PCT Day 103&104, SoBo-NoBo Double Flip Day 22&23

We were both beat! Even after a good night’s rest our bodies were exhausted.

We enjoyed the hotel breakfast, lounged around our room for a bit, then set off into town for some mid-morning pastries.

Matt thought we should each pick a pastry for ourselves and share a third, but since we agreed on two we decided a third was not necessary- indeed it wasn’t! We couldn’t even finish the two.

After stuffing our bellies yet again, we walked over to the post office to pick up the package of snacks we had sent ourselves from Portland and brought it back to the hotel.

I ended up doing laundry and laying in bed while Matt walked back into town to get his knee checked out- we were relieved to hear that nothing was seriously wrong with the knee, but that a few days rest could serve Matt well.

We agreed that another day off would be smart, so we booked the room for another night, picked up two DVDs, and headed back to the room for a movie marathon.

I fell asleep maybe 2 minutes after the opening credits and woke up 5 minutes before the ending credits- Matt enjoyed the movie, though!

We walked back into town for the most grandest German feast ever:

We walked around the town for a bit then ended up sitting on a bench, where we met this little 150lb furry ball of love, Denali.

Her human, Matt, was super nice and wanted to make sure that we were set with rides and a place to stay- we were, but really appreciated his generosity. Guys, people are so, so nice! Could you imagine if everyone was as genuinely kind as the strangers we have met along the trail?! Gosh.

After Denali and Matt left, Matt and I had a pretty serious discussion: with his knee hurting, Matt wasn’t confident about heading into the next section & as much as I wanted to be in denial, I agreed. This next section is notorious for being rough on the joints and it wouldn’t be smart for us to try to tackle it now. It’s another fuckin bummer, but as I said to Matt, it is what it is and we will figure it out…but after ice cream.

Off trail miles: 3 miles

Running total: 1044.6

Our day started with another hotel breakfast feast where we met Unicorn, a flipper who unfortunately needs to end her thru-hike attempt due to injury. What a shitty feeling! Another hiker forced off trail…

I didn’t want to fall in the “not finished” category- I was so determined to be one of the few that actually finishes!!! BUT, by meeting people like Unicorn I’ve realized that not everyone who doesn’t finish didn’t have the grit, determination, and ability to finish- some, like us, just fell upon some pretty shitty luck and ran out of time! But as I said, even though we won’t finish, we are gonna keep walking to get pretty damn near close!

But, not today:) Today we zero.

I ended up taking a post-breakfast nap- apparently battling mosquitos for a week followed by eating copious amounts of food is exhausting!

Our main goal for today was figuring out our next move. I recommended we discuss this over margaritas, so we headed to a Mexican restaurant…. margaritas, chips, and guac were had, yet plans were not made.

We ran some errands and then strolled through the local farmers’ market- it was super cute! They have a kid’s market where the local kids set up tables with their arts and crafts to sell- anything from homemade slime to painted rocks and really beautifully painted glass bottles. We admired the goods, refrained from buying new hats, and sampled some delicious local peaches!

We finally discussed business over dinner: we weighed our many options and decided that the best plan for us would be to head to southern Oregon, where the terrain isn’t as difficult as Washington and the Sierra, and hike north. Back at the hotel we booked bus and plane tickets for the next day to get us to Medford, Oregon, where I was able to secure us a ride to the trail with a trail angel the day after.

SO, we doubled flipped and now we flop…I’m really hoping that Oregon goes smoothly so we can hop, skip, and jump to finish more of this trail!

We spent the rest of the evening enjoying popcorn and marionberry pie (She-Wee’s fav!) in bed while watching a movie.