Thoroughly debating the state of Cookie Monster’s burned foot, we decided to press on right after a brief chat with Splinter.
“Where have you been?” Hop-a-long asked since he should have been only a few miles behind us.
“Ya know,” he sighed, “I was trying to get way further than I was but then I hit Russel Creek and I heard the water rushing quite quickly underneath all that snow and ice at night and I didn’t feel safe crossing it, so I set up camp right then and there.”
“Safe decision,” I said thinking about how glad I was we hit that in the daytime and properly assessed it.
We trotted onward and upward and away from the very expensive Ollalie Lake Resort.
Then we ran into a worried woman and her teenage daughter both complete with large weekend packs that went over their heads.
“You guys know it’s hunting season, right?” she stammered.
“Oh, no. Huh.” Cookie said unconcerned.
“Well you’ll be fine once you hit the Indian Reservation because there’s no hunting over there,” she mentioned.
After she left we thought about what she said and how worried she was. “Then why is she hiking south, away from the reservation?” Cookie asked me.
“She also had no blaze orange on either,” I pondered. It was one of those “Huh.” moments where that’s all you can say without acting like a rude smart mouth.
We pushed on, into the night contouring up the side of one hill, then another, and then another. Eventually, we camped in Pinhead Saddle where Hop-a-long had found a fantastically flat campsite. Cookie crashed out immediately, Hop-a-long sewed up her skirt, and I read some Game of Thrones on my phone.
Timothy Lake
In the morning, we got moving early and pushed for a long day. Cookie’s foot wasn’t any better and he was simply trying not to think about it. He kept it wrapped to avoid infection and pulled an amazing feat of mind-over-matter and ignored it for the 30 mile day we logged. The terrain did not present too many challenges, so the walking seemed pleasant and flowing. We had a hearty lunch and a little whiskey near Timothy Lake which looked like it would have great swimming if the weather had been warmer. I almost lamented the utter hot obnoxious weather of California which pushed me to swim every chance I got just to get the sweat off of me, then I remembered my eyeballs sweating and that thought shot straight out of my mind.
The trail followed the lake for several miles of beauty until it dipped over to begin contouring up another hill and we found ourselves back in the Doctor Seuss trees with their glow in the dark looking moss. Unfortunately, it did not glow in the dark, but I did imagine a million different Halloween wig styles that one could create with the moss.
We had a slight water gap where we had to find a seeping spring for which Yogi gave several paragraphs of information on how to find it. In actuality, a wood plant with “water” written on it and an arrow pointed almost directly to it. We just had to climb over one blowdown to get there. Out of exhaustion, we almost camped there that night since it was only a few minutes until dark and our bodies were going on the “screw you, I’m tired” mode while the mind told it “only a few more miles…”
Plugging on, we walked into the darkness and contoured a large ridge going up, then cruising around it until we hit hwy 26/35 which could take us directly to Portland. We signed a register, then noticed a note that said there was a picnic table and a privy right across the street. Done and done. Hop-a-long, Cookie Monster and I took over that picnic table and camped right there after enjoying tasty whiskey beverages.
Right before bed, Splinter and Inspector Gadget passed by. They wanted to make sure to get buffet breakfast at Timberline Lodge. Admirable goal considering we have all heard about the breakfast and lunch buffets at Timberline Lodge for hundreds of miles. Not to mention you can stare at the beautiful Mt. Hood in the process.
I woke up to a light rain on my tent. Just enough that it would drive me nuts and just enough that I had to have a jacket on due to the wind and colder temperature. I packed up as quickly as possible noticing that Hop-a-long had mysteriously already got up and left, probably in food desperation as she was down to a cliff bar or two for the last ten miles and I knew she was still hungry going to bed. Eventually, I found where Cookie Monster had ensconced himself in trees and made sure he woke up, then I began heading up Mt. Hood toward Timberline.
There was one large hill to go up and over, then a sharp 2,000 ft climb up to the Timberline Trail that the PCT followed for a ways around treeline. The weather was miserable. As long as I stayed moving, I stayed decently warm and ok, but I, too, was running incredibly low on food and had gotten particularly hungry through this stretch. I think some of it had to do with the fact that I had no extra body fat stored on me to kick into gear. I took about a 10 minute break to guzzle some water and stuff a cliff bar to the face before I became wicked cold and had to almost jog up the first half of the 2,000ft climb to warm up. It was the first time I had been able to keep my shell on while climbing and not end up drenched in sweat. Of course by the time I reached the Timberline Trail, I had already burned though the 240 calories of the cliff bar and my stomach made its hungry state known by growling loudly at me. To make matters worse, the last mile up was all sand! With every step up, I slid back down a bit. My stomach certainly was not pleased then.
Timberline Lodge
Once I made it to Timberline Lodge, I beelined for it thinking only of how hungry I was when I ran into Dead Animal who had driven up to hang out and do some more slackpacking for us. We went inside to find Hop-a-long, Splinter, Inspector Gadget, Tickled Pink, Last on the Bus, Blood Bank, Panorama and Xana. Cookie rolled in not too much longer than that and thus began our waiting out of the weather. We got to wait it out in the best spot possible: Timberline Lodge, location of filming of the movie The Shining.
The Backpacker Chronicles 