Day 80: Snow, yay.
Based on the comments on Guthook’s, I knew today was going to be back in the snow until we reached McKenzie Pass where we’d hitch into Sisters, OR. Within a mile of leaving camp, we re-entered winter “wonderland”. It was slow, slippery, and frustrating hiking. My legs were fatigued from the big days we logged in the last few days and I was mentally already in Sisters, which made the day go by slowly. The snow was exhausting since it was slightly melted making each step a bit of a slide, plus the trail was buried and foot steps to follow were far and few between.
On my fifth fall on my butt in a period of 10 minutes, I hit the ground, grabbed snow to throw it, and yelled “god damn it!!” in a rare fit of rage. As I’m standing up, two hikers see us, run down the hill towards us, and excitedly exclaim, “we haven’t seen anyone else in 3 days!!”. I needed their positive overflowing energy so we chatted for a bit. The trail provides!
We slogged out the snow until reaching the lava rock field that’d take us to McKenzie Pass and the highway into town. The lava rock field was the leftover of a lava flow from a volcanic eruption, and while it was snow free, was rocky as hell making it slower. It felt like we were on a whole other planet.
We reached the pass shortly before 6pm to find it mostly deserted. I was nervous to get a hitch, but fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately) the first truck stopped for us. My first sign should’ve been when he asked me, “what are you doing out here all by yourself?”. The fella was a weird guy. He drove 35 mph in a 55 mph zone the 15 miles into town and showed us photos of his 35 yr old “girlfriend” (he’s 67), a photo of a man he beat up yesterday, and declared he was out this way since the police were looking for him in his hometown. Yikes.
We made it safely to our campsite, and I quickly took a shower. It was now 7:30pm I needed to hitch over an hour to meet my high school best friend, Tate, at a remote track where he was helping put on a track meet. I stood outside of Sisters, OR for about 15 minutes until a nice couple stopped to give me a ride to the intersection that I could another ride to the track. They dropped me off and within 2 minutes, a family turned around to come pick me up and then take me where I needed to go. It was an incredibly lucky night of hitching since I made it to Tate at 8:45, exactly as the meet was finishing up.
I’d be riding with Tate to Portland where my girlfriend is flying in to hang out for a few days. I’d also planned to do some soul searching while in town, but more to come on this.
We made it to Portland by midnight. It feels good to have some rest scheduled.
Miles: 29.3
Total Miles: 2,195