PCT: Days 130 – 131

Day 130 was mainly a travel day to Portland, but we still helped some hikers out along the way. We picked up Allie on our way out of town. She was jumping forward about 4 days to Mt. Shasta City so she could continue to rest her leg while Mando kept hiking. We dropped her off at a KOA and continued on.

Our next stop was Crater Lake. We were picking up the General who was jumping forward to the OR/WA border. We spent a little time at Crater Lake admiring just how beautiful and majestic it is. Once we left Crater Lake we looked for hikers wherever the road crossed the trail. We found 2 hikers at a parking lot and handed out cold drinks. One of the hikers was Flipper who we haven’t seen since a few days after Baden-Powell. We chatted for a while before heading on.

As we continued on we saw another hiker trying to hitch back to trail. We missed him initially and made a u-turn to get back to him. His name was Hoots and he was heading back to trail after a resupply. We dropped him off at trail and made it to Matt and Jessi’s house in Portland a couple hours later. Somewhere along the way we convinced General to stay with us at their house as well. We got in just in time for burgers and caught up on calories while visiting until bedtime.

Day 131 was mostly a rest and prep day. We made a couple shopping trips for supplies and then planned our next stretches. General was going to go back in at Cascade Locks, but needed to wait a couple days for a package to get to the Post Office.

I was planning on going back out the next day, starting 100 miles south of Cascade Locks at Olallie Lake. We’re trying to incorporate more family time on this stretch to hopefully cut down on some of the homesickness I had on my prior weeks away from the family. The plan was for me to hike 3 days to Lost Lake where I’d camp for two nights with Blue Lizard and the kids. I’d then slack pack the rest of the way to Cascade Locks. After that the kids will head back to Jessi’s and Blue Lizard will support me for two more days of slack packing. That should get me 60 miles into Washington at which point I’ll continue on my own.