I had arranged with my parents to meet us at Callahan's so they could take our car. They met us there at about 4:00 on Friday. I was pretty nervous and anxious. What on earth had I gotten myself into? But we went off to the trailhead, my parents took some photos and we were on our way.
The first day, because we started the trail pretty late, we agreed to only do 5 or so miles. Just enough to get us in deep to find a campsite. We ended up walking until about 7:00 - probably covering more like 6 miles. It was hot. There were a lot of forest fires burning in Southern Oregon and Northern California and the air was really smoky and it made it feel super hot. We could smell smoke. It wasn't the most auspicious start to a trip. But I was really glad to be on the trail and I was super excited to spot my first PCT landmark - Pilot Rock.
We ended up finding a nice campsite on an old logging road. Jeff convinced me that we didn't need to set up the tent because it was so hot, so my very first night out, I slept cowboy style. I never thought I'd be able to do that but I slept like a rock. I woke up sometime late in the night and watched the stars for a while, hoping to see a shooting star but there was so much smoke in the air, it was difficult to make out anything but the brightest stars.
In the morning, we started our first full day on the trail. My plan had been to do relatively short days in the beginning to help us get used to hiking, so we planned on only doing about 12 miles. Funny how long distance backpacking changes your perspective about what a "long" hike is. Here is my journal entry from August 2:
"We started hiking at 0630. It was nice and cool. The trail is surprisingly overgrown with grasses and underbrush. Not so that you can't see the trail but you are constantly brushing against it. We walked around Pilot Rock and then continued east thru nice forest. Ate some thimbleberry along the way. Jeff is being a trooper but he's really struggling with the hills. Our progress was very slow but we managed 12.5 miles - in 10.5 hours. Way too slow. This evening I am feeling dejected. I think I will kill Jeff if we continue and I'm not sure I have what it takes either. I love the walking but it's the worrying about everything that gets me down - water, fires, Jeff. We may quit tomorrow at Hyatt Lake. I'm really scared for Jeff and I'm not enjoying myself either."
The first day was pretty rough. Neither of us expected it to be as hot as it was and water sources in Southern Oregon can be pretty far apart. I was constantly worried about how much water I had with me. I was generally carrying about 5 L in the first few days because of this and it probably pushed my pack to 40+ pounds. What worried me more than anything was Jeff's physical condition. On pretty much every hill, he'd have to stop constantly to catch his breath and, honestly, I wasn't much better. I'd trained all winter and spring for the trip and I thought I was in better shape than I was. My journal doesn't mention that we ended up having to get water at Keane Reservoir and it was GROSS. There were two dead deer on the shore and there were dead crawdads floating on the water. The water itself was nasty and full of floaties. I was so glad I'd brought a water filter rather than rely on chemical treatment, which would have left the water looking murky. We continued on a short ways after that. A thunderstorm was booming nearby, so we set up the tent. We sat and chatted on a log for a while, which was nice. We'd both had a pretty tough day so it was nice to sit and talk things out a bit. It was super duper smoky at that campsite and there was constant overhead traffic with fire bombers going back and forth between Hyatt Reservoir and a nearby fire. It was very nerve wracking, especially when ash started to fall on our tent.
Things got a bit better the next day:
"We had a much better day today and I am not feeling dejected or wanting to quit. We moved about 15.5 miles! The trail was much easier than yesterday and I felt good going down the trail - we are finally going North! We got to see a nice view of Ashland early on - slightly depressing that we're still within view of Ashland but still a nice view. At Hyatt Lake, the BLM had installed a nice water faucet for the PCT folks. So nice to not have to filter water for once. At Howard Prairie Lake, we paused for two hours while we enjoyed clean water and toilets. Talked with a nice camper for a while. We're getting to like our "siestas" in the late afternoon. It gives us the energy to keep going a little longer. We are camped at Keno Access Road tonight. Pretty sure we saw the famous Halfmile today. He had a GPS antenna. He was very soft spoken."
But then on the third, disaster struck:
"We woke up to find that Jeff's crotch chafing had gotten really bad overnight. His sleeping shorts were soaked with puss and blood. It was obvious he couldn't go on as is, so we decided to hike back to Howard Prairie Lake and call my parents to come get us. We only made it 2.5 days on the trail, which totally bums me out. But we'll be back. Took a nice nap on a picnic table, showered, ate second breakfast. Watched deer cross the campground. My parents showed up at about 3:00 and drove us to back to their place in Bandon. They made us burgers and we ate rhubarb pie."
So we ended up hanging out at my parent's place on the coast for 4 days while Jeff healed. It was a nice interlude but I was scared that we would be lulled by the comforts of home into not going back to the trail. After much discussion, we decided to hit the trail again, and get back on our schedule,which meant skipping ahead. My friend, Melissa, was going to meet me further down the trail, so this seemed the best solution to keep from messing up her plans. We ended up missing Fish Lake, Mt. McCoughlin, and Crater Lake. During out time off, we drove to Fish Lake and Mazama Village to retrieve out resupply packages. It took 12 hours of driving. Oy.
Oregon PCT Leg 1 - total miles about 36
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