Total Miles This Hike: 299.9
PCT Miles Covered: 2001.0
Today I needed to get some “business” done. Whenever you take days off in town you never really get a day off, as you are constantly doing all the chores you need to do to get back on trail. When I got into town last night I had used the rental car to go to the post office and get my bounce box, and had gone and bought my resupply to get me to Timberline Lodge. This morning I quickly got my resupply in order and my bounce box packed back up because I had to get it mailed out today as the post office closes at Noon, and wouldn’t reopen until Monday after the time that I needed to be on the bus to Sisters. With that done, I now had to get the rental car back.
Last time I rented the car and drove to Bend it was through Enterprise which was about 1 mile from the hostel. This time however it was with Budget, and the rental office was about 5 miles away. Unfortunately there wasn’t anyone who could bring me back from the rental drop off, so once I got there, I started walking back. There was a Best Buy nearby, so I stopped in there and was able to pick up a small 2nd battery pack to give me a little extra juice to charge my phone. Right next door there was a Panda Express so I had some lunch as well.
At this point walking all the way back on my day off was not in my best interest, so I called an uber and sucked up the cost of that. Back at the hostel, I decided to put off my last chore, which was to get to REI and buy some new trail runners and fuel for my stove. I had all day tomorrow to do it, and there was a movie theatre near the REI so I would plan that trip tomorrow.
Bend has a lot of breweries, so I figured if I was going to partake in discovering some of them, today and tonight was the best day to do it, as I would have all day tomorrow to work off the consequences of that decision. I was lucky enough to run into a few hikers at the Hostel who were in the same mindset as me, so as a group of 6 of us we wandered the downtown streets of Bend that night jumping from bar/brewery to the next. It was a good group of guys, and I would love to continue hiking north with them, but I also know they are all going back to MacKenzie Pass instead of Santiam on Monday, so I will be ahead of them by about 20 miles to start. I’m sure it will take them no time at their full Mexico-Canada thruhiker pace to catch me though. Hoping I can time it right to meet up with them at Timberline Lodge for one last meetup before they take off faster than me to the north.
The day did go by fast. One more day of rest and then back on the trail on Monday...
Keep on keeping on,
Patch
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