July 17 through July 23

After our trail magic from Mike right outside Big Lake and our campsite in the mountains, we set out for another day. Sometimes, a day on the trail can feel like another day you have to "get done" with and crank out the 20-or-so miles. We had a few of these until we reached Mount Jefferson, which had a very rewarding (and snowy) climb to a gorgeous view up top. We ended the day at Lake Olallie, which was a little campground at a lake with a store - cold beers for all, ice cream sandwiches for most, and importantly, a huge bag of chips and salsa for dinner. We enjoyed a campfire, watching the moss-covered branches ignite furiously in a blaze. It was the cutest little campsite and fishing spot and I'm glad we were able to splurge on some real food!

After Olallie, the terrain became really nice on the feet - finally. We had miles of gently sloping, pine-needle covered trail and we ended up pulling our biggest day yet - 28 miles! And 19 before lunch!

We camped at a horse camp and planned out our attack of the infamous breakfast buffet at Timberline, our next resupply point. We had been interviewing southbound hikers about this miraculous buffet for miles and we knew it ran between $15-$16 a person, there were cured meats you can slice, and made to order chocolate chip pancakes. All you can eat, we were sold.

We woke up the next morning much more sore than anticipated after the 28-miler. We had rather slow going to the highway before lunch, where we decided to hitch to Government Camp, a small ski town about 6 miles from the trail. We grabbed beer, gyros and pizza after raiding a gas station convenience store (the only place for two hundred miles that had carried Neosporin, which I needed desperately). I also got a F'real and could not resist that shiny machine offering me a cold blended mango smoothie. We were in heaven.

Full from lunch, we walked back to the highway and hitched to Timberline. We were close enough! Hitching is fun if you wave and smile at everyone, even people packed into Priuses. We saw a couple of bikers come up the pass and the woman commented on Vinny's Gatorade, which he promptly offered to her. They thanked us and biked up the driveway to Timberline. A few minutes later, a young man in a compact car pulls up to us and offers us a ride - the stepson of the woman we gave a Gatorade to! We enjoyed some sweet karma that day and met up with Scratch and Burning Man at the lodge.

Timberline was absolutely beautiful. It's the hotel where they filmed most of The Shining at, and they screen the movie at the hotel nightly. The lobby had the most comfortable circular lodge-like feel and we settled in with coffees and our charging stations.

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We grabbed a drink and pizza at The Blue Ox, the causal basement bar at the lodge, and ran into a few other hikers including Tacocat, a man from New York we had met briefly at Big Lake. We had a blast with him and shared stories and laughs from the trail.

We tucked into our stealth campsites away from the lodge and eagerly awaited the Buffet Morning like it was Christmas. We headed to the lodge at 7:00 when coffee service started and were first in line at 7:30 for the buffet. We went nuts and stuffed ourselves full of delicious breakfast food, truly spoiled.

Leaving Timberline, we said goodbye (for now) to our friends Scratch, Burning Man, and Tacocat, and set off for 16 miles to a campsite near a road where we met Tic Tac. This was a climb but with some rewarding views of Mt Hood. We also took the Ramona Falls alternate to check out a waterfall. It is a bizarre feeling to be at a popular day hike spot on a Saturday - typically we don't see anyone except other thru hikers for days! 

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The next day we cranked out 24 miles and had lunch by a nice lake. Unfortunately, the very gorgeous Eagle Creek Trail, a popular PCT alternate into Cascade Locks, was closed due to a wildfire that started July 4th. We saw several rangers and watched helicopters fighting the fire so we were unable to see the Tunnel Falls that this alternate was famous for.

We met back up with Burning Man that night before the short 8 mile day to Cascade Locks in the morning. I can't wait to rest my feet and relax at an actual hotel tomorrow!