Daniel Woods' 2009 Pacific Crest Trail Hike - Report 7

Bend, OR
August 5, 2009 10:00 AM

Hi,

This is the seventh report on Daniel Woods’ 2009 Pacific Crest Trail hike.

I left Dan at the trail crossing of Oregon Highway 58 at Willamette Pass yesterday afternoon at 3:30. He is tired but still marching on. He will cross the 2000 mile mark tomorrow on his way to McKenzie Pass on Highway 242. That will leave about 100 miles of Oregon and 550 miles of Washington to go before we can both go to our homes and camp on a couch for awhile.

Since I wrote from Ashland we have shared a pizza at Hyatt Lake Resort and had breakfast and dinner buffets at Crater Lake NP. Other than that Dan has been eating his normal diet of trail mix (dinner), granola bars, Snicker Bars, peanuts, Cliff Bars, peanut butter/cheese crackers and jerky. My “normal” diet consists of various canned foods: beans, ravioli, spaghetti, pineapple, peaches, etc. I seldom bother to heat the entrees anymore. I just pop the top off and eat them from the can with a spoon.

I chatted with several hikers in front of the store at Mazama Village in Crater Lake NP. One was “Lint” who is a “Triple Crowner” (he has hiked all three of the National Trails: Pacific Crest, Continental Divide and The Appalachian and has completed the PCT something like 6 times). He has the emblems and maps of all three trails tattooed on his legs. Another was Evan (his real name) who is dong a loop trip in Oregon. He started at the breakwater of the Columbia River and hiked the Oregon Coast Trail which ends at the California Border. From there he came east through the Siskiyou Wilderness and picked up the PCT near Ashland. He is on the way back to the Washington Border on the PCT and home in Portland.

“Mace” from Pennsylvania joined Dan and I for dinner. I talked to “Miss Information” and saw Lenny who I had previously met at the Mount Scott Summit between I-5 and Etna.

Dan talked to “Billy Goat”, a famous long time hiker, on the trail in Crater Lake NP. Bill told him there are only 15-20 hikers ahead of him. About 600 hikers start the trail most years and about 300 finish the entire trail so Dan is pretty much ahead of the pack.

A hiker named Scott Williamson is one who is ahead of Dan. He is the person who first completed a “yo-yo” of the trail (he went from south to north and then north to south in the same year). He and another hiker are out to set the speed record for the trail which is 66 days set by David Horton in 2005. Horton’s hike was completely supported. Scott and his buddy are doing at least 40 miles per day with no support. This means they have to go into towns to pick up food, etc. They started on either Jun 6 or 16 and passed us at Sonora Pass and if they are not at the Canadian Border now they must be very close to it.

As Dan says, if he makes his 90 day goal he may be in the top 10.

I heard what might be my favorite trail name in front of the Crater Lake store. It is “Crop Duster”. This person is “dusting” the entire trail with “gas”.

Dave