PCT day 122 – All you can eat
Yesterday's excessive food consumption was catching up with me and I woke up feeling pretty terrible. Tank started to cook pancakes and the smell was making me feel sick. I packed up as quickly as I could, visited the pit toilet in the car park (everything seemed ok) and said thank you to Tank and went on my way.
I was going slowly and I still felt terrible. I wasn't sure which way it was going to go. Something was either going to come up or it was going to go down. I also felt like I had a cold. Not good.
Eventually my body decided it was going to get rid of everything by sending it down – quickly and with little warning. I dashed off into the forest and I was half a second away from a very nasty accident. But, the good news is that I stated to feel better shortly after and I wasn't feeling like I was going to be sick anymore. Every cloud.
It was pretty much all uphill to Timberline Lodge – named for being at the top of the timber line on Mt Hood. The first 8 miles was gentle but the last 2 miles were pretty brutal, similar to climbing up a vertical beach. And it was hot. As I came out of the trees I got a good view of Mt Hood. Finally getting to be above the timberline! The lodge came into view and we would have been there really quickly had we not had to go around the gorge.
After 10 miles we finally made it and Dana and I went to pick up our packages, then we hit the buffet. So good. Courage really got his money's worth! And the desserts were pretty fancy...
After we had stuffed ourselves to the point of being sick, Dana and I went to find her friend who came to pick us up to take us to a ski cabin 5 miles down the road in Government Camp. It's associated with her old college, they get to use it for free – a pretty sweet deal. Went to the shop and I bought chocolate milk and soda. One drink just isn't enough. We did our laundry, took showers and I updated the blog for most of the afternoon.
More of Danas friends arrived and some of them cooked us a big meal, Stummy and occupy came too and we all ate together. It was about midnight by the time I got to bed. Too late for a hiker!