7/12/2023
Section: Milepost 789.7 to 789.7
Distance: Miles
Moving Time: hrs
Elevation Gain: ft
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Waking up 2 days in a row on a mattress was something to appreciate. Katie had set us up on the guest bed in her office and their air condition had kept it perfect for sleeping. Both parents were coming up to Portland for breakfast, so Amanda and I were up at 7 getting ready. Katie had suggested a nice little place on Alberta street called Tin Shed Garden Cafe. My parents showed up, and we gave them big hugs. We sorted through the boxes of resupply they had brought up, loading our backpacks with things we needed, and then walked a few blocks to the café, talking about our adventure in the Sierra the whole time.
Once there we got self serve coffee and ordered our breakfast and then Amanda and I recounted our whole tale in detail. My parents, like Jeff and Karen, had found The Codger’s YouTube channel. The Codgers are an older pair of guys in their late 60s who thru-hike the long trails in the US and had taken on the PCT this year about 4 weeks ahead of us but, because there was some delay in their posting, appeared to be just ahead of use on their channel. Not sure if it was good that my parents were able to see every detail of what we were in for in high definition - sometimes the imagination is a little gentler, but at least they had some serious context for what we were doing.
After breakfast, we returned to Katie’s and my mom had to head back to Corvallis. My dad was sticking around since he was flying out of PDX that night, so he took us to REI for a few things we needed. I had decided to return my FitBit - it just wasn’t keeping up with the long days - and replace it with a Suunto. We also got a replacement set of socks each and some other miscellaneous things we needed. The resupply boxes my parents had brought up covered most of the food we needed for the next week-long stint, so we didn’t need much in the way of food. When we got back I had figured out that the Suunto could download maps and started it downloading the Oregon map…which I soon found out was going to take hours… Amanda had been craving Indian food, like to the point where she was having dreams about it, so Katie suggested a place and then drove us all down there for lunch while I left the watch working. The food was amazing and definitely what Amanda was craving.
After lunch, we returned to Katie's apartment. I had fully been expecting to get a few miles in during the afternoon on the trail but found my watch still downloading maps, and I’m a stickler for letting those kinds of things finish up, so we talked in Katie's living room for a few hours while the Suunto finished its thing. When it was all done, we decided it would be good to at least get to the trail head that evening, so we could get an early start out the next day.
We loaded into my parent's old 2001 Honda Odyssey, which Katie has now outfitted with a kayak hauler and is repping over 300k miles! The drive out to Cascade Locks was about 45 minutes and, once there, we were shown to an overflow parking lot with about 20 hikers and also a small sailing group doing some event on the Columbia that weekend. We said our goodbyes and thanked Katie and my dad for their help and support getting us back on the trail so fast. Once they were gone, Amanda and I set up our things for the evening, and then we headed across the railroad tracks to Thunder Island Brewing for dinner and a few brews. We sat and ate while working a few finishing details on our plan ahead. From Cascade Locks, we were planning on doing a single stretch to Santiam or McKenzie pass, about 7-8 days, at which point my other sister, Claire or my parents could pick us up again, and we could likely stay with Claire and her fiancé John in Redmond. This would also allow Amanda to make it to Claire’s bachelorette party back in Portland on the 22nd.
Amanda went off to pick up a few last minute things at the local market in Cascade Locks and Ii worked some more on my blogs. Eventually it grew “late” and I headed back across the tracks. Amanda and I turned in and eventually fell asleep. It had been an efficient transition and tomorrow, we would head south!
