August 2

Distance: 15.2 miles | Ascent: 4360′ | Descent: 2300′

Mile marker: 558.1

Lunch: J&A – salad, fruit, mashed potatoes, pork chops, tomato soup, steak tips, mac m cheese, sandwiches, a waffle, cookies, brownies, baked brie tarts (A+)

Dinner: n/a

The sun is rising later every day and we’re nearly ready for headlamps when we first wake up. We managed okay today, but will need to break them out in probably a week or so. We left camp before 6:30 in a race to make it to the lodge for our lunch reservation. We had a lot of climbing to do to get there.

We made it to the waterfalls early and found lots of other people camping nearby. We were super lucky to have that campsite to ourselves last night.

We had to cross the Muddy River (glacial runoff from Mt. Hood), keeping our shoes dry by finding a nicely placed log and doing some rock hopping. We made sure to let others know as they were nearly undoing their shoes to ford across.

The climb wasn’t too steep, but it was constant. We passed many still in camp or just packing up, but we were on a mission to get to the buffet. As we got closer, the trail got very busy with lots of day hikers. We stopped and chatted with two women in their late 60s who were out for a weekend backpacking trip and excited to exchange stories. Knowing we were walking into a literal all-you-can-eat experience and still had plenty of prepackaged food, we offered a nobo hiker some Skittles and her face lit up like she had won the lottery. Now we’re the ones delivering trail magic.

Timberline Lodge is not well labeled, and there isn’t a clear map of the premises. A parking lot attendant told us that the shower for PCT hikers was in the parking lot. It was adequate, a hose connected to a shower head in an otherwise empty port-a-potty box (sans toilet, thankfully). Not luxurious by any means, but it let us get the latest layer of dirt and grime off.

We found the dining room in the fancy lodge hall. It wasn’t too busy – we didn’t need the reservation, but you can never be sure on a weekend like this. Like the other hikers around us, we ate until we couldn’t eat anymore.

Our resupply was in the next building. After our huge lunch, looking at our pile of new food was actually a bit sickening. We stocked the hiker box with whatever leftover food we had and hit the trail. There’s a fairly long water carry as we go south and we were waddling down the trail. We decided to stop a bit early at the last water source and plan to get a very early start tomorrow. Might need our headlamps in the morning.