One More State!

At the Washington border! Crazy to think that I only have a little over 500 miles to go. Oregon was a really fun state to hike through. It was unbelievably hot for the first week, with temps over 100 degrees. But it soon cooled down, and the terrain was really mellow (smooth trail, no rocks), so very fun to hike. My bother Daniel and his buddy Adam came out and hiked with me for 5 days near Bend. Despite bad blisters, they both seemed to have a great time overall. The scenery was spectacular, and evidence of volcanic activity was everywhere. We even got to hike through some massive lava fields, which made for one of my favorite days of my hike thus far.

Compared to the rest of the trail, Oregon is very flat, so I was able to put in some big mileage days. Twice I hiked nearly 200 miles in about 6 days. There's one section of trail that is one of the flattest of the whole PCT, and where many hikers try to put in their longest day of hiking. I decided to try for 40 miles! I started hiking at 5 am (after hiking 25 miles the previous day), and put in 20 miles by noon. After an hour and a half lunch break, I was able to reach 30 miles by 4 pm, and actually made it to 40 miles just after 8 pm. Other than my lunch break, I only took four 15-minute breaks throughout the day. As expected, I was absolutely exhausted, and incredibly hungry. All I needed was a place to camp. Easier said than done! The vegetation is so dense in Oregon, and the terrain somewhat hilly, so it can be really hard to find places to camp. I have no problem whatsoever cowboy camping on the trail (sleeping under the stars, no tent), but they were calling for rain, so I needed to find a spot where I could set up my tent. I had to hike 8 more miles to find a spot, and didn't get to camp until 11:00, and still hadn't cooked dinner. So I ended up hiking 48 miles in 18 hours, breaks included! I seriously considered hiking 2 more miles so I would hit 50 miles for the day, but I was worried about finding a camp spot soon after. I'm glad I stopped, as I found the following day that there wasn't a spot for another 5 miles beyond the 50-mile mark. 48 is good enough for me! The following day I didn't leave camp until noon, and ended up hiking only 9 miles that day. While certainly sore, I felt good, and didn't even get any blisters from my long day.

For the last 50 miles I got to hike through areas of what I expected Oregon to be like: dense, lush forests, moss-covered trees, and tons of waterfalls (the earlier sections of Oregon were much drier). Yesterday I hiked along Eagle Creek, which made for another of my favorite days of the trip. Tons of waterfalls! I even got to hike through Tunnel Falls, where you actually get to hike behind a huge waterfall! However, it rained non-stop for the last 2 days. Incredibly, this was the first time that I hiked through rain all day long. I actually enjoyed hiking through the rain, as it just added on to the excitement of hiking through such lush scenery. But, all my stuff got soaked while setting up camp, and I woke up soaking wet from the condensation inside my tent. Luckily I didn't have to camp again last night as I made it into the town of Cascade Locks, on the Washington border. I can't imagine having to camp multiple days in the rain, especially with a soaking wet down sleeping bag. It's very likely it'll happen in Washington, but as my fried Brian said (who hiked the trail last summer), it'll just add on the experience of the PCT!