PCT 2017

Day 100: Down From My High

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July 26, 2017

Total daily miles: 25.5 miles

Total PCT miles: 1481.3

Start: mile 1862.8

End: Summit Lake (mile 1888.2)

Total elevation gain/loss: 3286.1/4061.7 ft

I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of rain pattering on the tent. I checked the tent to make sure that everything was set up for the rain and then went back to sleep. It was still raining when our alarm went off at 5am. Between the rain and our 30-mile day yesterday we opted to sleep in until almost 6:30.

Sleeping in felt awesome. That is, until we woke up and found that there was a huge puddle at the bottom of the tent — right where my pile of hiking clothes was sitting (I use my hiking clothes as cushioning for my feet since my sleeping pad isn’t full length.). My clothes were soaking wet. Everything else was fine, but the thought of putting on cold, wet clothes to hike on an already chilly day was not appealing. To say that this put me in a bad mood to start the day might be an understatement…

A glimpse of a lake between the trees.


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Day 99: Our First 30!

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July 25, 2017

Total daily miles: 30.0 miles

Total PCT miles: 1455.9

Start: Red Cone Spring (mile 1832.8)

End: mile 1862.8

Total elevation gain/loss: 3280.8/3166.7 ft

It only took us 99 days, but we finally hiked our first 30-mile day! And then we immediately stopped, because there’s no prize for hiking 30.1 miles (not that there’s a prize for hiking 30).

Last night’s storm lasted for a few hours and then the rest of the night was calm. Amazingly, we woke to a completely dry tent, both inside and out!


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Day 98: Playing Tourist at Crater Lake

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July 24, 2017

Total daily miles: 19.8 (9.9 PCT + 0.8 from Mazama Village + 4.6 Rim Alternate 4.5 Lightning Spring Trail)

Total PCT miles: 1425

Start: Mazama Village (Crater Lake) (mile 1818.4)

End: Red Cone Spring (mile 1832.8)

Total elevation gain/loss: 2758.5/1657.8 ft

I slept well last night despite my bruised hip, although getting up this morning was still a struggle. The good news is that my foot seems to be healing well and I was able to get my shoe on and walk around without too much pain. We packed up our stuff and then stopped next to the Mazama Village store to fill up our water bottles and enjoy a couple of the homemade English muffins that we received from my friend Angela topped with hazelnut butter.

Seven in the morning is not the ideal time to hitch out of Crater Lake park and back to the PCT, so we walked the mile back along the road before finally joining back up with the PCT. We were immediately assaulted by a swarm of mosquitoes that seemed impervious to our bug spray. I resolved to switch out of my short sleeved shirt to a long sleeved one as soon as we got to the rim (where I could change in peace inside away from the swarming bloodsuckers). Continue reading →

Days 96-97: Klamath River Zeros

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July 22-23, 2017

What a great trail-cation we had! I feel so lucky to have people in my life that are willing to go so far out of their way to treat us to a great weekend away from the trail!

My home for two nights!


I slept in on Saturday until 6:30! Crazy that I consider that to be sleeping in these days. We had a fun filled day with lots of food (including a faro and veggie salad that really hit the spot for this veggie-deprived hiker) and games! Continue reading →

Day 95: Out of Food and Water . . .

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July 21, 2017

Total daily miles: 14.8 miles (14.0 PCT + 0.8 to Mazama Village)

Total PCT miles: 1411.5

Start: mile 1804.5

End: Mazama Village (Crater Lake) (mile 1818.4)

Total elevation gain/loss: 1835.3/243.3 ft

Today was a town day! We hit the snooze button a couple of times… even with the allure of town, it was tough to get up! We normally keep our inReach turned off over night and when we turned it on this morning there was a message from Tom waiting for us. He told us to go ahead and sleep in because he wouldn’t be able to make it to Crater Lake until later in the day. Oops! I guess it didn’t really matter though because we needed to get to Crater Lake by lunch anyway because we were almost out of food. We both had a couple bars and that was it… not enough these days.


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Day 94: And Then The Murders Began.

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July 20, 2017

Total daily miles: 25.9 miles (25.4 PCT + 0.5 side trail from camp)

Total PCT miles: 1397.6

Start: Squaw Lake (mile 1779)

End: mile 1804.5

Total elevation gain/loss: 3514.1/2923.9 ft

A while back we were listening to Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me and they asked the guests what one sentence, if inserted as the second line of a book, would improve any book. The answer: “And then the murders began.” That pretty much sums up our day. I’m afraid that I graduated to serial killer status today. The number of mosquitoes that I killed was beyond counting. If charged, I’ll claim self-defense. I pretty much did fear for my life… or at least my sanity. In short, the bugs were horrific today.


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Day 93: We Found the Lava Fields!

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July 19, 2017

Total daily miles: 26.8 miles (26.3 PCT + 0.5 side trail to camp)

Total PCT miles: 1372.1

Start: mile 1752.7

End: Squaw Lake (mile 1779)

Total elevation gain/loss: 3115.2/2984.6 ft

Getting out of the tent this morning took courage. We could hear the buzz of mosquitoes outside our tent door and it was clear that we’d be swarmed immediately. We packed up the tent as quickly as possible, but still couldn’t move quickly enough to escape the bugs. As soon as the tent was away, I was off!

It’s hard to get the perspective on this, but that PCT marker on the tree was huge!


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Day 92: Easier Miles in Oregon

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July 18, 2017

Total daily miles: 27.1 miles

Total PCT miles: 1345.8

Start: mile 1725.6

End: mile 1752.7

Total elevation gain/loss: 4297.6/3931.8 ft

Looks like we’ve found the bigger miles that we were promised in Oregon. Hurray! That said, it seemed like we spent much of the day in the trees and on relatively level terrain. Because of this, it seems like our water stops and the people that we chatted with defined much of the day.


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Day 91: It’s Tough To Leave Ashland

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July 17, 2017

Total daily miles: 9.5 miles

Total PCT miles: 1318.7

Start: Ashland (mile 1716.2)

End: mile 1725.6

Total elevation gain/loss: 2270/1159.8 ft

Sleeping in is one of the most glorious parts about hotel stays… even if I’m only able to sleep until about 6:30 before waking up (convinced that it’s actually 10am). Oh well.

We took advantage of the hotel’s free breakfast and 11am checkout time to take our time completing our internet chores and packing up. It’s amazing how quickly town time can pass. After checking out, we started trying to hitch to downtown Ashland so that we could check out the outfitter there (Mountain Provisions) for Altra shoes. We were told by another PCT hiker that hitching around here would be tough, but that there was a bus that ran to the downtown area leaving soon. We headed toward the bus stop and ended up running to catch the bus as it pulled away (and then kindly stopped to wait for us).

Ashland’s public library


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Day 90: Race Into Ashland

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July 16, 2017

Total daily miles: 10.4 miles

Total PCT miles: 1309.3

Start: mile 1705.7

End: Ashland (mile 1716.2)

Total elevation gain/loss: 751/3139.4 ft

We only had about 10.5 miles this morning until hitting the road from which we could hitch to Ashland. When we woke up, it was actually pretty cold for the first time in a long time. I wore my wool beanie for the first several miles — something that I rarely do!


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