Day 1 - Back on the Trail Again! — Walking People Out of Poverty

walkingpeopleoutofpoverty.ca is the personal blog of Peter Thorpe, long-time Opportunity International Canada supporter and Walking People Out of Poverty founder. For Dan Murray’s blog and information on OIC, please click here.

Day 1

Total Ascent 3479 ft,
Total Descent 2081 ft
Start Time: 8:32 am
Total Hiking Time: 10:52 (hrs:mins).

Last night, Trail Angel Gerry was a Godsend; hence we gave him this as his Trail name. Gerry picked us up from Hood River and drove us to our accommodation at Trout Lake, the aptly named The Trout Lake Valley Inn. However, we have yet to see the lake the town is named after. At the check-in desk, the lady told us the restaurant was closed, but we could go back into town, and there were a couple of good restaurants. Our initial thoughts were the lady was referring to Hood River, and we didn’t fancy the long drive back there and the return journey home. The lady quickly cleared up any confusion, and after dropping off our bags, Gerry very kindly offered to run us up there, and as a show of our gratitude, we bought him dinner. We were home by 8 am, and after a shower and writing my first blog, I turned out the lights in anticipation of returning for leg 3 of my PCT adventure.

We were late getting started and didn’t start walking until 8:30 am. We had 20 miles to cover, and in heat that would be approaching 31 degrees. We would have preferred a 7:30 start, but we rely so much on the Trail Angels and have to work to their schedule. The first part of the trail was lovely as it carved through a beautiful forest, and anyone who knows me well will realize how much I love trees. Gerry had told us we would be walking through a forest ravaged by the Pine Beetle and wildfire, and after an hour or so, we came out of the forest and were confronted by the devastation. The trail went up and down, but mostly up, and we also seemed to do a lot of backtracking. We enjoyed some terrific views of Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier and a mountain much closer than we didn’t have a name for. It seemed to be a big part of our day as it accompanied our travels for almost the entire journey.

Due to the heat, we walked for 55 minutes and took a water and snack break for 5 minutes. At 12:30 pm, we stopped for lunch and took a 40-minute break before returning to the trail. We couldn’t take too long off the trail as we were concerned about making our 20.6 mile target. The afternoon was particularly challenging as the heat was now firmly on. We were focused on making our target but as the day wore on we decided we might have to cut the mileage down by a mile or two. We knew we could afford to do so as we have a much shorter day scheduled for Thursday and can add the extra miles to make up for any shortages.

We eventually arrived at a campsite 2 1/2 miles short of our goal at around 7:45 pm and felt we had put in a good effort. Next came setting up our tents, getting our food cooked and setting up our sleeping bags. I also have to write my blog, which is important, as it is a commitment I made with my first Walking People out of Poverty back in 2014.

This blog, and subsequent all my others, are my way of thanking all those who have very kindly sponsored my walks. I feel so blessed to have such good people in my life, and I cannot thank you enough for your kindness.

Now for some photos of today’s walk.