Mile 1927 - 2012: Trail Haze, Trail Days

Ill Turn

There were some odd noises in the night, then in the early morning the wood ducks were making a ruckus. I turn over in my sleeping my and I’m shocked at the extreme pain in my knee. I try to bend it and the pain is sharp, right above the knee cap. I’m slow to get out, Mother Teresa and Mayor have already headed out, around 6 am. The night before ill, like I may puke if I lay on the wrong side, and I feel tired from the restless sleep. I really did enjoy Charlton Lake, and it was interesting how the burn scar coming up stopped right next to the campsite. Further along the trail I see some elk tracks. I take some time to warm up my knee, but using it is difficult, as it also feels incredibly weak. I wonder if I tweaked it in some mid-slumber cramp. I decide the best way to address pain and the feeling of residual illness is to approach it the same way I approach a slow water filter, flush. I guzzle water throughout the day, having to pee nearly every half hour. I feel betrayed by my own body today, but keep pushing through. I see SideQuest, as she camped near us the night before and ask how she’s doing. She says she feels she has “lead ankle weights”. I couldn’t agree more. We are both baffled at our current states. I leave her to finish her lunch. The trail goes in and out of forest, the light brown dirt reflecting the heat of the sun back onto my face.

I need more water, since I’m focusing on flushing my body out, and head down to one of the many lakes in the area. After filtering I set up my towel and pad to take a short nap. After a short while I sit up. I see the wind move gently across the lake’s surface, glimmering like a wave of diamonds. All I hear is the buzz of flies and their pursuers, the dragonflies. A doe watches me from the path. I continue down exposed trail until I hit a deeply forested area, where the forest floor is lightly dappled by light. I make 28 miles today and SideQuest makes her way to camp not too long after. This is Oregon, it should be easy. But we both find ourselves feeling worn out and exhausted.

Sisters Song

I take my time getting up. My throat is a little sore and I still feel exhausted. SideQuest has already headed out, and this is one of the later mornings I’ve had. I decide to head out to Elk Lake, which has a very small store and a cafe. It’s about a mile off trail, but I need to make a gamble. All I’ve had is toilet paper I took from a portapotty in Shelter Cove, and it nearly the equivalent of sand paper. I want wipes. The Elk Lake store has maybe 10 items, and somehow, one of them are wipes. I also grab a cappuccino and a kombucha. I spend about an hour in Elk Lake, not how I want to be spending my time, but I need the artificial energy. Back on trail, the caffeine hits and I feel amazing. I finally meet some of the first horses I’ve met on trail. I chat with the riders for a bit. I miss the horses I cared for in Hawaii, Athena and Sunny, and my desire to ride is unabated. Later on, as I’m passing a prairie I meet more riders and see a pack of 6 llamas resting.

I sit to eat lunch and as I’m just about to head out, so is the llama crew, so I hurry up so I don’t have to go around a line of llamas. I’ve been around the Three Sisters volcanoes all day. Growing up I remember hearing about the Three Sister Wilderness and it’s a bit surreal being in it now. Later in the afternoon, I enter the Obsidian Area, a small section where PCT hikers cannot camp and is known for its obsidian, obviously. The falling light reflects upon the shards of obsidian making it look like water surface. Chunks of obsidian the size of cars. There’s Obsidian Falls where I give my hair a good rinse before hiking a few more miles to my bedsite.

I feel a little better than the day before which is motivating. Hunger is setting in though, hiker hunger. Nothing satiates me. As I walk I see numerous flickers, woodpeckers. They are a shy bird, flying at high speed into the forest when discovered. I begin to see the ancient rivers of dried lava. Somewhat similar to what I’ve hiked around in Hawaii. The black lava makes for hot weather and reflects the heat back onto my face. The large chunks of lava also try to roll your ankles any chance they get, so what would be a fast stride turns into careful navigation. I see cooler, feeling a rush of excitement for some cool refreshment in this oven like land. Empty. Sadness drapes over me briefly, and I continue on.

North and Middle Sister

A few miles down, another cooler, and it’s filled to the brim, with my favorite soda, Squirt. I never drank it before, hardly saw it before the trail, now it’s everywhere. I continue on between Little Belknap and Belknap Crater through the lava and burn scar, approaching Mt Washington. I still have to navigate the trail slowly, and I’m feeling a bit off again. I slowly fall into a tree, like a car crash in slow motion. I definitely am not feeling well, but I’m very close to my exit point, Santiam Pass, but first I need to stop at the Big Lake Youth Camp. I struggle the last mile in, but a free dinner is enough to fuel the last bit of drive I have for the day. The camp is very accommodating to PCT hikers providing a whole building for them to take care of their business. At the dinner, I am wide eyed, like a wild animal, and eat voraciously. More than ever before. There’s not enough pasta to satisfy me. I had a few friends at the camp, including Joe, and we set up just south of the camp along the lake. My throat is in great pain, and I feel beyond drained, but pop some ibuprofen and crawl into my tent. I had drank a lot of water, the large amount of pasta made me thirsty. As I crawled out of my tent to go pee around midnight, and I see the night sky as I’ve been wanting to see it for months. The Milky Way spread along the night sky above me, I feel its immensity. A shooting star cuts perpendicular across the smear. I wish just to feel better

My tent is soaked from the lake, condensation lingers over its surface. Joe and I have breakfast and talk. I continue chatting with folks to procrastinate hiking. I take a long shower, I am feeling pretty ill today. I leave the Big Lake Youth Center around 11, later than I wanted, but my head felt like it was in the stars while in the shower. The walk to Santiam Pass isn’t bad, in fact, it’s incredibly flat. Getting to the highway, I head west about 200 yards for a better hitch spot and wait, and wait, and wait. Car after car goes by. One of the things I feel I’ve deduced is that if there’s a lot of traffic, no one stops because they think someone else will pick up the hitcher. After about 30 minutes a white crossover pulls over. “I’m headed to Bend, but Sisters will do too!” I yell at the man in the driver seat. “Hop on in, I’m headed to Bend”. I open the back and see a Hyperlite hiking bag. “What’s this all about?” I ask wryly. He’s originally from Oregon, but has lived in Australia for decades, and has just completed a section hike of Oregon. He’s headed to Bend to see a cousin he hasn’t seen for 50 years. I feel pretty good about this hitch, sometimes I don’t feel like talking, and despite how I was feeling, I still wanted to talk story with this man. He drops me off near the Old Mill District in Bend. I know it as a pretty central part of the city, but then again, it’s the only part of the city I do know. I’m famished yet nauseous, I don’t know what to make of it, but there’s a Vietnamese place and pho is calling my name. I find some short respite as I blow on the hot noods and sip broth. I feel weird at this point, a little delirious. REI seems like just the place to get grounded. I had no intention of buying anything, but did want to see what they had in stock for shoes, I figure I need to figure out my final pair here soon. Me and the shoe assistant talk story for a quick bit, I push a customer to buy some Altra running shoes, I say I’m a great source. The assistant agrees. I make my way to urgent care as I’ve decided I want to find out whether this throat issue is strep or not. It’s been difficult to figure out how I feel, if it’s all related to feeling sick and what is related to just pure exhaustion. I had been in communication with my mom all day, and we had coordinated meeting in Bend, and she meets me in the urgent care parking lot. It was part of the original plan to meet in Bend. Bless her heart, I have to wait three hours to be seen and she waits with me, which tortures me as I’m used to moving in one way or another. I get tested and seen by the doctor. I almost hope it’s strep then I can just take some antibiotics. “It’s not bacterial, you just need to actually rest”, the doctor tells me. $500 to tell me what I already want to do, awesome. But I actually do feel a bit relieved it isn’t strep, even though for a quick minute I was hoping otherwise. My mom and I head out, and make a quick stop at Grocery Outlet because I must. I feel exhausted by the end of the day, still with sore throat, but feeling more back in my body.

Trail Days

We get out to go grab Mother Teresa and Poppins, as I said they could come, company is always welcome and I like them. I’m feeling a bit better today, I’m also on an array of pharmaceuticals and caffeine.

Duke, who I fell in love with immediately

The smoke on the drive up to Cascade Locks is astounding, in a bad way. It’s like when movies from the 2000s bad scenes in Mexico, it had a sort of yellow filter. It’s like that, but greyish blue. The color is sucked out of everything by the smoke. I decide to just drop the two off. We’re going to see my grandpa today and he goes to bed early in the day. I feel a bit bitter because I see how fun Trail Days looks, but I realize my bitterness is actually my stimulants wearing off and my hunger kicking in. We get to my grandpa’s place and I surprise him with my presence. It was always the plan, and he’s delighted. He quickly makes me some potato soup which I devour quickly. The rest of the day is relaxed. Him and I go running around in the Gator. Fixing water, watering cows, and him showing me the cherry orchard they tore out. He says he misses grandma, I say I do too. We sit and watch the cow water fill up in silence. My aunt, uncle, and cousin come over and we all have dinner, then the night wraps up as I mosey over on to the camper where I listen to coyote songs weave through the smokey night.

We take a while to leave The Dalles. My mother and I stay in conversation with my grandpa and my uncle Kevin. I have no need to get to Trail Days too early, the only purchase I plan on making is for a new pair of shoes. My current ones are fine, but I figure this will be a good time to switch out before I fry through this pair. Entering Cascade Locks, we’re able to find a decent spot to park amongst all the hundreds of other cars parked for the event. My mom and I enter the event, of which I’m greeted by some fellow hikers I hadn’t seen for months. We continue to the Altra booth, shoes I trust. They thankfully have my size and even better I’m able to get a discount. Trail shoes are a bit expensive. We walk around a bit more, and my mom decides it’s time for her to go home, she has a long drive to Spokane from here. As I walk her out, I’m hounded to join the Dan Durston Look-a-Like contest. He’s a bit of a celebrity in the hiker world, I have no clue what he looks like, but this man’s suggestion makes me think I’m a pretty close resemblance. The contest is later in the day, so I’ve got time to see my mom off. Nothing like having the patience of your mother while you’re sick and grumpy, also slightly agitated from the surging caffeine and pseudoephedrine. I mill around, seeing friends I haven’t seen for some time. I was eager to see Cam, Louie, and Comet. I finally coordinate with them on the lawn outside of the event, and it’s all smiles. Comet isn’t present, and is off trail, which disappoints me a little.

Cam and Louie

Dan Durston

I had been chatting with a friend from my wilderness EMT course to go find some vendors that she knows and that they have something for me. I go and do that, find them. I get my item from them and talk story, opening up a future of possible collaboration, which excites me a little. Time for the Look-a-Like contest. I do pretty well, coming in second. Many people believe I was robbed, which I agree, but allow, because I truly wasi one of the only folks who didn’t try. Folks had dressed up, painted sideburns on their face, wore his gear, and I, well, just showed up, so very little commitment. The day goes on and folks are starting to get rowdy, the feeling isn’t taking over me at all. It could be that I still fill pretty tired, but I do believe it’s just not what I want. I like to party with folks I know, in smaller settings. The allure of partying with a large group, albeit folks who I’d have a good time with, is far from desire. I go to bed early to be sure I get a strong rest before hitting trail again. I hiked over 500 miles from Mt Shasta without stopping and I believe that was just a little too far for my body to comfortably handle, and it had let me know.

The trip back to Santiam Pass should be easy, but it’s never safe to assume. Mother Teresa’s friends flew in and rented a car. The plan is to drive to Redmond and figure it out from there. Mother Teresa finds a free breakfast at a local church that we all heartily agree to. The ride down is nice, I’m able to sit in my own little world and work on blog stuff. We hear from a trail angel that can give a ride to Santiam Pass. The trail angel can only take 4, but there’s 5 of us. Poppins has to resupply so I stay with Poppins to figure out how to get to Santiam Pass. We think the bus to Sisters will take us, but it doesn’t operate on the weekends, so we just start walking towards the highway. It takes a while, but a guy agrees to take us a bit down the highway…into the middle of nowhere. We try hitching for a while with no luck and begin walking west. As cars fly past us on either side, I see an eastbound car flip around, and eventually pull over for us. She had just finished up working an event near Black Butte, and as a fellow hiker, understands the struggle. She’s also curious as to how we thought we’d ever get a hitch from where we were. Poppins gets in contact with another trail angel who can drive us from Sisters to Santiam Pass, our day is set. We get dropped off at SnoCap, and I grab a marion berry milkshake. Don, the trail angel, parks right as we finish up. For not having a ride from Redmond figured out, Poppins and I fare pretty well. On the trail now, we quickly approach Three Finger Jack. Poppins and I set a goal for an easy 10 miles. We meet plenty of traffic coming opposite of us down the trail, until we finally meet some llamas, which we’re able to get photos with. They make cute little cooing sounds in their impatience to get a move on.