Rockin’ is hiking some big sections of the PCT this summer – including most of Oregon.  I was originally hoping to hike a couple days with her, but then I broke my leg.  So I had to settle for showing up near a trailhead Saturday morning with food.  It was really great to see her, and we had much to catch up on! We plopped down on trail and talked for over an hour before heading back to my car.

Unfortunately, Rockin’ has had to deal with multiple trail closures due to fire.  Fortunately, my weekend coincided with her arrival at Ollalie Lake, the southern end of the Warm Springs closure, and I was able to shuttle her to Timothy Lake at the end of the closure, sparing her a miserable 25 mile mostly paved and not at all scenic road walk.

I had decided about 10pm Friday night to go grocery shopping and get supplies for trail magicking (cooler and ice, burger fixins, fuel for my little propane grill, etc.).  I had no idea how many people to expect. It’s pretty early in the season for NOBOs, and with all the detours, people could be skipping the whole area. I was very concerned I could end up with a cooler of food I have no business eating while not on a thru hike.  Thankfully, when we got to Timothy Lake, we found 3 southbounders with their thumbs out trying to get down to Ollalie.  I had found my hikers to force feed.

After lunch, I shuttled the SOBOs down to Ollalie while Rockin’ continued hiking north.  I met up with further up the trail, at Little Crater Lake, a 45′ deep crystal blue artesian well.  It’s probably only about 100yds off the PCT, but I hadn’t bothered to go check it out when I hiked the PCT  in 2011.  Makes me wonder how many other not-quite-trailside attractions I missed.

Back with Rockin’, we hiked an easy 4 miles up the PCT and camped at a typical Oregon PCT campsite: mosquito infested.

We had a few hours of conversation around a nice little fire. In the morning, we said goodbye as I returned to my car and Rockin’ continued north.  She’ll finish her section hike in Cascade Locks in a few days.  It was truly a joyous reunion; the strength of relationships formed on long distance trails is hard to match.