Day 96, Tuesday, May 28. Mount Shasta—(Zero Day)

We got into town and checked the NASA satellite maps of the snow pack on the trail and it confirmed what we had heard on the trail—heading north from Dunsmuir would be in heavy snow and would require mountaineering skills to successfully pass. No one had broken Trail from Dunsmuir to Etna yet.

One of our trail friends had jumped up to Ashland with the intention of coming sobo. We texted him and he told us there had been fresh snow in OR and he didn’t want to go in either direction. When we had checked a couple weeks ago, there had been about 70 miles north of Ashland that wasn’t buried, but now that was down to 20 miles. We have nowhere left to go.

The PCT is a great trail, but we don’t enjoy walking in the snow. We can do, but we don’t like it. Plus, we can potentially get into dangerous positions (like on the back side of Grizzly Peak) where a misstep can lead to serious injury or death. It’s just not worth it.

When I woke up this morning, Bunny had made coffee and gave me a cup in bed. Let me repeat, Bunny made coffee and served it to me in bed. I knew shit was about to hit the fan. I figured she had done some research and discovered I was dying of cancer. Whatever it was, I knew I was facing a major life change. Bunny told me she didn’t want to push on anywhere on the PCT. she wasn’t going to hike on any more snow. She wanted off trail for at least a month.

We talked to both of our families to let them know the situation. It finally came to us, instead of going home, why not stay out here and hike the Oregon Coast Trail. That would give us beautiful scenery without snow, keep our legs used to hiking, allow us to get rid of our heavy winter gear, and, most importantly, keep us outside. All we had to do was figure out how to get to the coast.

Last year, on the AT, we had met Pit Boss and Play By Play, a father/son pair of hikers from this area of California. We had been in touch with them already and were planning on spending time with 5h3m when we got to Mount Shasta. Pit Boss offered to give us a ride up to Medford, OR where we could catch a bus for the coast. This made our plan fall into place. We couldn’t find an economical way to make it to Medford.

We made plans to spend time with Spence and his girlfriend, Katie, and they would take us north. It turns out that Katie also hiked the AT last year. Somehow, we hadn’t met her, but we knew all the same people and everyone we were hiking with knew Inside Out. We were familiar with her name from trail registers, but never managed to met, often times just missing each other by a few minutes. While we were with them, Mizman texted us to tell us he had already seen a moose in VT on his first day on the trail. He remembered Katie well and said I.

It’s been a few days since all this went down and we are now sitting in Brookings, OR on the Pacific Coast getting ready to start hiking north. The plan is to spend the month of June hiking the Oregon Coast Trail (OCT). When we make it to Portland, we will fly home for our son’s graduation from Army basic training and spend a couple days with him before flying back. Then, we will get back on the PCT at the Bridge of the Gods and hike to Canada where our camigo, Pete, will pick us up and we’ll get to catch up with him. He’s hiking the Portuguese Camino as I write this. With luck and timing, we will make it back to Cascade Locks (Bridge of the Gods) in time for trail days. After trail days, we’ll hike sobo across Oregon back to Mount Shasta where we’ll get to see Pit Boss, Inside Out, and Play By Play. If it’s not too late in the year, we will head down to Walker Pass and hike north with the intention of finishing up in Old Station an$ visit Georgi.

It’s a plan. It probably won’t work that way since plans never do, but it’s a starting point and something to shoot for. Better to shoot for something than be shot at. We no longer have to worry about snow, just tsunamis.

EFG