Day 2

10 miles
Rough day! Last night we rediscovered that one of the zippers in the tent needs replaced (rookie mistake #1, should have addressed that after our ’21 hike), and Marie’s pillow won’t hold air (rookie mistake #2, should have put a permanent fix instead of the tenacious tape that’s been on it since our ’21 hike). We also had to be strict with water since we hadn’t brought enough with us (rookie mistake #3, should have brought more water from the start based on our target miles and high temps). We made it work though. The zipper can work if you guide it juuuust right, a combo of the deflating pillow and some extra clothes will be fine for a night or two, and we had a questionable water source in 4 miles. Had that small pool been dry, we would have been alright stretching our water the last couple miles downhill to Big Lake Youth Camp, no big deal. The tiny pool still had water though, so we lucked out. The youth camp is extremely generous to PCT hikers! We filled our bottles and I grabbed an extra couple liters for the day. We only hung out for a bit in their PCT Hiker building, but they have 3 meals a day, laundry, showers, water, a kitchen, resupply storage, and other hiker amenities. Super cool. We met a guy named Paul, a guy named Carrot, and a lady named Whimsy. Wanting to keep lightening our packs, we opted to head back out and eat the food we were carrying instead of eating their lunch. We hiked out, found the pond at which we were hoping to eat lunch, found the mosquitos, and then found out that Marie’s water filter has threads that don’t match the threads on the pouch that she brought (rookie mistake #4, should have tested the new filter on that pouch, not just the one in the box). My filter works fine, so I collected water for both of us. The mosquitos were hungry, so we hiked a little further until we found a flat spot in the shade that we could setup the tent and eat lunch in peace. Continuing on, while hopping over blowdowns in this dry, burn area, I developed a nosebleed. I stuffed some toilet paper in my nostril and we started walking again. Shortly after, Marie was dealing with skin chafe as we approached the highway leading into Sisters. The same one we came in on riding the bus from Portland. Rather than going 6 more miles, most of which were uphill through more dry, dusty, burned trees, we decided to go back to Sisters, reset, and start again tomorrow. Our hitch into Sisters came from a man named Matt who was driving a rental truck because his own truck had burnt to the ground over the weekend. He was a nice guy, used to take troubled kids on backpacking trips until funding dried up. I hope he eventually gets to the hike the trail, if his wife will let him.