Miles Hiked 44.6
PCT Mile 550.2
Elevation 3,917 feet
Miles Hiked Today 13.2
July 12, 2026
Yes, a brutal day. But I’ll get to that in a minute. Last night I was laying in my sleeping bag half asleep when I heard a loud sound. It was a big bird flapping its wings as it descended to the ground. When it hit the ground, it hopped three times and then took off. You can bet that was an owl finding himself a late night snack. So cool.
And now, the brutal day. I used to make it a habit to check my navigation app the morning before I left my campsite. I don’t do that as much anymore. And that’s mostly because I don’t want to know. This was one of those days. There was a 2000 foot elevation gain in the morning that really tired me out. And then in the afternoon, I started going up again. Curiosity got the better of me, and I checked my navigation app to see what was going on. Much to my chagrin, the trail was going up 3,000 feet.
Now you may say 5,000 feet total is a lot and you would be right. But just to make things interesting, I had to cross a raging stream and there is no bridge.
At first, I looked at some logs laid across the stream. I even went a little ways out on the logs, but they were too unstable so I decided not to do it. That meant I would have to ford the stream. I spent about 15 minutes walking up and down the stream to find the best place to walk across. Finally I decided on one spot and started my ford. The stream was flowing very quick and it was difficult to make progress in the water, but with great care I made it. Hooray for me!
I’m hoping tomorrow will be a little easier. I’m about 6 miles from the Timberline Lodge. This is a top of the line ski lodge built in the 1930s. There’s not much there for hikers. There’s no laundry. You can’t take a shower. And rooms are prohibitively expensive. What they do have are restaurants and bathrooms. That’s enough for me to at least stop in and take advantage of those things.
