Deschutes River Over-nighter and Gear Test: PCT in 18 days!

Alooooooooooooooha!!! 

Hello everyone! Thank you friends and family for finding yourselves back here at my blog. If you're just discovering this now, that means we've recently met and you've found my blog from that tiny paper I handed you, or have meandered here from somewhere else online. Whatever the case may be, thank you thank you thank you for following along.

In just 18 days I'll be back down in Campo, CA, headed north to Canada on the Pacific Crest trail! If you haven't already, bookmark this URL so you can easily check on me from time to time during my 5 month backpacking trip starting on April 20th! If you absolutely can't wait like myself, use the navigation tabs on the side here to find old daily posts from our 2016 PCT adventure, where Claire and I hiked 900 miles from Campo, CA to Mammoth, CA. Claire is currently in school to become a massage therapist, so she won't be joining me this time. She has been so supportive of me chasing this crazy dream of mine while my body will still allow it, and I'm super grateful to her because of it!

My gear hunt has been successful, I've gotten a new pack and a new tent, a lighter rain jacket, a stove-less mentality, proper fitting shoes, trekking poles, among many other smaller, lighter items and weight saving decisions. I've dwindled my base-weight down from 20lbs in 2016, to 11.5lbs this year! To test some of that new gear and just escape the gloominess that is Portland in late March, Claire and I (and Star!) ventured way out east on I-84 to where the Deschutes River meets the Columbia River. Following are pictures from our little trip!

photo from Claire

 We started at the Deschutes River Recreation Area, about 2hrs east of Portland. We have both been camping on the Deschutes before, but along its bank about 30 miles south near the town of Maupin, out in the desert. Here, it's a little more green either from human planting efforts for the park, or simply just being closer to the Columbia River Gorge. Either way, it sure was beautiful. There are a few different trail options heading south, we decided to stick close to the river bank for the first few miles, as pictured above, and then climb up a little higher cliffside, as pictured below.

 We came across a super neat natural keyhole in a big mess of rocks. We climbed down into the little open cave area below.

We had been planning to spend a few days out there, but juggling house-hunting, working, and other grown up responsibilities and pre-trail loose ends to wrap up which demanded our attention, we decided to just do one night! Following the trail way up out of the valley, we spotted a sweet campsite to call home for the next night, and descended right back down on a tiny spur trail to the river bank.

Even though my pack will be pretty darn light when starting in the desert, I wanted to pack it completely full with extra weight to simulate how it will feel in the Sierra with the bear can, extra layers, stove, ice-spikes, etc.. What better way to do so than to pack in/out some BEERS!

 

I made a little make-shift beer cooler in the river to ensure they would stay cold while not floating away. There we were with cold Deschutes on the Deschutes!!

Nightfall made for a beautiful scene.. the moon was nearly full, and we had lots of fun posing on a really sweet boulder a few feet away from camp. Hold on for lots-o-pictures!!

Claire with her trusty beer in one hand, and even trustier titanium spoon in the other!

The next morning, we had an extra cuddle Starlite on our hands, who hadn't slept a wink and spent the entire night being nervous about what lay around us as we slept under the night sky.. poor baby!

The next day we left our tent up with the rainfly on with just our my foam sleeping pad and some non-essentil, non-consumable items in it, and did some more hiking! Even though it was only late March, and not quite wildflower season, we were lucky enough to catch a few early Balsamroot flowers among a couple other early bloomers. We hiked out and under a sheer rock cliff call Gordon Cliffs. This place was beautiful but acted as a wind tunnel and was shaded early morning as the sun could not seem to get above it's towering peaks. We found ourselves moving quickly through.

Arrowhead Balsamroot

An early Spring blossom

 Gordon Cliffs in the distance

 "The Eye" at Gordon Cliffs

A nice capture from Claire of "The Eye"

After the cliffs, we turned back the way we came but instead of taking the old railbed road we took the narrower, more rugged river trail back to camp. In a few instances there wasn't much of a trail, but we managed to get back through tall grass and rocky stone formations back to camp. Speaking of tall grass, we didn't see a single snake! Not ONE! We're in the desert for Pete's sake! Claire doesn't share my feeling and is actually quite pleased with our snake-less hike. We also only saw one tick while we were out there, and neither humans nor dog got bit.

As for other wildlife, we were lucky enough to see two different otters in different areas, scrambling up some rocks from the river below. We also got a super special treat: A great blue heron made an appearance three times in a row on our way back to the car. This one was pretty large, I'm guessing around 4 ft tall, with an impressive wingspan. We encountered him in the middle of the trail, he flew away when we were still about 100ft away. We shortly saw him again in the middle of the trail a little ways down, figuring he just flew downtrail as well. The third time this happened, I stayed back with Star and Claire was able to catch a few super zoomed-in pictures of the great bird.

All in all we had a great trip out on the Deschutes River. We were able to get out of the rainy weather but still beat the heat. We got to pack out some extra trash we found along the way, and I got to test some of my new gear. Here are some bonus pictures:

 My new pack (black): The Circuit ULA. And Claire's trutsy Dueter!

 Tree right next to campsite

 A sweet little bench close to the trailhead

 Photo by Claire

 Photo by Claire

Photo by Claire

Preparations for the trail are also working themselves out here in Portland. We finalized ans signed the leases on the house we wanted to move into. We found someone to take over our current lease. I'll have a safe and secure place to park my car for 5 months. I've purchased a new phone which will last longer on the trail and take better photos for the blog. I've made my flights down to San Diego and have squared away all my necessary documents I'll need for the trail (long-distance permit, permit to enter Canada on foot, etc..) I have 99% of my gear that I need. A big thanks to Claire's mom Dona and her Father Mitch. Those REI giftcards went a long way and I still have some left for my next few pairs of hiking shoes! I finish work on the 8th and will have 10 days to help Claire and her mom move things into the new house and to do more physical training for the trail. I am planning on making one more post soon detailing the new gear and specific choices I've made pertaining to this years thru-hike.

If you've read this far, thank you so much for following along, and I hope you continue to follow me along on my journey starting very soon. As always, stay tuned and thanks for reading!!

-David Teehee (Two-Pack)