Cloud cap on Mt McLoughlin

The PCT a few miles out from Fish Lake Resort and Hwy 140 down in the valley below.

Day 5 Soda Mountain Wilderness

We learned in Ashland that the PCT is snow bound above Fish Lake so we're going to take our time getting there later this week. Today was the first hike day after our zero in Ashland. It was rough because of blisters and my energy level was just low all day. Image is Mt. Shasta from Pilot Rock ridge looking south. We are on our longest run of 9 days without a resupply so the packs are heavy with food. Right now I'd pay $20 for an ice cold beer! Happy trails!

Oregon Border to Ashland: The Snow and The Fury

The start of this trip has been tumultuous to say the least.  After driving 7 hours on I 5 to reach the border we started our way down the rocky, remote National Forest roads.  It soon became apparent that we were going to be unable to drive to the border and start our hike as planned, as a large snow drift blocked the road south.  Reluctantly, we got out of the car and prepared our gear, deciding to hike south to the border then retrace our steps northward.

We sped along the slightly snow covered trail, mostly unimpeded for about an hour or so.  Immediately we hit a ridge covered in snow pack and dense trees and watched in dismay as the trail was slowly swallowed by it.  Step by step we travelled through the trackless forest, finding our way with PCT markers and blazes left on trees, occasionally referencing our TOPO maps to check our position.  We hiked the first day for around 10 miles with 65% of the trail being snowbound.  We made camp at Wrangle Gap, a fantastic camp considering the circumstances.  The camp was a short distance off trail and we had doubts of its habitability as we descended the snowbound side road.  The first break we had all day was arriving at the camp to find two shelters, one with a fire pit with dry wood, and fresh water flowing nearby.

The second day we left camp determined to make the Oregon border.  As we continued south, the snow drifts became more frequent, deeper, and more treacherous.  We came to a snowbound ridge at about the middle of the day and checked our TOPO map to verify our position.  Hiking the ridge was slow going as the we had to move slowly to avoid slipping down the ridge which was at an almost impossible grade.  We reached a sheer cliff of snow which impeded our path to glory.  Having remembered that the TOPO map said that the trail traversed the ridge around to the other side, we decided our only option was to go straight over the ridge, no small task considering the grade and we were forced to cut steps with our boots every inch of the way.  All this snow hiking brought to mind last year's through hike through the Sierras and I cursed myself for not bringing my ice axe having to rely on my hiking poles for slip protection.  Once we reached the top of the ridge we discovered that it was mostly devoid of snow and started zigzagging our way down.  We could see the California mountains as we began to taste sweet victory.  Travelling a short distance on bare trail we hit another snow covered ridge.  We had 1.6 miles left to the border and in the heavy snow and sheer ridges we were only able to progress one mile every three hours.  We decided to turn back because the rest of the day would have been spent inching our way along and any progress we made would have to be retraced the next day.  We scaled the ridge at an earlier point and came down the rocky cliffs of Observation Peak.  Afterwards we started our return trek on forest roads and found a nice watered roadside campsite.

The next day we awoke and spent the first half returning to our drop off location.  We arrived at the spot and saw several day hikers.  We knew our troubles were over as we glided down the well maintained and snow free trail 13 miles down to Ashland.  Dad (aka Captain Obvious) immediately checked into the Ashland Hostel while I quickly scouted a stealth camping spot in town.  My spot was near the raging Ashland creek.  During the night a police officer awoke me and told me a teenager had recently been camping by the river and had rolled into the river while sleeping and drowned.  He said I could stay, as I told him I was a PCT hiker, I just had to leave at daybreak.  Unfortunately, I didn't get much sleep because my thoughts were clinging to the thought of falling into the river and being swept away, never to be heard from again...

Last Minute GEAR

As all thru-hikers know: we're all gear sluts.  Fortunately, on last year's big thru-hike I learned a lot from talking to other thru-hikers about gear and from my own personal blunders.  This is the first trip where I'll be totally ultralight.

My sleeping gear:

• Mountain Hardware 20 degree sleeping bag
• Hennessy Ultralight Jungle Hammock*
• Ultralight Thermarest**

* Its awesome!  Its kind of a pain to set up but I know I'll get to be a pro after a week or so of continually using it.  It also doubles as a tent and bivy sack according to the situation.  Keeps you off the ground and dry in the rain.

** I'm bringing this because I found that the hammock doesn't retain heat very well from the bottom as your sleeping bag gets crushed against it.  I bought an old 1970s 3/4s thermarest from craigslist for last years trip and have been all about it.  Its stockier than the newer lightweight thermarests which many of my fellow hikers continually had puncture problems with and still doesn't weigh a terrible amount.

Cooking Gear:

• Snow Peak Titanium Trek 700 mug
• Homemade Heineken keg can stove*
• Homemade flashing windscreen

* My brother spent days figuring out the most efficient homemade stove design once we got back from last years trip.  This thing is badass, made from two halves of a Heineken keg can and cut to have support for my mug.  Using the flashing windscreen I was able to bring water to a rolling boil in a few minutes and have plenty of time to cook whatever.

My pack:

• Osprey Exos 58

I saw many other thru-hikers using this pack last year.  Its got a nice balance of features and is ultralight.  I was thinking of going down to a Exos 46 because I have some extra space in my pack, but I'm tired of switching packs around.  I want to develop a close relationship with this one.  I've named it "Exene" after my friend Thad's feisty cat.

Hitchhiking and Food Boxes

A few people have asked me how we plan to get food along the way. In a nutshell we buy enough food for a trail section, divide and package it in several boxes and then mail them to ourselves from Portland. In Ashland we'll buy for our 8 day run up to Crater Lake. When we get to a trail town or resort we can pick up our boxes at the local post office or at the resort. We also plan to eat locally as much as we can. They call that hiker hungry and it's something to really look forward to when a town or resort is coming up along the trail. Part of the charm of hiking the PCT is visiting these little hamlets and mixing with the locals during our brief jaunts off trail. In Oregon there aren't any towns actually on the trail so we will be hitchhiking as needed.

Basically when we get to an appropriate crossing highway or road we hitch a ride into the closest town to either pickup our food box or resupply at the local food supermarket. We then have to hitch a ride out of town back up to the trail head. The lake resorts in the Cascades are usually within a 5 mile walk off trail to get to them. I'm hoping as we go that we'll use them to eat a little, take a shower and do laundry if they have the facilities.

The towns we plan to visit off trail are Ashland and either Sisters or Bend, depending on our schedule.

A hard decision.....

My youngest son Jeremy has decided to bow out of the trip so he can concentrate on finding a job and a place to live up in Monroe, Washington. He'll be attending Alderleaf Wilderness College for the school year starting in September. Although I'll miss him it's a good decision on his part and I admire his ability to judge his situation realistically. There's a lot to do between now and then. If you know of a part time job opening or small place or room for rent in the Monroe or Duval surrounding area please contact me. Thank you!

Gear Trip #2 Seaside to Cannon Beach Day Hike (20 miles RT)

Via Tillamook Head/Indian Creek Beach/Ecola Point on the Oregon Coast Trail

This was going to be an overnight trip but turned into a long day hike for schedule reasons. Joel couldn't make it after working late the night before. Jeremy and I started at the trail head in south Seaside just off Sunset Blvd at around 9:30am and finished at 7pm. We took two long breaks and a few short ones to eat snacks and take images.

I carried my new pack and 20 lbs to make sure it fit right and to check the hip belt comfort level. Also wanted to do an extended trip to verify the new Columbia Firelane Mid X hiking shoes would work well. Overall had no equipment or foot issues which is a huge relief.

You go up and over the headland pretty quickly the first two miles climbing to 1,200ft from sea level. The backside is a gentle slope at times through some amazing old growth and spectacular views along the cliff edge. It was very muddy at times from recent rains. We reached a State park managed hiker camp at 4.4 miles from where we connected with the Clatsop Loop trail. It goes down to Indian Creek headland and then down to the actual Indian Creek Beach (1.5 miles) where we had lunch. I cooked up some Top Ramen on my stove and fended off the seagulls going for my chips. We went up to the parking lot there and caught the Ecola Point trail to rejoin the Oregon Coast Trail (1.4 miles) at the next parking lot. This portion of the OCT connects up with Ecola Road which we then walked down into central Cannon Beach (about 2.5 miles.)

Actually one of the coolest parts of the trip was walking in downtown Cannon Beach with our backpacks to Bill's Pub & Brewery. We tried a couple different pint beers and ate a full plate of beer battered onion rings before heading back out to Seaside. It was almost 3pm and our goal was to make it back to the car by 7pm and then find a restaurant in Seaside for some good grub. We really hoofed it going back and didn't stop much. By the way, Bigfoot Steakhouse in south Seaside on Hwy 101 has very good food!

I recommend this hike for the spectacular headland views and the rare, pristine old growth forest. Bring your mudders. Overall a pretty awesome hike!

The new pack - Osprey Atmos 50

REI's return/exchange policy is bar none the best. I had to order the new pack on their website and wait until it came in today to do the actual exchange. Smaller and over two pounds lighter the Atmos 50 addresses all my complaints of the Aethos 60:

1. The Atmos has a smaller lighter top compartment with inside zip storage for easy access to small items (wallet, keys, cash.)

2. Storgage compartments on both sides of the hip belt for snacks and small items like sunscreen, repellant, pocket knife, lighter etc.

3. Two large outside storage pockets for easy access to rain gear and a pack cover.

4. Over two pounds lighter is a lot of weight savings just changing one item. That's huge.

Color: Graphite Gray - $199 at REI in Hillsboro, Oregon

I loaded all my gear in tonight and still had plenty of room for 7 to 10 days of food stuffs even with the reduction from 60 liters of storage down to 50 liters with the Atmos. Keeping in mind I want to be as comfortable as possible and balance out the need to keep things light for my back and legs. It's worth repeating that you should spare no expense on the best equipment and you'll never regret it. If you find out something doesn't work the way you anticipated then change it or suffer the consequences. Now it's time for gear trip #2 to make sure everything works as it should!

Equipment Comments

A few things came to light on the Eagle Creek/Wahtum trip:

As usual we tend to bring stuff we think we need but don't really. I carried a full 3 liters of water (about 6 pounds) in the Platypus bladder for a two day trip when water was readily available all along the trail. Carrying a small Gator Aid bottle and just refilling as needed would have saved my legs a lot of effort.

I'm so impressed with the mummy bag (The North Face Cat's Meow 20F) and Thermo-Rest Z pad sleeping on top of the snow. Our lakeside camp temperatures had to be in the mid to upper 20's and I stayed warm all night.

The Big Agnes UL2 tent was easy to set up, stake out and very comfortable with plenty of room to sit up and change clothes as needed with minimal effort. At tear down in the morning a pool of ice water had formed under the tent foot print and I never knew it was there. Nice!

MSR's Pocket Rocket is awesome. For $40 and the no nonsense quick setup and operation, it works for me. The guys struggled a bit lighting their super lightweight alcohol stoves and they do work very well but once again I'm choosing just a little more weight for convenience.

Columbia's Omni-Tech rain gear worked perfectly keeping me bone dry and yet breathable so I didn't overheat. I loved that even with a loaded pack I never felt constricted in any manner. The gear worked perfectly for golf and now for backpacking as well.

I came to the conclusion after this trip that my Osprey Aethos 60 is just too big for my needs. I'm not carrying enough stuff to utilize all 60 liters of space. After logging 13 miles each of the two days and slogging through snow going up and down hill I felt every single ounce of weight in my pack. I can save over two pounds going to the Osprey Atmos 50 and be that much more confortable. Thanks to REI's return policy a pack swap is in the cards very shortly.

Gear Trip #1 - Eagle Creek to Wahtum Lake (26.2 miles round trip)

The famous and very scenic Eagle Creek Trail in the Columbia River Gorge just west of Cascade Locks is within easy reach of the Portland metro area. Consequently it's hugely popular for day hikers and overnight backpackers. Arrive early to secure a decent parking spot and bring your NW Forest Pass. $5 day passes can be purchased at the parking lot. The trail passes several stunning waterfalls that have side trails down to see them at creek level. Walking behind thundering Tunnel Falls pictured above at the 6 mile mark is pretty unique. It is a great hike and highly recommended.

We anticipated rain showers mixed with warm sunshine for the day and we were not disappointed. Joel had suggested Eagle Creek to Wahtum Lake as our first trip out with the new gear since him and his brother had come down it from the PCT back in September. The Pacific Crest Trail loops around the lake which is a popular camp spot for hikers before dropping into Cascade Locks. There's a forest service road as well that goes to the lake for car campers and picnickers.

At about the 8 mile mark a well signed cutoff trail to Wahtum Lake appears on the left. From the trail head up to this point it is an easy elevation gain of about 1,200 feet. From the cutoff to the lake it's about a 2,500 foot climb up in a little over 5 miles. Be warned there are numerous stream crossings with no bridges unlike the Eagle Creek section. You can not help getting your feet wet. Surprisingly we encountered patches of snow within a couple of miles from the turn off and then complete snow cover the rest of the way in to the lake. The snow was hard packed in most places and we followed the old tracks pretty easily and only occasionally post holed down to our knees.

We did not anticipate snow camping but decided based on the gear we packed in that it was safely feasible. At lake level 3,700 ft in elevation, we estimated there was still 6 to 8 feet of snow which is extremely unusual this late in the season. The only portion of the lake not frozen over was a small area where the lake drains out of the glacier bowl back down eventually into Eagle Creek. Finding a fairly level area for my tent with the right mix of sizable trees for Joel's Hennessy hammock setup was a challenge. Fortunately after wondering lakeside for a few hundred feet past the end of the trail we found the evening's camp spot.

We quickly set up camp and cooked dinner being very hungry after such a grueling last couple of miles. The guys fumbled around with their alcohol stoves in the cold while I quickly lit my MSR pocket rocket and had water boiling for my cous cous in a couple of minutes. After dinner with the sun setting and our hands and feet frozen we called it a night. Changing into some dry wool socks and some thermals felt great. The new 20F degree mummy bag from North Face on top of the Thermo-Rest Z pad got me toasty warm quickly and it was a breeze to find a comfortable position to fall asleep in. I was exhausted!

The next morning at day break I got up and saw everything covered in frost and a beautiful low fog on top of the frozen lake surface. It was so quiet and still. The sun coming up over the ridge with streaming rays of sunshine beaming down on the whole scene was pretty surreal. I asked Jeremy how he slept and if he stayed warm enough (his bivy crusted with a coating of frost intrigued me a bit) and he answered within that he slept well and only his feet got cold if they shifted position off the sleep pad. Naturally wondering how Joel fared, I wondered over to his hammock in the small grove of trees by lakeshore and heard his characteristic snoring which put my mind at ease. The common theme between us was staying on the thermal sleep pad was the key to staying warm.

Firing up the MSR pocket rocket for morning coffee Jeremy offered me $100 if I'd bring him a cup to his "bed" which had me laughing pretty hard for so early in the morning. It felt really cold so we wasted no time eating a quick breakfast of power bars, beef jerky and coffee. Packing up was done quickly and we headed back down the way we came as quickly as possible while the top snow was hard.

All tolled it was a great trip and one I learned a little more about my equipment, my own resolve and really how impressively fast my two sons can hike under not so great conditions. Things to learn from and improve for the next trip out. Thanks fella's! Love Dad.

Training

How to prepare for hiking 15 to 20 miles per day 3 to 7 days in a row at a time? I don't run (back/neck issues) so the only way in my mind to get in decent shape is to hike when time allows. Fortunately we have within a 10 minute drive of our house one of the coolest city wilderness parks in the world; 5,200 acres of Portland's Forest Park. There are several miles of trails in the park with the longest called Wildwood at 30 miles. Lots of loops if you mix and match the trails that cross each other. My plan is to hike 20 to 40 miles a week and hopefully be in good enough shape by July to stay with the youngsters and not be in too much pain the first few days. That's all I can hope for!

Equipment Change

I starting thinking over the weekend that my wife might want to join me on a future backpacking trip or just do some old fashioned car camping like we did long ago. With that in mind I swapped out the Big Agnes Fly Creek UL1 for the Fly Creek UL 2 person. The other issue is that I'm a big guy and the one person tent just felt like a coffin once I set it up and managed to slide inside. Amazingly the two person version weights only 7 ounces more but has a lot more floor space and a little more headroom inside so I can actually sit up. For an older solo backpacker to have a little more room and comfort at night with not much weight gain it seemed like a good idea. REI's return policy is exceptional. I just exchanged tents and paid the $50 difference in cost between versions. Awesome!

The Big Three Gear List (keeping it light!)

All new gear from the ground up for me. Last time I owned backpacking equipment was in 1976 as a sophomore in high school. Let's just say gear technology has come a long way since then. I should have everything by the end of this month so we can make a gear test trip when the snow clears a bit off the passes. Last September I hiked a 15 mile PCT section from Timberline to Lolo Pass. For our test trip we're going to hike the last 29 mile leg from Lolo Pass down to Cascade Locks so I can claim the whole Oregon section when we finish at Timberline in late July.

1.) Most important gear first, the pack: I chose the Osprey Aethos 60. This pack has really high marks from current owners in on-line reviews. It felt molded to my back right away with an especially comfortable hip belt system. It's a balance between light weight, capacity and durability. Osprey's longstanding reputation for well engineered packs is legendary. On this trip our longest carry without a resupply will be seven days in southern Oregon so my goal was to keep the pack as light as possible and still have a decent capacity. A personal fitting at REI was extremely helpful.

2.) Tent: Big Agnes Fly Creek UL 1, Jeremy used it on his 2010 PCT thru hike and raved about how light it is and how easy it is to set up and tear down. It kept him dry through several days of rain in Oregon and Washington. Extremely durable and well designed Big Agnes FLC1 is an ultra-light one person tent. It weights in at only 1lb, 13 ounces including poles. I also popped for the Big Agnes FLC tent foot print as well.

3.) Sleeping Bag: The North Face Cat's Meow (+20) synthetic bag. Although heavier than a down bag, synthetic is the way to go if you plan on getting wet, and after all we are hiking in the Pacific Northwest. This bag has several excellent reviews on-line by current owners especially with the most recent re-design of the exterior material. It's light weight at only 2lbs, 12 ounces. Included with the bag is a compression sack that really compacts the bag into a size that just fits into the bottom sleeping bag compartment of the Aethos 60.

4.) Everything else: The guys have me convinced that less is the best so I'll be carrying a minimal amount of everything else. It's a fine balance between comfort and carrying too much weight. Example: my mess kit is one cup, one titanium cook pot, and one aluminum spork. For each of us Jeremy designed and built an alcohol stove made from beer cans. It works amazingly well and the fuel is dirt cheap and light weight. I'll have one change of hiker clothes, two nylon base layers, polyester thermals, two pairs of nylon/polyester underwear, Omni-Tech rain gear from Columbia and three pairs of Wigwam hiking socks to rotate out for the entire month. I can't wait to get on the trail!

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First post testing HTC EVO connection

Mixed emotions on equipment. Lots of choices on the majors: packs, sleep pad, tent and sleeping bags. Glad to have Joel and Jeremy to offer advice on what works and what doesn't.