6 miles
I am true to my word and out of my tent by 6am so that I can enjoy another shower and charge my phone before we leave. I walk back to the tent site around 6:45, and find Barrel packing up. Somehow from this point on everything takes much longer than anticipated, and it's already 8am by the time we're all set to go. Most of the other hikers who are there have decided to stay for breakfast (they're having cinnamon rolls), and we get talked in to staying as well. So, despite all of our best intentions, we don't actually leave Big Lake Youth camp until 9, and quite possibly could have stayed there for days if I didn't have somewhat of a deadline of making it to Portland by the 9th to meet up with my Uncle. Thank god for deadlines.
As we're walking, we meet other hikers who are planning to do a zero day in Bend. We are coming up to a large highway that is a direct shot into Bend, though it is about an hour drive. As more and more people pressure us, we feel compelled to go in to Bend. I don't realize how close the highway is, and we make it there in less than 2 hours. REI had gotten in to the youth camp last night, and told us that he's going in to Bend, and that if we go he'll split the cost of a room with us. By the time we get to the highway we have decided we're going to get a hitch into Bend and enjoy a few of their many breweries. I start to feel like a slacker hiker, trying to remember how many days it's been since I've done big miles.
The highway is busy, but no one wants to pick up hiker trash. Barrel and I are standing with three other hiker guys we just met, and I tell him we're never going to get a hitch for all of us. Barrel, myself, and a German guy named Grams decide we're going to walk a 1/4 mile down the road where a trail head turn off is, assuming it's more likely someone will pull over there. As a woman, it's usually not very difficult to get a ride--mostly because I think people feel responsible/sad/sorry for you. But when you're with a guy, this goes completely out of the window. And when you're with more than one guy, you can basically kiss your shot at a ride goodbye. I make a sign on my ground cover: PCT Hikers to BEND and hold this up as cars pass. Barrel looks homeless, and Grams looks like a starving tattoo punk, so after about 30 minutes of nothing I start to feel discouraged, and wonder if this is a sign we shouldn't be going to Bend. Grams tells me he once spend half a day trying to get a hitch, so this is nothing. He pulls a wild flower from the side of the road and puts it behind his ear, "for luck," he says. He tells me that he was with another hiker who always put a flower behind his ear, and would get a ride within 10 minutes. I am doubtful.
Less than 15 minutes later a nice Subaru pulls over and lets us all pile our dirty, smelly gear and selves into his nice car. Grams looks at me and says, "see, it works!" The man's name is Richard, and he's a soccer coach of a 12 year old girls team from Portland, who are playing in a massive tournament in Bend this afternoon. He is a lovely guy, and has no problem driving us the entire hour to Bend. Naively, we thought it would be easy to get a room, but had no idea there was a tournament going on this weekend, and soon realize, after multiple motel calls, that finding a room is going to be much more difficult, and expensive, than we thought. Richard patiently drives us around, and when I finally find a room, he drives us precisely to that motel, telling us it's no problem. Barrel and I get out, and offers to drop Grams off closer to downtown. What a guy!
For any Veronica Mars fans out there, does our trail angel not look like Keith Mars?!
When I walk in to get the room, the woman changes the price on me from what she had said over the phone. I'm hot and cranky, and find that I'm not doing a very good job of talking her in to seeing it my way. Barrel steps in and tries to use his charm, and I'm smart enough to realize he's going to be the better negotiator at this point. The woman still isn't biting, and soon her husband comes out, and Barrel starts schmoozing him "Oh, what part of India are you from? No, I've never been there, but I've always wanted to go", etc. This would be the perfect time to have Coughee around, who HAS been to india, and somehow gets every Indian to like him in a matter of seconds. At any rate, the husband gives us his final offer: we pay the higher price, but he won't charge us sales tax. Knowing this is the best we'll get, we accept. We get the keys and walk into our room, and I collapse on one of the beds. Barrel says, "wait, Oregon doesn't have sales tax ever, right?! He just said that because he knew we weren't from around here!" Clever man, I say, he got us.
After taking a bath and using a real washcloth (instead of my hand), and scrubbing my feet cleaner than they've been in two months, we lay around, letting our eyes glaze over in the light of the TV. I send REI a text asking him if he still wants to split the room with us, and while we wait for his reply, we head out to a Mexican restaurant, for food we've both been craving. On the way over, we see a truck that has dropped some garage siding, and Barrel, the hero that he is, rushes over to offer his help. Soon, 4 more guys rush over, and I stand there awkwardly, knowing I'm not strong enough to help, but feel I should do something--so I take a picture.
REI tells us he's on the way to the hotel, so we get the food to go, and walk to mile back to the hotel, only to find he's nowhere in sight. In the meantime, he has told us he also told Ninja Tank he would share a room with him, so we offer Ninja Tank to split our room as well. Where are the other hiker women?! I suppose I'm getting used to being the only girl around all these hiker guys, but I do miss the conversation of women. Alas. Halfway to the hotel we get dumped on by an extremely localized downpour. Welcome to Oregon. The three of us wait in the hotel room for REI, and when he finally gets there he's in a right state. He steps into the room, pulls off his hat and says, "Fuck this day" over and over again in his German accent, and though he's livid, I can't help but find it funny. I've never seen him so mad, and he tells us that it took him 3 hours to get a hitch into Bend because he had to get two hitches, and the last woman had no idea where things were in Bend and told him to walk in the wrong direction to get to the hotel. He has to exchange his sleeping pad at the REI store, and is upset that everything is miles away from everything else. Ninja Tank rented a bike and loans it to REI, and we decide we all need to go out for a beer, ASAP. Barrel, Ninja and I walk to a brewery, and REI tells us he'll come over after his exchanges.
We end up at a Catholic school turned brewery by the time REI catches up to us, and enjoy a lively game of shuffle board.
Barrel says I look too happy, and I need to look mean and cool.
So I give him a face that I think is "mean and cool", and he laughs and says, you look like an petulant child.
The pub also has a soaking pool, which we don't get in, but marvel at.
So much local beer to drink! From left to right: Ninja Tank, Barrel, REI and me!
After hitting a few of the local breweries, we end the night at a neighborhood bar that has pool tables, per Barrel's request. The boys have all had a fair number of drinks, and I switch over to cheap beer with olives, knowing I can't keep up with them, and not even wanting to try. When we leave at midnight we are greeted with a doughnut truck just outside called, Glazed and Amused. Like a sign from Heaven.
Barrel and I share the Rosco (maple bacon doughnut) and the Car Bomb and it is insanely good and filling. We waddle back to the hotel, ending our Bender in Bend, sleeping in real beds for the first time in I can't remember how long.
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