Portlandia: Mile 2107

We've spent the last 3 days in Portland partly getting organized and mostly gorging ourselves.  Our new plan of action is pretty much finalized, as long as we don't run into any problems with the permit situation.  Today Mikey is giving us a ride to a shuttle that will take us to the Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood for only $2!!  From there, we're heading north and getting as close as we can to the Canadian border.  Neither Mike or I have our passport with us, so we wouldn't be able to cross the official finish line anyway, but we can come real close.  It doesn't seem like we'll be especially pressed for time; since we're starting at mile ~2100, this only leaves 550 miles until Canada.  With the 650 we've already covered, that would be a grand total of 1200 miles, 300 short of our original length.  After some research, we've decided to try and hop off the PCT east of Mt. Rainier to complete the Wonderland Trail.  This 93-mile loop will add an additional week of hiking to our trip, and isn't a big detour.  We have to hitch a few miles to get into Rainier National Park, then see how lucky we get attempting a walk-in permit for Wonderland.  It's a pretty highly regulated trail, unlike the PCT.  You're only allowed to camp in designated areas on the trail, with reservations for each night's camp.  We'll be taking a bit of a chance trying for this permit, but if it falls through it's not a big deal to get back to the PCT.  The fire situation in Washington looks pretty clear, except near Stehekin at the end of Lake Chelan in the Northern Cascades.  It's nothing like the CA/OR fires, so we're optimistic those won't close down the trail or cause us any grief. I updated the calendar on the blog to show the new plan, we'll see if it sticks :)

Though it was an unexpected detour, our time in Portland has been great.  We've been able to spend time with great friends who have been very gracious and hospitable.  Mikey and Krista live right downtown, so there has been easy access to food trucks, bars, and Voodoo doughnuts :)  The food trucks are a hiker's fantasy...restaurants on wheels from just about every nationality you could hope for neatly lined up in one city block for your appetites ease and convenience.  So far we've had Vietnamese noodles, wings, gyros, curry, Polish sausage, Thai food, and even a Transylvanian schnitzel.  It's the kind of spread we've been dreaming about since we got on the trail, and they have all been delicious.  We also made consecutive day trips to the infamous Voodoo doughnut shop, which did not disappoint (ohhhhh bacon maple bars.....) and got to witness a Voodoo wedding, which is apparently something they do frequently at this place.  And of course we've been drinking delicious Portland beer.  Thanks for the food circuit tour Mike and Krista!! Sorry we made you be gluttons with us...

We also met up with Grant and Amber while we were here, who wined and dined us while Mikey and Krista were at work.  We had a carnivorous meal of kabobs from just about every type of animal you can think of last night, which was a great way to power up before getting back to work.  We're really fortunate these great people were all close by to help us get over our trail woes and recuperate.  So thank you Portland and Portlandia!!  We're very excited to be back on the trail today and start pounding out these miles!  One more really great benefit of moving north on the PCT is that we'll be a whole lot closer to our Seattle/Pullman people, making the trail more accessible to them too.  It sounds like we might finally get some hiking buddies as we trek through the Pacific NW, which we can't wait to do!!

Since we were in Portland and had such easy access to an REI, I decided to stop in and try to trade out my hiking shoes for ones where the sole isn't peeling off. I bought my shoes 2 weeks before our PCT trip started and they've been amazing! I really do love these shoes, but they're starting to fall apart. Unfortunately, they wouldn't take back my shoes because "there is nothing functionally wrong with them, they've just seen a lot of miles." REI's policy has changed quite a bit since people have been taking advantage of their leniency on returns. I didn't complain or anything, my strategy was to simply look like a pathetic, poor PCT hiker and hope to get some sympathy points. Unsuccessful! I wonder if I had tried to be a little angrier and meaner if they would've taken them back... Anyway, I still picked up a new pack cover because I figured it may be little more damp in the PNW and a garbage bag probably wouldn't cut it. We also grabbed a new trowel because I broke our old one. Yay for new toys!

Anyway, I'm excited to get back on the trail. It'll be interesting meeting new PCTers because we'll be in a different group now. Before this detour, we were sort of at the back of the pack with all the slower hikers or the folks who started late. Now we should be up toward the front of the north bound pack. I'm expecting to be passed by a bunch of people who are doing consecutive 30 mile days while we do our measly 23-mile days.