Pacific Crest Trail: Week Six Makes Me Wana Dance

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.

We had been backpacking through the “Green tunnel” of Oregon all day. This was not a bad thing for us. See, Oregon’s trees are massive, luscious green monsters. They wave gently to you in the breeze as you walk. The pine scent fills each nostril with joy, and the soft dirt under foot pushes you forward. This wasn’t the moment though. It was as CCR’s “Around the Bend” played happily in our head phones, and we walked around a corner where the tree line broke open. A stunning view of mountains and lakes lay before us, opening up with the sky. It was so close to us here, on the ridge top of the Pacific Crest Trail. So close, we could touch the mountains and lakes and the sky all at once. This was the moment, that made me start to dance.

It is those moments where your body is at its height of energy, your soul is connected to the earth that surrounds you, your laughter makes your dogs ears perk up and infects your partner with the same enthusiasm- it’s those moments of joy that are irreplaceable here. I wanted to dance, to capture this joy. I wanted to hold on to it and remember it, whenever I’m struggling or sad. So here we are, on week 6 of the Pacific Crest Trail: Celebrating a joy filled mountain summit by dancing.

Ashland Oregon (Week 5)

You might be convinced that my graduate degree has affected my ability to count. Considering the stress of the American healthcare system these days, I wouldn’t be surprised if I forgot how to count to 10 either. However, I KNOW I didn’t write about week 5 on the PCT. Truthfully, all we did was eat, sleep, and wait for a medication refill that decided to take a week. However, we did embrace the rest break. Here are the pet friendly highlights in short:

Louie’s Dog Friendly Porch and special doggy Menu
Hither Coffee’s exceptionally delightful outdoor area
Sammich’s outdoor patio and AMAZING sandwiches
Walking around downtown Ashland
Caldera Brewery- the giant water bowls for the dogs, and the giant salad for the human had me SOLD.

We also enjoyed a Shakespeare Theater show that is not pet friendly, as Rent was playing and seriously- you CAN’T miss a production of Rent! Sadly, Ashland’s famous Lithia Park is not pet friendly, so be sure to have a date night away from the fur kids when you’re in town, if you’d like.

So that was Ashland. Restful, nap galore and healing our bodies from the trials of the trail.

Roll Out the Red Carpet for Us

One of my favorite stories happened as we left the hotel in Ashland. There must have been a 65+ tour bus about to board as we left our hotel room, because as we walked to where our trail angel ride was waiting, SO many people came up to us excitedly.

“Are you thru hiking the Pacific Crest Trail? Is that an Ice Axe? Where did you start hiking? How far are you going? Where are you from? Wait are those your DOGS? Are they hiking too?

I swear we walked right into a paparazzi scene from the movies! We could see our trail angel parked, waiting for us, while we had photos taken of us, and names / social media info exchanged and honestly, so much attention all for wearing a backpack. Miss Chloe Rue just popped a pose, used to all this hubbub, but it felt pretty new to me!

When we finally arrived to our trail angel’s car, he was excited to greet us and our pups! Also excited to hear about backpacking with the girls, he gave them so many pets. Amazingly we were able to escape the Vortex holding us down in the great town of Ashland, and continue our way on the trail.

Stomach Issues Escalated

We had incredible trail after leaving Ashland, where we said our goodbyes to Mt Shasta and views of California, and dove into the lakes and rolling hills of southern Oregon. We made awesome milage, almost unintentionally. It was like our legs were trying to make up for the time off. Maybe our legs decided to sprout wings. Either way, we were killing it. Therefore, we finally had some company on the trail.

One of my FAVORITE things to do on the trail is talk to fellow thru hikers. It’s amazing how people from all over the world come here, to the wonderful mountains on the west coast, to try their chances at making it from Mexico to Canada. So when we made camp, and a fellow hiker came up to our spot to access a nearby spring, we ALL got excited. Chloe went to say hello, and so did Freyja the Aussie! Thankfully our friend Breaker was a pet lover. We decided to camp near eachother and share stories over dinner and tea.

Breaker was SO much fun to chat with, and so easy to talk to! While not planning a true thru hike, he was here to walk as much of the PCT as possible in the time he had available. We talked about France and Spain, Portugal and little known places in the states. It was so much fun to be social for my first time on the trail.

When we went our separate ways that evening, I started to notice my stomach was roiling again; just as it had while approaching Ashland. The night was AWFUL. I had diarrhea and vomiting and barely slept at all. Poor Chloe becomes very concerned when I’m sick, and also barely slept. She always puts her little head on whatever hurts because she’s the best dog ever, and with me running out of the tent all the time, I had to keep waking her up. I’m hoping our new friend was far enough away where he didn’t have to wake up to some pretty horrific sounds. Unfortunately, the whole situation made the next day pretty tough.

We were able to arrive to a little rural restaurant alongside one of the lake roads that went back to Ashland. I decided to talk to my doctor for advice, and to see if there was anything I could try on trail to help my poor stomach. I REALLY did not want to go back to Ashland but the inability to keep food or water down on the trail can become quite dangerous, fast.

The nurse advised me to go to Urgent Care as soon as I could. I was fighting this, because I was already feeling better. I had another salad at the restaurant and was keeping more food down. So when I talked to my (very cool) doctor, who understands my crazy drive for adventure (even prescribing a special “mountain inhaler” for my elevation/asthma problems) she asked a million questions. One was if I had double checked the ingredients on the food I was eating, if I could have ingested any of my food allergens. When we checked, we noticed I had been eating milk without taking lactaid- and that both rawmen and snickers have eggs in them! Whoops. Thank God for smart doctors who ask the simple questions. Ever since, I have upped my lactaid for all milk ingredients and triple checked for egg ingredients in everything we have for the trail.

Oh yeah, did you guys know that I’m an asthmatic with food allergies backpacking 2,000 miles across the country with my dog? Yup, that’s me. Call me crazy- but I prefer to be called unstoppable ❤️ Ever since, my stomach has been doing much better on the trail.

It’s a bird… It’s a plane… It’s a- Horse Race?!

After a couple days of lovely trail conditions, with perfect weather, minimal fallen trees to clambor around, and no snow, we were in backpacking heaven. Seth and I had chosen a camp close to a water source, and fell asleep to the soft sound of rustling pines, snoring good dogs, and the gentle murmur of the creek. We were breaking camp when we heard an inexplicable sound. Fast moving hooves, humans yelling, and a general hubbub were fast approaching.

We discussed- Is it a Cattle drive? No way, there’s a major highway right there. Maybe a cow escaped nearby? Why are people yelling like that? We should definitely grab onto the dogs.

JUST in the space between a fly and a dog’s mouth, we grabbed onto our good girls to watch BEAUTIFUL, huge horses running all out across the Pacific Crest Trail- right next to us. There were three horses in the lead, where the focus was clearly on the horses and the communication between the riders up front. Seth and I stared in awe at the situation. We thought perhaps it was a very strange tourist group, exploring sights along the trail. However, more horses came, and MORE horses came.

Finally we came across people moving a little bit slower, who informed us that this was the Pacific Crest Horse Endurance Race. They said to expect SEVENTY FIVE horses to go by. Their excitement to be outside on their beautiful animals was absolutely infectious, and after the leaders had dissipated, everyone was so kind and welcoming to us walking the trail. However, this was Freyja’s very first time seeing horses- and Chloe was also not so sure about these huge dogs being out here. We had to step off the trail constantly, into some uncomfortable brush to let the horses pass while Freyja the Aussie announced her presence with the grandest barks she could produce.

Therefore we decided to get pancakes for breakfast once we got to the nearby highway. It was SUCH a great choice, with a resort close by and one of the volunteers helping with the race willing to give us a ride. We made a new friend named Llama who joined in on our pancake adventure. And for the ride back to trail after the horses cleared away, we met the NICEST gal! A solo day hiker/ weekend backpacker and a single mom, she was thrilled to meet us and squeeze all of our gear and our bodies (and our dogs!) Into her car. She got our info and dropped us off at the trail head, wanting to share a photo with her family that proved she’d met thru hikers today! She was really awesome, and amazing to meet another girl who loves to adventure just as much as I do.

It was after that day, when Seth and I returned to our favorite green tunnel accompanied by our beautiful doggos, that we had hit our hiker high. Food, friends, social moments, the excitement of waking up to horses. We had reached the top of the ridge when CCR’s around the Bend began to play and we danced on that mountain like the happiest hikers. It all comes down to a moment of joy, doesn’t it? A moment you want to write down and remember because it was just SO good. It’s so easy to remember the hard stuff- the blisters and foot wounds, the vomiting and the hiker hunger. Yet for me, I want to remember that open ridge view, on that cloudless day with my soul dog, my step dogger and my partner dancing at my side.

We didn’t know that the tides would turn so hard and fast the next day. In fact, we had no idea the challenges that came next- but for that story you’ll have to wait for next time.

Barking Embarkers