Day 1 9/5/15:
We stayed at a family friends boutique vineyard/b&b on our first night in Portland. We had a very comfortable king size bed, our own room with a bathroom, and breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast. Certainly a nice taste of creature comforts before hitting the trail. We got a ride to the trail-head from Casey’s aunt. It was a bit of a drive through some remote woods and down some quite un-maintained roads to get to the trail-head at Olallie Lake. We arrived at Olallie Lake store around noon, met up with our friend Monica and were hiking by 12:30.
The day was an overcast day, and quite cool. We were hoping to get a view of Mount Jefferson over Olallie lake, but the clouds wouldn’t allow it. The trail was relatively flat compared to what we’re used to hiking back east. The only major elevation gain was at the end of our day when we climbed about 900 feet over 3.5 miles; nothing too crazy. We only really stopped 3 times in the 12.6 miles, and we reached our campsite at South Pinhead Butte at around 5:30pm. The pace we were able to keep is pretty encouragingAt our campsite for the night we met another hiker who called himself Slow Steve. He’s an older gentleman hiking by himself, meeting up with his wife at Timberline Lodge. His son actually works .as the head brewer at a brewery in Idaho. I wish I could remember the name so I could plan a visit!
Our first dinner on the trail was ramen noodles with a veggie soup mix and some chipotle tuna packets.For dessert we had a s’mores candy bar and target trail mix.. which was mostly candy… which was delicious. Hanging the bear bag was a task. I tried twice and hit the tree both times. Casey then pitched the rock over the branch and it almost swung back and hit her in the face. When I was tying up the other end, Casey was following/chasing me around the tree with all the extra slack. It was comical.
We were all in bed early, before 8pm, but we plan to get an early start and get at least 17 miles in tomorrow. We’ve been told of breakfast at timberline lodge, so we’re making sure our schedule will allow us to get there by breakfast in a few days. Overall it was a good first day out. I think we’re going to enjoy this.
