Week 8: The Flip from Portland to Etna

Leaving Vancouver and the islands of British Columbia.

Plane ride made even better with great views of Mt Ranier.

We arrived in Portland around noon on Tuesday. Vinny has been missing climbing, so we looked up a climbing gym in the city to spend the day at. The staff was super friendly at Planet Granite, and let me use the sauna, shower and wifi even though I wasn't climbing. I relaxed while Vinny climbed and then we went to grab some food and head to REI for a resupply and to buy a few missing items.

Uncle Russell and Aunty Sharon met us in the city for dinner and we ate at a delicious Italian restaurant.

We drove back to their house and settled in - they were kind enough to let us stay here for a couple days and then drive us to our flipping point in Ashland. It means so much to us that we have such generous and helpful family out here supporting us on the trail.

However, when planning our route we learned that the PCT was closed pretty much exactly where our flip would be starting. The best plan of action would be to skip that section of the trail that is closed and get dropped off at the next town in Northern California, Etna. Thankfully, our gracious hosts were on board with the itinerary change.

Uncle Russell and Aunty Sharon's beautiful view of the river from their newly completed deck!

When you can't decide between biscuits and gravy and eggs Benedict - why not both?

We fell asleep early that night exhausted from our big day. Scratch, our friend who hiked Oregon with us, actually lives not too far from my family in Oregon City and she offered to take us to brunch the next morning. I was so excited to try this diner in her neighborhood she had talked about on the trail. We also went to a delicious bakery and a tea/kombucha shop in the cute neighborhood of Sellwood.

Hannah also was kind enough to drive us to Winco and we had a fun time resupplying with their bulk food options, trying to be a little healthier this time around. But most importantly, it was so good to see Hannah!

When we got back to the house, Aunty Sharon drove us to the town so Vinny could catch a movie or two and I could run to a drugstore to pick up some other items we needed.

With the errands done for the day, I vegged out in front of the TV and worked on the blog, hardly moving. That's what rest days are for, right? Side note - I actually got to use a real, nice washing machine and our clothes actually became sort of their original colors again!

For dinner aunty Sharon made delicious bruschetta, salad and shrimp and chicken pasta, which was perfect for our hiker appetite and we enjoyed another nice evening on their deck overlooking the Willamette River.

On Thursday, we waited for our packages to arrive from Amazon and then hit the road to Uncle Don and Aunt Linda's new house in Medford, not far from Ashland.

Their home is beautiful and we went out to an awesome pizza dinner together.

L to R: Aunty Linda, Uncle Don, Radio, Bites, Aunty Sharon, Uncle Russell

The next day, after a hilarious blueberry pancake fiasco, we had breakfast at a diner and then hit the road again for the final stretch to Etna.

Most of the drive looked like this - thanks again for putting up with us!

We are actually starting the trail immediately south of the fire closure so there was a lot of smoke in the air, and a ranger posted at the trail head. It was a hot dusty climb and we only did about 6 miles to a lake to spend the evening relaxing.

The next day was all uphill, but thankfully the smoke has mostly cleared out. We got through only 21 miles as we had a later start and really heavy backpacks (loaded down with protein powders and BCAAs among other fun healthy treats for the trail).

Our view of the smoke, our second day on the trail.

The second day on the trail wasn't much faster. Without our trail family pushing us along, we stop for swimming breaks, wake up late and break for camp early, and enjoy ourselves. We did 24 miles today to a really pretty lake, and the Trinity Alps Wilderness I has proved itself to be very gorgeous.

Yeah, we camped here. Right on the other side of that lake.

The next day was more of the same - swimming breaks, nice ambling terrain - and it was a really good day. Looking back at our "low mileage" week, it actually makes sense. To pull high 20s and 30s in Washington, we were waking up at 5 (in the dark) and hiking until 8 (almost dark). This week, we've been rolling out of camp around 7 and settling into camp around 6 - plenty of time to relax and actually enjoy the experience, even though it still feels like all we do is walk.

To get into our next "town" - really, a gas station and post office off the trail, with options to hitch to the bigger nearby towns Dunsmire and Mount Shasta - we just had 24 miles. These were hot, dusty, up and down miles that we cranked out. When we arrived at the gas station we got our luxury items - for me an apple, strawberry popsicle and a sprite - and started to think about our resupply. We only had 80 miles to the next town and per our California strategy, we wanted to take less down time in towns. It would be possible to resupply out of this gas station, but it wouldn't be healthy or satisfying. We also needed to charge our phones and battery packs which could take a few hours. We decided to buy our food here, which meant a lot of ramen and candy bars, and plugged in our battery packs in the back room of this hiker-friendly store.

As the sun was setting we started making moves to walk to the PCT campground a little over a half mile away from the store we were at. When we went to grab our battery packs, they had actually drained completely instead of charging. What a nightmare.

We had to walk to the campsite in the dark, figure out where the PCT section was, and set up in pretty horrible tentsites. However there were showers and nice bathrooms here - with outlets - so we charged a little while we set up our tent in the dark.

Hopefully in the morning we can finish up charging and hit the trail again without too much of a delay - and maybe get a shower in! What a concept.