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Enduro
City: Beaverton
State: Oregon
Country: USA
Begins: May 22, 2014
Direction: Northbound
Daily Summary
Date: Sat, May 24th, 2014
Start: Cascade Locks
End: Wahtum Lake- & Benson Plateau
Daily Distance: 35
Trip Distance: 70.0
People Met: 3
Journal Stats
Entry Visits: 447
Journal Visits: 12,576
Guestbook Views: 611
Guestbook Entrys: 5
Gear list
Pacific Crest Trail Map
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Shakedown hike on PCT just North of Cascade Locks
May 24- Saturday & May 25 Sunday. Parked car at trail angel Shrek's place in Cascade Locks (Thanks again Shrek).
Weather perfect for hiking. The goal was to shakedown gear and weight. I loaded the Golite Jam50 with bag, tent, clothes, bear can, food and water to get a good feel of the load . The climb into the Beson area clibs nearly 4000 ft. Nothing similar to the first three days I will be walking from Kennedy Meadows to Lone Pine and then Forester pass starting June 10. In the bear can I loaded 3 days food, and my new GSI soloist cook pot (0.6oz). I placed about 100g of isobutane and my microrocket stove in the pot. I then filled 1 1/2 liters of water and called it good. Bear can with food and cooking setup complete plus water = 11# Total pack weight was 23#
Previous hike in same area last OCtober, using the Golite pack but loaded at close to 30# then. I felt at that time the 30# was about max for the pack and for my comfort. Therefore, if I can keeo the total pack weight between 20-27 lbs max durng the 800 mile PCT section, then I am confident the pack will hold and the comfort level acceptable.
Met 3 women hikers heading back from Wahtum and intending to camp at Smokey crk. I walked to Wathum, ate dinner and felt like walking some more. So I heading 4 miles back doen trail to Smokey and camped with the 3 hikers. Shannon, from Portland, a strong hiker evolving into a serious trekker, Tabitha and her parnter(I forget her name) were also doing a shakedown hike in preparation for a Grand Canyon hike this summmer (have a great time ladies).
We shared snacks and stories and were all in tents by hiker mid-night (9pm). I was chilled even though I had all my clothes on including tech T, base, shirt, jacket, down vest, tights and hiker pants. I realized that my tech t was damp from sweat and therefore causing the chill (duh!). Won't make that mistake at 10,000+ ft.
Hiked out by mid-afternoon on Sunday. HAd a beer and a buger at the brew-pub. Note: Waited an hour for a basic burger and fries fro no explainable reason. Althugh I was in no hurry, I cant wait until Thunder Island Brewery ( on the West end of Marine park) serves food. The beer and the view there are magnificent.
Total 21 miles Saturday and a liesurely 14 on Sunday. A good shakedown event.
Two weeks from Weds I start my most epic hike to date from Kennedy Meadows just North of the Mojave. Time to pack the resupply boxes and eat, eat, eat. Thanks Pat for loading up a desert plate for me tonight.
Update on this hike. I picked up a dose of poison oak.. Started itching on Tuesday after the hike. Quickly had the Doc write a script and contained the red/blister/itching to 3 locations on my left foot and ankle. I did pass PCT trail maintenance crew at the Herman TH cutoff. They warned me.