Willamette Pass to Silverton!

You won’t believe this, but I’m writing this blog update from the kitchen table of my parents’ house! I walked home! 2,000 miles. My parents picked up Focus and me near Santiam Pass on Friday evening and we’ve spent the last 3 days on a long-awaited vacation from the trail. Delicious food, lovely company, a soft bed, and everything we need to gear up for the home stretch—what a treat. But let me back up a bit because Oregon has continued to provide many an adventure that I want to share!

First, we had a great time with Joanie at Willamette Pass. She brought salad, Brie, beer, and many other treats that we devoured in our little cabin near the “blink and it’s gone” town of Crescent. Such a small town, in fact, that the post office hours are 40 minutes per day. We were lucky that Joanie also brought our resupply packages to us! Anyway, it was great to see an old friend and especially one who works for the Forest Service on the National Forest that we’re walking through. She brought maps and showed us the best campsites on the PCT, and the route to climb the South Sister volcano if we had time to take off. Okay, maybe we don’t have a HUGE window before the snow hits in northern WA, but we couldn’t resist the temptation to climb South Sister, so with Joanie’s maps, we decided to take a little detour…

Thus, Skidaddle, Focus and I said goodbye to Joanie and hiked north for 2 days before coming to a junction that would take us east to Moraine Lake at the base of South Sister. Slightly misjudging the distance between the PCT and Moraine Lake, we didn’t arrive at the lake until far after dark, and we quietly set up our tents among the many weekend backpackers. At 6:30 the next morning we woke and saw the mountain wrapped in a dense fog. Dark clouds were blowing briskly by. Our camping neighbors aborted their climbing plans and went home. With some trepidation, we packed some food & water and set out to hike/scramble our way to the top of the volcano.

The views on the way up were impressive, and Focus got to see his first glacier ever, the Clark Glacier. It had that beautiful blue glow to it and some pretty awesome crevasses to have nightmares about later. Above Clark Lake, a gorgeous glacial pool, the fog engulfed us. The wind picked up too and our fingers lost feeling (all of our cold weather gear was waiting for us at my parents’ house, 2 days north). The summit was a bit anticlimactic due to the dense fog and strong wind, but we did get to eat a bacon & blue cheese hamburger that I’d been saving for the moment. Yep, this girl hikes with hamburgers. Slipping down the ridge, a wall of black cloud spanned the horizon and provided an eerie enclosed feeling to the world. I fell 8 times in the volcanic sand and Focus fell so hard he dented his cook pot with his spine. Memorable morning.

 

Back at base camp, I discovered that a chipmunk had chewed through my tent and food bag, devouring 2 candy bars and a block of cheese that I had stupidly left in my tent. Why? Because I was too lazy to hang my food before climbing. So next time you’re just going to be away from your camp for a few hours, remember this: chipmunks are punks.

That afternoon we logged another 13 PCT miles before calling it a night. We had plans to meet my parents the following evening, and it was still 41 miles from the base of South Sister. Time to fly! The next day we woke up to blue bird skies and walked a glorious walk behind the South, Middle and North Sisters volcanoes and Mt. Washington. I fell in love with the Three Sisters Wilderness.

The final miles were excruciatingly slow ones in a Mars-like setting of volcanic rock. My ankles trembled. My head spun. If it hadn’t been for the trail magic chili and Gatorade provided by AT hiker Blue Fox at McKenzie Pass, I may have had a little meltdown. That hit of spices and salt pushed us the final miles, over the 2000 mile marker, and finally to my parents’ waiting car! Actually, they came to find us on the trail and we all walked back to the car together. It was a happy reunion. They even brought us pizza and beer to sustain us on the car ride home.

The last three days have been: a family reunion in Portland with the Johnson clan over a delicious vegetable-packed meal, a resupply bonanza shopping trip to every grocery store in a 30 mile radius of Silverton OR, amazing home-cooked meals on my parents’ new deck, card games into the night, professional massages (thanks Uncle Paul, Aunt Linda, Mom & Dad!), and afternoon naps. Couldn’t have asked for a better rest stop.

We are doing final preparations today and heading back out to the trail this evening. Focus and I have all of our cold weather gear, a bigger tent, and everything we need for the remaining 650 miles. We are anticipating the fall weather, after getting a taste of it these last couple weeks, and are just hoping that the snow abates until after October 10^th. Keep your fingers crossed for us!!

XO, Dance Party