One Way Ticket to Somewhere

Oregon welcomed me with a torrential rain storm. While not ideal for camping, I was happy that the rain cleaned the air from wildfire smoke and I hoped that it also helped keeping the current fires at bay. Welcome To Oregon I waited out most of the rain at Callahan’s Mountain Lodge which is located right on the trail. The lodge has an excellent restaurant and I decided to have a nice dinner to celebrate hiking through California and making it to Oregon. Real Food… The heatwave was finally over and temperatures in the next few days were perfect for hiking. My heat blisters healed up quickly. Breathing cooler air and hiking through lush green forest felt amazing after the heat in California. Pilot Rock First visual highlights of this section were the lava beds of Mount McLoughlin and of course the views of the almost perfect cone for of this volcano. Mt. McLoughlin  I entered Sky Lakes Wilderness and took another detour to hike through the beautiful mountain lakes, camp at Trap...

  A few friends asked me about my trail name, so I thought I’d share the story of how I got it. This post isn’t about any particular part of the trail. In fact, it starts right after I began hiking almost four months ago… Endless Wildflowers  I stopped at a small creek in a canyon to fill up water. As this was the only water source for the next 13 miles, a few other PCT hikers were filling up too. A man with a magnificent red beard and a brimmed hat arrived. “What are your trail names?” He demanded. I thought the question came a little early. We were at mile 4.4 and I had only hiked for about two hours. I imagined it was the same for the others. To my surprise, quite a few of them already had trail names. There were Angler and Lightning Rod and a few others. The guy with the beard introduced himself as Stranger. “I’m Michael. I… I don’t have a trail name yet.” I said meekly when it was my turn. I half expected Stranger to tell me to go back to the Southern Terminus and wait ...

  Temperatures increased the following days and most afternoons saw over 100 F. I was able to increase my mileage (winter is coming), but not by much as nothing slows me down like excessive heat. I tried to hike earlier in the mornings and later in the evenings while taking more breaks during the hottest hours of the day. Still, I was struggling with heat exhaustion and heat blisters on both feet, even between the toes. There Is A Big Hard Sun - Still Charging My Devices The scenery did not help in the first few days. As I entered Lassen National Forest, I hiked through the burn zone of last year’s Dixie Fire and saw mainly dead trees. The living forest always makes some noises. Light rustling of leaves and branches, humming of insects, singing of birds. It also provides shade and significantly lowers the temperature during the hottest hours of the day. Lassen National Forest Dead forest is eerily silent. Many hikers skipped this section, as it is not pretty and not easy to hike...