1We woke up this morning with a breakfast buffet on our minds. Wildfires have closed nearly all of the PCT for the next 90ish miles beginning at Elk Lake Resort, which is six miles from where we camped. So we have to get off trail at Elk Lake Resort and find a ride around the closures and conveniently it is a Saturday morning which is when the resort has breakfast buffets!
The six miles to the resort was extremely easy and flat walking. When we got to the side trail to the resort, pink tape with CLOSED signs blocked us from going any further on the PCT due to the fires. We headed down the side trail and arrived at the resort just in time for the 9am buffet. There were a bunch of other hikers there as well and we all pigged out on eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, fruit, French toast, and pancakes. I of course also ordered an ice cream cone once I finished my multiple plates from the buffet. As we are, Wolf Bird, Tofu, Gentleman, and I discussed our plan for the upcoming section. We needed to get a ride around the fires and would reconnect at the northern end of the closure, at another resort called Olallie Lake Resort, which was about a four hour drive from where we were. We planned to try to get a ride to Bend first which is more populated and then hopefully find a way from there to the other resort. We were prepared for this to take a full day or two since it is a long way to hitch. We also were prepared for crazy traffic due to the upcoming eclipse. The Olallie resort is nearly right in the middle of the path of totality for the eclipse.
Just as we finished paying our checks at breakfast, another hiker asked if anyone needed a ride to Bend–she already had a ride secret but met someone willing to drive four hikers to Bend. Us four immediately claimed the ride and hopped in a car with Cindy, who was a hair stylist who had been working at a wedding at this resort. Cindy drove us the 30 miles to Bend and told us a lot about the area and the city. She dropped us off at a post office downtown, where I was hoping my package containing my contacts had arrived (I’ve been having issues with my eyes and contacts the past few days). Unfortunately this post office was the wrong one and closed, but nearly immediately after Cindy drove away a couple of guys asked if we needed a ride just upon seeing us. Unfortunately they were heading the opposite direction but we were amazed at their unprompted generosity. Then minutes later a couple asked if we were thru hikers and if we needed anything. We were shocked at this generosity once again! We told them about our need for a ride and they said they’d be happy to take us part of the way around the closure! They said they’d run home to get their truck and would meet us in a few minutes. What crazy luck! Before the couple (Katie and Tim) returned we also received an offer of a place to stay if our rides didn’t work out! Bend has got to be the town full of the nicest people yet along the trail–we were in town only 30 minutes and had three offers of help from complete strangers!
Katie and Tim soon arrived and drove us first to a different post office to check for my contacts (no success, I will have to have them forward it later) and then up to Sisters, OR. They were a really nice couple who have lived in Bend for about ten years. They have a cute dog named Jake who also rode with us. As we drove to Sisters we soon saw a huge cloud of smoke from the wildfire! It was insane to see how big the smoke cloud was and how close it was to the actual town of Sisters. Tim and Katie stopped at a grocery store so we could pick up a few things before dropping us off up the road a bit. They headed off to trail run in the area while we started to hitch again to find a ride to Ollalie Lake Resort.
We weren’t hitching long when a guy, Two Forks, stopped for us. He is from MA and hiked the AT and was in the area to hike and see the eclipse. He was sort of killing time today until the eclipse but still drove waaay out of his way and ended up taking us all the way to the resort! Mind you this involved about ten miles of dirt/gravel forest roads with huge potholes and bumps. He was driving a tiny sedan rental car that bottomed out a couple times but still drove us all the way to the resort. What kindness!!! We could not believe it–we arrived at the resort by 5pm… We were originally doubtful we’d even be able to get here before the eclipse. Thanks to the kindness of strangers though we got here super quickly.
Olallie Lake Resort is quite remote and right on a beautiful lake with Mount Jefferson looming behind and reflecting into the still water. There are cabins here but everything is super rustic–there are only pit toilets and no electricity except at the store where they run a generators one day a week. There are boats you can rent in the lake but you can’t swim in the lake due to it being a water source. They are letting us camp in the day use area. We plan to take tomorrow off and hang out here and then watch the eclipse the morning after from a boat in the lake! Because we had to skip about 90 miles of trail we are already almost done with Oregon! Only 100 miles to Washington. Pretty crazy that our trip is starting to wind down.