Trail Day 4 - July 28

Even with some Motrin on board I didn’t sleep well last night.  Between the left knee throbbing, and the toes on my right foot hurting, along with a bear rumiging through camp it was a restless night.  

I heard Meander pack up camp, and leave at 5:30 am.  I tried to sleep in some more, and got up at about 7:00 am.  Knowing it was 10 miles to Hearts Pass parking area and almost all up hill,  and worried that Meander would have to wait for me, I just had a cliff bar, and some coffee for breakfast, did my morning routine, packed-up and hit the trail. 

Another beautiful day, with temps higher than they had been.  

I caught a quick pic of this little guy scurrying across the trail!

Thankful that it was uphill most of the way, and my injured left leg could do some of the heavy lifting, I caught up with Meander at about the 8 mile mark.  We took a water and smack break, and then he told me what his car looked like, and said he would catch up with me there.  

Hiking the last two miles to the parking area was a gentle up hill, so not bad.  I found Meander’s car, and put me stuff down, and watered up in the shade.  

I spoke with a couple who were hiking down with hopes of touching the boarder, and told them of the difficulty getting there.  She was trying to talk him out of it, but he still wanted to go, so not sure what they decided to do.  

I waited about 20 min, for Meander to show up, and we loaded our gear into his vehicle.  Meander drives like he hikes, what took Sondra and I 45 min to drive, took 1.5 hours with Meander at the wheel, but I was thankful for the ride, no matter how long it took!  

I had been in satalite communication with Sondra, and she had me set up at the Mazama Country Inn.  Meander drove me directly there, let my buy him a cold beer, but wouldn’t accept any gas money, just saying pay-it-forward.  

Meander had been a Dutch farmer, and lung cancer surviver. With one lobe of his lung removed and multiple treatments he had beat the disease, but asked his Doc “how long it would be before the cancer came back?”  He said his Doc, gave him some great advice!  His Doc told him to enjoy every day, because with life there’s never a guarantee, so he sold the farm and started hiking!  He is currently 71 years old, and Meander had hiked many of the premiere trails around the world.  He spends the winters in Bellingham WA, and then just drives from trail-head to trail-head up and down the PCT doing short hikes, and helping when he can.  

 What a GREAT guy!

I Checked in to the Mazama Country Inn, and cleaned up, to get a real assessment of my injuries.  

Left Knee a bit swollen 

Toes look worse than they feel!

No real place to assess the knee for miles, and though I had hoped it would get better with a couple days off the trail, it doesn’t appear that that’s the case, so unfortunately, I am returning home for now.  

It appears that my journey may be over for this year, but we will see!!!