Miles today: 20.9

Trail miles sum: 1014.8

Trail location: 1697.2

Elevation: 6617

Spinning on the turntable: Bruce Springsteen: Western Stars

Leaving the cabin after lunch I had one thing on my mind, Oregon!

It was, yet again, a uphill climb heading to the border.

I enjoyed watching two deer frolic in a meadow. One was a fawn and so dang cute. The way it bounced across the grass was mesmerizing.

It was great to reach the border. I’m honestly kind of indifferent about if I’m hiking in Oregon or California. I am not indifferent to now being in the same state as one of our daughters. I’m quite happy to our being much closer to our family.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever hiked across a state line before. We’ve hiked in WA and OR, but never crossed between the two. (The Columbia river separates the two states in our area.)

If you zoom in on my shirt you can see the dried sweat. I try to rinse my shirt out in streams a few times a week. It’s hot, the climbing is strenuous, and I’m a seriously sweaty boy.

Hitting the 1000 mile mark and hitting the border are both kind of a wet fart without Noelle out here to celebrate. What should have been really exciting was just kind of a “meh”.

I sent out another round of Garmin message announcing the arrival in Oregon.

I left the border and continued to climb.

I rounded a corner and found a gravel parking area. A car was parked near a tree and a couple were doing trail magic!

I was thrilled! It was a real lift to my spirit. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cold cantaloupe, crackers and ice cold beer. Oh my gosh it was good.

What a welcome to Oregon! It was a great boost to my flagging spirit. The trail angels told me that the hiker traffic was very low today with a total of three hikers stopping. They said that the bubble usually hits them in mid-August.

I learned that Pinnacle wrote two books that include information about Oregon road intercepts with the PCT. We’ll try to pick up the book when we’re in Ashland later this week. It might be perfect for Noelle in this next section. www.oregonbackroads.com

All too soon I was back on the trail and climbing again. The food was an unexpected boost. There were a few spots with snowy navigate around, but nothing serious.

It was nice to hit the top of the mountain and then start heading down. I stopped hiking around 6PM. I could have hiked longer, but honestly, I was bored of hiking today.

I set up camp close to a stream and cooked dinner. Tonight was a new Mac and cheese combo with salmon.

It turned out to be quite tasty! It will go into my regular meal rotation.

I’ve been cooking more dinners lately instead of just cold soaking. The warm meals are a little boost to my flagging morale. I haven’t found a cold soaked meal yet that I would describe as “good”. Most are just edible, aka fuel.

Tomorrow I have one semi-serious climb of a few thousand feet and then it’s downhill to meet up with Noelle.