PCT: Days 140-145

I’m getting to this post late, but I also have done much other than relax the last few days. Blue Lizard headed out with Jessi to hike the Timberline Trail to test her knee while I stayed in Portland with the kids. She came back a couple days early after hitting a sketchy hill near a water crossing which she didn’t feel safe climbing. Her knees were sore the next day, but she wasn’t experiencing the pain she had previously. We think she’s progressing and will be ready to head out again soon.

In the meantime we’ve been trying to figure out what to do next. I still want to get more miles in, but don’t have an overwhelming urge to finish the trail and am completely satisfied if we piece together different stretches over the next two months. This definitely isn’t the mindset I started with in March, but it’s freeing to not have the burden of pushing miles. We’ve also reached wildfire season which has made it impossible to hike the entire trail as there are multiple fire closures in northern California and southern Oregon.

We sat down with the kids to figure out what everyone wanted to get out of the rest of the trip and came up with a plan for August. We’ll figure out the rest later. I’ll do a couple of 60 mile stretches with the kids individually for some 1-on-1 time followed by a 60 mile stretch we’ll do as a family. This will wrap up the northern 100 miles of Oregon for me and get us a good ways into Washington. Somewhat surprisingly, the kids weren’t satisfied with this distance. They’ve already hiked 800 miles and both want to hit the 1,000 mile mark for the trip. We weren’t at all expecting this to be the response, but have plenty of time to get there. We’re also building in some non-hiking activities. Rockhopper wants to go to a climbing gym, Bat Boy wants to go to the zoo, and we all want to head to the coast for a day.