PCT Washington Day 2: Rock Creek to side of the trail above Panther Creek

 I awoke at 6:00 AM after a great night of sleep. I was beat when I got into camp, but waking up in the morning, I felt alert and refreshed. Since I had fallen asleep about 9 pm, I had over 8 hours of sleep which meant that I was ready for the day. It took me around 45 minutes to get all packed up. Ryan, the guy next to me, was gone already. Patrick and Sam were still there but Henry was gone. I took a look at the creek where I got to take my first bath as I crossed on a bridge. I was a little sore from the previous day. The nice part was that there was not going to be nearly the amount of climbing today as there was yesterday. I would be going up almost immediately, though. The trail was pretty non-descript, spending time in the forest with lots of greenery around me. 

I really just tried to keep going for an hour before I allowed myself to take off the backpack, sit down, and have a small snack. This is how I managed the whole trail. At one point I passed Henry, he passed me during a break, then I passed him on one of his breaks, and never saw him again. This would become a theme as many people I met along the way, I would never see again. Somewhere in the forest along the way, I saw a giant wasp's nest. I don't why the idea goes through your head when you cross by a giant wasp's nest, but for me, it was, I bet I can hit that with a rock. Of course, I did not attempt it, but the allure is there. When I was about 4, I was on a hike with my dad and the middle school at our school. A kid decided to do that and I bore the brunt of it getting stung multiple times. 

So obviously, I just walked by and instead enjoyed the plethora of huckleberries that were along the trail. It was a tough decision to decide whether to stop and eat some berries or keep moving. We had to bend over and get the berries, which stopped forward progress. It would be a battle along the whole trail. I couldn't just leave them, but I couldn't spend the whole time getting berries, so I just occasionally let the urge overtake me and I was able to get some extra nourishment. Along the way, Patrick and Sam passed me. They said they had just seen a bear. Lucky, I wished I got to see it too. They passed me and then I passed them again. The hiking was actually pretty easy. It was uphill in the morning, but now I began the long descent to Panther Creek. 

Along the way, I met people going southbound. They were a little more scraggly then me. Most of them were going the full distance given that this was the time of year for southbound hikers to start. I talked briefly with them as they passed by. I also passed the time listening to Audible. I had to balance the usage of my phone battery, but for an hour here and there, I would listen to the book The Shining. It was kind of a stark contrast for the beautiful sunny day and this book about a haunted hotel in the dead of winter. It still passed the time well. I was doing pretty good. By noon, I had hiked the 10.9 miles to Trout Creek. Here I passed a road and the Wind River Work Station. I did not know much about this spot, but I saw what I thought was a YCC crew on the road. There were buildings and facilities around, but they were obviously not open to PCT hikers.

The next five miles was some of the easiest hiking on the entire Washington section. It was almost entirely flat and just went right through the forest. It took me in between the Wind River Work Station and Panther Creek. Along the way, I crossed Wind River. When I originally planned out my trip, I wanted to stay at the Panther Creek Campground. When I got there at 3 pm, though, I knew it would be too much time. So I went down to the creek and filtered water. When I was done and went back to the bridge, there was a couple there with a dog. They talked to me for quite a long time asking questions about the PCT. They were really friendly and I could tell that they would have liked to be doing what I was doing. 

After Panther Creek, the trail climbed quite dramatically. It was switchback after switchback. I struggled to stay ahead of the couple that I talked to. After an hour of going uphill, though, I needed a rest and they passed me again. We talked for a while. Eventually, they turned around and I kept going. It was 3.5 miles in when I saw a campsite. It was approaching 5 pm and I had put in 19 miles. I decided to camp for the night. It would be a lonely night. The only people I saw pass were Patrick and Sam a few hours later. They decided to go for another hour. It was once again and evening where I would get a lot of sleep in the deep dark woods camped along the trail next to where it intersected an old dirt road. There was no water at my site, so I had to be conservative with dinner. I ate, I charged, I read, and then I slept.

PCT Washington - Day 1 - Cascade Locks to Rock Creek

It started with months of planning. Looking at sales on Mountain House foods, deciding whether to buy gear to make it easier, and lining up rides and help along the way. I had already dropped off some extra gear and food with my mom a week earlier. That meant just a 3 hour plus drive from our house in Oregon to the Washington border just north of Cascade Locks across the Bridge of the Gods. I drove and Jacqueline tried one last time to talk me out of the trip. It was a fairly easy drive with a little bit of traffic around Portland as usual. We drove across Bridge of the Gods and arrived at the trailhead at 9:30. Conrad supplied me with a brownie and we took some photos at the trailhead. Lots of hugs. Obviously the hardest thing about doing the Pacific Crest Trail was being away from my family for such a long period of time. That and the endless amount of hiking that I had to do every day. Just a few weeks earlier, I had decided to get a new pack. When I did Oregon, I had some issue with some soreness from the pack. The new pack felt pretty good, even with seven days of food. It was heavy, probably heavier than it should be, but it felt comfortable enough. I was moving pretty well at first. 

The trail started out kind of flat just sort of paralleling the road. I was feeling pretty good moving along even though I was moving slow. The flatness of the trail did not last long. Soon it began to climb. It was not surprising as the trail was starting below 1000 feet, nearly at sea level, but would eventually bring me up to 7000 feet. Today, we would not climb that much, but it sure felt like it. I was sweating like crazy. It was a warm day, but I also had to get used to the feeling of carrying a very heavy pack for a long amount of time. I had to be conservative with my water also because there was a stretch of 11 miles that I would have to go without water. Oregon was filled with these long stretches, but Washington did not have many of them.

I tried to hike for an hour at a time before taking a break, but there were times that the trail was so steep and the weather so warm, that I had to take a break after half an hour just to have more water. The fact that the trail was for the most part in the woods was really helpful because I was getting a lot less direct sun. I was planning to stay at Rock Creek for the evening. This was about 18.5 miles in with an elevation gain of over 2000 feet. The problem was that I was having a hard time gauging how far I was going up the trail because the steps on my watch were all wrong. I figured out this was because I was using a hiking pole and it was only counting the times I picked up and put the hiking pole down. So it was missing at least a third of my steps. 

I was surprised at how quiet the trail was. I saw a few people, but not many and no one going north. I figured I would be on the same timeline as others, but there really weren't many. I was able to get cell service for most of this day which was pretty well in line with Oregon. This was less necessary, because I had a Garmin inReach Mini 2 which allowed me to get in touch with my family at all points. For now, it was just being used to track me so my family could keep up with me. At about 6:30 pm, I found myself at Rock Creek. There was one other person there. His name was Henry and he had started yesterday. He was doing all of Washington like me, but was taking a little bit more time to accomplish it.

A little later, Patrick and Sam showed up. They were doing Washington also, but taking a little bit more time too. They were from Washington D.C., but also Sam grew up in Washington. I took a dip in Rock Creek which was refreshing. A little bit later, Ryan showed up. He was going south and doing the whole thing. He was from Bellingham. I picked his brain about the trail ahead. I enjoyed my freeze dried dinner. In fact, it would turn out to be my favorite meal on the whole trail. It took a while to get all settled, but by 9 pm, I was settling into sleep. It was a good first day with a lot of elevation gain, but I was feeling pretty good and excited for the trail ahead.

Separation Lake via Horse Creek

I love hiking! I got to the trailhead which is only about 40 minutes from our house at about 8 AM. There was another car at the trailhead and ran into the person not long after crossing the bridge on the Horse Creek Trail. He said he was turning around after seeing some bear scat. I think it was horse, though, honestly when I got further up the trail. Still, a friendly guy to have a conversation with before not seeing anyone for the rest of the day. I really like that. I felt like I had the forest to myself. I hiked with headphones in today because I really needed it. When I started out the hike, I was kind of glum. That mood seemed to change as the day went on. The trail was clear of downed trees all the way to the trail junction. From there I hiked down to Separation Lake. I don't think that I had ever been on this section of trail. 

It was steep downhill and had quite a few downed trees. I had to cross two creeks also, which had some logs to balance on. It leveled out before reaching Separation Lake. I hadn't been to Separation Lake for many years and when I went before it was in the fall. During the spring it was so much prettier. I remember it being almost a swamp, but right now it was a really pretty wooded lake. I ate some food and rested my knee. It was feeling a bit sore, but resting for a bit made it feel better. Then it was back up the trail, this time climbing up the really steep hill. It was a good workout, but honestly I wasn't trying to break any records. I took my time, listened to music, and really felt alive again. It was like the woods and the wilderness really revived me on this day. When I got back to the trailhead, I was disappointed. I had enjoyed the hike so much that I did not want to go back to the real world. Today just reminded me that this is always there for me. We worry about money, career, making things perfect for people around you and the commitments that we have. But there is always wilderness to explore. I love hiking!



 

East Fork Trail

Still recovering from my knee injury, I decided to take a trail that went quickly downhill. Not really the greatest of ideas, but since last year they were doing work on the Cougar Dam and the road to the trailhead was closed, this is what I wanted to do now that it was finally open. I had Conrad to join me. The drive to the trailhead went fine. It was back up Aufderheide Road, but this time I turned at the dam and went across it. The road stayed paved for a time and then went uphill. It was about 8 miles up a dirt road when I got to the trailhead beside the road. There are two directions that you can travel from this point. Conrad and I went downhill. This is because going uphill would probably place us into snow pretty quickly. 

As I was expecting the trail went down fairly quickly and it didn't take long for my knee to feel a little bit sore. I still powered through it knowing that some ice and elevation would relieve the pain that I was feeling on this day. Eventually the trail made it down to the East Fork. The trail was in very good condition at this point. The creek was really nice and the walking was enjoyable. Conrad and I were even talking about how you could run this trail. Then it got worse. The brush got thicker, the logs increased until about three and a half miles in we came to a mighty large log that was blocking the trail on a steep slope. We could probably figure out a way to cross it safely, but given the soreness in my knee and the constant fight we were putting up with the trail, we decided this was a good place to count our losses and head back to the trailhead. The hike back goes so quickly and I enjoyed the conversation. Still, the knee was pretty sore by the time we made it back to the car. I definitely glad I went for the hike though. The creek was really pretty and the hike was enjoyable. I was going to need to rest my knee though. 

Rooster Rock

So tired and frustrated from the night before, I set out with my Dad, his wife Laura, and Conrad for a hike up to Rooster Rock. I was tired and frustrated because I was supposed to be running the marathon in Eugene this morning, but given the current state of my knee, I was not going to be doing that. So after months of training, I was stuck just hiking on this day rather than running 26.2 miles. I was glad that a couple of people wanted to spend the day hiking with me. I kept my eyes closed almost all the way out to the trailhead that was a little over an hour from our house. For one, I was sitting in the back where I get car sick. For another, I did not sleep well. When we got to the trailhead, though, I was happy to be there. The trail started innocent enough.

It was fairly flat, but went through some thick forest. Laura was with us for this part. After a while, though, she let the three of us go up ahead. We moved pretty good, but I was not trying to go fast. The knee was definitely hurting, but uphill was not a big deal. My dad was hanging with us. I could tell after a while that even though he said that we could go up ahead, he was trying to keep up with us. Conrad could have destroyed me, but I wanted him to stay with me. After a while, though, I asked Popo if he wanted to go first. That worked a lot better because the three of us were able to hike together. The trail was really steep. In just a few miles we were gaining over 2000 feet. It was about 4.5 miles roundtrip with 2100 feet of elevation, so the trail was pretty steady. The forest was typical northwest forest, but there were also lots of madrone trees. I don't know what it is about madrone trees but they have such a unique look. After a while, we made it up to a junction. The other trail that comes in from another direction meets up here. It is a little less steep, but much longer. From here, we split up. Conrad went up ahead, I was in the middle, and Popo last. There was not a very long distance until we made it to Rooster Rock. I was expecting the trail to end here, but it kept going from there.

On this day, even though I was curious to see where the rest of the trail went, I was happy with ending it here. The knee was definitely feeling it. We ate a bit of food here and admired how steep the rock was. Climbing it seemed like such a difficult proposition given how janky my knee was feeling. From here we went back down. This was the hardest part and definitely walked with a limp. After we passed the junction, we saw Momo (Laura) coming up. Here my dad split off and spent the rest of the hike with Laura. Conrad and I went down as I limped my way down the steep trail. I took most of the force on my right leg to keep my left knee from taking the brunt of it. It would still be sore for a couple of days after the hike, though, because this was probably too steep of a hike for the knee. We made it back to the trailhead. Conrad and I entertained ourselves playing Euchre on my phone. We definitely dominated our competition. It seemed like no time at all before Momo and Popo were back. I got to relax a little bit and I realized how much I missed hiking. Running is important, but hiking is where it is at. We got to see some things and the next day, we were not too exhausted. I would definitely have to visit Rooster Rock again and try the other trail to see where the rest of the route goes. 

John Day Fossil Beds

We awoke at Smith Rock and it had been a long night. I slept pretty well, but woke up a few times and could hear Zyla wheezing. This was not good because she had so many issues with her lungs anyway. Now she was sick and it was settling in. We pretty much made our mind up at that point that we were going to have to end our camping adventure early and head home after visiting John Day Fossil Beds. Zyla was still up for a trip to John Day, so we made it happen. We split tasks between packing up the tent and the car and getting breakfast ready. I drove the show, but eventually we were on the road. Our first destination was the Painted Hills. The drive out there was not bad as the snow was melting and the scenery was alive. The water was running swiftly through creeks that often probably did not have water. 

When we got to the Painted Hills unit, there were two hikes to do in the same area. First, we went to the overlook which was just a short trail. It had a nice view of colorful hills. It was the hike that everyone did. The other hike was across the road and not as many people did this one because it went uphill a lot. It was the Carroll Rim Trail. It was short also. That was sort of the theme for the day. We were going to do a lot of short hikes. We saw only a couple of other groups on this trail. The trail climbed uphill to the top of a butte and then dead ended. It was a nice view. We looked, sat on the benches which seemed to be a theme for this place, and then scampered on back down the trail. We were going to continue back on the road but instead had to backtrack to the bathrooms. There were like two public restrooms for everyone. 

It wasn't like this was a busy place, but there were people around. The next goal was the Painted Cove trail. This was probably my favorite. While short it had nice colors and a walkway. It was over really quick and soon we were on to the next short hike. This time we master the Leaf Hill Trailhead. Here the signs could tell us all about the fossils that we could not see. The last trail in the whole area was the Red Hill trail. This one was probably the most disappointing. What was my verdict? All of these trails were short and uninspiring. I thought that there might actually be some fossils, but not really. I am glad we did them, but probably one of those things only worth doing once. So we packed in the car again.

After a quick stop for lunch and a little time to throw the football, we were off on the road. It was a little over an hour drive to the next stop. This was the Sheep Unit of the park. Our goal was to hike Blue Basin, but it happened to be closed because of a rock slide. When they showed a picture of the rock slide, I was rather disappointed because it did not look like much. Instead, our only choice was to hike the Island in Time trail. This was an uphill hike through a canyon with a lot of bridges in the hot sun. We were enjoying the warm weather for the first time this year. The hiking was easy and the trail was in very good shape. Along the way, there were signs telling us about fossils in the area without there actually being fossils in the area. 

Zyla was getting worse and we knew that this was going to have to be our last hike of the day. There were other units of John Day that we were going to have to enjoy at a later date. She was a trooper, though, doing these hikes when she was feeling so cruddy. We made it to the end of the trail which was a nice view. There was a bench there and a sign to tell us that we were at the end of the trail. The goal of the hikes in John Day was to keep you on a very narrow path so that you did not explore. Not really my cup of tea. We headed back down the many bridges. When we got back to the car, we knew it was time to go home. Zyla was really struggling. In the following days, we would take her to the InstaCare and find out that she had RSV. The rest of our spring break was managing her symptoms. We even had a night where we took shifts staying up with her through the night. We watched her oxygen levels until we felt we had turned a corner. It was still nice to get out as a family on some hikes together over spring break, but in the future, we were definitely going to have to do more. 

Smith Rock State Park

It was my birthday and I wanted to do some hiking and camping. The family was all in, so we went to a spot that we had never visited before. That is always a great place to go. We packed up the car with way too much stuff and were on our way to Smith Rock State Park. It was only a couple of hours from our house. We drove over Santiam Pass, down to Sisters and then we took the road toward Redmond. The GPS took us on some interesting routes. Sometimes I think it does that purposely so you feel like you can't live without it. When we got to Smith Rock State Park, we immediately went to the campground. It was all tent camping and we got there just as people were starting to clear out. That meant that there were a lot of places to put a tent down. 

I let the family decide and soon we were putting up our massive 6 person tent amongst the climbing bums there to enjoy the rocks. The camping was expensive for a family of four costing $8 per person. We got everything carried to the tent and once we felt like we were settled there, we had a bite to eat. The picnic tables for eating were all located where the cars were parked as the site itself was a walk-in site in the middle of a big field. We had ourselves some lunch and then left for the trail right from our campsite. The trail took us to incredible views of Smith Rock. It was this large volcanic plume but it almost looked like red rock out here in this more arid environment. There was a river that wound around it called the Crooked River that made it seem even more inviting. There sure were a lot of people around and I realized why as this was an easy spot to experience nature, but there were many different interest levels. There were the casual hiker, the serious hiker, the casual climber, the serious climber, and even the stop for 5 minutes and take a picture tourists. We followed our trail which was the Rim Rock Trail. It was there for the viewpoint. From there it took us down to the one big bridge that crossed the Crooked River. From there we headed right up the Misery Ridge Trail.

I had been training for a marathon, but perhaps I was a little overtrained. My body was starting to reject the training, so on this hike I had taken a couple of days off of running. Still, the hiking was getting to me. Yes, this was a steep trail that went quickly up the mountain side, but I should be able to handle it without my body rejecting it. My heart rate was steadily increasing and I was having issues breathing. The other person that was struggling was Zyla. She had issues with allergies, so when we left on the trip, we were assuming that was what she was experiencing. Instead, we could see that she was steadily getting worse. This was probably not allergies, but instead, cold like symptoms. She was doing her best to tough it out for me on my birthday, but the hiking was sure getting to her as well as me. Soon, though, we were topping out on Misery Ridge with a lot of other people. We did not stop very long to look because of too many other humans, but the view was still good as we kept walking. A few other hikers pointed out bald eagles perched on a tree in front of us and as we continued going we got to enjoy the climbers finding their way up Monkey Face. I can tell that the youth in me is slowly dying because looking up at the climbers, I just saw that as super risky. 

I guess a lot of the thrill seeker attitude in me is gone and now it is just really trying to appreciate this stuff. The trail went back down almost as soon as we were up. We went down to the river right by Monkey Face and were soon headed around Smith Rock. We came to a junction and we left a portion of trail unhiked. Smith Rock only had about 15 miles of trails, but we were going to have to leave some of those unhiked on this day. Continuing on our way, we were now spending time right by the Crooked River. It was very high and I am sure uncrossable. You could tell that at other times during the year, the river could be crossed as some portions of trail ran right to the river. We could see a rescue team preparing to practice swift water rescue, so we were not about to put a foot in the river. 

Still it was super enjoyable and incredibly pleasant just hiking along the river. We could look up to see the climbers and the birds enjoying the cliffs. We took a side trail and had a snack by the river and then continued on our way. Unfortunately, we were finding ourselves back at the big bridge too soon. There was more to the trail and we continued on that rather than going back to camp too early. This section of trail was called the Wolf Tree Trail. It was really just a continuation of what we had just done, but much quieter with less climbers and hikers. We took that all the way until it dead ended at the Summit Trail. That trail climbed quite a bit more and considering that my heart was racing just doing a fairly moderate climb, I worried what that would do to my body. 

My hiking companions were not about to do that with Zyla getting steadily worse. Instead it was time to start heading back. When we got to the big bridge, though, I took another trail back to camp. This worried both Zyla and Jacqueline, but given that I had a trail map on my watch, I was not too concerned. We made our way to what seemed like practice cliffs for climbers. Here was a spot that a climber could top rope and practice for something bigger. Our trail wound around this and soon I found the right path. It took us right back to our campsite. We still had a good portion of the day as it was just late afternoon. We spent the rest of the day reading books, playing games, cooking dinner, and enjoying each other's company. I had a great crew of people to spend my birthday with. In the evening, we walked out to the Rim Rock trail again to see the view. It was beautiful at night also. We enjoyed the view and then we went back to the tent. Here we were greeted almost immediately by the smell of marijuana smoke, one of the drawbacks of staying in a campground with a bunch of climbers. We settled in for the night and we all slept pretty well. I could hear Zyla wheezing in the middle of the night, so that was not a good omen for tomorrow.