Day 129 - 9/01/12 - 55 Miles = Certified Bad Asses

Contents:  Olallie Lake Resort - Timberline Lodge (54.2 miles)

Ok.....so maybe it was only 54.2 miles, but Flappy and I did it!  We cruised the 55 miles between Olallie Lake Resort and Timberline Lodge in about 21 hours and had an absolute blast.

We left Olallie Lake shortly after 5 PM following a hodge podge dinner.  I'd eaten mac and cheese late in the afternoon and wasn't super hungry but managed to eat some  granola with raisins and a Butterfinger candy bar.  The hiking was easy and we knocked out the first 20 miles to Warm Springs Creek before midnight.  We ate our first "lunch" there, crackers and cheese for me, and I did a short foot soak.  It was definitely cold and dark, though the full moon was wonderful.  It's always a little depressing when the sun goes down, especially when I'm working hard and know that I will be doing the exact same thing when the sun rises again, but the moon brightened our moods and Flappy was excellent company.  Shameless and Lava Goat had also left notes of encouragement along the way.

The second 20 miles went pretty quickly as well.  Flappy dropped his winter hat shortly after taking it off and had to backtrack a bit but was fortunately able to find it.  I hiked on a short distance and then stopped until he caught up.  We also cranked up some tunes on our iPhones.  The speakers aren't great but they work well enough and we blasted Tom Petty followed by Beetles' White Album as we charged through the forest singing at the top of our lungs.  Our usual crew, Team Slacker, was camped a short distance off the trail at Little Crater Lake with some of Shameless' friends who were providing magic.  We passed those guys around 3 AM but didn't head into their camp.  Other highlights were a ridiculously long downed tree that Flappy and I both thought might have been a hallucination and gorgeous Timothy Lake which was magical with a little fog in the moonlight.  Also, my good friend Gene from Seattle had buried a couple of beers for me near Timothy Lake while on a mountain biking adventure earlier this summer.  Sadly we weren't able to locate the beers, but we sure had fun looking.  Drinking a beer probably wouldn't have been a great idea anyways, as my stomach was already upset from only eating two chocolate muffins and a bag of Fritos since midnight.

We celebrated the sunrise with Isreal Kanamawiwoo'ole's Somewhere Over the Rainbow, a special request from Peelsy.  It was so uplifting, definitely one of my favorite parts of the hike.  We stopped for our second lunch and water around 8.  We were probably  about 40 miles deep at this point.  I don't think either of us could stomach junk food so I cooked mac and cheese and Flappy had mashed potatoes.  We thought it would pull us in (and it probably did)  but fatigue was setting in and our pace slowed for the last 15 miles.

We arrived at Timberlake Lodge around 2:30, over 21 hours after we'd left Olallie Lake.  The last few miles were super tough and sandy.  Tons of climbing.  It was definitely beautiful but we were beat.  We did a lot of moaning and groaning.....it seemed to help. We rocked the Beastie Boys for a while but they became too obnoxious for our tired states.  We eventually took to singing Hallelujah as loudly as possible.  We both knew all the lyrics by heart though I'm not convinced we were singing the verses in the correct order.  I'm sure we frightened a day walker or two!

We ate pizza at the lodge and made camp just a couple minutes away.  We are camped at the base of Hood and have spectacular views of both Hood and Jefferson near where we started our day.  Breakfast buffet tomorrow.  Wooly, Black Beard, and Destroyer are here and the rest of our crew should roll in first thing in the morning.

Thanks to Flappy for being the perfect hiking partner.  We created a rule early on where we could only make quantitative statements if they were positive, and we stuck to that plan.  Neither of us ever considered stopping and we shared countless laughs.

Have a great night!  Team Strong.....is signing off!