I woke this morning at Cody’s house. He had planned to take me to the trail.

A little over a week ago I got off trail to head home for my cousin, Brody’s funeral. It was so nice to see family and spend such quality time with them. It was obviously hard to be at the service too. It’s impossible for me to accept that Brody is gone at this moment. It just felt like he was missing. Some nights lately I wake up with that thought. That he’s gone. But I have to take a deep breath and tell myself I can’t think of that in the middle of the night. Anyway, it was a good but short trip.

I landed in Portland on Sunday night and stayed with one of my best friends on the planet, Dirty Peanut. She is a friend from the AT who just moved to Portland. I spent the night and she drove me to Bend on Monday night where I crashed with my friend Cody. I came down with a cold that night and decided not to head out on Tuesday either.

I arrived this morning at the Elk Lake trailhead. I decided to not do the 58 miles from highway 138 to Shelter Cove. I’d already done Shelter Cove to Elk Lake in years past and didn’t feel like doing that over. So, I missed another 58 miles of the trail but I’ve decided to make up for it by taking a shuttle to Olallie Lake rather than Government Camp. That’ll add back almost that many miles.

I hiked alone for a good part of the day. I stopped for a short break and met a guy named Mando (I think). The view was gorgeous. I sat and looked over a large meadow and at the south side of South Sister. I hiked through the meadow and it was just wonderful. I really enjoyed the view and the hike. I took my next break at an ice cold creek in a meadow where I met Big Bird. I hiked on and the trail started to go behind Middle Sister on the east. I thought of my grandparents since I’d taken them out to see these very mountains a couple years ago. The trail was filled with meadows and gorgeous views of all the mountains around.

I met up with some folks who Planner and Thankful introduced me to. They knew me but I didn’t remember their names somehow. Either way, they invited me to camp with them. I hiked another 5 miles to Obsidian Falls. It was a gorgeous waterfall covered in moss. The water ran over lava rocks and obsidian chunks. Obsidian was strewn about all over like broken glass. I breaked with the others then headed on. The trail followed a creek and then went by mounds of shiny obsidian as far as I could see. It was so cool!

The trail headed up on lava rocks and climbed steeply. It was also so cool. There was a massive lava flow for miles and miles. I made it to camp with everyone and I sat and ate dinner. They were very friendly and I enjoyed their company. I did 25 miles today and it feels good to be back. Tomorrow night I get to see Robin and hike with her for a while.