8/11/2023
Section: Milepost 1709.3 to 1684.3
Total Trail Miles: 1255
Distance: 24.17 Miles
Moving Time: 09:02
Elevation Gain: 4052 ft
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Today we completed Oregon and what an amazing milestone to hit! The stage starts off at the same wilderness shelter we had slept at the night before and traverses southwest until it hits the California/Oregon border. From here it descends through forests and cow pastures crossing a labyrinth of forest service roads and eventually arriving at a saddle above a spring where we camped for the night.
We woke around 5 the next morning. The light is starting to fade as we head into fall but it is still almost imperceptible here in August. Chewy got up as we prepared to leave and, in classic thru-hiker fashion, was ready to go in under 20 minutes and leaving north about the same time we departed south. We bid farewell and good luck to him and went our separate ways.
The morning was pretty uneventful. More wooded sections separated by beautiful clearings filled with wildflowers and forest service roads. About an hour in we ran across half of the “German” group we went into Sequoia National Park with a month before. We stopped and talked with them. The group had dwindled to the German guy and French girl as well as the two girls from the midwest. We talked a little bit and then continued on. Not long after that, we stopped to filter water at a nice sheltered area with a spring fed stream running through it. The Sawyer is starting to slow down noticeably. It’s getting so bad that we are starting to dehydrate ourselves to avoid filtering because it is now a 45 minute affair to refill. I attempted to backflush the filter in Ashland but I think if it goes too long before backflushing, the effectiveness of the flush becomes drastically reduced. So, yea, we try to go through the entire day now without filtering so that we can just gravity filter 2 liters apiece overnight and make that work the next day - not optimal.
We spent much of the midday traversing the shoulders of ridges heading south and west. At one point around 2 pm we broke above the treeline briefly and ran into Kirstin from San Diego whom we had started out of Campo with on day one. We stopped and caught up with her for a while. She had been hiking with Travis, the guy who was initially carrying an ultra-light chair in the first stages of the trail, and indicated that he was about a day behind her and that she had finally talked him out of the chair. While talking with her, a bumblebee landed on my shin and I absently brushed it off thinking it was a fly. Well - it didn’t like that, got scared and stung me which made me sad ‘cause the whole situation could have been avoided. So that’s sting number 2 for me on the trail. Before we split going our separate ways, Kirstin excitedly told us that there was trail magic just before the border and that they should still be there. We left ultra energized to get some trail magic in an hour or so.
We hiked on for another 90 minutes, up and over a ridge and descended to find 3 older campers waiting with tables, cold beer and chili. They weren’t the only ones either. As we approached we caught sight of IZZY! We had not seen Izzy since the day we climbed Mt. Whitney and were so excited to catch-up with her. We approached and were motioned to chairs. The trail angels were from Ashland and had come up to trail-angel and see the meteor shower that was expected that evening. I had a Sierra-Nevada Torpedo and some chips with salsa. Amanda talked with Izzy while I chatted with the trail angels. As we talked, Queen Bee showed up alone as well as another hiker, Ranger, from DC who had also straight-lined it through the Sierra. We all chilled and enjoyed some time off of our feet before Amanda, Izzy and I decided to head out. We took a picture with a big PCT sign the trail angels had brought, gave hugs all around and headed our separate ways wishing each other luck.
About 45 minutes on, we hit the California border about the same time Queen Bee, who was slack packing again, caught up to us. We stopped and chatted and she took our picture at the border. She was doing a big day and still had 20 miles to go with sunset only a few hours away. As we were about to leave, the rest of her family came up the trail, NOBO, and she stopped to check-in with them. I’m not really sure of the logistics of what they were doing - some going SOBO and others going NOBO, never really understood how what they were doing worked. In any case we carried on and descended about 700 feet, eventually bottoming out in a cow pasture. We gave the cows a customary “moooo” which was returned with an ambivalent stare before moving on.
From the cow pasture we climbed 1200 feet in about 5 miles, filling water again, where Queen Bee caught up to us. Night was falling and she confided nervously that she hated hiking after dark. We bid her good luck and, after another agonizing 45 minutes of filtering, carried on upwards, eventually pulling ourselves near the top of a ridge. The trail wound around the head of a valley and met up with a forest road where we stopped for the night, dusk already turning the world dark. One other hiker was already set-up and got settled a short distance from him. Amanda pitched the tent while I descended a few hundred feet into the head of a nearby valley to gather water for dinner and gravity filtering. The steady “tinking” of bells could be heard in the distant bringing back memories of our Alta Via hike in the Dolomites 2 years prior. After I had gathered up all the water I could carry, I climbed back up to the saddle and started dinner. Tonight was some Good-To-Go brand freeze dried meals. The freeze dried meal game has come a long way in the last 10 years. My favorite are the Good-To-Go meals out of Maine, specifically the Cubano and Adobe bowls. They are both 1000+ calories and super tasty. We finished up dinner and cleaned up. I did my yoga in the middle of the road, set up my GoPro to record the meteor shower around 1 am and laid down. We had fully expected to stay up and try to catch the beginning of the shower but fell asleep pretty much as soon as our heads hit the air mattress.
Amanda and Payden at the California/Oregon Border!