Day 110: Portland
The best part about hiking through the night and finishing the trail early in the morning is that now I’d have all day to get to Portland. My flight would leave the next day at 6 pm, so I’d hopefully also get a good nights sleep in a bed!
I finished the trail at McKenzie Pass at 6am in the morning, and it was completely deserted. It took almost two hours to get a ride. I’d hoped to get a ride to Bend, OR to catch a bus that went straight to Portland, but that departed at 9:15am and I wouldn’t make it on time. Instead, I stayed flexible and hitched the opposite direction with the goal to hitch to Portland all the way.
My first ride took me about an hour before dropping me off at an intersection. My next ride took almost another hour, which was frustrating given the level of sleep deprivation I was at. Finally, a fella stopped who was headed to Eugene, OR. That’d get me within 2 hours of Portland so I hopped in.
I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. This was easily my wildest hitch of the entire adventure and I’ll need to write an entry just about this ride! He talked non-stop for about an hour and a half, and it quickly became clear he was slightly unhinged. It required all of my patience to keep cool. We FINALLY made it to Eugene where he proceeded to drop me off on the shoulder between 2 exits, one of which headed to Portland. Without a trusty sign like my last time hitching significant distance, I didn’t have much hope hitching on a busy interstate. I tried my thumb at it for about an hour before giving up and looking at the bus schedule.
Where I was dropped off at.
Good news! There’d be a bus going to Portland and i could catch a connecting bus not too far from where I was at.
I stopped at a Walgreens for snacks and ice cream to put my hangry-ness at bay and then started my bus journey.
I didn’t have a chance to shower before my bus ride. Yikes
The bus was straight forward and I was actually able to catch some Zzz’s. My first chore when arriving in Portland was to shower followed immediately by going to a shoe store and ditching my trail-worn Hokas for a new pair of shoes.