My knee vs the Tree.

What started off as a proactive good idea certainly went pear-shaped... Big fat swollen pear-shaped to be exact.
To explain...
Often, after leaving our chosen campsite the next morning, within 10 minutes or so we may pass another, even better, spot & both think, "Damn, if only we'd found this last night..!".
With that in mind, the other evening, not finding anything all that great, Tom & I had ended up pushing on another 3 or so miles. Eventually, admitting defeat, we came up off the trail and started to clear off a couple of level looking areas to make our own.
After 10 minutes of effort, I was pretty happy with my patch of moss, having gotten rid of pretty much every stick, log, twig & pinecone that had been on it.
Next came the "checking of the levelness", where I put down my groundsheet & lay on it to see how it feels. Laying there, feeling happy that I was flat, level & not going to slide anywhere in the night, I gazed up at the canopy above me, & realized unfortunately there was a rather large dead pine tree at 45 degrees right overhead. It had died & been blown over some time ago, but the top was caught in another not-so-well-looking tree, so was potentially able to come crashing down at any time. Given that the previous nights had seen the wind pick up a bit, I didn't want to chance it coming loose, fall, & land on me in the night, most likely wrecking my tent & doing me dome serious damage too.

I decided to see if I could aid it in it's completion of hitting the ground, so started to give it a shake near the base of the 10 inch trunk. About 40 feet long, it wasn't huge, but it "weren't no sapling" either. I was just about to give up trying solo & ask Tom for a hand when the brittle dead tip finally snapped & it started to fall the remaining 45 degrees. Quickly!
I wasn't under it, but it must have slid slightly towards me... & as I backstepped further away, I caught my right heel in the soft moss... & the damn thing caught me real good, spang right across the top of my right knee!!
Lots of rolling around, swearing & cold water later I finally got up, able to walk OK, but throbbing & sore. Yanking the damn timber off my tent site, I finally got my tent up, loaded my self up on "Vitamin-I" (Ibuprofen) & actually slept pretty good.

The next morning I felt surprisingly good, & we got going fine, although I was a bit swollen & stiff in the thigh & knee... Untll we stopped for 2nd breakfast when I took a look & noticed my leg was by then like a melon!
Strangely, it was then I went into delayed shock. I was sitting on a log when I suddenly lost all taste of my pop-tart, all sound went away, & my vision went like that of a thermal imaging camera, only in shades of grey.
"Aah crap! I'm bloody going into shock!" I said to Tom, who was wondering why the hell I was deciding to lay on the cold ground... Man, that sucked, but after 5 minutes of laying there, everything went back to normal, & I could enjoy the rest of my frosted blueberry pastry!
4 days of walking later, my knee is a good shade of blueberry itself, but has gone down & the near-o & zero we are taking here in Cascade Locks has done a lot of good.
Next... Washinton! 500 miles to go!!
Hopefully smoothly & injury free too!
RWK
Recuperating!

A good day...

After our near-o rest day in Bend, which was more of a shopping day than anything, we hit the trail again on Thursday morning (the 27th) having again been kindly given a ride back to the trailhead by Stacie & Chad.

Our packs were well loaded up, both of is just able to cinch the tops down due to the 6 days worth of food we were packing. On the past few resupply missons & subsequent trail-times, we'd both been a bit conservative with the food selections & amounts, & both of us had often been feeling unfulfilled & hungry, so this time we said sod the weight & were loaded up with extra snacks & meals.

The start was a rough one, having to slog our way 2+ miles over the rough uneven & unforgiving volcanic rock that was once a red hot lava flow. Once we'd managed to get through that, we were back into more familiar & favorable terrain amongst the pines... Well, the terrain underfoot was similar, but the pines around us were slightly worse for wear having been scorched to death in a huge forest fire in 2003. New growth was beginning to show, & the lack of forest canopy meant the wildflowers & grasses could florish, so there was still a lot of beauty in the otherwise harsh landscape.

There were a lot of day-hikers & section hikers out that day. One in particular gave Tom & I a chuckle. Striding towards us with what appeared to be an out of breath grandpa behind was a young, very happy hiker of about 12, his oversized pack almost as big as he was bouncing away on his skinny shoulders.
" Where'd ya start?" he asked loudly, grinning away.
"The Mexican border" I replied.
"Goin' all the way?" he fired back...
"Planning to" I said.
"Good on ya! Australia?"... Again, sharp as a tack.
"New Zealand" I managed to reply...
"Aaah, KIWI! Cool... Well, have a good one!"
And with that, he had blown past us... Grandpa gave us a weary knowing nod as he slogged by leaving Tom and I somewhat bemused, although grinning at the brief but rapid-fire exchange.

Just as we were nearing lunchtime, around 1200, another large milestone was reached as we hit the 2000 mile mark. Obviously, pix were taken & then we sat in the sun enjoying lunch & revelling in our acheivement so far.
Later in the afternoon, the slight disappointment of finding an empty trail-magic cooler was quickly remedied 400 yards later by funding some still cold Mountain Dews left by fellow hiker Stumbling Norweigen. Very nice!
The sunset that evening was stunning, rounding off a great first day back out on some tough terrain.
The 6 days out would have been very easy had I not had an accident with a tree... But the details of that will be posted shortly!
I have just finished the big pix update to the main journal too, so for images of the sunsets and the other things described above, go to
http://www.roadwarriorsnews.com/PCT%20Journal/Page%205/PCT%20Journal%20P5.html

Ok. More soon!
Cheers...
RWK.
Out.

Yeah Pepsi!!

What a surprise..! There, on the side if the trail right at the crossroads of the PCT & the trailhead to Charlton Lake was a big fat 2L bottle of Toms favorite beverage.

Unsure as to exactly why it was there (although the obvious was that it was a kind of trail magic) Tom went over to the nearby carpark & trailhead & met a fellow hiker called 'Yogi Beer'. It turned out whilst trying to hitch a ride to town, Yogi had earlier been given the Pepsi & 3 beers by a car-camper who was leaving. With a trail-name like Yogi Beer, it was easy to guess what happened to the brewskis... & as he wasn't about to wash them down with a soda, he'd left the bottle where it would be found... Just like we did!

Dinner at the lake was made all the much better for the cola, even if it was slightly less than chilled.

RWK.
Burp!

800 miles.

Old shoes & insoles compared to new after having knocked out 800 miles of dirt, sand, rocks, pine needles & some pavement!

Volcanic views.

Similar to Tongariro NP in NZ, we are making our way through a rough abrasive volcanic wasteland towards the mountains in the pic above, Mt Washington on the left, & Mt Jefferson to the right.
I'm glad I just got new boots too, as my old ones, although looking good for having done over 800 miles, were getting a bit thin & I was really beginning to feel the trail. New & old pix coming shortly....
RWK.
Out.

Sunset at South Matthiue Lake.

We camped on the pine covered shores of this small lake the other night in the volcanic wilderness of the 3 Sisters mountains... It was a fantastic night... Warm & silent. Perfect.
RWK.
Peaceful easy feeling.

Crater Lake.

Lots & lots of water... But none of it when we needed it.
As I mentioned in the post earlier, water was hard to find & the previous days hiketowards Mazama Village had been as dry as an Irish bar the day after St Patricks day... & so we were having to plan our water resupply carefully.
Once we'd made the 4.5 mile climb (& what a climb! It was near vertical at the end!!) to the Rim Village, we stopped at the gift shop there, but decided against paying $3 for a can of soda. Carrying on, we got our first look at the awesome sight of a water-filled volcano crater.

We'd wondered why the data book had given a 'Water Alert' for the next 16 miles (as in, there was none on or near the trail) given that we were passing a HUGE body of water... But when we reached the crater rim, we understood why it wasn't listed as available... It was around 1000 feet below us down a very steep slope.
We took lots of pix and video, had a great lunch overlooking the lake, then made our way further north through nicely graded slopes of pines before stopping for the night near Hwy 58.
Since then, we have rolled on about 5 days to where we are now... Bend, OR.
We have taken a near-o here to recharge ourselves& our devices & will be back on the trail in the morning. I've not been able to upload any updates mostly due to the lack of coverage... We have been hiking towards & through Sisters Wilderness area which has been awesome, but very volcanic, rough & isolated. More pix will come soon, whilst I have some solid WiFi... Hope y'all like!
Cheers.
RWK.
Updatin'!