Update

Updates from N

We're 150 miles into Oregon now, so it's a good time to update our status on various things of dubious importance.

Stomachs and Bowels

They're good...now. We ended up spending 3 zero days and 2 nero days at Cascade Locks recovering from that heretofore unknown stomach bug. After 2 days, J went down as well and spent a day in bed recovering. When we finally set off again, I hadn't eaten a full meal (or kept one down) and was flat and uninspired....Then, the dreaded Achilles flamed. After just 15 miles in my new shoes, my Achilles caught fire. The pain was incredible. After morning tea I got up and made it 10 paces before I had to stop. I'd seen J earlier in the hike deal with a burning Achilles and, 10 years ago on the Camino, Finchie also. I don't know how they walked as far as they did. It stopped me dead. So, I took off the new shoes and walked in J's sandals... then J's new shoes got to her Achilles. We finished the day, 5 miles, me in my shoe on the left foot and thong on the right and J in her sandals.

We were pretty down that night. 3 days lost in CL, now our feet were fk'd, we had 20 miles to walk and the prospect of doing it all in cheap thongs.

The next morning, desperate, we tried taking our soles out of our shoes. Buggered if I know how, but it worked. And soulless we marches on to Timberline.

Timberline

The buffet, omfg, the buffet. J will have more on this I'm sure.

Deadlines

A massive boost to our spirits has been the realisation that, despite the delays in CL, we are only 4 days behind schedule. With the pace we are doing now, we should steal 2 days back by Oregan and a few more before Tahoe.

Tomorrow we should cross the quarter way mark!

Calories

In my attempts to avoid fading away completely, we've upped the calories. New to the daily line up is:

1. Olive oil into soups and dinners. 120 calories per tbls, thank you very much!

2. A pack of 2 minute noodles to bulk up dinner.

3. Crisps. Calories in fat, and no sugar. Winner. Our new favorite afternoon tea snack.

4. Someone just ahead of us has been dumping homemade dehydrated chicken soup into the hiker boxes. And we pick it up each time.

Fires

We're conscious of the fires burning up and down the west coast. We're hundreds of miles north of them, but the ski is still thick with smoke and hope the folk caught up with them are ok. What impact on us, we're not sure at this point.

We'll, that about squares us up. Hopefully the next few weeks pass without incident and I can make up some more interesting stuff for the next blog.

Cheers

N