Thursday, August 21, 2014

Ashland to Cascade Locks (OR/WA border)

Oregon, the state on fire!
I guess this will be our strongest memory from Oregon.
While we were in Ashland, there were thunder ang lightning storms every night.
What started as few fires at the north of the state few days before we arrived Ashland, developed to countless fires on the south, caused by those storms.
Before going back to trail we made a call to the park ranger to make sure the trail is safe to walk. It was.

We went back on trail after another great breakfast at Morning Glory (best breakfast on trail so far), but it didn't take long before the fire smell and the smoky air overpowered and the breakfast was quickly forgotten...


We tried to stay optimistic and kept going. We had a "short" day of only about 24 miles to a nice campground with water and showers. How can you not stay optimstic with such conditions? :)
We woke up to another smoky day, where we could hardly see something from a distance. But I guess it wasn't so bad, because there was nothing much to see. Most of the day we walked in a forest, and when we had two minutes of view between the trees it was boring anyway... 'Stay positive', I kept thinking to myself...



We hiked 31 miles, with the weirdest sun color we've ever seen. It was redish the entire day because of the smoky air.
In some sections we walked on lava fields and with the red sun it felt like a scene from a movie. I tried to look at the beauty of this moment...


Oregon didn't feel different from north Cal so far - hot, almost no water on the trail and boring like the section between Burney Falls to Mt. Shasta.
'Stay positive', I kept thinking to myself... 'We still have a way to go here in Oregon'.
But another voice inside of me kept asking 'Why? Why are we doing it to ourselves?'. I didn't share my thoughts with Roi, yet.

It was on the next day that finally the blues took over completely. Oregon sucked the last piece of energy from us. It was smoky still, few fires along the way, lots of mosquitos (the worst so far on the trail!!!), no water, no people, no views, just walking in a long green tunnel, and sometimes it wasn't even green, but burned forest :( 
Somewhere that day we passed the 1800 miles mark. I was trying to feel happy... Really... We decided to take a lunch break over there and that was the first moment we spoke about what we knew for few days now... We don't want to hike on the PCT anymore. 



Few miles later we suddenly noticed a strange movement on the ground. Hundreds of tiny frogs were hoping on the trail. We probably smashed few while walking, they didn't leave us any choise... It was one of the most disgusting  experiences we had on the trail. Yuk!
At that point I wasn't trying to stay positive anymore...
After hiking 30 miles we bumped into 3 fire fighters that were on their way to check some small fires in the area. They told us this is pretty much what we should expect for entire Oregon. Great! :(
We finished the day after walking 34 miles. We were sad, tired, exhausted.


Next morning we woke up and felt more relax after knowing this is our last day on the trail. We only had about 14 miles to walk to Crater Lake and we decided to take our time and enjoy long breaks.



We picked our resupply package from the store at Crater lake, and after resting for a while we went to see what is this Crater Lake all about...
Oh, it was beautiful! I even dare to say, the most beautiful lake on the trail!
So big, so blue, so surrounded by yellowish mountains... Wow!
For a second we were thinking about hiking all the way to Canada...



But then a rain and thunder storm started and lasted the entire night.  
'We are definitely going to stop tomorrow!', was the last thing we said before falling asleep.
The next morning we hitched to a town called Klamath Falls, took the Amtrek to another city and then took a bus to Bend.
If I thought Ashland was a cool city, Bend was even more! There are 12 micro breweries in town, which made this place heaven for Roi :)
We started the day by going to the fanciest hairdressing salon, where Roi had his haircut. Why fancy? They give you beer on tap while you sitting there... :) fancy or not?


We visited 6 different breweries in less than 24 hours, drinking like crazy, enjoying ourselves. It felt like every beer giving us back the energy we lost on the trail. There was even a farmers market that day in town, and we enjoyed homemade pastries, which were perfect!









At the last brewery for that day we sat next to 2 nice couples, and had a chat with both of them. One of the couples were from L.A. and apparently their daughter is in Israel for few months. They were jewish. It's funny how we keep bumping into jewish people on our journey. We had a great time talking with them and before they left they decided to pay for our dinner. Just like that, without telling us. It took us by surprise and I started to wonder whether there's a reason for all those nice experiences in Bend... 

We also got a huge package from Chad, a fellow hiker which went off trail, with lots of food and a note which says: 'No quitting!'. It made us laugh... And then it made us wonder... 'Are we really ready to quit?'  


Before going to sleep we decided to see some videos about the PCT section in Washington. We loved what we saw, and that's how we quickly changed our mind about the PCT and decided we are going to keep walking to Canada. Or maybe it had to do with the amount of alcohol in our blood... ;)

Anyway, we woke up the next morning and started preparing all the resupply packages for WA, mailed everything and enjoyed our last night in the town.
From Bend you can see all the volcano peaks we were supposed to walk by, if we were on the trail. It was nice seeing that, but we decided we going to skip the rest of Oregon, and start walking from the OR-WA border. If we still have the energy to walk, we prefer it would be in WA, which supposed to be more beautiful.

We took a bus to Portland, a city in the north west of Oregon, from where we planned to continue.
On the way we passed Mt. Hood, which we decided we should come back after the trail to explore more closely. 


We spent a night and few hours in the morning in Portland, which is another cool city. We really like the towns and cities in Oregon. I guess more than we like the PCT in Oregon :)



We got a ride to Cascade Locks from a trail angel guy who lives in Portland. 
Cascade Locks is where the trail ends in Oregon. 
We decided to day hike to the famous Tunnel Falls, which we skipped, and are very close to the town. It was only 12 miles walk, so we did it very quickly and on the way met some fellow hikers which we hven't seen since the Sierras...




It was fun catching up with everybody :)
We felt like we made the right decision!
We skipped 300 miles of the trail, but we are going to come back after we finish the trail to see all the highlights we missed in Oregon (which are not a lot...).

Washington, here we come!

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Chester, California to Ashland, Oregon

We made it!!! 
We hiked ~1700 long miles from the Mexican border to Oregon.
It took us 83 days, 27 zeros (or other off trail days) and a lot of hard work but we finally left California behind...
We're now resting in the coolest town on the trail - Ashland, feeling proud of ourselves and enjoying the comfort of good shower, bed and food.

We came back to the trail about 2.5 weeks ago, after a week in the bay area.
After 2 unsuccessful hours of hitching, we had to spent one more night in Chico,

It turned out to be a good decision, because the next morning we sent text to the tour guide from Sierra Nevada brewery we met a week before, and he was happy to give us a ride back to the trail (more the 50 miles!).
The only problem was he could do it only after he will finish his work, ~4 p.m.
But that tured out to be perfect, since the World Cup final game was playing that noon. It was fun sitting in american bar, full of locals, drinking great beers and watching the game. And we even got a free beer on the house, just because we are PCT hikers :)


We arrived to the trail around 5 p.m and saw there no others then Noam and Idan, the two Israelis that started a day after us. We haven't seen them since Kick Off. What a timing. If we were there an hour later or earlier we wouldn't see them. We chat with them for a while and then Mike, our brewery guide and our ride angel took them to Chester. While we were there Lingo and Sugarpine showed up. We keep bumped into each other every time we go back to the trail and they head up to town. We hoped they will catch us within few days, so we can finally hike together...
By the time we were ready to start hiking it was already too late, so we only walked 3 miles and camped next to a spring, exactly in the middle of what turned out to be the path of the frogs to the water. Yep, few frogs jumped on our tent, while trying to get to the water. Yak!
The next day we decided to take it easy and hike only 16 miles, so Noam and Idan can catch us and that way we can hangout with them for a day or two.
We took our time and enjoyed long breaks, explored everything on the way, including a side trip to see geysers.


 

We arrived to a nice resort where we waited for them to come. And few hours later they did. We had a shower, enjoyed the hot pool and had a great dinner in their restaurant together with ~10 more hikers! What a fun way to go back on trail after a week off :)

Next morning we hiked with Noam and Idan. The trail was nice with few lakes along the way. 




We decided to camp at the same spot for the night, after about 28 miles, next to an interesting huge cave. On our way we almost step on a snake... North California seems to be full of snakes...

 

The next day was challenging in terms of water. No water for 30 miles. We carried as much as possible and start walking. It got extremely hot very quickly... This area is a volcanic terrain, which made the hit feels even worse than it was... And it was hot!!!

 
Luckily, some nice people cached water for the hikers on the way, so we had enough water to survive this day, which most of it felt like walking in a big sauna...

  

We camped in a perfect spot at night next to restrooms, with electricity, water and even wifi! Roi and I took a "shower", using a water pipe that was next to the restrooms. Nice end to this sauna day!

The next day we had to walk to a day use area in Burney Falls state park, to get our resupply box. On the way we saw one of the amazing trail magics we saw so far - a spot with picnic table in the middle of the forest, with cooler full of drinks and closet full of food! And even a field shower!!! Wow!!!


We enjoyed a rest and Roi had few sodas before moving on...

 



We were supposed to take a shower in the park facilities and do laundry, but after we found out there's no laundry, we decided to skip also the shower and keep hiking... After few hours we crossed a nice creek where we took a "shower" and washed our socks. It was a nice break from another hot day. 

  

We camped that night with Alan, a 65 years old guy that we met few nights before. 
The next day was another long hot day without many water. It felt as if we were back in south California... Only now we are hiking ~30 miles a day.

 

And if it wasn't enough I started to have muscle cramps on my right leg above the knee, which was a nightmare. It hurt with every step and I couldn't bend the knee without crying...
That night we camp alone next to Deer Spring, and woke up so many times, since deers were coming to drink water every hour or so... So this is why the place called Deer Spring??? :)

Next day was supposed to be another 32 miles day. But after 22 miles we stopped for lunch next to a nice creek, and suddenly an interesting opportunity occured. Glitter, hiker we met few times, was hiking that day with his father. They were going to spend the night in Mt Shasta city, our destination for the next day. Apparently few minutes walk from the place we sat, there's a parking spot. It took us 2 minutes to decide we are going to join them to the city and skip the next 15 mikes left to the highway. 
It was perfect timing - my leg hurt, it was hot and it was boring trail for the past few hours...(and days...).
That decision allowed us to enjoy an unplanned zero in the town, and still be on schedule. 
The rest was needed! We even went to see a movie. Roi met a guy in town that is married to an Israeli women, and he was happy to give us a ride back to the trail the next morning. It's funny how we bumped into Israelis and Jewish people everywhere we go :)
When we arrived to the trailhead we saw Noam and Idan trying to hitch to the town. We haven't seen them for few days. It was funny, for the second time they took our ride back to town :)  

It was very cloudy and felt like it's going to rain in any second. We walked 25 miles that day, ready for the rain to come. But it didn't... Only when we arrived to the campsite, where we saw Alan, it started to rain. We quickly pitch our tent and had dinner inside...
My leg was still hurting badly, but at least the views were nice, and not boring as the days before. So I tried to be optimistic...
Next day 30 more miles, with more wonderful views! 


The day after my leg started to feel better, but then after 26 miles the pain got back and we had to stop. We woke up to a fog, with a wet tent from the inside and outside... But the weather became better within an hour. 



20 more miles and we arrived to the highway that leads to Etna - the last town we are going to stay in north California.
We catch a ride with a truck together with 6 more hikers. We were sitting on the open back of the truck trying not to fall on every turn...
In Etna, after we found out there's no vacancy in the local motel, we called Tortuga's wife. Tortuga, our hiker friend, lives in Etna and gave us his number so we can come to his place. She was very kind and invited us to stay at their house in our own bedroom. Tortuga was about to return from the trail at the evening. At their place we also met Princess and Mr sandals, a couple from Germany we met few times on the trail, and Moxey, the funniest girl we met on trail.
All of us ate dinner at Tortuga's friend house with homemade food and desert. It was fun!
The next day Theresa made us a great breakfast, took us to a bakery and joined us to lunch at the local brewery. Later she gave us a ride back to the trail. We only hiked 10 miles that day.

The next day we were back in business - hiked 31 miles. 

  

  


Next day 14 miles to a tiny town on the way where we had late breakfast. On the way we saw a bear (3rd time on the trail). It was running away few seconds after seeing me... We also enjoyed a little bit of blackberries picking.

  

 
After 3 hours break in this tiny town called Saied Valley (mainly because it took more than an hour to get our food...) we continued hiking 15.5 more miles, including a 4500 feet steep climb over the first 8 miles. We climbed it between 2-5 p.m - the hottest time on the day! At some point I had to stop every 20 steps or so, to rest. It felt as if my knees are almost touching my nose... 
We arrived to the campsite quite late, and amazed to see there 10 more hikers. I can't recall where was the last time we camped with so many people...
That was our last night in California. Roi was carrying a bottle of Whisky for the last few days, and we happily toasted to the last night in this long never ending state.
The next day we finally crossed the border to Oregon, and a new chapter in our PCT experience began.



We had lunch on Oregon land, with some more Whisky ;)


At night we were camping alone, with a thunderstorm coming in. Great start for our Oregon chapter... Luckily the rain didn't come.

The next day we had to walk only 17 miles to the highway, where we hitched to Ashland, our first Oregon town.
We are having 2 zeros here before diving into out Oregon experience...

In the meanwhile Lingo and Sugarpine decided to stop hiking (I can totally understand them...) and we had a nice beer lunch with them in town (they are going to see Crater Lake with a car and stop here to meet with friends).


We were very close to stop hiking in the last few weeks, so I can imagine how they feel... 
As Roi says, the PCT is more of a mental challenge than a physical challenge... And it is one of the hardest challenges I experienced so far in my life...

Things are pretty bad back home right now, which makes the challenge even harder, since we keep thinking about our families and friends, hoping everyone is safe and OK.

At the same time it makes me think this world is so crazy and fragile. So spending time on the PCT might be the best thing we can do right now... :)