August 10th, 2021
Mile Marker: 1983.8
Miles Hiked Today: 21
We woke up this morning excited because we only had 21 miles to hike and were heading to town afterwards. I could not be more ready.
We started our trek early again and almost immediately knew it was going to be a gorgeous day.
The sun was shining, it didn’t seem too smoky out, and the weather was perfect.
After a few miles we noticed a hiker off to our right and all of us let out sounds of excitement and surprise. It was Chopper, who we last saw in South Lake Tahoe. We had been just behind him multiple times, so much so that Planner and the crew had seen him but everytime he left, we would show up later. We were so excited to finally see each other again.
To be honest, this was how it was every time I saw Chopper. Always by surprise thinking I would never see him again.
He hiked along with us for the rest of the day and we all caught up on the past month or so.
We were having incredible views of the Sister mountains and then went through an obsidian rock area. The sun was bouncing off the shiny rocks, it almost felt like we were on a different planet.
The trail then took us up on a ridge where we had amazing views.
Just beautiful.
It made hiking easy today with such stunning views. I needed this, I needed the views to pull me through this last day of big miles. We were going to make it to Bend in time, thank goodness!
Towards the end of our hike we ended up seeing a group of llamas. Llamas!! We stopped to talk to the group for a bit and they let us know that it was an organization called Pass to Pass that helps people with Parkinson’s disease hike. How awesome is that?
We ended up making it to the highway to hitch by 2 pm. There weren’t a lot of cars going by but we were lucky enough that Babs, a thru hiker that Journey had hiked the desert with was in Bend with her father. She told us that they could come pick us up once we got there.
We sat waiting for him and two section hikers were there getting picked up from someone else. One of them ran over to us and gave us two ciders to enjoy while we waited. So sweet!
We sat drinking the ciders and watching a fearless chipmunk. I’ve never had one so close! Too bad he couldn’t be my pet!
We met up with Babs’ dad and were dropped off at our hotel. I was so ready for a shower, rest, and food.
Us four went out to dinner and I enjoyed hearing all the stories of Babs and Journey’s time in the desert.
It’s crazy how many of us are out here and how many of us have had a drastically different but similar experience.
I can’t wait to sleep in a comfy, soft bed!!
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 