If there is one thing I don’t like to do on trail, it is planning. Conversations about daily mileage, campsites and elevation bore the living crap out of me. They are necessary, but I just want to hike, without all the faff. So it is no surprise that I have tried to minimize the number of resupply boxes I sent ahead. In fact, until now I could say I didn’t send a single one. My streak was broken today however. In Washington two of the stops, White Pass and Stehekin, have very limited resupply options, so a box was kind of the only way. So in addition to resupply for the next section, I also filled and sent two boxes with food ahead to the aforementioned places. Glad I never have to do that again. A woman passed by while we were packing the boxes in the Walmart parking lot.
‘What are you guys doing?’ she asked.
‘Packing boxes with food’, Merlin explained, ever ready to face strangers with such questions, ‘we’re hiking to Canada.’
The woman gave us a blank stare
‘I don’t understand’, she finally said.
‘It’s a famous trail, called the Pacific Crest Trail, that runs from Mexico to Canada and we’re hiking it.’
Another long blank stare.
‘I still don’t understand.’
Despite further explanation, comprehension kept eluding her.
Then it was time for trail days! A ride to Cascade Locks later, we found ourselves amidst a sea of hikers. Some people I knew but so so many I had never seen before, all part of little universes with their own stories, experiences and hardships, with little to no connection to ours or each other. Or as I liked to call it: there are a lot of people who don’t even know who Jive Turkey is.
Camping for all the hikers was set up on Thunder Island, on the Columbia River, the river separating Oregon and Washington. In the distance the Bridge of the Gods stood out as a massive steel construction connecting both states.
Before dinner at the brewery I saw Gnome. Talking to him confirmed my suspicion: him, Tommyhawk and Remedy were not hiking together anymore. Tommyhawk was ahead because he had to be home earlier than planned and Remedy and Sips, her boyfriend, were behind. They fit so well together. Tommyhawk the strategist, the man with the plan, Gnome the wise old sage and Remedy providing enough chaotic energy for the whole group. Picturing them separately saddened me.
Inside the bathrooms of the restaurant, a man dressed in a yellow banana onesie, a yellow biking helmet with a shark fin on his head and yellow glitter sprayed royally on his cheeks was in front of me.
‘What’s your name?’ I asked.
‘Banana man’, came the obvious reply.
At sunset, hikers gathered on the grassy field on the mainland side of the island. By then I was very high on gummies. I had very high expectations for this evening, I had heard that the day before people jumped into the fast-flowing river butt-naked.
The four belgians walked by and I jumped up to say hi. They told me the disturbing news that there was an impostor in Washington. Someone named ‘Ketchup’ from Belgium who was a week ahead. I wasn’t planning to let this stand. There can be only one. From now on I will hike with my knife in my pocket.
The others went back to the island to go to sleep and I went with them. Until I heard a voice: ‘Catch Up!’ It was Squirrel Daddy and Boots, back from the coast. From there, it was one big reunion. I saw Update, Katie (which had been so so long), Chewy, Big Red, Veto, Fizzy, a very drunk Jive Turkey and eventually Fat Bitch, glitter on her face and obviously high as a kite. We had a complete nonsense conversation after which I crashed in my tent. This was good, but overwhelming.
The next day we went to the actual trail days area. The day before we’d come in too late and everything was closed.
It was big. Gear vendors from all across the country had come to set up a stand, sell their stuff and give away freebies. I collected hats, shirts, a massage ball and a free backpacker meal. All these things usually required filling in a survey or spinning a wheel. Besides that, I bought a new hat and a stuff sack. Before the trip, I’d told myself I’d take my Bunnings hat all the way to the border, but it was time to say goodbye. The new hat had salamanders on it and even Bunnings is no match for that.
I ran into Story and Bright, the two volunteer rangers we met at Elk Lake, this time without their ranger outfits. Bright suddenly asked if I was interested in some trail magic. I said I was of course. Out of her pack, she pulled three very fancy, very healthy looking dehydrated meals and hands them over. What a gift! She was allergic to walnuts so couldn’t have them. Guess I didn’t need to buy dinners for the next section anymore.
Then it was time for more people. There was Gopher, Siren, Doggone, Disaster and Big Oil. Smiley sitting on the grass, bare-chested as he is wont to be. Pinch with a new pink hat saying ‘Virginity Rocks’. Ishay, in pain after he jumped into Punch Bowl Falls from a considerable height and got a whiplash from the impact on the water. Dirty Mike even, back from the hospital and doing a lot better, planning to hike part of Washington. Solemate, just back from her escapades on the coast and Yellowstone, together with Rainer in a brand new hawaiian shirt. Billy Goat’s gang, trotting about everywhere I went. Drive Thru, with the sad news she wouldn’t rejoin us but instead skip ahead to get back with her first trail family. And many many more who’s faces were familiar but that I forgot the name of.
While I was talking to Smiley, sitting on the grass, a ghost appeared in front of us. I’d joked with Merlin that it would be hilarious if he showed up here and on one or two occasions we thought we saw him, but it turned out to be a lookalike.
‘Hey Catchup’, Sappy said. He had shaven his beard and looked a lot shorter and more timid for it. His insanity had not decreased one bit though, even if he recognized me and remembered my name. I thought for sure his tale had ended when they had to knock him out at Kennedy Meadows and have him shipped back to the Budpharm. I should have known better, Smoky, the Budpharm’s manager was strolling around trail days, so Sappy couldn’t have been far. I wondered what he’d get up to here.
I got another surprise not much later when a tall, familiar hiker came onto the terrain. Jupiter! The hiking celebrity! The ultralight, slightly insane master! Jupiter was pretty big on Youtube and Instagram in the hiking community and since he was hiking the trail this year I’d hoped to see him. Because of his insanely light backpack and iron determination he had already finished (in a much shorter timespan than I had already hiked of course) and was here for a little afterparty to the trail. At the Granite Gear raffle his name was called out as a winner of a backpack, but he didn’t even show up, even though he was there, the madlad. The backpack probably weighed more than his entire kit anyway.
Lucky Charm had come straight from her home in Portland and had brought with her the new hawaiian shirt I’d ordered. Yes, in addition to a new hat, I also said goodbye to my second orange sunhoodie. For the last stretch it only felt right to finish in style. Trevor, her boyfriend also brought the most amazing banana pudding and took all our free goodies with him so they could be shipped at a later date.
The others, beside Fitz, Mash and me left in the late afternoon in order to beat the massive horde that would head out from trail days in the morning. Us 3 really didn’t feel like hiking and just made a commitment to do a big day tomorrow. Those coast trail hikers can’t keep up with us anyway. On the way back to the campsite, we spotted a peculiar heap of dirt that was moving. A mole, in action, it turned out. People passing by must have thought we were tripping, looking at this occasionally bumping heap of earth.
Sappy came by a final time on Thunder Island to greet us. I watched him walk away, dancing and swaying this way and that. What a character.
I was tired. So so tired. It was amazing seeing everyone again, but exhausting. I feel every zero we take these days ends with me being at least slightly drunk, causing me to sleep bad and compound my tiredness. Well not tonight! This time I slept early and sober.