To PCT mile 1717.7 (stats here).
I slept really good. I got the soft ground to thank for this. Getting up 4:45am did not feel that bad and I was under way 5:20am. In the beginning, my feet did not feel that bad and I was quickly at the dirt road after 1.5 miles where the detour started.
At the dirt road I stumbled into Omri, Naturalist and Popcorn. Thhey had camped there at the ditch. Omri was kind enough to offer me coffee. I decided that I would try to keep up with them as doing roads alone felt like a very boring idea.
I was able to keep up with the group when going down, but going up was hard. The first 10 miles of the detour was going down, the rest the same amount up. It was an irritating idea as the real trail was 6 miles shorter and a gradual downhill all the way down to Ashland. Going down was not easy to my feet either. My gait was such that the blisters were painful on every step. I was more unsocial as I would have wanted to be because I needed to concentrate on managing the pain. Our group was joined with few other hikers and to my surprise we leap frogged with Auston few times. I heard from him that he also had some feet problems that were killing his pace.
During the day there was mobile coverage every now and then. I have come to realise that I have more resupply boxes waiting to be sent than there are anymore possible resupply locations. So now I sent Mikko a message if he could start sending those, but halving the contents cut in half per each. 5 kg of food to carry is just too much.
The group was moving fast and the whole 21 mile detour was done already about 2pm. It was hard for me to keep up but I took it as a challenge. I did not want to end up being there alone as I was not entirely sure about the route as we did not follow the official detour, and I had a gpx file only about that.
Most of the group thought of stopping before the interstate to Ashland, and then hitching there the next day. As we kept so good pace, we decided with Omri to do the hitching already today. Getting to a bed after all the agony and being able to treat yourself with ice cream and such motivated me greatly.
We had a break 5 miles before the interstate. Omri called the hostel and arranged beds for us. He was so excited about getting into town that he continued without a break. As I was prepared to take a break and had my shoes already off, I executed upon having the break. The price of the decision was that I was the last to leave the break spot, and being left alone, my pace reduced to a crawl. The pain in my blisters felt stronger and it was hard to do the remaining miles. Nevertheless, I arrived to the interstate 7pm. I went to the nearby Callahan Lodge, a restaurant and a hotel, and queried about possible rides to town. The receptionist replied that my best bet is just to hitch from the ramp. She also offered me a free beer, as I obviously was a PCT hiker. They have such a custom. I was stupid to accept, Stupid, because this meant delaying my hitching with 30 minutes.
While being there, Nemo appeared. He was getting back to trail after spending time in Ashland for 3 days. He had skipped the detour by bus and was now ready to rock. Unluckily, we did not manage to stop the car he had ridden to the trailhead. I was still lucky as it took me 15 minutes to get a hitch from the ramp. A trail runner couple that I had briefly met up in the trail were returning home, and were glad to give me a ride to the hostel.
At the hostel, I was let in by hikers. I had saved Omris number in my phone in the wrong format so his messages had not come through. The caretaker at the hostel was super nice and gave me a ride to the laundromat where Omri and some others were. After that, as the busses did not operate anymore, she also came and picked us up to the supermarket. It was open late and I got my sodas and ice cream and a vegetarian pizza. Even though I stayed up very late, I was kind of happy. It was a hard day. Tomorrow, I am gonna take a zero and try to fix issues with my feet. But now there is a bed where I can crawl into.
I slept really good. I got the soft ground to thank for this. Getting up 4:45am did not feel that bad and I was under way 5:20am. In the beginning, my feet did not feel that bad and I was quickly at the dirt road after 1.5 miles where the detour started.
 |
| Early bird catches ... the other people? |
At the dirt road I stumbled into Omri, Naturalist and Popcorn. Thhey had camped there at the ditch. Omri was kind enough to offer me coffee. I decided that I would try to keep up with them as doing roads alone felt like a very boring idea.
I was able to keep up with the group when going down, but going up was hard. The first 10 miles of the detour was going down, the rest the same amount up. It was an irritating idea as the real trail was 6 miles shorter and a gradual downhill all the way down to Ashland. Going down was not easy to my feet either. My gait was such that the blisters were painful on every step. I was more unsocial as I would have wanted to be because I needed to concentrate on managing the pain. Our group was joined with few other hikers and to my surprise we leap frogged with Auston few times. I heard from him that he also had some feet problems that were killing his pace.
 |
| I am not the only one with feet problems. |
During the day there was mobile coverage every now and then. I have come to realise that I have more resupply boxes waiting to be sent than there are anymore possible resupply locations. So now I sent Mikko a message if he could start sending those, but halving the contents cut in half per each. 5 kg of food to carry is just too much.
The group was moving fast and the whole 21 mile detour was done already about 2pm. It was hard for me to keep up but I took it as a challenge. I did not want to end up being there alone as I was not entirely sure about the route as we did not follow the official detour, and I had a gpx file only about that.
Most of the group thought of stopping before the interstate to Ashland, and then hitching there the next day. As we kept so good pace, we decided with Omri to do the hitching already today. Getting to a bed after all the agony and being able to treat yourself with ice cream and such motivated me greatly.
We had a break 5 miles before the interstate. Omri called the hostel and arranged beds for us. He was so excited about getting into town that he continued without a break. As I was prepared to take a break and had my shoes already off, I executed upon having the break. The price of the decision was that I was the last to leave the break spot, and being left alone, my pace reduced to a crawl. The pain in my blisters felt stronger and it was hard to do the remaining miles. Nevertheless, I arrived to the interstate 7pm. I went to the nearby Callahan Lodge, a restaurant and a hotel, and queried about possible rides to town. The receptionist replied that my best bet is just to hitch from the ramp. She also offered me a free beer, as I obviously was a PCT hiker. They have such a custom. I was stupid to accept, Stupid, because this meant delaying my hitching with 30 minutes.
While being there, Nemo appeared. He was getting back to trail after spending time in Ashland for 3 days. He had skipped the detour by bus and was now ready to rock. Unluckily, we did not manage to stop the car he had ridden to the trailhead. I was still lucky as it took me 15 minutes to get a hitch from the ramp. A trail runner couple that I had briefly met up in the trail were returning home, and were glad to give me a ride to the hostel.
 |
| We runners, we keep together. Thanks guys for the ride! |
At the hostel, I was let in by hikers. I had saved Omris number in my phone in the wrong format so his messages had not come through. The caretaker at the hostel was super nice and gave me a ride to the laundromat where Omri and some others were. After that, as the busses did not operate anymore, she also came and picked us up to the supermarket. It was open late and I got my sodas and ice cream and a vegetarian pizza. Even though I stayed up very late, I was kind of happy. It was a hard day. Tomorrow, I am gonna take a zero and try to fix issues with my feet. But now there is a bed where I can crawl into.
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