July 27: New shoes and the BLYC

Eliza and I spent the afternoon with John Meier, the trail angel of the day, in and out of Sisters and Bend. We showered and chatted with him on his front deck while tossing the ball around with his dogs after checking out Sisters and sufficiently coffeeing up. John works with the Forest Service heading up a fire squad in the Bend district. He plans on hiking the Oregon section of the PCT next fall so he was very interested to hear details from our trip. He took his whole day off -- his first in ten days -- to shuttle us around and make this potentially very difficult day of tasks completely manageable and almost relaxing.

A brief fiasco occurred when Eliza thought she had lost her wallet and she spent a half hour running back to the coffee shop, the Post Office, the sporting goods store, etc, asking for a little hot pink waterproof wallet -- people didn't really know what the hell we were talking about. When it didn't turn up, we went back to John's house and sure enough it had simply found its way down into the deepest depths of Eliza's pack. Disaster averted.

Bend was scorching, just as it was the last time we passed through, two years ago, late July with Kevin and Eric on a road trip tour of the state.

We listened to NPR news in his pickup while driving back from Bend. More war in Iraq. The general (Kesey?) heading up the coalition forces says troop levels may start lowering by next Spring. Everyone that was interviewed says no way. Rumsfeld in Baghdad, charismatic as ever. British hacker extradicted to the US for trial in Virginia courts. Meth laws being passed. Bombings in Sharm el Sheik . . . As bad as it all sounds, it was great to look out over the mountains and just take in the world over air waves.

Errands finished, we were back on the trail by 5:00. Eliza forgot her poles at John's house and he was kind enough to set up a drop-off point at the next road crossing, McKenzie Pass, which we should hit tomorrow.

We hiked in just a few miles and made a detour for the evening to the Big Lake Youth Camp, a Seventh Day Adventist summer camp, renowned to be very hiker-friendly, serving meals, doing laundry, holding packages, the works.

We had a brief, but pleasant visit. Rummaged through the hiker box, exchanging a few things, using their bathrooms and then continuing on down to the shore of the lake where we pitched our tent and ate dinner. The councilors were out on the boats waterskiing and wake boarding, blaring Christian Rock music (and I mean blaring!). Before long, I wished that we had just moved along on the PCT. Too many people around makes for a crowded camp feeling. Reminds me of college, going to sleep with a huge frat party revving up across the street. Thankfully, these Adventists had a curfew . . .