed our resupply package today. Anytime we hit a town, the mileage for the day goes down. We still managed to do 25, which I consider a success.

Tidbits:
--- I was sick as Zm said. It was a fever lasting two days. Hiking with a fever is no fun. You still have to make forward progress lest you run out of food.
--- The trail has been quiet recently. There is a big pack about a day ahead. We have been hiking on and off with Dain and Skipper whom we had hiked with often in the Sierra. Gnar and Pod are somewhere behind, hopefully not too far.
--- Places we have passed recently: Belden, Lassen Natl Park, the dreaded Hat Creek Rim.

Next stop is Castella. We have less than two weeks of California left. It has almost more trail than twice Oregon and Washington combined.

7/29 Refreshed and Resupplied in Sierra "City"

It is now day two out of Sierra City and I am cozy in our tent with my Goodness asleep next to me. Midday yesterday he came down with a fever so we took a nap and then ended our day early. He is much better today although still achy and fatigued. Prior to this surprise illness, we had a different surprise in Sierra City!

On our way in on Wednesday morning we ran into the last Portlander we hadn't seen yet from the pretrail meetup. He was on his way back to the trail and if running into him wasn't cool enough, he informed us that the restaurant we were headed to for breakfast was additionally trail angel's residence! We chatted awhile and returned his watch which Goodness had picked up in the snow(!) and hopefully we will catch him down the way when he stops for a zero.

We walk into town, greeted by a giant Pacific Crest Trail emblem outside of the Red Moose Inn. Inside were Margaret and Bill Price, some of the loveliest humans ever and joining them to hold down the fort was a thru-hiker from a year prior, Coach K. We were greeted by Margaret who gave us a tour of the place before cooking us up a scrumptious hot breakfast. There was a shower for us there, laundry facilities complete with extra clothes to put on while it all goes round, a telephone, and the internet on a laptop upstairs. Not to mention space out in the back yard for anyone who wanted to camp and of course there was home cooking. Amazing. I was able to contact my Dad from there and learn that he was on his way into the wake for my Uncle Jimmy who had passed away on Saturday of a heart attack. My thoughts are with his wife and especially my cousins tonight.

The Prices had only just started Angeling last year so they still had the ability to catch a few of us unaware of their offerings. Our original plan was to just be in town for a few hours but with the company and comforts, we soon were signed up for dinner! Yum. Goodness and I were afraid of getting swooped into breakfast the next morning and wanted also to have an early start on what can be a very hot and dry climb. So we said our farewells and walked back to the trail by the light of the gloaming.

It was good to be up early and complete the climb of Sierra Butte in the shade, I was glad that we hadn't attempted it in the midday sun. There were fantastic views and we ran into a few southbound PCT hikers as well as swarms of day hikers. The day hikers were all on their way to the fire lookout to get an even broader and farther view of the surrounding area. We stayed on the PCT opting to come back and visit the Prices one day and see the fire lookout as day hikers ourselves. At this juncture, Goodness had already begun to fall ill and his fever was on the rise.
We crossed a dirt road and a young boy called out to us asking if we were hikers and wondering where we were going. When I called out that we had started in Mexico, he was so excited! He announced us to the group of parents and the gaggle of children behind him. We soon had them all gathered round as we answered questions and talked about the fun of swimming in lakes in the summertime. The kids were all super sweet and they gave us their extra picnic foods for later. (OK OK I did eat some rice krispy treat on the spot) I could see Goodness fading further out though so we pressed on.

We ate the grilled cheese sandwiches they had given us for dinner that night and I am excited to make them with hamburger buns in the future because that is genius! Both of us too wiped to cook, those were perfect... I think we each slept 10 hours or so that night!

This morning brought more southbounders our way and with that boy still under the weather, we thankfully accepted their extra foods should it take longer than expected to reach Belden. They additionally had an Alkaseltzer packet that Goodness is sleeping under now and he woke to say that the fever has broken. Phew. Today was FINALLY for real the last day with snow. Hooray! With all the snow and broken pine everywhere, it has looked and smelled like christmas threw-up in the forest. This became more apparent as well with Goodness singing carols today... good thing the heat came back today too. Gnar said that once you get carols stuck in your head, you might as well just get off the trail. In other news, the lizards are back. :-)

Today we saw four people right off the bat and then not a soul until the end of the day when we heard a young voice calling out, "Marco!" We came around a bend on Mt. Etna and called back out to a pair of 13 year-olds who said they had gotten scared by a bear growling, dropped their packs and ran, and now were unsure of how to find their group. We had passed the two backpacks about a mile back and we waited at the top on the trail as they climbed up from their bushwhacking. Brandon and Kiersten. Super cool kids. We are 34 miles out from Sierra City tonight.