This must have been the weirdest zero so far. The smoky sky pressed down on the city and despite the record number of hikers in town, a somber mood pervaded everything. Everyone was here, yet our time together was so so limited. I discovered our group belongs to the minority who will keep on hiking. Most of the others are headed for the coast or Northern Oregon. Gone are the days of catching up or slowing down, many dear friends will simply be out of my reach. Of those, parting ways with Drive Thru, Cookie and Solemate hurt the most.
Solemate came to the hotel to bring me the shoes she bought for me earlier. Shoe delivery, what a luxury! This makes pair number 4 since the start of the trail. Then Solemate announced her plan. She was going straight to the coast until she found a point to safely get back on the PCT. She’d been around me since Whitewater in the desert. Always hiking alone, but eager to hang out whenever we met. It was good to have her, a comforting and uplifting presence whenever I had a down day. We said goodbye, knowing it would be a while, but that the trail had kept us together for so long, surely this couldn’t be the end.
In the afternoon I did an escape room with the others and luckily, we escaped the room! It was goofy fun even though I wasn’t really in the mood for it. I headed to Cookies hostel after.
There I found both him and Drive Thru. They were going to do the coastal trail together starting tomorrow. This would put them roughly a week ahead of us. I was really hoping they’d come with us, but their decision made sense. There is so much uncertainty right now. I’ll miss them both so much. They are without a doubt the kindest and sweetest people I’ve met here. The kind of people that restores your faith in humanity. I’ll remember the small moments we had together, how we kept running into each other without any prior planning. Drive Thru was set on linking back up with us at Cascade Locks and I’ll make damn sure that happens.
Guillaume came in near the end, letting me know he was skipping all the way to Washington. Another farewell.
Then Squirrel Daddy texted me that he was also going to do the Oregon Coast Trail and that Jesse’s group was going to skip to Bend. I hated it. Again so powerless to keep everything together, even though that was not my place to do so at all. I childishly wished for a new stretch of trail where we would all be together.
Just when I thought we would be the only ones hiking on, I received a sweet message from Smiley, who said he just hiked out from Ashland. Seeing Smiley again, something to look forward to! Time to live up to my name once again and catch up to him! Then I ran into Big Oil. He made it through the fire despite tragically losing his poles and was leaving from Ashland tomorrow as well. And the big surprise, Disaster was going with him! A positive end to a rough day!
I’m anxious to get back on trail. Staying here is like moving through sludge, everything is costing me so much energy.