I blame my failure to update on having better things to do... visit with friends, family, and, just hike.
First a quick review of what's transpired since I left Oregon, gosh, nearly a month ago now, is it, after crossing the border from California, to finish off the section between Tuolumne Meadows to Hwy 50 near South Lake Tahoe (that I got smoked out of doing last year by the Hunter fire,) timed so I could "drop in" on the (car-) camping trip that my "Phyto-fans" friends had planned at Woods Lake near Carson Pass. This I sort of managed to do as planned, (except all four of the planned bus rides were replaced by some serendipitous hitches - and two more unplanned hitches...) and I'll (hopefully) provide the details soon (maybe later today?) by filling in the "missing" blog entries with back-dated posts (and also probably cutting out parts of what I'm initially composing in this post into separate posts.)
The hiking (and "camping") was book-ended by visits with family (oh, and some CNPS field trips tossed in, and nearly a week's stay "back home" in Betsy's garage in Forestville.)
Then it was back on the road:
I left Forestville the Tuesday morning (the day after the impromptu family reunion at the Berkeley kite festival) dropping off a few odds & ends at my storage unit in Santa Rosa, then heading north on 101... ...an hour later I passed through Ukiah and woke up after seeing signs for Lake Mendocino... oops, I wanted to be on hwy 5, not 101. Decided to backtrack via hwy 20 southeast to Clearlake then northeast to Williams, the whole time 2nd-guessing that decision, given the 100 degree temps with my Subaru's air-conditioning not working. (Brian had confirmed for me that the problem seemed to be a defective switch, a part that I "costed" at about $40 at an autoparts place in South Lake Tahoe, but they would have had to order the part, so I put it off... still am putting it off...) I could have continued driving through foggy Eureka and Crescent City then taken 199 to Grants Pass and then back to Ashland on hwy 5, not much more mileage, though I probably would have overnighted somewhere near the coast. But I was intent on fetching my "abandoned" MyBook Disk drive at Callahan's at Mount Ashland by the end of the day. I did manage to do that, windows wide open, loose debris in back secured from the wind, kleenex stuffed into my ears, barefoot and shirtless, blowing by Redding where I had planned to use the library had it been a few hours earlier, getting to Callahan's about an hour before they closed, and just fetched the Mybook from their "lost&found".
Still had some daylight left. My default plan was to go back to what had become "my favorite" campground half-way up Mt Ashland, where it would be a bit cooler and I could find it in the dark. But I thought I might first explore the road to the PCT trailhead near Pilot Rock, which was sort of a third of the way along the trail between hwys 5 and 66, which from my scouting last time I was considering doing as a series of out&back day-hikes, since there was no good bike or bus option to the hwy 5 end of that section (just an expensive "air taxi" service between Ashland and Callahans and a short hitch or mile-long uphill road-walk to the trail on Old Hwy 99, and a hitch or hairy bike ride on steep, curvey, shoulderless hwy 66 from Green Springs Summit to Ashland.)
That turned out to be a fortunate choice. Nice glimpses (photoops) of sunset-lit Pilot Rock from the road, and a chance to chat with a team of trail-blazers camping at the trailhead. They were re-routing the old "jeep trail" going steeply straight up the slope to the base of Pilot Rock (a volcanic plug) into a nicely crafted series of switchbacks. I ended up staying there the next two nights.
I was in the trail at 7:30 the next morning, first attempting to climb Pilot rock, described as a "scramble" but turned back after deciding the sandals I was wearing were inappropriate, I'd save it for later, with better shoes and more time. Instead, I continued north 9 miles on the PCT, to where it crossed Soda Mt Road, which I had scouted out earlier as the other potential access point into that section. That out&back day-hike was in the mid 90's at that 4000ft elevation, and the first sprinkles of a brewing thunderstorm started just as I got back to the car around 6pm. The next morning I did the short out&back in the other direction to Old Hwy 99. That I could have done as a one-way including my bicycle, but the road was very rough, large cobbles much of the way, and I decided the small time savings wasn't worth the hassle of getting my bike out, the risk of denting a rim, bending a spoke, or nicking my tires. I was out&back in just three hours, before noon. Again a thunderstorm was brewing, so I headed for the Ashland library, stopping first for a Subway ft-long and some fresh fruit&veges at Albertson's, while lightning cracked fiercely overhead.
At the library, while offloading my most recent picts, I reviewed the data on the MyBook Disk Drive that I retrieved from Callahans, concluding that I still was missing about 2,000 photos from between June 11-13 and June 18-23, and that the "recovery" utility didn't actually recover any photos deleted from my "disk crash" of one of my 1TB Toshiba USB drives. So I'm now concluding that I may simply have failed to properly offload picts from two of my 32GB CF cards (Each of these would account for about 1000 picts.) So the coincidental messages I remembered of disk drive errors, may just have been a red herring. (Still, I also lost my Lightroom Catalog at that time. I guess I'm still confused about what all happened.)
I still haven't identified which part of the trail I was on at these times; intend to do that today. No matter how it happened, I'll still want to (have to) re-do those sections of trail.
When the library closed, I stopped by the nearby "Outfitters" store, bought myself a new water filter, my other one's getting clogged, becoming a lot of work to pump water. Also looked at the Teva Sandals similar to the one's I'm currently wearing out, but at $100, will continue to just think about it for now.
Then I headed up hwy 66 to Green Springs Summit and up the Soda Mountain Road to the saddle where the PCT crosses, a meadow (actually with a sign talking about an endangered frog, which I think was one of the arguments for creating the Siskiyou National Monument this location is within.) Parked my car there at the trailhead for the night. The earlier thunderstorm had dissipated, but a new one was brewing. A rainbow appeared on the horizon in front of me, as the sun was setting behind me. The rainbow gradually grew into a full semicircle double rainbow, and the lighting was such that the area inside the arc lit up intensely orange. Meanwhile, a fierce lightning storm was ongoing, with some sprinkles. I felt fairly safe in the car, having heard that the metal cocoon makes a good "Farraday Cage". Still, I was of course taking pictures, and would periodically open my car door, step out, and snap a series of panoramas. (Maybe I'll have time later to insert one here.)
The next morning I bicycled from there down the gravelly but otherwise smooth road back down to the hwy 66 Green Springs Summit, hid my bike near the PCT info sign on the north side and then walked south back to my car, stopping for brunch (and lots of picts) at the very picturesque Hobart Bluff side-trail en route, getting back to my car again well before noon.
Retrieved my bicycle and drove on to check out the bicycling possibilities of Old Hyatt Prairie Rd that goes north from Green Springs Summit, past Little Hyatt Reservoir (very tempting to join some of the people I saw swimming there,) taking a right (south) onto Hyatt Prairie Rd then stopping at the entrance to the several campgrounds (administered by Siskiyou NM) at the south end of Hyatt Prairie Lake, that the PCT passes by, which has shower facilities. $5 for a "day-use" shower, but available "for free" bundled with the campground fee. Interestingly, the Wildcat Campground there, with pit toilets, is $7/night, half that for Senior Pass holders. I asked, and was told the shower would be available for Wildcat Campers. "I'll probably be back" I said to the guy at the entrance kiosk.
So I decided Old Hyatt Prairy Rd was not a promising bicycle route (too circuitous a route on gravel, rough in places, too much uphill,) and so wanted to confirm that I would probably stick with my original plan to do the whole PCT section from hwy 66 to hwy 140 as one loop (bicycling west from the trailhead just east of Fish Lake where I would leave my car, cycle west on 140 for about a mile past Fish Lake, then South on NF-37 "Big Elk Rd" for a few miles, then west on Dead Indian Memorial Rd for about a mile, then south on Hyatt Prairie Rd for a few miles past the Howard Prairie and Hyatt Prairie Reservoirs, then continuing South past the Campgrounds on E. Hyatt Lake Rd to the Green Springs Inn at the junction with hwy 66. From the inn I would either have a steep climb west up hwy 66 to the PCT trailhead at Green Springs Summit, or there's a side-path described in the PCT guides going from the inn to the PCT just south of the Summit. (Oddly I didn't notice that side trail junction that morning walking that section of PCT.)
Or, maybe I could still break out that southernmost section from the campgrounds to the inn as a day-hike loop. To visualize that loop, after chatting with the guy at the campground kiosk, I continued south on E. Hyatt Lk Rd to the inn, and stopped there to ask someone about parking my bicycle there for a few days (for the "original plan" case.) They said yeah, sure, it would be OK with them if I parked my bike overnight at the bike rack in front, but of course no responsibility for theft... I asked about the path to the PCT, they sort of shrugged. Onwards up hwy 66 back to to Green Springs Summit to visualize the climb.
At the summit some backpackers were looking for a ride back to Callahans (or rather, the trailhead on Old Hwy 99 that parallels I5 near there - they had been dropped off at the wrong part of the trail hitching from Ashland.) I just had one available seat, but the couple decided to both squeeze into the passenger seat, so I drove them back to the other trailhead. On the way they noticed the smoke from one of the fires on Mt Ashland, we chatted about how both of us had been in the Ashland library yesterday afternoon during that storm. They noticed my Half-Mile maps and we talked about Half-Mile's awesome smartphone app, how he's thru-hiking the trail again this year with super-accurate GPS gear, we talked about the BCNav app with Half-Mile's PCT tracks and waypts, and about how we both had met Half-Mile on the trail, and about other famous "MYTH's" (Multi Year Thru Hikers) we've met (such as Coppertone, Billygoat.) They wanted to give me gas money that I wanted to refuse, and after some bickering I ended up with the crumpled $5 bill they had handed me (which later when I dug it back out of my pocket, turned out to be two 5's.)
After I dropped them off I picked up another hiker going to the trail from Callahans. I passed him going up the I5 overpass as I was going down it, actually not sure where I was heading next, either onto I5 toward Ashland, or back to the Green Springs Summit area, I would have to decide in a split second because the I5 onramp was right there, so I guess picking up that hitcher was a way to delay that decision. But I had to do a U-turn, and the onramp entrance was a convenient place to do that. But another couple was waiting there for a ride. As I did my U-turn I shouted at them (as they started for their packs) "I'll be back in a few minutes..." I finished my turn and "chased" after the other hiker, gave him the short ride, then back to the on-ramp. They had evidently in the mean time gotten another ride. But there as a group of 5 or 6 hikers walking up from Callahan's toward the overpass. I laughed as I continued onto I5, picturing trying to cram half a dozen hikers and their backpacks into my Subaru already crammed with bicycle etc.
After I dropped them off I picked up another hiker going to the trail from Callahans. I passed him going up the I5 overpass as I was going down it, actually not sure where I was heading next, either onto I5 toward Ashland, or back to the Green Springs Summit area, I would have to decide in a split second because the I5 onramp was right there, so I guess picking up that hitcher was a way to delay that decision. But I had to do a U-turn, and the onramp entrance was a convenient place to do that. But another couple was waiting there for a ride. As I did my U-turn I shouted at them (as they started for their packs) "I'll be back in a few minutes..." I finished my turn and "chased" after the other hiker, gave him the short ride, then back to the on-ramp. They had evidently in the mean time gotten another ride. But there as a group of 5 or 6 hikers walking up from Callahan's toward the overpass. I laughed as I continued onto I5, picturing trying to cram half a dozen hikers and their backpacks into my Subaru already crammed with bicycle etc.
Whoops, this library is closed now. more later...
...Back. BTW, the library I timed-out in above that I wrote the above was the Center Point Branch. A story behind why I was there, but I'll get around to that in proper time below... Now I'm at the Target store's cafe shop - again - you may remember I was there before, a month ago, doing pretty much the same thing I'm doing now - doing a backup of newer picts from my "working" Toshiba USB drive (bought a few weeks ago at Staples in S. Lk Tahoe) onto the Mybook (bought a month ago at BestBuy here in Medford.) Yeah, so what am I doing in Medford again and again? Lame story, but I'll get around to that in proper time below.
So... yesterday afternoon... I was heading north on I5 from the Callahan's interchange. But where was I now trying to go? I had been toying with the idea of having a short afternoon hike on that section north of hwy 66 that I was scouting about midday, before being distracted by fellow hikers. That's why I thought I might be heading back to the Green Springs Summit area, via hwy 273 northbound past Callahan's. But it was now well into afternoon, with good potential for another thunderstorm. The Ashland library was an obvious default option.
Another option was a long drive north beyond hwy 140 to the Crater Lake area: you see, in general I like to look at least two loops ahead of my next hike, to make sure I don't trap myself at a trailhead endpoint that I can't continue on from, because it's inaccessible via bicycle or bus (or a good-bet hitch.) And the hwy 140 trailhead might be such a trap, because it's a long uphill to the trailhead from Medford or Klamath Falls, and no public transit (though there was a suggestion I haven't yet pursued to try and see if the "airporter" bus between M & KF might be persuaded to stop at the Fish Lake Resort.) But just as NF-37 and the other "side roads" from 140 past the two "Prairie" reservoirs turned out to be quite feasible bicycle rides, maybe the northward continuation of NF-37 from 140 and other side roads leading past Butte Falls to intercept the "Cater Lake Hwy" 62 at Prospect, could turn out to be a feasible "traverse" to avoid going all the way down or up the Rogue River Valley to/from Medford. It's hard to tell these things just from looking at a topo map. (Though I ought to make a better effort at doing so, would save me lots of gas... Hah! so I just now did that, looking again into the elevation profiles for bike routes on Google Maps. I seemed to have trouble "repeating" seeing those profiles when I tried a few months ago, but now, it seems to work reliably! Well, Yay! and look at that, sitting here, I found a better option for my loop north of hwy 140 - it seems the eastern route to the North Entrance to Crater Lake is the most "level" - I may just end up heading there - to Fish Lake - from here in Medford, tonight.)
At any rate, on with my story... driving up I5, deciding whether to go to the library or take a long drive. I got off at the hwy 66 offramp and "unconsciously" headed east. Donno what I was thinking at the time, but I woke up finding myself heading east, so, countinued east away from Ashland, now "committed" to the long drive. And it was long, and I found, not a good bike route. a thunderstorm dropped some more rain while I stopped a the Prospect Ranger Station to ask them this irrelevant question: is there any public transit that goes up this way towards Crater Lake or north. The person at the desk kind of scoffed & said, we can't even get emergency equipment up this way, referring to the recent fire starts.) I continued on to Crater lake, around the west side making a few photo stops with interesting late-afternoon post-thunderstorm light, to the north entrance, checking out the PCT trailhead at the north entrance, then back on hwy 63 all the way to Medford, noting that it would be an almost perfectly monotonically descending bicycle coast from the north Crater Lake PCT trailhead to Medford, so it's possible for my to bicycle from Crater Lake to the Medford bus system and take that to Ashland, then hitch on hwy 66 to Green Springs summit. That would probably mean an overnight somewhere "in town" though, I guess possibly the hostel in Ashland though I'd need to verify it still exists. I would also need to drop a re-supply at Fish Lake (and layover there to offload picts & charge batts.
I did make it back to Medford in time to find the REI (confusing location of two adjacent shopping centers.) Had 10 minutes to find & try on my 3rd pair of hiking pants (light-wieght "cargo's".) We'll see how long before this pair is shreaded like the others. Didn't have time to look at backpacks, my Osprey 60 is falling apart as well.
But now Target is closing, so, again, more later.
Again Back. Amazingly, still the same day, just a few miles down the road, a McD's on Crater Lake Hwy. Tried a few other "likeies" along this fast-food and big box alley out of town - this one includes Walmart though I can't think of anything I need there after just getting out of Target (buying a new ear-bud-phone/mike there. Anyway, this place closes at 11pm so I've got a bit over an hour to finish up.
So after leaving REI, I drove all the way back to Ashland then all the way to the Sr-discounted $3.50/night Wildcat campground at Hyatt Lake Reservoir, probably burning twice that amount on gas, but I needed that promise of a warm shower the next morning. I actually also put up my tent, no fly, to enjoy a mosquito-free night for a change. Woke up with the geese honking on the lake, folde my tent, had my breakfast, dumped some accumulated garbage, took a glance at the lake, and seeing no photoops, headed for the shower at the other campground, happening upon the completely empty walk-in campground, with the bathroom and shower all to myself. Topped off my water containers at the campground faucet, headed on for the Ashland library, stopping for some groceries & coffee. Found the library closed on Fridays. Oh bummer! Likely all the libraries in the county had the same hours. Now I'd be wandering around burning gas all day I feared.
Decided I'd go take a look at those backpacks at REI in Medford, and find a wifi place there with power outlets I could stay at for a while (eg, Ashland seems to have very few fast food places, specifically, no McD's, my fallback wifi location.) Got to REI a bit too early, but used their wifi on my phone to check library hours of the Medford library. It too was closed Fridays. When REI opened I took a look at the new version of my Osprey backpack, and practically gagged at the $250 price. I'll think about it. I asked about a nearby wifi places I could be able to sit at for a while,and they suggested downtown Medford. Found my way there, stopping at the Greyhound and RVTD transit station. Greyhound was closed til mid-afternoon, the RVTD booth got me a schedule (I had already studied that a month ago) and a chance to ask what transit systems RVTD connects with. "None" was the answer, though Greyhound here was an option, and another private operator was planning to start running "soon". (I guess I should have asked more about that...) I asked for wifi places, and was directed to the row of pizza & taco shops across the parking lot. I decided to buy a day-parking pass - before actually verifying the places. Turns out one had just changed their wifi vendor & didn't know the passcode, the other place said they get really busy at noon... I wandered over to the, well whaddya know, the Medford library next block over, and of course it was closed, but two girls were sitting there and I asked them for some wifi cafe suggestions, they suggested other libraries, I said I thought all the county libraries were closed today, one of the girls said she'd check, and I think she asked Siri "what libraries are open today" and got a list, one of which was the library at Central Point.
That's where I started this post.
...Back. BTW, the library I timed-out in above that I wrote the above was the Center Point Branch. A story behind why I was there, but I'll get around to that in proper time below... Now I'm at the Target store's cafe shop - again - you may remember I was there before, a month ago, doing pretty much the same thing I'm doing now - doing a backup of newer picts from my "working" Toshiba USB drive (bought a few weeks ago at Staples in S. Lk Tahoe) onto the Mybook (bought a month ago at BestBuy here in Medford.) Yeah, so what am I doing in Medford again and again? Lame story, but I'll get around to that in proper time below.
So... yesterday afternoon... I was heading north on I5 from the Callahan's interchange. But where was I now trying to go? I had been toying with the idea of having a short afternoon hike on that section north of hwy 66 that I was scouting about midday, before being distracted by fellow hikers. That's why I thought I might be heading back to the Green Springs Summit area, via hwy 273 northbound past Callahan's. But it was now well into afternoon, with good potential for another thunderstorm. The Ashland library was an obvious default option.
Another option was a long drive north beyond hwy 140 to the Crater Lake area: you see, in general I like to look at least two loops ahead of my next hike, to make sure I don't trap myself at a trailhead endpoint that I can't continue on from, because it's inaccessible via bicycle or bus (or a good-bet hitch.) And the hwy 140 trailhead might be such a trap, because it's a long uphill to the trailhead from Medford or Klamath Falls, and no public transit (though there was a suggestion I haven't yet pursued to try and see if the "airporter" bus between M & KF might be persuaded to stop at the Fish Lake Resort.) But just as NF-37 and the other "side roads" from 140 past the two "Prairie" reservoirs turned out to be quite feasible bicycle rides, maybe the northward continuation of NF-37 from 140 and other side roads leading past Butte Falls to intercept the "Cater Lake Hwy" 62 at Prospect, could turn out to be a feasible "traverse" to avoid going all the way down or up the Rogue River Valley to/from Medford. It's hard to tell these things just from looking at a topo map. (Though I ought to make a better effort at doing so, would save me lots of gas... Hah! so I just now did that, looking again into the elevation profiles for bike routes on Google Maps. I seemed to have trouble "repeating" seeing those profiles when I tried a few months ago, but now, it seems to work reliably! Well, Yay! and look at that, sitting here, I found a better option for my loop north of hwy 140 - it seems the eastern route to the North Entrance to Crater Lake is the most "level" - I may just end up heading there - to Fish Lake - from here in Medford, tonight.)
At any rate, on with my story... driving up I5, deciding whether to go to the library or take a long drive. I got off at the hwy 66 offramp and "unconsciously" headed east. Donno what I was thinking at the time, but I woke up finding myself heading east, so, countinued east away from Ashland, now "committed" to the long drive. And it was long, and I found, not a good bike route. a thunderstorm dropped some more rain while I stopped a the Prospect Ranger Station to ask them this irrelevant question: is there any public transit that goes up this way towards Crater Lake or north. The person at the desk kind of scoffed & said, we can't even get emergency equipment up this way, referring to the recent fire starts.) I continued on to Crater lake, around the west side making a few photo stops with interesting late-afternoon post-thunderstorm light, to the north entrance, checking out the PCT trailhead at the north entrance, then back on hwy 63 all the way to Medford, noting that it would be an almost perfectly monotonically descending bicycle coast from the north Crater Lake PCT trailhead to Medford, so it's possible for my to bicycle from Crater Lake to the Medford bus system and take that to Ashland, then hitch on hwy 66 to Green Springs summit. That would probably mean an overnight somewhere "in town" though, I guess possibly the hostel in Ashland though I'd need to verify it still exists. I would also need to drop a re-supply at Fish Lake (and layover there to offload picts & charge batts.
I did make it back to Medford in time to find the REI (confusing location of two adjacent shopping centers.) Had 10 minutes to find & try on my 3rd pair of hiking pants (light-wieght "cargo's".) We'll see how long before this pair is shreaded like the others. Didn't have time to look at backpacks, my Osprey 60 is falling apart as well.
But now Target is closing, so, again, more later.
Again Back. Amazingly, still the same day, just a few miles down the road, a McD's on Crater Lake Hwy. Tried a few other "likeies" along this fast-food and big box alley out of town - this one includes Walmart though I can't think of anything I need there after just getting out of Target (buying a new ear-bud-phone/mike there. Anyway, this place closes at 11pm so I've got a bit over an hour to finish up.
So after leaving REI, I drove all the way back to Ashland then all the way to the Sr-discounted $3.50/night Wildcat campground at Hyatt Lake Reservoir, probably burning twice that amount on gas, but I needed that promise of a warm shower the next morning. I actually also put up my tent, no fly, to enjoy a mosquito-free night for a change. Woke up with the geese honking on the lake, folde my tent, had my breakfast, dumped some accumulated garbage, took a glance at the lake, and seeing no photoops, headed for the shower at the other campground, happening upon the completely empty walk-in campground, with the bathroom and shower all to myself. Topped off my water containers at the campground faucet, headed on for the Ashland library, stopping for some groceries & coffee. Found the library closed on Fridays. Oh bummer! Likely all the libraries in the county had the same hours. Now I'd be wandering around burning gas all day I feared.
Decided I'd go take a look at those backpacks at REI in Medford, and find a wifi place there with power outlets I could stay at for a while (eg, Ashland seems to have very few fast food places, specifically, no McD's, my fallback wifi location.) Got to REI a bit too early, but used their wifi on my phone to check library hours of the Medford library. It too was closed Fridays. When REI opened I took a look at the new version of my Osprey backpack, and practically gagged at the $250 price. I'll think about it. I asked about a nearby wifi places I could be able to sit at for a while,and they suggested downtown Medford. Found my way there, stopping at the Greyhound and RVTD transit station. Greyhound was closed til mid-afternoon, the RVTD booth got me a schedule (I had already studied that a month ago) and a chance to ask what transit systems RVTD connects with. "None" was the answer, though Greyhound here was an option, and another private operator was planning to start running "soon". (I guess I should have asked more about that...) I asked for wifi places, and was directed to the row of pizza & taco shops across the parking lot. I decided to buy a day-parking pass - before actually verifying the places. Turns out one had just changed their wifi vendor & didn't know the passcode, the other place said they get really busy at noon... I wandered over to the, well whaddya know, the Medford library next block over, and of course it was closed, but two girls were sitting there and I asked them for some wifi cafe suggestions, they suggested other libraries, I said I thought all the county libraries were closed today, one of the girls said she'd check, and I think she asked Siri "what libraries are open today" and got a list, one of which was the library at Central Point.
That's where I started this post.
So why am I not hiking?
Well, my back hurts.
Not quite sure what I did or exactly when, but it seems to be getting worse not better. I'm walking around like an old man, bending over stiffly, sitting down slowly, wincing as I do so. Very painful getting up in the morning, every movement. I've been trying "stretching exercizes" with no obvious improvement. Today I started taking some 350mg Naproxin that was subscribed to me for the hip issue I had earlier (that hip issue ironically seems to have nearly resolved itself, which I credit to my starting to use the ski poles as hiking poles. Now this sudden lower back stiffness, - maybe a strain from loading/unloading my bike, or maybe some clumsy step that jarred my back, maybe from no longer using the poles for my day-hikes with just my day-pack. Maybe the long hot drive from the bay area back to Oregon? Donno. But I just hope it resolves by the time I've got my next long backpack figured out. Meanwhile, taking care of other business makes sense.
So, my "backup" still hasn't finished (says 5 more hours to go, down from 22 hrs this morning, a few restarts ago to switch power&wifi outlets.)
Ithink I'm heading back to the hwy 140 trailhead at Fish Lake, then "verify" that eastern route to North Crater Lake, then choose between that and the western bike-bus-hitch Option, and see if I do it as one loop or two (the eastern option would allow it to be done as two loops.)
But now McD's is closing and I'm done for now.
Well, my back hurts.
Not quite sure what I did or exactly when, but it seems to be getting worse not better. I'm walking around like an old man, bending over stiffly, sitting down slowly, wincing as I do so. Very painful getting up in the morning, every movement. I've been trying "stretching exercizes" with no obvious improvement. Today I started taking some 350mg Naproxin that was subscribed to me for the hip issue I had earlier (that hip issue ironically seems to have nearly resolved itself, which I credit to my starting to use the ski poles as hiking poles. Now this sudden lower back stiffness, - maybe a strain from loading/unloading my bike, or maybe some clumsy step that jarred my back, maybe from no longer using the poles for my day-hikes with just my day-pack. Maybe the long hot drive from the bay area back to Oregon? Donno. But I just hope it resolves by the time I've got my next long backpack figured out. Meanwhile, taking care of other business makes sense.
So, my "backup" still hasn't finished (says 5 more hours to go, down from 22 hrs this morning, a few restarts ago to switch power&wifi outlets.)
Ithink I'm heading back to the hwy 140 trailhead at Fish Lake, then "verify" that eastern route to North Crater Lake, then choose between that and the western bike-bus-hitch Option, and see if I do it as one loop or two (the eastern option would allow it to be done as two loops.)
But now McD's is closing and I'm done for now.
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