Day 121 – Saturday, August 9

I only went into the Sisters / Redmond area for a short afternoon and evening to visit with some old Yellowstone friends from 1979 knowing that when I made it to Mt. Hood I would return and visit for a longer period of time with Mrs. Whitewater. That evening I had a great time with Loren Hall and his wife Jeanene along with Kerry Quimby-Zenich and her husband Henry. We had a great dinner and a long visit at the local Mexican restaurant in Sisters. The next morning, after doing a quick resupply in town, Loren put me back on the trail so I could make it to Mt. Hood to meet Mrs. Whitewater who was flying into Portland and driving over. I got back on the trail mid morning and shortly after beginning my walk, I turned the corner to find Coppertone sitting some 1,500 miles north from the last time I met him doing trail magic once again, but this time in Oregon. What a great guy!

That wasn’t my only surprise for the day. Shortly after setting up my tent for the evening, I turned around and there was REI (pronounced “RYE”…that’s what he thought REI read). REI is from Germany. We hiked together for several hundred miles way back in the Southern California desert. It was great to see him and we ended up hiking together to Timberline Lodge / Mt. Hood. The good thing is even though I’ve taken several days off with Mary, I’m pretty sure I’ll catch back up with REI again in Washington since his wife from Germany is coming to hike with him for several weeks.

Some really cool scenery and lots of lava rock between Three Sisters and Mt. Jefferson.

The Mt. Jefferson Wilderness was beautiful and we found ourselves once again hiking across snow.

Entering the Mt. Hood Wilderness.

Timberline Lodge and the great lunch buffet. The best food on the trail so far!

Mary arrived and picked me up at Timberline Lodge. We drove back to the Sisters / Bend area for a longer visit with Loren and Jeanene. We had a great time and even visited several breweries on the Ale trail in Bend. Later that same evening, we went out to Kerry and Henry’s home where they hosted a BBQ for us, complete with my newly discovered favorite trail dessert . 🙂 It was another great visit along the PCT with folks from those old Yellowstone days.

Quickly heading towards Washington.