Long stay in Eugene

Well I'm finally off from Eugene. I will be heading into Washington in 6 days.

This area produces grass seed. And when I arrived they started burning ~120,000 acres of grass to the north. Also when I arrived my throat started acting up. So I had myself a nice strep scare. In the next 24 hours, back on the trail, my throat should clear back up.

Onward to Canada!

1989 Miles and a Minor Injury

I have made it to Eugene and am spending the next few days with some relatives. In the last couple of days on the trail I pulled some heavy mileage and slightly pulled my right hamstring. I walked on the injury for several miles and was planning on hiking 17 more the next day until I got into camp and started limping. Luckily there are two roads I could be picked up at and I made it to the first one. However I set up the pickup at the second road and no cell service with an almost dead phone. I decided to see if I could get a vehicle to stop and give me a hand in finding service. The first vehicle was another hiker. He has been hiking small sections and has his car in the area. After discussing options we decided to help each other out. Yesterday morning he started hiking north while I had his car all day and was going to leave it at the second road for him. He pointed out some hot springs, not very hot unfortunately, and I drove his car to the trail head and waited for my ride. It is truly amazing how quickly and easily problems on the trail get worked out.

I have lots to do in Eugene. The weather is just a little bit different up here then in California. I have been waking up in sub freezing temperatures and if it is cloudy that day I'm wearing a jacket and constantly moving. So I need to re-outfit with warmer gear. Buying food along the trail can be difficult throughout Oregon and Washington so I have to look at buying food here and mailing it to myself along the way.

Well time to get today started. Enjoy!

Oregon!

Hello from Oregon. Finally got Internet access but only have 12 minutes left. I crossed the border between CA and OR two days ago and am now sitting in Ashland. This is the last semi-big town on the trail. I have gone 1,726 miles and have 924 miles left.

At the border someone posted a fake border sign to fool us. I have yet to meet a hiker, who has never hiked this before, who realized it was not the official border and didn't take their picture with it, including me :-).

I have been having a blast and am looking forward to Crater Lake, Three Sisters, Mt Adams, Mt Hood, Mt Jeferson, Mt Saint Helens, Mt Raineer and everything in between.

As always I miss you all and am looking forward to coming home upon completion.

Enjoy!