The Longest Zero & A Beaver Reunion – Bend to Government Camp

Driven off trail by fire, Maggie and I were adrift in Bend, OR. We ended up taking five days off from hiking, and while not hiking is decidedly less interesting, there was no shortage of fun coincidence that occurred on this trail of life.

Day 130 – 0 miles/1960 (8/4/2022)

Maggie and I woke up in the home of our newest trail angels, Chad and Sara. Our goal was to get to Corvallis, OR the next day to meet my college roommates for a little reunion tour. We looked into buses and local trail angels to get us up to Santiam Pass, where we could get picked up by my friend, Erik.

Chad and Sara drove us to the Victorian Cafe for brunch, where we said our farewells and we thanked them profusely for their generosity. Maggie and I enjoyed a great brunch, then walked along the Descutes river to hiker Mecca – REI.

In a rare coincidence, we ran into Hoot, one of our friends from the Wolf Pack! We hadn’t seen them since Lone Pine, CA, roughly 1,200 trail miles away. They had been on our heels for quite some time, but they too were forced off trail by wildfire near Crater Lake. We rode with Hoot and his cousin to downtown Bend to meet Rev (Wolf Pack member) and another section hiker, Camel. We were planning on getting out of Bend that afternoon on a bus, but the Wolf Pack had an Airbnb, and Camel was driving to Corvallis the next day. When Camel offered to give us a ride, it was an easy decision to stay.

We caught up with our friends, old and new, over beers. Rev informed us that the “Wolf Pack”, an informal moniker I applied to them, had morphed into “The Dutch Rudder”. The pack was now a pirate ship. The original four guys had been joined by about 8 other hikers, including two Dutch gals, and this large tramily was leaning hard into the pirate life. We were happy to set sail with them, bar hopping around the “adult playground” that is Bend. We met more hikers imbibing through the uncertainty of fire season. As the day waned, we wandered over to a free food truck and music festival at the riverfront park. Maggie and I found Johnny Sunshine and Karate Man, the remaining two wolves pirates from the early days. We chilled outside the concert with a box of Banquet beers, and many hikers gathered around.

We did eventually make it into the event once hunger took over. Maggie and I got a ride back to the Airbnb with Camel and Rev. Not ready to go to bed yet, we watched Starship Troopers. Whew, that was 2.5 hours of bug blasting that I was not prepared for… As the movie was ending, the real chaos began. A dozen or so hikers started stumbling in around midnight. The noise was not really meshing with our vibe, so Maggie and I cowboy camped in the backyard, bewildered by yet another crazy day on this crazy adventure.

Day 131 – 0 miles/1960 (8/5/2022)

We stirred in the rapidly rising sunlight. I tip-toed around hikers sleeping on the floor inside to use the bathroom. After packing up, Maggie, Camel, Rev, and I went to Rockin’ Dave’s Bistro for breakfast – we owed it to Dave after how generous he was to us at Elk Lake. Initially, we didn’t see Rockin’ Dave, but he found us sitting outside. Despite the fact that we only spent an evening with Rockin’ Dave, it was like seeing an old friend!

We dropped off Rev to rejoin his fellow pirates, and Camel drove us to Corvallis. On the 2.5 hour ride, we enjoyed lots of conversation with Camel about adventures past and future. We wound our way across the Cascades, leaving behind the pines and hemlocks for Oregon’s lush temperate rain forest nearer to the coast. Traversing the idyllic Willamette valley, we finally made it to capitol of beaver nation. For me, it was a blast from the past. I look back fondly on my four years in Corvallis. It was great to see so many familiar sights I last saw 9 years ago. In town too early to check in, Camel dropped us off at the grocery store so we could get our resupply shopping done. Loaded up with full packs and grocery bags in hand, we walked to our Airbnb. We showered and did laundry before my college roommate, Erik, and his partner, Kelcy, arrived. The four of us shared good conversation in the living room, then walked downtown for dinner. Wiped out from partying in Bend, and with plenty more in store, we called it early.

Day 132 – 0 miles/1960 (8/6/2022)

Maggie and I made breakfast with Erik and Kelcy at the bnb. My other two roommates, Joel and Evan, arrived at 9 am. The gang was back together and we were instantly riffing off each other like we did a decade before. The six of us embarked on a walking tour of Oregon State University. It was a quiet summer Saturday, a far cry from the bustling campus I recall from the rainy Oregon winters I spent there.

We wandered and reminisced about classes, professors, and various shenanigans we got into around campus. Once we had gotten our fill, we went for a beer at Downward Dog (formerly Brew Station). We walked back and made lunch at the bnb, hiding out from the oppressive summer heat out for a little while. We venture back out, walking through downtown and the riverfront area. We noticed lots of closed down businesses, probably from the pandemic. It was a shame to peek in the windows of Flat Tail Brewery, one of our favorite spots, but it had shut down. A pair of OSU alumni, Brent and Wes, walked by and saw us sadly looking in. Taking pity on some fellow Beavers, they invited us to their brewery a couple blocks down at the Old World Deli.

We followed them and got the full tour from the fermentation tanks, to the grain storage attic. They opened several large bottles of rare beers from around the world, mostly farmhouse ales. We talked with them for over an hour, they were the friendliest guys!

We wandered over to Block 15 for dinner. Joel’s wife, Becca, joined us. We walked back to the Old World Deli to support their business and watch a bit of live music. The lot of us eventually walked back to the house and enjoyed a mellow evening together.

Day 133 – 0 miles/1960 (8/7/2022)

Not too much to report on this day. Maggie and I slept in a little, getting breakfast going around 9 am. Maggie, Evan, and I geared up for a run to Chip Ross trailhead. The three of us talked about plans for the future on our run. Joel and Becca met us at the trail head to hike the rest of the way up for a classic view of Corvallis. It was rather hot and dry, the complete opposite of how I remember running up mud and wet leaves.

We made sure to eat some Himalayan blackberries, doing our part to prevent the spread of this invasive species. We drove back house for showers, then picked up lunch at Alley Gyros. We ate by the riverfront where the heat was making itself known. Being outdoors didn’t seem so pleasant anymore, so we walked back to the house where we relaxed and played Codenames for a few hours. As the evening wore on, we ate, drank, and shared memories, laughing till our cheeks were tired. Not ready for bed, the group walked to Franklin Square Park for some late night jungle gym action.

Day 134 – 0 miles/1960 (8/8/2022)

The fun was over. We cleaned up and packed up at the house. Before going our separate ways, we drove over to the house Evan, Erik, Joel, and I rented while we were at OSU where we took a few nostalgia pics.

We said our good byes to Evan, Erik, Kelcy, and Becca. Joel had graciously agreed to drive us back to the trail, but first we stopped by Corvallis post office to swap out our tent. The failing zipper on our Z-Packs Triplex wasn’t sustainable in mosquito country, so we had our friends in Santa Fe send our back up tent. With a fresh shelter in hand, we began the drive to Olallie Lake. Maggie and I couldn’t go back to Santiam Pass since there was a trail closure by Mt. Jefferson where a burn scar hadn’t been deemed safe yet. Going to Olallie Lake would skip about 80 miles of trail, but it was the smallest amount we could skip under the circumstances. Up north on I-5 and then east around the south side of Mt. Hood, we were getting closer to Olallie Lake when we saw a sign – “Road closed ahead”. The road workers informed us we couldn’t get through since they were doing rock side mitigation. When we asked about Timothy Lake, the worker explained that the road to Timothy Lake was long and rough, so Joel’s Honda Civic likely wouldn’t make it. We finally decided to bail to Government Camp, bypassing 140 trail miles. We weren’t thrilled about skipping so much – that’s like 5% of the trail! Going back and forth on these back roads, Joel was super understanding. Maggie and I owe him big time for getting us to Government Camp! We said our farewells, and Joel and I agreed to not wait 10 years for the next reunion.

Maggie and I went to the bar to make a plan. After five days of debauchery, we both felt pretty terrible. We went to a small park shelter and faffed around a bit more. Even though we had time, hiking just wasn’t in the cards for us. We went to the Taco Shop for dinner, where we ran into Smiles! We first met him around Crater Lake. We talked with Smiles over burritos and learned that he had hiked all the way through Oregon, avoiding wildfires, and even sneaking through the closed burn scar. We were a bit jealous, to say the least. It was getting late, so we finally decided to pitch our tent at a campground 1 mile out of town. We were exhausted from five days of not hiking…