Day 46 : Bend

Start – Bend (off trail)
Finish – nr Yapoah Crater (1890 m)
Daily Distance – 9 km + hitching back to trail
Ascent – 375 m
Descent – 70 m

Fortune, both good and bad, has visited me today.

The Good

The 30-minute bus ride from Bend to Sisters was, in a most un-American way, absolutely free. The fare used to be $10, but apparently was scrapped several years ago.

Sisters I found far more charming than Bend. Smaller, with an actual main street, and filled with faux “old west” style architecture, it has a happy and contented vibe. The clincher though was the bakery making really excellent scones. They were so good I bought a 2nd. Blueberry and lemon, and Marionberry (the berry of Oregon apparently,  like huckleberries being the Washington berry). Both were delicious and somewhat redeemed American cuisine. I will have to change my assessment from “America cooks nothing well except burgers”, to “America generally cooks…”

During one of my hitches, I was able to have cuddles with a dog called Daisy. In a flagrant breach of safety regulations, she was riding on the lap of her owner, Brian (well mostly, she was far too big to fit entirely). Apparently, that’s her favourite spot as it enables cuddles and for occasional sticking of the head out of the window. Sadly, that hitch only lasted for 6 miles. It did maintain my record of only being picked up by people driving beaten up cars though.

I was able to gift sugary beverage joy to an Austrian girl called Stardust and 1 other random northbound hiker who simply looked tired. Explanation to follow.

The Bad

Today, I had the choice of catching either the 06:40 or 11:25 bus from Bend to Sisters before hitching back to the trail. In recognition that, on this rare occasion, I wasn’t trying to use the WiFi from a grocery store, bar, or some other silly place to make calls, I decided for the later bus and to make some very overdue calls home. This presented a dilemma for the hiking day though. After the Big Lake Youth Camp (approx 5km from the highway), there is a 25km water carry across uneven volcanic rock (which made an Australian lady I spoke to a few weeks ago break down in tears. We were sharing stories of trail meltdowns big and small). It would be a very short day just to reach the youth camp, but too much to complete such a long section when starting in the afternoon, which would present water issues. So I made an, in retrospect, unwise choice.

Knowing that my hiking buddies of last week were undertaking the section today, I decided to carry cans of fizzy drinks from Bend and hitch from Sisters to McKenzie Pass, rather than rejoin the trail at Santiam pass where I left it. Theoretically, this would put me in the perfect place to provide drinks to parched southbounders after their long water carry. Only, it didn’t work…at all.

It is approximately 15 miles from the outskirts of Sisters to McKenzie Pass, down a scenic road. Theoretically, a 25-30 minute drive, which took me 3 hitches (a special shout out to the Indian guys who took me a whole 0.8 miles down the road) and just over 2 hours to cover. This put me at McKenzie Pass after everybody had already passed! Also, rubbing salt into the wound, I found out that people with a car had already been handing out trail magic there during the day anyway, bah!

The resulting issue of this was a hugely overweight rucksack. Already laden with 3 litres of water in anticipation of a dry camp and food for 5 days, I was also trucking around 10 mini cans of Sprite at 220g each! Not an ideal scenario when trying to catch up with people. Hence, I left 2 on sign posts at the beginning/end of the dry section for hikers to pick up as they pass, 2 were gifted to the Austrian lady, 1 to the NOBO and a final 1 I drank myself.

4 remain, either to fulfil their original purpose or to be gifted to people who look in need of a pick-me-up. Although, if my shoulders continue hurting like they did this afternoon, I’ll be tempted to see if chipmunks appreciate carbonated beverages.

I bet Santa never has to deal with this cr**