I’d known for a while now that getting to PCT Trail Days would be challenging. Despite the difficulty, I couldn’t miss this event. It’s a three day camping festival in Cascade Locks, right on the border between Oregon and Washington. The event is a chance to catch up with other PCT hikers from all over the trail, and for many, it’s the last chance to meet again.

Getting to trail days from this far south needs to be by plane, train, or bus. It also means that we need to be off trail and in some place with reliable transport connections.

Before hiking out from Mammoth Lakes, a week or so ago, I had realized that there wasn’t enough time to comfortably get to Sonora Pass without pushing hard and cutting it fine. Tuolomne Meadows was so close that we had plenty of time to spare in Yosemite instead, and the next stop from Tuolomne was to be Bishop (again!).

From Bishop, the plan was to catch the bus to Reno and fly to Portland from there, but we didn’t realize the bus left town at 7:30 am, and we also didn’t realize that it went just once per day. Unfortunately, this meant we were stranded and had to rebook our flights to the following day. There really is no such thing as one night at The Hostel California, and we were in for another night.

Once we got to Reno, we found ourselves in a strange limbo of interconnected casinos, with gambling machines right on the bar. I still found a good spot, away from the endless pokie machine halls, at the Ole Bridge Pub. I spent the evening here before heading back to the hotel.

The next day we flew to Portland, Oregon, and I was lucky to be picked up from the airport by some other hikers I’ve been bumping into since the late desert. Mango, Cook, Wow, and Sticky Buns were at the airport for me and Holiday and they already knew the good spots in town. We all had a great night out in Portland and I got to visit a few really cool bars while I was there.

Finally, the day came to head out to trail days. I went across Portland to meet the others who had left Bishop while I was in Yosemite. We then piled into Frizz’s car and headed out to set up camp on Thunder Island at Cascade Locks.