Smokey sunrise in Brookings

The days are getting shorter and the miles are still stretched out before me. I haven’t made any progress in about two and a half weeks. My ending date is closing in, I have a wedding to be to, and cold weather is on the way.

Crossing the Oregon border

Oregon has 15 active fires at the moment and has shut down parts of the PCT. To maximize time on the trail, we’ve jumped to Washington. This tends to be the state that gets snow the soonest. We hope to finish this state before the snow, enjoy the wedding, then return to finish Oregon. By that time, we’re hoping the fires will be extinguished so that maybe we’ll actually be able to see Crater Lake.

Watching a fire started by lightning

It has been a lovely vacation from the trail. The week prior, I crossed into Oregon, spent the week trying to get away from fires, and I took a selfie with a deer. Spent a week in Ashland, bugging REI employees, eating too much, seeing a play at the Shakespeare festival, and eating some more.

Beers at Standing Stone Brewing Co. Best food ever. 

We took a random trip to the coast to get away from the smoke from the fires and we ended up being right next to another fire at the coast. My family came to visit. We all got to witness the total solar eclipse! The air grew cooler, and the sky got so dark that the street lights came on. A truly amazing thing to see.

Smoke sitting above the ocean in Brookings

We did a bit of running around, but also some hiking. We saw 5 gorgeous waterfalls along the Columbia River Gorge. It is beautiful up here. I imagine residents have to exercise a lot, because there is a lot of really good food to eat.

Driving through the redwoods on the way back to Ashland

I’m sitting on a balcony overlooking the Columbia River and Washington on the other side. It’s crazy to think about how long I’ve been on the trail and I’m still not even half way through. The next month will be filled with 17-20 mile days, I have to sit in the sun at lunch to get rid of weird tan lines, then it’s figuring out the best way to get home for the wedding.

Iconic Crater Lake filled with smoke. You can imagine what it looks like.