OR Section F: Goats, Lakes, Pretty Peaks, and 2000 Miles (19 photos, 2 videos)

Section F is 113 miles long and runs from Mackenzie Pass to Barlow Pass. August 26th - 31st.

Day 112, 4 miles to Santiam Pass and a super nero day in Bend.

We had another misty scare from the lake so we packed up early and returned to the hiker cabin. Almost everyone planned to stick around for breakfast but we had a lot of town chores to get started on. So we hit the trail in the dreary and gray weather to knock out a few quick miles to the road and get to Bend. On the way I completely forgot that we were going to hit the 2000 mile marker! But with the mist, or drizzle but definitely not rain status, the celebration was short and we continued to the road. We arrived with Breaker and Gently Used and began what we thought would be the difficult task to hitch 40 miles to Bend while it's raining. Luckily, a sweet grandma named Carol, picked up all four of us and gave us a ride. She was a tough old lady who grew up on a farm, still runs marathons, and has five kids who are all almost out of college. She was doing some section hikes because she plans to through hike the PCT next year. She said in exchange for the lift, she got to pick our brains about gear, strategies, and lessons we have learned so far. We got dropped off at the Bunk+Brew Hostel and got a quick tour of the place. Albert Lucas built the house in 1910 and it was the first brick house in Bend. He also owned the first automobile in town. He had eight kids so they were eight bedrooms on the top floor that had all been turned into bunk rooms. There was an 80 year old painting on the wall that never gets hit with daylight and thus has not faded. We grabbed lunch at Chipotle and then got our food resupply at Safeway before heading to the library to begin the job search for post-trail life. All of the crew was at the hostel when we got back and we made plans to do a brewery crawl to hit some of the breweries that gave a free first beer to hikers. Sea Lion and I snuck out a little early to have a dinner date and then our plan was off to a good start. Unfortunately, it was Sunday and most breweries closed at 9. So he went back downtown and found JJ's which was having karaoke night. We felt this might be our last true Town experience so we went at it!

Day 113, 0-Day in Bend.

I was the first one up and decided I may as well start making a tower of pancakes for everyone. The hostel gives you a beer on check-in and has tons of breakfast supplies which I turned into chocolate chip pancakes. The crew was very thankful, and very hungover, and it did not take much convincing that we were going to stay another night. The next few hours involved working on the blog, laying down, drinking water, but we did give our backpacks a thorough cleaning! Then a few of us met for happy hour at McMenamins, an old Catholic Church that was converted into a hotel, restaurant, and brewery. From there, Sea Lion and I hopped on the free shuttle to go to the movie theater in the Old Mill District. We were going to see the BlacKKKlansman but first made a pit stop at a candy store to get some treats to smuggle in. It was a great movie and on the way out we were both completely surprised to see that the theater had a legit bar with eight beers on tap. We walked right past it on the way in. Darn. I called a Lyft for the ride home and as we were waiting a deer just strolled down the middle of the road like it owned the place. Back at the hostel we got packed up, hoping for an early start the next day, and went to bed.

Day 114, 13.9 miles to Rock Pile Lake.

Everyone felt much better this morning and we again enjoyed copious amounts of scrambled eggs, coffee, and of course, chocolate chip pancakes. Sea Lion and I returned to Safeway to search for a ride because when we were there doing our resupply, 2 people offered, completely out of the blue, To give us rides back to the trail. We were not so lucky today and decided to walk up to the on-ramp for the highway. A few blocks up, we met Twizzler who had just came to the same conclusion. We walked together for about 100 yards when a guy pulled over for us. Josh said he could take us to Sisters since he was about to head up there anyway so we hopped in his Jeep period along the way he said he first had to stop at home to check on his dogs so we went with him. He was a 40 year old who seemed to be living the dream of a 17 year old stoner; he is a licensed marijuana grower who mostly plays X-box all day on a 60" TV with surround sound. He took us not just to Sisters, but an additional 30 miles to the trailhead. We hiked a lazy 14 miles to get to Rock Pile Lake. along the way I caught up on journaling and summaries and almost got a good shot of two phones near the lake. Twizzler joy and us for dinner between our 2/10 and we wondered where the rest of the group was.

Day 115, 25.2 miles to camp.

We set out with an eight mile stretch to the next water source. The sky was again beautiful and there were numerous lakes down below the ridgeline that we were hiking on. The next stretch wrapped around the side of Mountain Jefferson and crossed numerous rivers originating from the snow melt high above. I checked the comments and learned that there is a dead horse in the upcoming Russell Creek, I guess we will skip that water source. As the story goes, a lady was riding in wet conditions when part of the trail collapsed under their weight. On the tumble down, she broke one leg but the horse broke all four of it's legs so they shot it and left it to rot. Sorry for the gruesome side note. Let's get back to our regularly scheduled blog post. We continued past Whitewater Creek which was a beautiful milky white color snaking through the green forest but not a good water source. I imagine it would have clogged the water filter pretty quick with all of the silt and sediment. So we got water at the next clear crisp stream and took a lunch break. My feet were starting to hurt and I realized that my shoes had over 700 miles on them and I should have gotten a new pair in Bend instead of waiting until Cascade Locks. I think I'll finally learn my lesson this time. We took another break at the top of the climb and I loved the transition point between southward views Mount Jefferson and were introduced to a northward view of Mount Hood. The landscape also switched to a feeling of the high passed in the Sierras, with no vegetation and moon-like rock piles all over the place. We were hoping for a 30 miler but the 2600ft ascent we just did left us rather drained. We squeezed out a few more miles to a pond so we could camp at a water source and it also had a great angle for the sunset. It was also nice to set camp on the early side and have time to read and relax before going to bed. Twizzler and Moose stopped a few miles back and planned to do a 100 kilometer challenge the next day, taking advantage of the almost continuous downhill towards Timberline Lodge and Mount Hood. They were going to start at 230am so we knew they would be flying past us at night. We arranged a bunch of sticks out on the trail to wish them luck and remind them that they only had 91.6km left to go.

Looked like this plane was flying in a loop around Mount Jefferson.

Moose and Twizzler both made it 100km (62 miles) in a day! Squirrel did too but we didn't know he was also making the attempt, so no stick name for him.

Day 116, 30.7 miles to Wilson Road.

We were also thinking about taking advantage of the grade and shooting for a 40 mile day. But we slept in and did not hit the trail until 830. To recover lost time we had a fast stride but were soon derailed when we ran into a trail magic at Olallie Lake that was serving pancakes. Afterwards, we hit high gear again but I was doubtful we would achieve 40 unless we did a lot of night hiking. We arrived at the ten mile mark to get water and it was almost 1130am, far from achieving the 10 by 10 mark. It was around this point when the fast pace started to destroy my feet. After another 7 miles we took a break and I raised my feet and gave them a good rub. Sea Lion also was not feeling it so we decided to kill the 40 mile attempt right there and agreed a 30 would still be nice. We continued to the next spring and along the way we passed a few of the old trail markers which was a neat peak to the trails past. The spring was dry so we went all the way down to the bottom of the hill and took a dinner break with Midge and Mousetrap. We had one last climb afterwards and it was when me feet quit. I couldn't get above a measly 2mph and I texted Sea Lion telling her to stop at the next camp site. I limped into Wilson Road, a tiny dirt road, and we found some tent spots just out of sight in the woods.

Day 117, 20.5 miles to Barlow Pass.

I slept like a log and put my pack under my feet to elevate them. It did wonders. It also helped that the next ten miles were completely flat and the trail was a nice soft dirt. We took a short side trail to Little Crater Lake which was a deep stunning blue. I fancied a swim but the sun wasn't out and I changed my mind after wading out knee deep for some underwater footage. The water was absolutely freezing and my legs were numb after 20 seconds. It felt great on my aching feet though. We chatted with a lot of day hikers that were there and then we took off to tackle the remaining miles of the section. We had a gentle incline to a ridge that provided some views of Mount Hood and we soon arrived at Barlow Pass. Shark's parents came to visit her and rented a huge airbnb cabin for the traimily. They also cooked a feast for us including corn on the cob, pasta, chicken breasts, sausages, roasted veggies, and cake for dessert. We then watched Super Troopers before started to drop off to bed.