Day 8, 2022 - A Moving Day with runlite and a Skip Ahead

July 24

Clackamas Lake Area off Highway 26 near Timothy Lake, OR.

Today will be a challenge. Runningbird has another 24 miles to cover to reach our rendezvous and Beau and I will need to travel 3-plus hours north with the trailer and hope our campsite at Clackamas Lake Campground is clear and available to dock the trailer in on arrival. From there we will need to runlite several hours back to the rendezvous hopefully to arrive before Runningbird does. We want to position the trailer first as it may be late and dark (and everyone tired) if we wait until after the pickup. And I’ve had previous experience with going somewhere without scouting ahead (and in the dark). Not a good formula for success. - Stay tuned.

Beau and I got things hitched up and on the road by about 0830ish. There was already a lot of road traffic and scads of bicycles spinning along on the mountain roads. Lots and lots of cars with boats, kayaks, and trailers. It was Bend’s version of the Hollywood freeway. A warm and sunny Sunday commute. Everything was slowed down. We moved along through Redmond and Madras and onto highway 26 towards Mt. Hood. At one point we pulled over to check on Runningbird’s SPOT tracks. She was really moving along. It must be her new shoes. Come on now, get the tune locked into your head. Not long after we got rolling along Runningbird called to make sure I knew she was making good time. She had hooked up with “Chaz” and they were urging each other along. We would be giving him a ride as well to skip ahead of the closed portion of trail and they would continue to hike together for the next few days as there were a few rivers to cross and it was good to have support.

Beau and I arrived at the campground and I was relieved I had come with the trailer ahead of time. Our site, not-so-lucky 13, had a tree stump in the middle of the landing and the site was fairly small and short. It was a bit of a wrestle but we made it work and then took off back towards the town of Sisters and Santiam Pass. We were supposed to stop and pickup Subway sandwiches but gave up on that after standing in line at the Subway in Sisters for quite some time and then giving up as several other folks left as well. They were not very organized and only one of three workers was actually making sandwiches. Back out into the traffic (Sisters was popular today) and motored up highway 22 to the PCT crossing at Santiam. Runningbird and Chaz were waiting but had kept cool and enjoyed some water a trail angel had left. The drive north back to the trailer seemed to take a long time and I shuddered to think about what it might have been like hiking all that distance in the heat of the coming few days.

Where the PCT dumps out on the south side of FS road 42.

As we neared the campground I pulled over so Runningbird and Chaz could see the where they would pickup the trail the next morning. While we were sitting there two hikers popped out of the woods to cross the road. One of them was “Detour”, one of Runningbird’s new trail friends. They were excited to see each other again and exchanged contact information. Detour said she was so happy to meet up again otherwise she was going to have to try and stalk Peggy on social media. They said their goodbyes and Detour and her friend continued on the trail and we moved on to the campsite.

The hikers got to work reorganizing their supplies into their backpacks and Chaz set up his tent. Runningbird took a bird shower and washed a few things and tried to eat enough into the evening to replace all the calories she had used up over the last couple of days. We were butting heads a bit too much and I was getting in the way so I headed to bed. We were both exhausted although I hadn’t really done anything.