Sleepy Hollow
Republic to Oroville
Song stuck in my head: "The King" by Brutal Youth
Podcast of the day: "Hardcore History" by Dan Carlin
After a 14 hour Greyhound bus ride, 34 stops and a short cab ride, we made it to the United States of Murica. Once over the border and out of sight, we put out our thumbs and it didn't take long until a gentleman driving a FedEx truck gave us a ride. We jumped out 10 miles up the road and 5 minutes later a rusty pick-up pulled over and we got to meet Snowy, who was on his way to the "Republic Brew Pub" which was where we were headed. Jackpot! We had troubles getting into Snowy's truck because it was littered with things like fishing rods, old cans, cups, coolers and a huge recorder which he would play for us later that day, but we'll get to that.
We rolled into Republic and fell in love with the town for its western-themed main street and its friendly people. Had a couple of brews and burgers with Snowy and his buddies after which he offered to give us a ride to the trail head. We gladly accepted, since it would have been hard to hitch a ride at that time of day. All packed up we said our goodbyes and started walking towards the woods while Snowy played some Lord of the Rings tune to send us off which was pretty funny. (If you ever read this Snowy: Thanks for eveything! You're the best!)
On our first day on the PNT we hiked 20 miles a saw a bunch of wildlife like moose, a young buck, a frog, 15 marmots, 3 dead marmots an eagle and about 1'200 skeeters. We got to Bonaparte Lake and it was everything we had hoped for, since all we had hoped for was a place that would sell Sprite. Which it did. Bonaparte Resort itself is kind of gross and they serve the worst food, but all of that did not matter; they sold Sprite.
A storm had gone through the area a couple of weeks earlier which made for difficult conditions due to tons of blow down. Really got the glutes working that day. Other than that the PNT is everything you could wish for in terms of trail conditions. Every now and then you get lost for a couple of minutes but nothing a good ol' bushwhack or a GPS check can't fix. The solitued is what gets you. There is n o o n e. Like not a single soul. No day hikers, not even a human foot print! I didn't think that would bug me but it did. The hiking community was one of the reasons why I loved hiking the PCT so much and it was a huge factor to make me want to keep going. Not having that makes me question the reasons why I hike. Why am I doing this? Why am I not at a beach in Ibiza?
The second day was relatively easy going with a couple of climbs and such but nothing too exciting. There was no official camp site at the end of our day though, so we ended up crashing on someones private property. First we set up our tents in a little valley in the woods, but right when we were about to fall asleep I heard hoove sounds very close by and a screeching noise that I had never heard before. It was so spooky!!! It sounded like the Headless Horseman from Sleepy Hollow and I couldn't get that image out of my head. I got so spooked out that I made us move our tents. Looking back I'm a little embarrassed since it most likely was just a cow... but then again, I know how a cow sounds... and that did not sound like a cow. Anyways. We ended up cowboy camping on an open field shielded by fences, with our heads still attached to our necks. I loved it!
The next day was a tough one. We made our way towards the Okanogan valley which some refer to as the Mexico of Canada because the temperatures can easily rise up into the fourties. We road walked along rivers and lakes most of the morning when the air was still cool and the scenery was beautiful. That changed quickly though and by 9am we were facing 30 degrees. Katie wasn't feeling too well. By the afternoon things got worse and she started feeling sick to her stomach. The situation was similar to what we had experienced back on Hat Creek Rim in Northern California where I got dehydrated. Most of the creeks were dry so we had to be careful with our water, chugging liter whenever we could and hoping the next creek wouldn't be dry. Katie started feeling drousy when we were about 9 miles out of town, but we decided to push through the heat to get out of it asap so we could take a cold shower in Oroville and hope for the heat wave to pass. Turned out that that was too much for Katies body and she suffered severe heat stroke that day. Once at the trail head we managed to get a ride into town fairly quick and were able to find a great Motel where she could cool down and rest. Katies back on track now but it was scary.
Having breakfast/lunch/dinner in Republic.
Lake Bonaparte.
Road walked to a little church on the morning of day 3.
Got stung by a wasp. Bastard.
Katie grabbing water from a small creek.
Hot but beautiful. The Okanogan.
Me trying to look fresh after 10 hours of hiking in 35 degrees.
