By the time I was heading north from the Sierras, heading into northern california, my mindset had taken a huge leap, I had become unmotivated, depressed, exhausted and I began to question all that I believed in. I had hiked this all the year before, I had been here at a different time, seen different things and people and experienced much different events and feelings. I felt as though getting to Canada was silly, I wondered why it mattered to me so much, it was the first time I ever allowed myself to look at the goal of Canada as silly and worthless, though I still felt something pushing me inside. What was this, why couldn't I just go home, have an ordinary summer and be finished with all of this long distance hiking crap. Days in Northern California felt slow and I was sad, so much of the time was spent trying to fight my own personal battle with what was inside of me, what I felt was right and what I believed in. I fought the battle with myself every step. I can't deny that there were perfect moment of peace and contentment, perfect moments where the beauty calmed me down and settled my mind, but most of the time was spent fighting this inner battle and trying to stay sane, stay focused and stay strong.
Northern California is not the greatest place, it is rough Trail and it lacks the beauty left behind in the Sierras. It is a time of struggle for miles, heat, huge climbs and for me loss of interest to keep hiking. Passing towns such as Sierra City, Shasta brought on new light for me. I was going to finish this, why? Well, sometimes you have to finish just because you started, so that was my motivation for hundreds of miles, that took me across the California/Oregon border and sailed me through days of discontentment
and heartache.
Reaching Oregon, is a great feeling, finally, your making progress and in another state. At this point, I had hiked for 1,700 miles and only had 965ish miles left to hike. Stoping in Ashland, helped to restore my faith in humanity and it propelled me north for sometime. I met fantastic people in Ashland, one women in particular, who welcomed me into her home, drove me around and touched my heart in many ways. Another guy at a restaurant, who was with his family for a birthday, paid for my dinner, he told me that he had always wanted to hike the PCT, I had not even talked to him, I walked in there with my pack and sat silently alone. He must have been from the area and knew about the PCT and what we dirty hikers looked like. People were so gracious and kind to me, that gave me faith and so it kept me going. Next stop, Crater Lake, well, my mom's cookies were there at the PO, so I had to hike there. Each day I would tell myself something to help keep me going, I would give myself something to look forward to. I needed that very much, something to look forward to, to focus on, to bribe myself when it was too hard keep hiking. Trust me, days were so difficult and slow sometimes,it felt as though I was never going to go home. I missed home, I missed David, Nanuk dog, I missed being normal, being clean, I missed pillows, clean water, and the voices of many. I missed Colorado and knew it was there waiting for me, but at times it was so hard to be away from the other life I live.
Oregon is a pretty fast state to hike, less than 500 miles and hey I had already hiked 1700, well actually more like 4000, so 500 was nothing. Oregon has a lot of real cool areas, volcanic rock, cool peaks, crater lake, tons of lakes and lush trees, sometimes its like being in a jungle.
Around 55 or so miles north of Crater Lake, I was hiking with 5 other hikers, we had hiked 30 miles that day and were planning to hike 2 more to get to the next water. When all of a sudden the Trail was on fire. I had never seen anything like that before, real wild fire burning like that, it was crazy. We called 911, thank god we had cell service, after about 2 hours fire fighters reached us and escorted us through the fire. It was a crazy night to say the least. I would prefer to never be that close to a wild fire again!
After the fire...
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