July 30th, 2021
Mile Marker: 1704.7
Miles Hiked Today: 34
Oh baby! Today was the day we were going to cross over into Oregon!!
We woke up early, had that delicious coffee and hot chocolate mix and headed out ready to go.
I’m not kidding. That sugar and caffeine that makes me charge up mountains!
I was feeling good to say the least!
We started out with some climbs and a sunrise that was trying to peak through the clouds.
It was slightly smoky again, uncertain from which wildfire it was coming from but it caused a mix of colors to shine through.
We hiked quickly this morning and hit 17 miles early by noon and decided to break and eat some lunch. Both of us were surprisingly exhausted and ended up taking naps. We were only 4 miles from the border but decided a nap was more important before continuing on.
After almost 2 hours we set out for the exciting moment of crossing the border into Oregon.
I kept searching for the sign and let out a “Whoooooo!” Once we crossed it.
I could not believe I had hiked the whole dang state of California and I could not believe that it was soon August. Where the heck does the time go?
Journey and I had also packed out little Bourbon shots to cheers in celebration.
We took copious amounts of pictures and I about choked on the Bourbon as I am terrible at taking shots. 😂
It was such a joyous moment I felt like I was on cloud 9. I was also almost a little tipsy on the small bit of alcohol I had drank. Being a thru hiker makes us lightweights!
After we took our pictures and I did a little dance we decided that we should hike on since there was a thunderstorm coming.
It appeared Oregon wanted to show us what it was all about and before we knew it, there was a full on thunderstorm rolling through with lightning. We decided to stop for a little bit instead of hiking on through the open ridge lines and put all our rain gear on.
After about 20 minutes we felt like the worst part had passed and continued on in the rain.
We reached a water source about 5 miles later where a man walked up to us and asked if we were PCTers and said that he was just out for the weekend.
Journey and I both looked at each other and said “Weekend?” “Wait, what day is it?” Both of us had absolutely no idea what day it was and were hysterical when he said it was Friday. I’m not sure if the guy thought we were crazy or not but we could not believe that we had fully forgotten the days. What a lucky opportunity to have.
We had 9 more miles to hike and didn’t feel too phased by the rain that was coming down. It was actually cooling us off which was nice for a change.
We also hit 1700 miles!!
We made it to the place we wanted to camp around 8 and saw a white tent that I knew to be Tides. I knew that we were coming in close on the crew so I yelled out a “Tide?” And heard nothing back.
I had guessed maybe it wasn’t them and Journey went on trying to find a camp spot and fill our water bottles. Then after a few minutes I hear Bottleneck holler out, “Brown Sugar?!” in her high pitched voice. It made my evening. It was them!
I had caught her on her last night on trail and I was ecstatic. We talked for a little bit and then Journey and I had to hike on as there were no viable camp spots available for us there.
It was such a bummer but I knew I’d see her again tomorrow.
We hiked for another mile then found a decent enough spot to set up shop.
It was such a great, eventful day today. Such a feeling of accomplishment.
I can’t wait for tomorrow and being reunited with the whole gang!
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 