“Another hotel? Did you guys even bring a fuckin tent?!” – Jeff, Matt’s brother-in-law
We woke up to our alarms but stayed cozy in bed for a while before actually getting up to pack.
We took the 8:40 shuttle as planned & ate at the AYCE buffet as planned, then, with our bellies full as planned, we claimed a couch in the lodge to sit, digest, and chill for a bit before heading out as planned…
But you know, not all things go as planned…
The outside of the Timberline Lodge was used for the movie The Shining
But first, the buffet: when hiking the PCT, the Timberline Lodge buffet is something you start hearing about and dreaming about in the desert- all you can eat breakfast goodness for$19!! (and they have an AYCE lunch buffet, too!!) It wasn’t the best food ever, and didn’t have the most food to chose from {best breakfast buffet I have ever been to was at the Marriott in Kuala Lumpur- and this iffy buffet had me longing for that one!} BUT, the biscuits were so good that I had two, and Matt splurged with a bacon flight so we were overall happy.
We found a couch hidden away a bit from the main area of the lodge and got to work relaxing. 🙂 I ran to the bathroom at one point and when I returned I found Matthew sitting with a bottle of champagne- what the heck?! Turns out a 2015 PCT thru-hiker had just gotten married the day before and had a few bottles of opened champagne to get rid of. When the guy confirmed that Matt was a thru-hiker, he offered Matt the bottle- how could Matt say no??
Matt sipped his champagne while I plugged away at my blog, the afternoon slowly sneaking away from us. At one point I looked over to Matt and asked if he was in a rush to leave and his answer was, “well, I was just looking up Airbnbs nearby so…”
On our way to Government Camp the day before we had realized that there was a Best Western Hotel just one more shuttle stop from the hostel we had stayed at AND Matthew had a free hotel night SO…
Matt enjoyed the rest of the champagne, we explored the lodge, and then we walked over to check out the bar at the lodge.
At the bar we met Sir Puns A Lot, another dude who went thru the Sierra. He was a pretty awesome dude- we really enjoyed talking to him. His take on the Sierra? “Well, I only cried myself to sleep four nights so I consider that a victory.” ….ahh!! When we mentioned that we knew Danger Poles, Puns FLIPPED out! Apparently Danger Poles was a legend in the Sierra- since he was one of the first to go through, his comments on Guthooks really helped guide those that went through after him. Puns was hilarious- “omg what is Danger Poles like? What does he look like? Omg I can’t believe you know him!!”
After drinks Matt and I moved venues & grabbed nachos at the cafe.
We then took the shuttle back to Government Camp, checked in to our hotel, hung out for a bit, and then walked over to the Mt. Hood Brewing Company for dinner.
Matt & I had originally talked about taking the first shuttle back to Timberline Lodge at 0610 to get a full day of hiking in, figuring that if we hiked two full days we would still get to Cascade Locks on Tuesday, the same day we would have arrived if we left today and hiked 2 half days and 1 whole day…butttt, over dinner I asked Matt if he would be cool taking the 0830 shuttle instead so we could get some good sleep. Deal!
We watched a little TV before bed…back to the trail tomorrow am!
Ali Walks Far 