PCT Day 113
August 21, 2021
Mile: 2097.9 to 2103.0 (5.1 miles)
Start: Hotel in Portland, Oregon & Timberline Lodge, Mount Hood
Finish: Campsite at Lost Creek
Shannon and I woke up around 7am when our alarms went off to catch the 8:45am train out of Portlandia to connect to a couple of bus connections then hike back to the PCT. It was gonna be a busy morning. Where we were staying in Portland by the convention center it was so noisy that we had kept our ear plugs in it as trains went back-and-forth all night every 5 or 10 minutes right outside our window all night. I bet if we had set up our tent next to some of Portland’s tent cities it would’ve been just as noisy but at least in the hotel room we didn’t have to worry about getting shanked. We were pretty excited to get out of Portland as it was a little overwhelming. Yes, the food was delicious, there were lots of interesting people watching the abundant hipsters everywhere and it seemed to be a requirement that you had to have tattoos to live here. It was also a fun game to avoid eye contact with the tons of homeless people, many of whom were cracked out of their minds since doing drugs was legalized in Oregon, trying to not get run over cars because the sidewalks were crowded with permanent tent cities, while also admiring these people begging for food despite some of them having expensive manicures and the latest smartphone models worth over $1,000 in hand.
We caught one of the light rails out to the suburb of Gresham with some interesting characters jumping on the train. It wasn’t even 9am and a lady kept asking if anyone wanted to go and fight her while another lady behind Shannon kept covering her head in her jacket so she could smoke a cigarette on the train. Ahhh the glories of public transportation – just don’t make eye contact and you’ll usually be okay. The train docked in the ‘burbs and we disembarked, walking not too far to the connecting bus. We’d left a little bit earlier to give us some wiggle room because Google maps told us that one of our buses would arrive at exactly the same time that another one was supposed to take off. We were really trying to make sure that we didn’t miss the bus today since over the course of this trip we have missed so many buses that we had to get our score up since currently it was like we’d missed 7 or 8 buses out of the dozen or so that we’d tried to catch. What slackers we are!
We moved further out of the ‘burbs of Portland and made it to the town of Sandy which is on the old Oregon Trail. Back in the 1800s, settlers used to come in wagons to the promised land of Oregon by the thousands all the way from the state of Missouri a mere 2,000 miles away. It was cool to see all the murals and historical signposts for the Oregon Trail and gave us nostalgia for the wonderful computer game we grew up with as we followed the green pixelated oxen team to Oregon trying not to die of dysentery or drown fording the rivers along the way.
In Sandy we stopped at a local coffee shop where we had yummy sandwiches for breakfast. I was baffled when the lady working at the register asked me what kind of gluten-free bread I wanted – I didn’t know there were GF bread options! After some quick munchies, we took a few pictures and headed back to the bus station where the Mount Hood Express bus showed up. We boarded our last bus which was very uneventful until some idiot guy kept taking his mask off in the back of the bus. The bus driver gave him three chances and told him the next time he took his mask off that he’d get kicked off. This bus driver was not messing around and it was awesome! I love people who don’t take shit from anyone – it’s so inspiring.
Our bus was headed to the Timberline Lodge on the top of Mount Hood and most people aboard were dressed in athletic gear to go hike, bike or run around the fog covered mountain. A guy in jeans who clearly did not look like a hiker or mountain biker or anyone outdoorsy but was heading to Timberline Lodge kept asking the bus driver if he could stop so he could go pee, despite the bus stop he waited at for an hour having bathrooms. The bus driver was short in his response and informed the passenger that he gets paid to follow a public bus schedule route and that this wasn’t a private charter bus that stopped and waited for passengers whenever they wanted. The passenger tried to bargain as the driver pulled into an empty parking lot with a bathroom asking if he could stop for a few seconds to use the bathroom. The exasperated driver sharply said, “Okay I’m stopping and now I’m leaving because no one is here. You can get out and I’ll be back around in two hours to pick you up.”
So at one stop a ton of mountain bikers came on the bus and were loading their bikes on the trailer at the back of the bus. The bathroom inclined guy ran off and peed behind someone’s car next to the busy highway while the other passengers boarded the bus and somehow made it back on. As the bus got going, I had to clear my throat because of the phlegm in my chest due to the remnants of our smoke inhalation symptoms. An annoying older lady ahead of me started getting up in my business when I had to clear my throat. This “Karen” turned around, leaning in with a look of horror on her face and shrilly asked, “Are you sick?!”
I was confused as to what she was asking and replied, “Excuse me?”
Karen started getting louder and repeated in a panicked voice, “Your cough – are you sick!!?” because I had cleared my throat a little. I pulled my mask down, diligently took a quick drink of tea to relieve my throat and quickly put my mask back up.
This lady seemed like such a quintessential Karen and appeared to be trying to start some shit or escalate the situation. I just lied, looking her in the eyes and admitting in a gross manner, “Oh no, I just choked on my spit.” I don’t know what kind of scene she would’ve caused if she thought I had Covid but she was literally taking public transportation with 30 or more other strangers to go on an “essential” mountain biking so I’m not sure what she expected. We all had masks on due to federal mandates and she chose to take public transportation instead of driving. Whatever Karen.
Karen then proceeded to ask me if I had been on some mountain biking trail that she was going on as if I now was some local guide who could tell her what her trail was going to be like. I looked at her like she was an idiot, looked at my backpack in the seat next to me and curtly replied, “Nope I’ve never been to Oregon before and I’m hiking not biking. Maybe you can google it.” That shut nosy Karen up and she whispered some shit to her partner but left me alone the rest of the ride.
The bus got crowded and I moved on over with Shannon, carefully balancing our packs on our laps as the bus rumbled over bumps and potholes. Karen left us alone and the rest of the bus ride was uneventful as we climbed up into the clouds. Up at Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood we stopped in the little rock climbers alcove where there was a giant treasure chest of hiker box goodies. We raided the hiker box, picking up some snacks, baby wipes and some nylon mesh to patch a couple of holes on our tent. Shannon found a brand new fuel canister and some vegetarian snacks and fancy almond butter packets. Signs posted on the walls taught us how important it was to stay on trail here since there was risk of avalanches and falling into glacial crevasses on certain areas of the mountain. Woohoo! Fun fun fun!
I swung by the lodge’s gift shop to check out the postcard selection and the experience somehow ended up being a little educational. I didn’t realize that the Timberline Lodge was where they filmed some of the outdoor scenes of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining.” It was pretty cool because you could definitely recognize the outside of the building as being from the movie and one of the snowplows was even parked outside. I snuck up on Shannon saying, “Heeeerrrre’s Johnny!” and then we headed upstairs to go enjoy the all you can eat buffet up the hill at the fancy lodge. We didn’t realize that we were currently in the skier and biker lodge (aka the peasant lodge) down below the $300 per night Timberline Lodge. So we hiked upstairs to enter the bougie lodge and became fancy schmancy people where you had to have a reservation just to eat at the lunch buffet.
The main part of the Timberline Lodge is a gorgeous circular shape made from hand carved huge single log beams from what must’ve been absolutely massive trees in the area. The lodge was definitely a carpenter’s dream and the woodwork would even make someone like Ron Swanson proud. A lot of the woodwork was held together purely by mechanical means like wooden joiners or by some black magic artistry of a very skilled carpenter. It was really cool and I bet my dad would love it!
Anyways, we headed upstairs to the fancy section of the lodge because we had a 1:30pm reservation at the all-you-can-eat buffet that was supposed to be really yummy. We chowed down at the buffet on wild rice and quinoa dishes as well as various cheeses, cold cuts, roasted veggies, tri-tip steak, fruits and local marionberries (aka Oregon’s famous breed of blackberries). It was delicious. We had a pleasant lunch and saw a bunch of other PCT hikers who were also taking advantage of the AYCE buffet, essentially cleaning the place out of the food as only a thru-hiker can do.
After lunch we explored the lodge and found a wonderful sleeping nook on the top floor of the lounge area and settled in to do some reading, writing and hanging out. After all of the buffet food and the warmth of the cozy lodge, Shannon’s eyes were fluttering closed so he took a nap in the nook while I hung out talking to my Nana and read one of my books on the Libby app. It was super peaceful.
As the trails and gondola closed down for the day, mountain bikers and other outdoorsy people started coming in for après adventure drinks and the top floor became very crowded. We briefly kicked around the idea of staying overnight but it was at least $300 a night for a room that was more about the convenience and location than the actual quality of the room. We decided it would be best to head out into the fog and mist to get back onto the PCT. As we were leaving the lodge, we got to watch a wedding take place outside in a balmy 40°F with the sky completely whited out from the thick fog surrounding the mountaintop. The bride and groom seem to be having fun but the attendees of the wedding seemed to be shivering and wishing the ceremony was inside instead of outside.
We headed out around 5pm leaving the extremely busy lodge and trekking back to the PCT finally. Despite the fog and poor weather, we passed by lots of day hikers and overnighters returning to the warmth of the lodge. It was so cool to be traveling through eerie moss covered forests and having the mists obscure the trail ahead of us. Shannon and I settled into a damp campsite just past a flowing creek and some waterfalls. Night comes early out here, especially since it’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve been on the trail and sunset is much earlier than the 9pm or later we were used to in California. As we set up our tent, big waves of fog rolled in snaking over the hills and you couldn’t see the waterfalls or trees anymore. During dinner the fog rolled out and was sucked back over the hillside leaving a brief gap for the stars to shine through before more boules of puffy low lying clouds masked the night. The alpine weather made for kind of a cool sort of night with perfect temperatures for sleeping comfortably.
We went to bed early, snuggling together for body heat as the fog started thickening up into cold raindrops that plunked on our tents raining down from the wisps of moss hanging from the pine boughs. It felt good to finally get some solid exercise by being back on the trail. Even though at one point during the afternoon I got us a bit lost in the fog wandering down an unmarked creek bed. We turned around after about 10 minutes of wandering around the slippery locks and found our way back to the trail.
We’re also still feeling the after effects of the smoke inhalation as it is still a little bit difficult to hike, especially on the uphills. You can definitely feel that we’re out of shape from two weeks of lying in bed and then also the after effects of the lung infection. It feels like we definitely have some work to do to get back to where we were in terms of fitness. We both cannot stop coughing, hacking up phlegm and blowing our noses. We are pretty gross sights to see and hopefully we can kick the lung infections’ side effects soon. I don’t ever want to go through wildfire smoke inhalation again and I don’t recommend it. It is not very fun to get smoke inhalation and I hope we can kick the after effects in the next few weeks!
