UPDATE: POSTS TO COME SOON

Dear readers,

I am so sorry for the lack of posts! It has been unbelievably difficult to find computers and wi-if out here, not to mention the time it takes to upload large photos. 

Do not give up on me! I am still taking notes, taking photos, and planning on meticulously documenting each and every day... And promise to do so very soon! Please forgive me and STAY TUNED!

But in the mean time, here is what's new:

- WE MADE IT TO OREGON!

- Currently we are on our way to Santiam Pass and we will be going to Sisters to Nero and resupply this Friday.

- Almost got attacked and bitten by a badger.

- We've endured multiple consecutive wet, rainy, thunderstorms that resulted in hail, trails that turned into ice rivers, and rapid fire lightning strikes. 

- Still haven't seen a bear.

- Walking a marathon a day.

- I'm having an extreme amount of foot pain again...

- Oregon nights are cold.

For now... Some crummy iPhone photos as a place holder.

DAY 103: HAT CREEK RIM

5:00 am on Hat Creek Rim

 miles: 26

Waking up at 4:00 am is never enjoyable. Ben hates it even more than I do and this is why it is so hard to wake him up in the morning. I felt the urgency deep inside my chest and I could not wait to get moving. Ben - sound asleep. It took a good half an hour for us to get moving in our sleeping bags and it was already 5:30 by the time we actually were moving. Luckily, we were in for a stunning sunrise.

The hiking was easy on this particular morning. Hat Creek Rim is not difficult in terms of elevation, it is basically flat as a trail can possibly be. So for the first 10-15 miles or so we are cruising! This stretch of trail tends to be dubbed the "33 mile waterless stretch" so I left Old Station with almost 5 liters of water. I wanted to make sure I had enough to dry camp AND make it to the end of Hat Creek Rim in the heat of the day. A lot of hikers chose to bring only a couple liters in hope of a supposed cache, "Cache 22". They completely relied on this (to me - fictitious) cache! Where did they hear about this? Why wasn't I aware of it? Can you ever really trust a cache?

You never know how many hikers are in front of you and how much water they will take, so I tend to err on the side of caution and bring too much water, rather than rely on water caches. You just... never know.

Even in the morning my candy bars are pliable.

Ben opening one of many (cow?) gates.

Can you spot the creature print amongst the foot prints? Hint: it is a TINY hand. 

 These tiny tracks were all over the trail this morning. I have yet to identify them, but they must be a small creature because they are no more than an inch in length. They also have little nails. The creature seems to have been using the trail as a highway for quite some time, going this way and that. At one point the tracks reach another set of tracks (coming from the opposite direction) head on, as if they were having some sort of meeting on the trail. Maybe a friendly nose sniff?

Another soft candy bar. Yeah, we eat a lot of these.

So it turns out the water cache does indeed exist (and has enough water for a hundred thru-hikers)... and I didn't need to be carrying 8 and a half pounds of water after all.

We hung around at the cache much longer than expected... we typically do not hang around in the mornings because we like to get a lot of miles done first thing when we have the most energy, but there was a trail register to read and sign, Nurse Betty was there having a snack, and we were enjoying sitting in plastic chairs.

Ben at the water cache/trail magic "Cache 22"

Came up on this.... water cache (?) ... Laundry detergent water?

A bad photo of Ben at Cache 22 enjoying a Pro Bar. Check out his leg muscles. 

It felt like we were in South Africa. Not that I know what that is like...

Starting to see some lava rock. Starting to trip on lava rocks.

Starting to get hot hot hot.

Warner Springs anyone? This section reminded me a lot of the beginning of the trail. Are we in the desert again?

Cows and lava. 

View from the top of Hat Creek Rim. We are HIGH up.

How do cow hooves like lava rocks?

LAVA.

At this point in the day (after lunch... maybe around 1:00 pm?) it gets hot. We descend down into the oven of lava hell. I'm being serious. It was like we were being roasted in an oven. An oven littered with hot, sharp, loose, lava rocks for you to step on/trip on.

This was less than ideal and highly unenjoyable and I began to spiral down into a very unpleasant place - a mood only reserved for lava rocks.

It is safe to say that this was one of the most difficult days on trail for me. The lava oven + tripping on lava rocks + thirst.

I will elaborate on this day further at a later date because (I'll be honest) I just lost all of the text I had typed. I just deleted everything, the rest of today's story. I don't have the energy to rewrite it. COMING SOON!

DAY 102: HEY, LASSEN! HEY, OLD STATION! HEY, HAT CREEK RIM!

Bad choice.

miles: 30

I want to talk about coffee for a minute. On the trail, we miss good coffee, seeing as we are from Portland, the home of quality beans. There is a dearth of good coffee on the trail, as you can imagine so Ben and I drink Starbucks VIA (any flavor) because it is the best tasting variety of instant coffee available in small towns. We tend to add hot chocolate powder, sugar, and milk/creamer. This week I made a very bad decision. I bought COFFEE MATE. I'm not sure if you've ever had Coffee Mate, but it is disgusting. Ingredients? NOT LACTOSE. WHAT IS IT? I've come to the conclusion that it is made up of plastic chemicals. It isn't just mental, it actually tastes bad and I can't bring myself to drink it. I sullenly carried this hunk of weight nearly 80 miles just to drop it in a hiker box. Perhaps someone else will enjoy it.

The contents of my backpack.

Most of the day.

My coffee situation: Starbucks VIA, chocolate milk, sugar, shaken up COLD.

Ben and I both carry a 1 liter water bottle of some sort - Ben prefers a wide mouth gatorade bottle and I go with either a Smart Water bottle or the Arrowhead Water bottle featured above. Both of us use our bottles as our coffee mug in the morning and as our electrolyte drink container in the afternoon. Of course... we rinse it out in between uses and often we swap out water bottles when we reach town every few days or so in order to keep our "flavored drink receptacle" clean and free of bacteria.

Burn zones and orange firs.

I enjoyed these colorful burn zones, reminded me of fall.

Trail Register! 

HOLLAAAAA LASSEN.

Ben signing the Trail Register.

What is this trying to say?

Lassen in the distance - getting closer.

Blasting Devendra Banhart.

We wound up reaching the minuscule town of Old Station around 2:00 pm and were greeted by shade, picnic tables, milkshakes and a very limited selection of gas station food to choose from. Our plan was to hunker down in Old Station for a few hours and wait out the heat of the day before we set out to do the first half of Hat Creek Rim.

Hat Creek Rim is a renowned portion of the trail that is notorious for being extremely exposed and blistering hot during the day, so hikers often choose to night hike a portion of the rim when it is cooler.

This was our plan.

The plan: get as far as we can in the evening and wake up inhumanely early in order to finish the latter half in the cool morning hours.

Cheetos for lunch in Old Station.

Old Station had nothing but a small convenience store, a few picnic tables, and about two cold drinks. Everything in the store had been picked over by hikers that came through before us, so there was an extremely limited selection of cold drinks and snacks, but I managed to squeeze a milkshake out of them (which was SUPERB)...

I went over to the Post Office, which was luckily next door to the gas station, and picked up some surprise packages from Olenka! I was elated! She sent a sweet letter, my new memory card, and a box of Japanese candy. Thank you Olenka, you transformed my hot, hellish, sweaty day into an inspired one.

After a cat nap, we decided it wasn't hot enough to justify laying around anymore and chose to move on before 4:00 pm. We had enjoyed our 2 hour hiatus but it was time to move on.

Oh! I almost forgot - a family that came through the gas station was intrigued by our journey and after disappearing inside the gas station for a while, emerged with a 6-pack of Moose Drool (good beer!) just for us! It was one of the best surprise instances of trail magic yet!

Thank you Olenka. The amoebas were delightful.

Long straight line.

Hikers taking a nap in Old Station.

Sometimes all you can do is lay.

Hat Creek Rim

Once on the rim, we noticed a lot of smoke and it seemed to get thicker and thicker as we moved along. 

Hat Creek Rim

The trail on Hot Creek Rim

Hat Creek Rim is surprisingly beautiful. There is a lot of hype surrounding this section of trail and we were warned about all of the "dangers" of Hat Creek Rim: the lack of water, the exposure, the heat, the sunburns we were about to endure... all of which are avoidable if it is hiked at the right time of day. It is said to be almost as brutally hot as the desert.

So, this is why Ben and I have decided to hike huge miles into the evening, wake up ridiculously early and hike the rest of the rim.

It is exposed.

Awww a little water cache.

"A Fiery Past"

I found Hat Creek Rim to be quite gorgeous. Maybe it it was the dusk hiking?

A hazy view.

Ben interacting with the bovine creatures.

 Suddenly - Cows.

There were Hat Creek Rim cows! And cow patties everywhere. These were not just any cows, these were particularly aggressive and territorial cows. I felt uneasy as I walked past them and made sure I gave them space.

Camp spot.