[at-l] Cake and the PCT

["Felix J. McGillicuddy" <athiker@smithville.net>]

I got this note from Mike Henderson about 10 days ago and forgot to
forward it to you (actually, I was giving Mike a headstart.) (BTW, sorry
if I already sent it and forgot in my current state of dementia) Here it
is:


Hello from Cascade Locks!

Yes, we decided to head north for a while, hoping that
the snow in central and northern WA will melt and
allow us through.  We started this segment south of
Mt. Hood in OR, and have made it 60 miles to Cascade
Locks at Bridge of the Gods.  We depart tomorrow for
WA and Mt Adams, which will give us a good indication
of the snow to come.  We should know in 10-14 days
whether we can make it to Canada.

Oregon reminds me very much of the AT, at least
compared to the Sierra.  The trails are damp dirt, not
dry dust, roots instead of rocks, and the air is
surprisingly humid.  You don't get impressive
volcanoes like Mt. Hood on the east coast, though!
Incredible seeing the snowboarders at Timberline
Lodge, skiing on the glacier.  I highly recommend the
pizza at the lodge, by the way.

Many thanks to our new friends Scott and Robin, who
moved to Portland only days before we arrived, and
were still able to ferry us around for last minute
supplies and get us up to the trailhead at Frog Lake.
(They hiked from Idylwild to Tuolumne Meadows, and we
had bumped into them on the trail a couple times,
including their last mile into T-Meadows).

We've still been taking it easy with 12-14 miles days,
but that will begin to change.  The miles between
resupply get long again here in WA, and we'll have to
put in 15-18 mile days regularly if we hope to keep
our pack weight down.  Plus, if we do manage to get
through to Canada, we'll still need a couple months to
get us back down to Carson Pass before the snows hit
the Sierra this fall.

Thanks to everyone who sent e-mail and the occasional
post card (Optimistic Chris, Karine, Jim&Ginny, Felix,
Charlie&Diana, and others i forget) it's fun to read,
but usually we have no time to reply personally.  We
really appreciate it.

Time to eat again...


mike'n'ellen
ke kaahawe & fidget
PCT 99 - any way we can
mexico<---walker pass--->carson pass<---mt
hood--->canada



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