When I decided to hike out again I bought a coke, a gatorade and an icecream for the way 🙂

Coke & icecream was gone on the way to the trail and the gatorade an hour later.

 

I think this was one of the roughest uphill sections I ever had on trail. After 6 hours of rest your legs are rusted and it wad really steep. 6 miles in 3 hours.

 

 

When I finally arrived at the campspot I wanted to sleep I had to control myself not to swear at the tent that was already there. That’s why I don’t like to gamble on the tentsites…

 

The next official tentsite was 4 miled away and it was already getting dark. Luckily for me I found a spot a mile away, not perfecrt, but netter than walking for over an hour in the dark.

 

After a quick dinner I fell right asleep.

 

 

 

Actually this is the first time I overslept on trail. I did set my alarm and instead of snoozing it I somehow turned it of. So I was on trail only at 7 am.

 

I quickly passed the guy who did tent where I wanted to. I had to push because of the late start to make up the miled I’ve lost.

 

A 10 minute breakfast pause at 10 and of I went in the heat for another 2 hour climb.

 

 

The Oregon/Californian border came closer and closer as I was hiking trough the forest covered with smoke. The lunch was very short too so I could keep on hiking.

 

At 19h I passed the border and could finally upload the new map to my phone. I saw that there was a lodge almost on trail 26 miles ahead where I could eat lunch tomorrow. So I kept going to camp as close as possible.

 

 

At 20h30 I couldn’t hike any further because it became too dark and I don’t like to set up my tent without daylight.

I found a nice spot close to a spring and after dinner I was still motivated to watch some netflix.

 

 

At 6am I was on trail!

The miles were flying as most of them were downhill.

 

I wanted to be at the lodge around 13h so I had to be really fast. But some cellphone service slowed me down… and then there was some trailmagic too, which slowed me down again…

 

 

So I decided to have breakfast while hiking to save time and made up a little bit. I finally arrived at 13h20 at the lodge. Not too bad for 21 miles.

 

I had a magnificent sandwich. Something like a toast, but fried, with powdered sugar over it, jam and potato fries. Sounds strange, but was absolutely georgeous!!!

 

I stayed there until 17h, drank a few beers, played with my phone and spoke with other hikers and the barmaids about the trail.

 

 

But I had to make some more miles before going to bed (or to tent??) for tonight so I hiked out again into the smokey afternoon.

 

Some more trailmagic was right on trail 🙂 I had to take a can for later because I was too full from all the beer at the lodge.

 

After 2 hours I decided that it would be a good idea to get an early rest after “only 25 miles”. As I set up my tent, I realized that it was very windy, but after checking the maps, the next spots would be as exposed so I stayed here.

 

A lot of time to cook, write this, later some netflix and maybe an early sleep to get up early tomorrow 🙂

 

 

 

 

I didnt sleep well because it was very windy, so I was on trail only at 6h30 which is not to bad, but I wanted it to be earlier.

I had a good internet connection so I checked for flights back from Vancouver to Luxemburg. Getting to Luxemburg instead of Paris or Frankfurt was 10€ more, so I booked that. 310€ is a good price 🙂

 

 

Sadly that didn’t helped me to get myself going, I lacked motivation the whole morning…

 

I ate second breakfast very early at 9 because I thought Nutella might help, but it didn’t…

 

There was still a lot of smoke in that its impossible to see the landscape and so much too that one does not even see the blue sky 🙁

 

Lunch didn’t helped my motivation either. My pace was ok, but yeah it wad hard to keep going.

 

 

Somehow I distracted myself after I met an old friend, Lumberjack, again and I was able to speed up in the late afternoon.

 

I got in fact so fast I did 14 miles in 5 hours and had dinner within that time. There was no time to rest because I hate arriving after sunset to the camp.

 

I luckily was just able to pitch my tent before it got to dark, when I came back from getting water 100 meters away it was so dark I couldn’t almost find my way back to the tent because I didn’t took my headlamp.

 

Tomorrow 18 miles to the fish lake resort for maybe lunch, maybe just resupply and I need energy for my powerbank.

 

 

 

 

I got up on time but due to someone camping next to me it took me longer than usual because I tried to be as quiet as possible. At 6h10 I was ln the trail.

 

It was so cold I could see my own breath for the first few miles but I had forgotten my puffy at home so I had to deal with the coldness.

 

Same problem than the last days, motivation was low, very low and I had trouble to keep going. The amoke was still dense and the trail trough the forest kept beeing boring. The fact that I met Stretch an Steak again whom I haven’t seen for 2 months did help a bit but not a lot.

 

 

I got a ride to the resort as I was already halfway on the roadwalk to get there.

The burger did put a smile on my face and the coke, beer and milkshake were desperately needed to keep the mind healthy.

 

It was a short stay because a local trailanel offered to take me up to the trailhead so I paid, got some resupply and got into the car.

 

There was supposed to be water in a river right next to the trailhead, but as I got to the river it was dry. I sat down my backpack an ran back to the street because there were a few gallons.

I twisted my ankle again while running. This time so bad that I heard a cracking noise and my body trew himself to the ground to avoid stepping one more time on that ankle. Because of the horrible pain and that noise I laid there for a few minutes. I trew up because of the pain and it took me a few more moments before I tried to move the ankle to see if it was broken.

 

It wasn’t. But I was barely able to walk.

 

I took the water and went for the campingsite where I wanted to sleep. It took me 5,5 hours to do 11 miled instead of a realistic 3,5 when I’m motivated.

 

The spring was ice cold and I was able to put a cooler bag around the swolen ankle. It is kind of usual that the springs have water just above the freezing point so after an hour I didn’t felt my foot anymore and had to take it down. Maybe I’ll have to do the same at the next spring again…

 

No dinner today, just hoping for the best for tomorrow and an early sleep.

 

 

 

 

When I woke up at 5h30 I realized that it was as cold yesterday and I decided to give my foot another hour rest and wait for it to get warmer.

At 7h20 I was on trail, as late as I haven’t been for an eternity! An then I realized that I’ve made a huge mistake by getting up late. There was a camping site next to the Crater Lake with a shop an the possibility to charge your stuff over night. 37 miles away…

 

I had to be there before 9pm to be able to plug in my powerbank which was completely empty. That meant pushing hard for the whole day with my still swollen ankle which does still hurt a lot 🙁

Amazing how much southbounders crossed me and I didn’t saw a single northbounder.

 

Luckily the trail was ok and it was relatively flat, only about 1200 altitude meters in total.

 

I was surprised how well I was able to hike at the needed speed fron the begining on. I had eaten all my snacks for the day before I had second breakfast, which was different today due to limited resupply options at the resort.

 

 

I had a beer at 9 am to celebrate with a friend who got married today. I would have had to drink it at 6, but it was way to cold for a beer at that time.

 

The landscape didn’t changed much, still forest with a lot of smoke.

 

I had a 20 minute lunch break where I realized that I really could make it on time if I continued pushing for another 8 hours…

 

Said and done.

 

 

The only spectacular thing the whole afternoon was a huge burned area I walked trough.

 

At 20h20 I was at the shop, quickly greetet everyone, got food and beer, registered for the camping and sat down with the hikertrash to enjoy stories about mountain lions.

 

At 9pm I went to our campingsite, knowing I would have an almost full powerbank and I would be able to take more pictures again made me sleep well. Maybe the 3 beers did help too 🙂

 

 

 

 

Powerbank was at least 50% charged which was nice! And after a 2000 kalorie breakfast I was ready to hike out of Mazama village.

 

Because there was no source for the next 28 miles I left with 5 liters of water an a lot of food, so my bag was a bit heavy.

 

My worst fear came true as I came out of the forest and saw Crater lake it was covered in smoke… I was barely able to see the isle in the lake…

 

A bad way to start the day and I had to walk around the miserable lake view for the next 8 miles…

I had lunch looking away from the lake to demonstrate that he had chosen to be covered instead of beeing clear with a nice view.

 

The afternoon walk was nice amd flat and I was able to keep a good pace for almost 4 hours before I ran into trailmagic.

 

A cool Gatorade and an apple and almost an hour of chatting with the trailangel I went of again for a 6 mile uphill stretch to the campground I wanted to sleep tonight.

 

 

I had the impression that the sky cleared up, because the sunset looked different than the last days, but because the forests are very dense I was not able to check my theorie.

 

 

 

 

Today will be known ass the black monday.

 

Horroble mood, no positive thoughts nothing good to say about today apart from that I walked a new distance record…

 

 

I try to just forget about this day!

 

 

 

 

The next morning was not a lot better, I was still in bad mood because the smoke was still there altough it should have been gone by now.

 

I had to start walking with my raingear because it was so cold in the morning.

 

 

I had 16 miles to get to the Shelter Cove Resort where I had to resupply a last time before getting to Bend.

 

Bad mood is good for your speed because I try to get all my aggressions into movement which makes me faster. But sometimes ot slows you down so much that you have to sit down on a log and have a rest to focus on walking again too.

 

Today I was able to go fast because I knew I would get Ice-cream there.

 

Second breakfast got eaten while walking to save time.

 

At 12h20 I arrived after walking 225km in 72 hours.

There are still the same bad news about the trail beeing closed the last 50 miles before getting to Canada because there is a fire right on trail. Which is one of the reasons why I am so grumpy.

 

 

 

Beer, Pizza and Ice-cream helped a bit, but made not all of the bad mood up again.

 

After staying 3 hours there, I had taken my second shower this month, did laundry and charged my stuff a little bit.

 

I got a large beer, which is around 750ml and hiked out again.

 

It was an easy 1500feet and 8 mile uphill section before I reached the place where I wanted to camp.

 

I havent been into my tent this early at 19h15 since I got back on trail 3 weeks ago.

 

Lets see what tomorrow will bring.

 

 

 

 

 

The nights are cold and so are the mornings, without my puffy I am not able to start hiking before 7 without freezing, so can at least get some well earned sleep 🙂

 

 

No powerbars at the last resupply so my breakfast consists of Snickers and Skittles.

 

The trail did still not change, only trees and smoke. But lately a lot of small lakes and ponds mark the trail. Most of them are smurky and not ment to take your water out of them.

 

 

I want to arrive the earliest possible in two days in Sisters so I have to walk more than 30 miles a day. That’s why second breadfast had been eaten while walking and lunch had been taken within half an hour.

 

I still struggle with motivation so even though I walk many ours I could walk a lot further if my pace would be better.

 

The trees do not really change an because the bubble is ahead of my there is not a lot of variety while walking and no-one to talk to.

 

Today I saw 6 southbounders with whom I had each 5 second interactions, that’s all for my social part of today.

 

One does have to learn to appreciaty beeing 23 hours and 58 minutes alone per day, which is not always easy… especially if you are heaving a hard time keeping yourself walking for at least 13 hours a day…

 

I am sure I’ll get what I’m missing when I’m in town in two days 🙂

 

I found a small campspot next to a pond, I was giving a lot of blood to all of the mosquitos before I had set up my tent. I had to cook inside before I blew up my matress and went to sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

The mornings are getting colder and colder and I am having more and more trouble getting up.

 

I was on the trail at 7h15 still having to devide if I wanted to do an extra 3 miles to another resort for a few snacks and ag this time maybe a coffee. I decided not to because I wasn’t able to find opening times and I don’t want to stand in front of closed doors.

 

 

The smoke is still not better, I even found ashes laying on my tent this morning. But the trail started to get finally more interesting again 🙂

 

Second breakfast again while hiking and for lunch I met 4 older ladys doing a weekend trip and lost myself in time while chatting with them about the trail…

 

 

The trail itself was rough today, a lot of sand an small gravel made walking difficult. I soon realized that the planned 36 miles won’t be realistic and so I chose a spot a 4 miles earlier.

 

 

The sunset was at 16h… because of all the smoke it gets dark and cold very early in the day. I didn’t want to change my spot again so I ran everywhere I could to arrive before it would get too dark.

 

I passed a few magnificent volcanic places and arrived just moment before it was dark at my spot. I had to hurry up to get into the tent to finally be able to heat up again.

 

 

It is very windy outside so maybe the smoke will be gone tomorrow 🙂

 

 

 

And it was so gone 😀

The night was rough because of all the wind and it was very cold int the morning, but it was so worth it!!!

 

 

Finally! Finally after all those miles I was able to see again where I was walking! The wind made it really cold… ( I would find out later that it was below 0° celsius ) and I was walking with my short pants a t-shirt and a ultra thin rain-jacket…

 

 

I was mot able to take of my rain-jacket before 12am. People who know me know that I am not easily shivering, but it was very cold today.

 

 

 

I wanted to go to a youth camp whig was almost on the trail to get myself a treat before finishing this section, but their shop was closed from 11am to 3 pm… who does that????

 

I had to hike past without Ice-cream or coke or a snack and so I attacked the last 5 miles after cooking my own lunch.

 

 

The miles were flying and I soon reached the road to Sisters where I tried to get a hitch. Easier said than done… a whole hour I had to wait for someone to pick me up where at least 250 cars passed without stopping…

 

In Sisters I set up my tent, took a shower and added 4 times more money to extand it 🙂

 

Then I went to a pizzaria & brewery had dinner and a few beers I’ve never tasted before. Different IPA’s, pineapple beer, blueberry wheat beer,… strange but not bad.

 

After thag I will go straight to my tent and try to get to the laundromat tomorrow morning before breakfast and before trying to get to Bend.