August 7th, 2022 by Jon
We woke up after another sleep-in. We had 8.7 miles to get to the road where we would hit the fire closure and get our ride at 11:30 to Shelter Cove. After another longggg breakfast, we packed up and hit the trail. The trail itself was very pleasant in the cool morning, with tall pine trees that towered over us. The trail was very flat and very straight as we headed north. It was basically like hiking in a long green tunnel the whole way. After hiking 4.5 miles, we took a break in a small clearing, we had another 2.5 hours before we had to be at the road which was extremely easy.
After a quick snack break and a rousing discussion of podcasts, we continued on. Side note, I’m almost done with the 57-hour audiobook that I’ve been listening to intermittently since the desert. We kept walking through flat forest and arrived at the highway around 10:30. There were already a few hikers there and watched as they slowly got hitches. I’m very glad we already have a ride, and we don’t have to piece together a few different rides to get to Shelter Cove Resort.
Our ride arrived, and the 6 of us (Singsong, Biscuit, Missile, Tits, Stealth, and I) hopped in and drove off. We helped him drop off some water jugs at a cache before heading to Shelter Cove, the drive took about an hour and along the way we picked up a few other hikers trying to hitchhike and threw them in the covered truck bed. Eventually, we got to the resort, which is just south of the highway on Odell Lake. When we got out of the car, we thanked him profusely and tried to give him some money for gas and his time, but he refused it all! A true trail angel.
We walked over to the hiker hangout area, where tents were set up over picnic tables, a microwave, and a power strip for charging devices. We left our packs there and then wandered into the store for drinks, quarters for laundry and showers, and a bit of snacks to prop up our food stores for the next section. We had a burger and Powerade and ate on the patio under a large umbrella. It felt pretty glorious. After that, we walked into the campground and found the PCT hiker area, a small wooded hill with a bunch of flat spots beneath the pine trees. We pitched our tent and made camp before collecting our clothes and heading over to do laundry and shower. They ended up being luxuriously hot, and there was a washer available, so we could start our things right away.
Feeling quite refreshed, we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing under the hiker tent. Singsong and I split a pint of Ben and Jerry’s as we pet the dog of a trail angel who was hanging out for the afternoon. Around 5:00, we grabbed more food from the small grill, and just as we got back under the tent, it absolutely dumped rain for about 15 minutes, then continued to sprinkle for another 15 minutes before stopping completely. We made a few plans for the next section and then headed to bed feeling full and rested. Tomorrow we start a 4-day section to Santiam Pass, then head into Bend for a few days to figure out how to get around the Lionshead closure ahead of us.
Beautiful photos! And post!