Portland, Oregon is one of my very favourite cities. It suits me perfectly. It has a wonderful vibe, it’s easy to walk around, it’s got mountains nearby, excellent coffee, places it’s actually easy to find vegetarian and vegan food. Showing someone else around a place I love is always slightly awkward though. What if they don’t love it as much…
The Columbia Area Transit runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we called to reserve a spot on the bus to Portland for today. We had to visit some outdoor stores to get some warmer gear, and figured that we could probably get a better lunch and resupply in Portland than the tiny town of Cascade Locks. After purchasing an Ursack…
Today I did nothing. It was an excellent zero day. Miles: 0 Camping: Mile 2155, Cascade Locks (not camping)
The fire closure meant that we had almost no chance of leaving Crater Lake National Park first thing in the morning, so we slept in and wandered over to the restaurant for breakfast around 7:30am. In hindsight this may have been an error. Bear in mind breakfast is really quite tricky to mess up. First my poached eggs and sausages…
Last night we had decided to leave today, but on waking we felt unrested and slightly nervous about the fire in Crater Lake National Park. It’s only 4 days away from here and it’s currently on fire, with the PCT closed for a few miles. Most hikers follow an alternate trail along the rim of the lake, and that is…
We had shared the room between 5 so it took a while to organise getting out for breakfast, but eventually 4 of us made it to Morning Glory round the corner from the motel. It had been given rave reviews and I was looking forward to testing it out. I wanted to try almost everything on the menu, but I…
Today we zeroed with trail angels JoAnn and Emory. I don’t think we left the house all day. We made it as far as the garage to the washing machine to do laundry, but really the day was all about the sofa and the TV. JoAnn is a big LA Dodgers fan so we watched a lot of baseball, and…
South Lake Tahoe has positives and negatives for a zero day. Everything is spread out, and it takes time to do everything. We started with the things nearest to the motel: breakfast and resupply. I managed a good resupply at Raley’s supermarket, including pre-cooked sausages and bacon which are heavy but possibly worth it and almost never available. Additional resupply…
I spent the day in town in a daze; the euphoria that comes with a town visit combined with the physical drive to rest and recover. It’s always a confusing time, as people come into town in groups, some of whom you haven’t seen for a while. Some stay for a zero, others leave while you’re taking a day out.…
Today would have been a frustrating day if it hadn’t been for the great company. After breakfast, Glen drove back to the Resource Center to do some post office runs and I came down to spend the day with hikers. Chug and Dolittle were still here, as was Pretzel and we were joined before lunchtime by 12Percent. He was talking…