Chapter 10 - Timberline Lodge to Chinook Pass
Shapes, Magma, and I left Timberline Lodge after high-fiving the sign outside. We hiked together to Ramona Falls, and to my surprise, I found Foxy, Trippy, and Divebomb there. Traveling north together, the trail became more and more crowded, as many others also skipped ahead to northern Oregon. Hikers who had already made it to northern Oregon by this point before the fires were vocally annoyed by the crowded conditions.
Due to every reasonable campsite being taken, Magma, Shapes and I chose to spend most nights sleeping in the bushes without setting up our tents. This was a challenge at times, as I was particularly attractive to the mosquitoes that swarmed at sunset. This practice, cowboy camping, was something I did do here and there, but the bugs had been too rough lately for this.
We took a side trail to Tunnel Falls, where Magma and I found a nice swimming hole just before Cascade Locks and made the call to spend the night there. We originally hoped to finally set up our tents before two hikers apologetically asked if they could squeeze in with us. As Sensei and Fluffy had a massive three person tent, we instead cowboy camped along Eagle Creek.
Cascade Locks had a small store and way too many hikers, so I purchased snacks and ice creams for everyone. Together, Magma, Shapes, Foxy, Trippy, and Divebomb walked over the Bridge of the Gods, leaving Oregon for Washington.
The trail remained crowded, and a few miles past our original campsite target Magma, Shapes, and I did our best to find any place we could squeeze ourselves in to sleep in. We started a rhythm where Magma would hike incredibly fast, but take a long nap around noon. Shapes would take lots of breaks because of knee troubles, but hike fairly quickly when he could. I instead took a more leisurely pace, but hiked from sunrise to sunset. Somehow, this perfectly worked out with us camping most nights together and getting chances to eat meals together.
When we got to Panther Creek Campground, there were designated PCT hiker campsites that were free, but as the campsite was overflowing, I paid the hosts for extra campsites that were empty that evening and told them to direct other PCT hikers to any of the now reserved sites. Despite this extra capacity, Magma, Shapes, and I stuck to cowboy camping next to each other, as we only relieved the crowding a slightly.
Early the next morning, I ran into Yeezus and we hugged after not seeing each other for almost a thousand miles at this point. This was also my 100th day on trail, so I decided to see how hard I could push myself. Additionally, the mosquitoes were infuriating and the mediocre lakes only made things worse.
I aimed for at least 35 miles, to put myself into a good position to get into Trout Lake early, and hiked well into the evening, leaving Magma and Shapes behind. Just shy of 40 miles, I reached Mosquito Creek just before midnight. Exhausted and thankful that Mosquito Creek was shockingly bug free, I crossed over to the other side on the bridge and fell asleep to the distant screams of a mountain lion.
Trout Lake was a short hike from Mosquito Creek. I booked a hotel for the evening and slept off the intense day I just had. I was awoken later by Shapes, who just made it into town and he joined me in the hotel, while I sucked down huckleberry shakes.
We found Magma in Trout Lake the next morning, having just made it in. As I had already been in town a full day, I got a hitch back to the trail ahead of them and climbed around the base of Mt Adams. The water here also became challenging. Despite plenty of glacier flow, much of this was contaminated by fine granite particles, which made the water awful for our filters and for our stomachs.
I pushed up towards Knife’s Edge, one of the more treacherous points on trail. Fully intending to tackle it that day, I hiked hard, only to find the most perfect campsite just under Cispus Pass in the early afternoon. I knew I made the right choice to chill for the evening when every hiker who passed mentioned how jealous they were. In deep pain from the last few days, I finally took my first Ibuprofen on the entire trail.
After a quick side trip to Old Snowy Mountain, Shapes and Magma caught up to me and we hiked together once again. Eventually, however, Shapes wanted to head on to White Pass, whereas Magma and I needed a nap. Upon waking up, I was feeling ill, but assured Magma was fine, and she hiked on ahead.
I slept that night on top of an incredibly windy ridge, with incredible views of Mt. Rainier. Waking up, however, I felt even worse, so I slowly made my way into White Pass, where hikers congregated at the gas station.
As the next day was my birthday, Shapes and Magma offered to join me in Packwood, at least for a celebratory meal, but I could not stomach anything. I crashed at a motel in Packwood and despite both of them insisting they would make a few more miles that day, we all picked up a massive dinner I also couldn’t eat and settled in for a peaceful night.
The pair wished me a happy birthday upon waking up and I noticed Magma sneak some cans of beer into her pack. We climbed into Mt. Rainier National Park, with my stomach having mixed success. The mosquitoes intensified again, though not as bad as the Sierras, and we finally set up our tents. Despite not feeling well, I accepted Magma’s birthday gift of a beer, and I did my best to drink it while lying down.
Climbing up and over to Chinook Pass, I was exhausted from being unable to eat, yet nausea got worse with each step. I once again called Elleen, who was traveling from Portland to Chicago, and at Chinook Pass I said my goodbyes to Magma and Shapes.
After a few hours, Elleen arrived with her dog Bean and ran over to check on me. As I approached the car, Bean jumped up to greet me and I pulled on the passenger side door. I called over to Elleen to ask if she could unlock the car, and she looked over at me, confused.
Eventually, we realized her dog had somehow manually locked her fairly new RAV4 from the inside. Her keys were unfortunately inside, and the day was growing warm. We ended up calling every authority and ranger we could, but after a few hours no one had showed up.
We then attempted to break into her car window, startling the surrounding tourists until they realized what was going on and they also promised to go get help.
Another hour after that, we were still trying to break in, though with meager success. I had just broken my trekking poles on her windows when a truck pulled up behind us. Miraculously, the driver of the car was someone who specialized in repossessing cars, though he was just there to take his mother to see the wildflowers. He looked at the situation and apologized for doing something so terrible to Elleen’s beautiful RAV4.
He pulled out a wrench and easily shattered one of her rear windows, and we reached in to free Bean. The man brought out Gorilla tape and skillfully patched together what was left of her rear window and we thanked him profusely. Elleen drove me, who had wanted to vomit this entire time, to the town of Yakima, where I could go to urgent care. I sent her some money for her car window and thanked her for again saving me. I booked a hotel for a few days and booked a doctor’s appointment.
