Week 22

Darrell is well into Washington now.  He has left the hot weather behind and is now hiking in comfortable conditions.  It is starting to get colder at night--not as cold as the Sierras but cold enough that he is setting up his tent and crawling into his sleeping bag as soon as he can to warm up.  I think he's growing weary.  Please pray for him each step of the way.

Darrell was delighted to run into Father Sebastian at a watering spot a couple days into his hike in Washington.  He was the one with whom he had hiked through the Sierras on his second attempt.  He hadn't seen him since our trip to Yosemite.  We had dropped Father off in Mammoth; Darrell got right back on the trail, but Father had some things he needed to take care of in Mammoth and was planning to stay a couple nights there before taking off again.  He ended up having to take a couple weeks off due to illness.  He skipped ahead to Tahoe, and he and Darrell have been leap frogging over each other without running into one another along the trail as they've been avoiding the burn areas.  Father was planning to meet up with his girlfriend this week who flew in from Germany to hike with him for the next three weeks.  She wanted to do the part with him  that he had skipped from Mammoth to Truckee, so he's going back down south.  Darrell will probably not see them again before they head back to Germany.

This is how Darrell has been filtering his water during this hike.  He used to have a pump filter, but he decided to use this system on the PCT.  It is a gravity-flow system.  The unfiltered water flows down through the filter directly into his drinking bottle, which is a one-liter Smart Water brand bottle which the filter fits perfectly into.  This way he doesn't have the weight of the pump to carry, and the weight of the filter itself is minimal.

Because of the trail closures due to fire there are a greater concentration of hikers in this area.  Although there are many fellow hikers, he has mostly been hiking alone during the day, but there are many people and tents at the good sleeping spots at night.  He is really not alone, though, with jackrabbits and deer to keep him company.  

At least here in Oregon he hasn't run into the likes of the legendary Hank the Tank, a black bear who is notorious in the Lake Tahoe area and is rumored to have devoured the food of a group of backpackers this year who had ditched their bear canisters when they were no longer legally required to carry them once they left the high Sierras and Yosemite National Park.  Hank came in at night and feasted on their easily accessible food. After this incident, the Forest Service mandated hikers to carry their food in bear canisters further up north through Tahoe.  The hikers don't like the extra weight and the awkward bulkiness of the containers.  Darrell has carried his food in a bear canister from the beginning and will continue to throughout his hike.  Bears don't know park boundaries and don't care about the rules.

I receive these pictures when he gets into a town with cellular/internet service, so although he's walking in Washington right now, these are pictures from Southern Oregon, from Ashland to Crater Lake.  The signs are exciting because they document progress.

Mt Ashland, I believe

Mt McLoughlin

Looking back at Mt Shasta from Oregon

Darrell will let me know if I mislabeled these!

Crater Lake

Beautiful wildflowers along the way.

Remember that Darrell is hiking the Pacific Crest Trail to raise money for clean drinking water around the world through Team World Vision.  Donations can be made using this link:  https://www.teamworldvision.org/participant/pctwaterboy

Thank you for following Darrell's adventure.