More pictures from 9/6

Day 114 9/6 12.5 mi.

We woke up and went straight for the breakfast buffet. It was absolutely amazing! They had tons of great breakfast food options.

After getting the rest of our chores done we grabbed a couple appetizers for a small cheap lunch and hit the trail.

The trail leaving the lodge was very steep and sandy again so the going was slow. Towards the end of the day we took an older PCT route rather than the new official trail, since the old route went by an awe inspiring waterfall! (Pictured above)

Day 113 9/5 24.5mi.

We walked along a big lake for a few miles in the morning, met a few trail maintainers, and met a woman preparing for a 50 mile race!

Throughout the day the trail took us to some good views of Mt. Hood. The last 1.5 miles of the day, up the side of Mt.Hood were like walking on a loose sandy beach, tilted at a 30 degree angle. It was strenuous! We finally made it to Timberline Lodge, a huge fancy shmancy ski lodge on the shoulder of the mountain!

After meeting up with other hikers 9 of us split an 8 person bunk room. We spent the night eating, showering and hanging out in the hot tub.

Day 112 9/4 29mi.

After packing up Chatterbox and I headed straight for the small store and ate muffins, snickers bar, dorittos, coke, coffee, and fritos for breakfast.

We left the store at 9 and our junk food breakfast powered us 29 miles through a thick forest. We made it to a horse camp as it was getting dark and set up our tents there for the night.

More pictures from 9/3

Day 111 9/3 23.5mi.

We slept in a little more than usual, and felt a bit tired all day. We took a lot of nice breaks and still somehow made it over 20 today.

Todays walk to use through the beautiful Jefferson Park, just below Mt. Jefferson which still has a bunch of snow and some small glaciers on it. The park consisted of a ton of small lakes and meadows covered in wildflowers! As we left the park we got our first good view of Mt.Hood and we saw the remains of a wildfire, still smoking a little bit.

We crossed a section of snow that was long and steep, we slid down a couple hundred to the bottom and kept hiking on solid ground.

We camped right next to the turn off for a small store, so we could go get some snacks when they open tomorrow morning.

Day 110 9/2 28mi.

We were in a fantastic area all day and saw tons of section and day hikers again, because of labor day weekend. We hiked near a rock formation called Three Fingered Jack, its the thin pointy mountain pictured above.

After a long day we camped near 4 other thru hikers we just met near Shale lake.

Day 109 9/1 13mi.

After packing up the first thing we did was head straight for a great little breakfast place and stuffed ourselves. Then it was on to the laundromat, after that we walked down to the grocery store to resupply and eat lunch.

We got a ride out of town easily and by 2:30 we were back on the trail, hiking over lava rock. There were loads of day hikers and section hikers out since it was labor day weekend. We kept moving all afternoon and got in 13 miles just after sunset.

Day 108 8/31 20mi.

We woke with 20 miles to a highway which leads to the town of Sisters, OR.

The walk today was unbelievable we walked through fields covered in purple Lupins, with the huge Three Sister's mountains in the backgroud, which had glaciers tucked into the shady corners of the mountain!  Eventually the terrain turned into huge fields of bare lava rock!

We made it to the highway at about 4 and caught a ride down to town in the back of a pickup. We found a cheap campground to stay at for the night and ate at a great mexican restaurant!

Day 107 8/30 26mi.

After only walking about 2 miles this morning I was in front and I started smelling smoke. As I moved along I saw a bunch of smoke rising up from the ground about 10 feet off the trail. There were a bunch of hot embers and a lot of smoke coming from a pretty big area on the ground. It looks like someone had a small fire there and didn't put it out all the way or was careless while cooking.

I dumped what water I could on it and then started  stomping it out, right then another hiker going the other direction came along who also happened to be a firefighter! He dumped what water he could spare on it as well amd helped me dig it out and stomp it out. By the time Chatterbox came along it was pretty well out. The firefighter was confident that we got it out all the way and so we moved on and about 5 minutes down the trail there was a little pond where I filled up 4 liters of water and brought it back to dump on the hot area.

It was frustrating to see that people are so careless if that had happened on a less traveled trail it would have turned into a wildfire! Smokey the bear wouldn't be happy with who ever did that.

We have been walking through the forest without many views lately, but at the end of the day today we walked into an open area with spectacular views of huge mountains! We camped near a creek today with a great view.

Also, my phone must have accidentally turned on at some point and it died, so no pictures for today or tomorrow.

Day 106 8/29 27mi.

It's been hard to get up in the morning because it has been so cold, and today it was especially difficult to crawl out of the warm sleeping bag as it was super cold.

Once we got going we cruised along all day. We took lunch next to an awesome lake with about 8 other thru-hikers. Eventually the two of us found a nice spot next to a small lake for the night.

Day 105 8/28 22mi.   Trip miles: 1917.8

We woke up to an amazing sunrise this morning because of the mist over the lake and a few clouds!

We got up fairly high today and actually walked over snow for the first time in quite awhile. After about 18miles we made it to a highway and quickly got a hitch down into Crescent Lake, OR.

They had a surprisingly good sized grocery store and one restaurant so we resupplied and ate, then headed right back to the trail.

After 4 more miles of walking we got to a campsite right in-between two small lakes and stopped for the night.

Day 104 8/27 23.5mi.

We woke to horses making lots of really loud noises and we could feel them shake the ground as the ran along the other side of the lake. We never figured out what they were doing there, there were no saddles or anything on them and no other people around that we could see.

Along the way today we walked through the burn area which is why I mentioned the trail was closed yesterday. It was still fairly smokey and fire fighters could be seen in the area putting out small hot spots left over from the fire.

Chatterbox and I were both really sore after doing 20 miles yesterday and climbing Mt. Thielson so we weren't able to push as far as we would have liked today but we made it to really nice campsite next to a huge lake.

Day 104 8/27 23.5mi.

We woke to horses making lots of really loudnoises and we could feel them shake the ground as the ran along the other side of the lake. We never figured out what they were doing there, there were no saddles or anything on them and no other people around that we could see.

Along the way today we walked through the burn area which is why I mentioned the trail was closed yesterday. It was still fairly smokey and fire fighters could be seen in the area putting out small hot spots left over from the fire.

Chatterbox and I were both really sore after doing 20 miles yesterday and climbing Mt. Thielson so we weren't able to push as far as we would have liked today but we made it to really nice campsite next to a huge lake.