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Saturday, August 26, 2017

Today is a zero day (i.e. a rest day). My legs are still wobbly, and I can't even cross them on their own without having to use my arms to lift one over the over.

There are several morals to this story.

1. My pack was too heavy, and I need to learn to do with less. Most likely I need to get rid of the bear vault, and only use it when mandated. Most of the hikers in Cascade Locks didn't have one. Maybe also get a lighter sleeping bag, and a lighter jacket, and not hesitate to swap gear as the PCT and weather conditions warrant.
2. I need a better pack. It is great when not loaded heavily, but I must have a very cylindrical body shape because the belt slips down no matter how tight I make it above my hip bones. This also means that the shoulder straps don't have the padding at the right places, and they leave bruising marks on the shoulders.
3. I should have practiced hiking with a heavy pack in Santa Cruz. But my back was acting up in the 3 weeks before I left, so that it didn't happen, and at that time even just walking (with no pack) was painful.

But on the plus side, always being the optimist, planning this was a lot of fun. Many times, I find that learning how to do something is often more rewarding than doing the task itself. Once I have the car back (I loaned it to Natalie while she's in Portland), I'll go recover my resupply packages one at a time, and do day hikes (and maybe overnighters) at each PCT crossing. So I'll get a sampler of what the PCT is about. There were many people doing just that on the trail.

Today I learned the origin stories of Bridge of the Gods and Cascade Locks.

Over the last hundreds/thousands of years, there have been some major landslides on the Washington side, and at one time it blocked the river altogether for a while, hence the Bridge of the Gods moniker. They also caused rapids making the river no longer navigable, so at a later time the Corps of Engineers actually build some locks to go past them to help navigation in the river. But they are no longer in use because the newer dam at Bonneville backed up the river and flooded the rapids. This is why the river is so wide here. All that remains is the island separating the locks from the river.