After hanging around Cascade Locks for a while, picking up my bounce box, and catching up with a few other hikers; including Pie Guy, Lunatic, Random, Cook, Mango & Wow, I headed to Portland. One of the guys from Trail Days, Eli, was kind enough to share his place with me, even taking me to a pub nearby with $1 ribs on Thursdays, truly perfect trail recovery food.

In the morning, I went to a gear store in town which was holding my new pack shipped out from Osprey. I knew I had long food carry sections coming up, so I was stoked to upgrade to an 85L capacity; other hikers might recoil in horror, until they see how well this thing bears load.

The gear store was selling a lot of niche outdoors and hiking gear. I walked around for a few minutes and saw a selection of ultralight cookware on offer. The temptation to upgrade was strong, but I resisted.

I spent the day organizing resupply and sending out my bounce box full of food to pick up at Stevens Pass. I have to say, I was proud of my lack of vortexing here. At this stage of the game, I had to remain somewhat focused on the trail; the main bubble was a couple of weeks ahead, and snow was on the horizon up north.

At the end of the day, I was so grateful to return to Eli’s. Having a familiar place to return to in an unfamiliar city is an unbeatable privilege. I felt well rested, well prepared, and ready to enter another state on the trail. The final state of the PCT was just ahead of me, a bittersweet prospect.