Pacific Crest Trail: Week Eleven Was When a Burrito Lead us to an Epic Trail Town

The Pacific Crest Trail is a thru hiking adventure, that stretches 2,600 miles between Mexico and Canada. While my partner has been hiking since March 18 when I dropped him off on the border of Mexico, my adventure started the first week of May, with my good girl Chloe Rue at my side. We had to skip north of the Sierra Nevada Mountains this year, and plan to end with them. Instead, we started where our pets can officially join us: Old Station, California. Follow along for stories, dog tails and things I am learning on the way- about my dog, my partner and life in general.

From Cascade Locks into the Green Tunnel

Our happy little family of four, two humans and two good dogs, trotted forward straight into the lovely Green Tunnel of Southern Washington. Now, after Oregon’s stunning mountain views that had been pretty constant since the Three Sisters, being without mountains in our sight was an adjustment. While the trees were the massively tall, moss covered monster trees iconic in the Pacific North West, the change of scenery also meant mosquitos, lakes, and a hiker bubble. I would dare to say if you HAVE to skip a section of the PCT for any reason- this little section is rather skip-able. We did enjoy the feeling of living in the trees though. I have always loved how the Old Man’s Beard lichen clings to the trees in such a stunning way. It makes every step almost seem straight from a fairy tale. We camped at a beautiful lake, alongside a stunning creek, next to a flowing river with a perfect little swimming hole, and underneath a beautiful bridge. The views were limited, but when we did poke out from the trees we could see Mount Hood behind us, Mount St Helen’s not far off in the distance, and Mount Rainier, beaconing us to continue north!

Now, we had an amazing resupply at Cascade Locks. We had incredibly delicious food in Hood River as well. Yet, as we kept running into hikers going South Bound, we kept hearing about a magical, “thick as your thigh” “as long as your arm” “farm raised fresh” burrito from a food truck in the town of Trout Lake. We had not planned to stop there, because we were determined to race through Washington and beat the fire season. Yet, we had heard a shuttle runs three times a day, and many hikers would near-o (camp close to town, then come back to the trail on the same day- a nearly zero day) in order to eat some fresh burritos. For some reason, these burritos would NOT leave my mind. I began to sing to Chloe about burritos. I began to sing to the trees about burritos. I began to make a little dance that went with my little burrito song. I started dreaming about farm fresh burrito meat lathered with queso sauce. I would wake up COVERED in drool after my lavish food-dreams. I was a burrito obsessed hiker. Poor Seth heard this burrito song and witnessed this little dance so many times. To this day I’m not sure how he survived my burrito obsessed mentality (and my singing) but he stuck with me! The burrito song goes as follows:

Let's go to Trout Lake
And eat that burrito.
Burrito Burrito Burrito!

Let's go to Trout Lake
And eat that Burrito.
Guac and cheese and beans and cream
And tortilllllaaaaaas!

Hopefully in those moments when hiker hunger strikes you as hard as it did me on that Green Tunnel stretch between Cascade Locks and Trout Lake, you’ll find yourself as motivated to push miles out as I did. Perhaps you’ll have brought red beans and rice and could make a little burrito for yourself. No matter how you cope with burrito obsessions while hiking on a trail, I just hope you have a good waterproof (or wool) pillow for the drool, and are able to access those burritos soon.

Cougar Falls

A fun little bypass route we took prior to Trout Lake helped change the scenery a bit. We saw that some hikers would take a national forest road that wound up to Cougar Falls. Happy to see another trail waterfall, and hopeful for a change in scenery, we opted to do a short road walk towards the falls. On the way, there was a BLM Campground that had trash and bathrooms! We took advantage of the situation, only to encounter the COOLEST family. This group of two dads and 5 kids were camping out, eating quesidillas. As we walked by they struck up conversation with us. Younger than we were, but avid hikers, they had dreams of hiking the PCT someday. Though, with their large family they didn’t think it was ever going to be possible. We encouraged them, and explained our own obstacles for being able to hike the PCT. They admired us a lot for making it through NorCal in May and we found ourselves holding a large batch of quesidillas tucked into aluminum foil as some incredible magic on the trail. We ran into these cool dads a couple more times- in the Cougar Falls parking area and on the trail itself. It was like the universe itself was putting them in our path for a reason. I hope they felt encouraged to hike someday, and I hope they know how grateful we were for those quesidillas. With burritos on my mind like a disease; that cheese and spice hit my stomach with the brilliance of sunshine striking Chloe’s fur on a sunny day.

The Shuttle to Trout Lake

You might remember from week seven in Crater Lake how terrified I have been about hitch hiking. Not because I worry about random people being evil (give me the opportunity to bear spray someone in the face, please) but because I feared someone would ask the dogs to ride in the back end with us humans in the cab. I do not believe in dogs being free to roam in the back end of trucks; especially my dog whose prey drive had been slowly escalating day by day on the trail. I do not believe at this point she would stay in a vehicle if she saw a deer.

Therefore when we were shuttling from the trail head into Trout Lake (for those burritos!) I was a little flustered to see a truck driven by a volunteer, instead of an actual shuttle bus. However, the volunteer was REALLY cool, the hikers near us from Europe were SO excited to ride on the back of a truck for the first time and we were able to ride with our dogs (and keep them restrained via leash thank God) while in the back of the shuttle truck toward town.

It turned into a really fun experience, with our first views of Mt Adams lingering above us from the road. The wind in my hair and Chloe’s happy little nose savoring ALL the magical smells made it even more special. Seth captured a couple moments on the drive, and we arrived safely to town in PERFECT time for lunch.

The Animals of Trout Lake

Trout Lake turned into a REALLY cool trail town. It’s small-town atmosphere reminded me of my Midwestern home. The locals were all excited to host us too! There were showers, laundry, and reasonably priced food (which included a thick as my thigh food truck burrito). With the dogs expressing some desire for rest, we decided to sleep in town overnight and hit the trail the next day.

I walked toward the back of the general store, where most hikers camp out. The green lawn was lush, the picnic tables abundant, and when I saw the sign “no dogs” I was disappointed. Until, that is, a group of no less than SIX ducks came waddling across my view through the grass. When I spoke with the gal who ran the general store and hosted hikers she explained she has 4 cats as well who wander free in her green space for hikers. Knowing Chloe’s habit of chasing cats (and probably a desire to eat ducks) we were happy to find a secondary space that also hosted hikers overnight at a nearby church. This church was also close to the showers, and an amazing morning coffee situation. We decided to sneak a town stay there before shuttling back to trail.

After finding a place to stay overnight, the very next thing we did was stand in line for our burrito. I was practically dancing in excitement, just dreaming of its delicious everything. I must have had a crazed look in my eye, because when I ordered the burrito, the man taking orders asked- have you been looking forward to this for a while? I had to explain about my obsession, and my song AND my dance. Of course he asked me to show him which was not something I really wanted to do. There were hikers all around us eating their burritos and watching Seth and I curiously, as thru hiking dogs are not all that common on trail. With Chloe’s encouragement, I did have to show my song and dance and I did receive some scattered applause. I was embarrassed, but it was made better when the man asked if the dogs would like farm fresh bones. See, all the meat comes from the man’s farm and they had many bones left over and were willing to share. Grateful, we accepted. Chloe and Freyja began their own happy dog dances in anticipation of the bone they enjoyed while we ate the BEST burrito on the entire trail.

The animals of Trout Lake, Washington included more than 6 ducks and 4 cats though. The next morning as we were walking to the coffee shop, we met an off leash dog just hanging out in the middle of the road. This was not an average residential road either- we had to walk on the main highway for a hot second to get to the coffee shop. I was pretty unimpressed with the off leash dog, and Chloe also began to bark at him. A driver stopped and honked as well, asking if it was our dog. We said no, our dogs are on their leashes. Finally the owner ran out on to the road. The dog would NOT come back to her. And stubbornly stared, apparently happy for his new found sun bathing spot. I couldn’t help but laugh when the owner had to run onto the road and drag her dog back to her house. He STILL wouldn’t budge, and rolled onto his back, just like Chloe does to enjoy grass or snow. The poor owner was a small framed woman, and this was at least an 80 pound German Shepard. She finally picked him up off the road and held him in a massive, tall doggy hug. Happy to know he was safe at home, and slightly amused about his stubborn-ness we continued our walk to the coffee shop.

My favorite animal encounter in Trout Lake though was definitely the dog named Pepper at the coffee shop. Now poor Pepper was aging gracefully, and horrifically deaf. He loved to eat all the food people would leave around at the nice outdoor seating area at the coffee shop, and had a habit for stealing any food that was left unattended. As we sat there watching Pepper make his rounds, the coffee owner yelled at him to go home and called him a trash panda. He paid absolutely NO notice, and kept trotting around making his way to every occupant begging to eat their food. When he approached Chloe and Freyja they greeted him with a bark. He, again, paid no notice to their fairly loud greeting and kept making his way around. He gave NO cares about anyone actually, and just loved to walk around snacking. This made me giggle, because that’s exactly how I felt on the Pacific Crest Trail at this point. I’m just walking from town to town for the food, aren’t I? He was SO funny in how he ignored everything around him and just followed his nose. Pepper: the black lab, and Suzanne’s spirit animal found on the Pacific Crest Trail.

In the end, Pepper wins as the funniest of the animals of Trout Lake. The burrito won as the most delicious and anticipated town food on the trail. The truck drive won as the coolest shuttle bus. While we rode back to the trail, we looked up at Mt Adams looming overhead and were SO excited for the next section. It was one of the most beautiful, rugged, and highly anticipated sections of trail directly after we made it past Mt Adams: the Goat Rocks. Stay tuned to hear all about our trail tail in Week Twelve!

Barking Embarkers