2000 miles!!!

We never thought we'd get this far. Back in February, when Neil's plantar fasciitis was giving him hell, and I couldn't even walk across the road without spasms of pain down my back, we didn't think we'd make it to mile 100. But - here we are, 2000 miles in, three quarters of the way from Mexico to Canada. Chuffed? Definitely. Smug? No chance, we've still got 660 miles to go, and we daren't count our chickens before they've hatched.

It's been a great week of hiking since Crater Lake. Some easy hiking through forest - gentle gradients, soft underfoot but limited views. But we've also had some stunning panoramas of volcanoes and lava flows. We even went up one of the volcanoes, Mount Thielsen, as a side trip - possibly the pointiest mountain we've ever been up, with a short section of rock climbing at the top which was great fun. Whereas walking across the lava flows was just hard work!

On the Oregon Trail

At last! After 1700 miles of hiking in California, we have now crossed over into Oregon. The walking is easier so we've been doing good miles - we've covered 100 miles in four days since leaving Ashland. It's taken its toll on our feet though, so today we're aiming for just 10 miles and enjoying the stunning scenery at Crater Lake, an incredibly deep and amazingly blue caldera lake.

Crater Lake

A really great thing which has happened in the last few hundred miles has been hiking with Tom and Greg. Tom is from Liverpool, and we previously met him just as we were all finishing the Pyrenean Haute Route two years ago. We had a very rushed conversation at Banyuls-sur-Mer train station just as Tom was about to catch a train home, and we discovered that he was also planning to do the Pacific Crest Trail. We failed to exchange contact details though, and we did wonder if his plans to do the PCT had come to pass. Then purely by chance, we bumped into him and his hiking partner Greg just after leaving Mount Etna. They're great company, and we're hoping to catch up with them again soon.



Tom



Greg