So I lost my fever on the Pacific Crest Trail. But I guess that means I have to admit to you that I was running a fever. I hate to admit to illness.....it is akin to admitting defeat to me. So I push through. I know a sane or intelligent person would have been laying in bed under many blankets trying to rest and get better and stay hydrated. But I am neither of those things. It was hiking day after all, and fever or no fever, I was going to hit the trail. However, that being said, I did make a couple of wise decisions in the process. I decided to do a hike closer to home so the drive wouldn't be quite as long since I knew I was already feeling tired and if I am being honest, a bit dizzy. I was not 100% sure how my stamina would hold out as exhausted as I already felt just getting out of bed in the morning. So I also chose something without a ton of climbing and a trail I had been on most of before so my legs could just do their thing without my mind having to engage. That being said, I was committed to not return to the truck until my fever was gone. So what did that take you ask? Well, it was 15.5 miles of sweating like a pig and standing under a waterfall. I knew the moment it happened too. But let me tell you about the hike as it was near perfection!
Right away we were enjoying beautiful views trail side. Nova loves vast expansive views and always takes the time to enjoy them. We had blue skies and sunshine for most of the day with a few clouds here and there. To get to the section of the PCT that we wanted to hike, there were several places to put in. I knew that the trailhead to the northwest would be more crowded as it is closer to the PCT. So I chose the one southeast figuring there would be far fewer people with the two separate trails you have to take to make the PCT connection. Any time you can add miles to a hike, you weed out the majority of other hikers. Especially what I call the tourist hikers. These are people who don't normally hike, and they like to go about 4 miles in total.....two from their car and two back to their car. You always run into these guys close to trailheads. They are the ones who don't put their dogs on leashes and leave plastic bags of dog poo alongside the trail like that somehow hides their contents as they wait for the poop fairy to pick them up. These are the ones who come with lots of kids and don't know how to pull over to let another hiker pass. They talk nonstop in really loud voices or listen to music playing that you are subjected to hear until you can get around them. Since it was spring break in Oregon this week, I knew I would be seeing more of these tourist hikers than normal. I made comments under my breath as I geared up at the trailhead about all the ruddy faced hikers I would be seeing and prayed for patience. I will admit I can get a bit territorial of my hikes, and don't always like to share.....unless of course they are good looking, muscular and bearded mountain men. Then fill the trails up I say! But that might have been the fever speaking! Just in case, Josie stayed on the lookout for mountain men for me... always watching over my shoulder.
No, Josie, the mountain men are not in the trees! Thanks for checking though.
What was a surprise on today's hike was that there were signs at the trailhead and intermittently along the trail telling us that in a few days time a big trail running event was going to take place along this section. I had no idea that this group even existed, but quickly learned that I needed to follow their website for trail runs. Not because I wanted to run with masses of people on the trail by any means, but because they had come along and done some of the best trail maintenance and clean up I had ever seen! Every single downed tree across the trail had been freshly cut and some of the rocks even seemed to have been raked aside! I had never felt more like a Princess with a hiking red carpet rolled out in front of herself in my life. But I think the dogs were a little sad that we weren't going to be climbing over or under any trees on this hike! I explained that trail angels had just come through and we should surely enjoy it while we could. I will admit that I have since googled this trail running group and may very well go hike their planned trails right before or right after their runs to enjoy the spoils of their hard work! Thanks guys!
There were a few creeks to cross along the trail as we went. As soon as the girls can hear water running from afar through the forest, they start pulling harder and faster on their lines. They can't wait to get to the cold fresh water. Josie dives right in not caring how deep or fast flowing the current is. Nova daintily drinks from the edge of the bank, then searches out which rocks she wants to hop from or what log she can walk across to get to the other side while staying dry. I generally follow Nova so I don't have to get my boots wet if I can help it. But often just as I am making a jump from one big rock to another, Josie takes a huge leap in the water while tied to me and pulls me off target until I go in with her. I swear she thinks that is funny every time! At least I was wearing gore-tex waterproof boots!
As we continued to fly through the miles, I found that I was surprisingly feeling pretty energetic. It was like my legs just knew what to do as soon as I put those boots on. But the problem was I felt like I was on fire. Several times I actually reached up to feel if my hair was in flames. I was burning up! I was not wearing very many layers of clothing and certainly had no hat or gloves on as it was for this end of March hike. But I was unzipping and rolling up every thing I could. At one point, the heat pouring from my body became all encompassing to my mind. I started to play a game that I called "I am hotter than." It started out as "I am hotter than if I was hiking on an exposed mountain on a 100 degree day with the sun beating on me." Then it went to "I am hotter than if I was laying in bed with 50 electric blankets all turned on high." I think it ended somewhere with being on the surface of the sun. All I knew was that I was sweating like a pig roasted on a spit. I could feel sweat pouring down my legs inside my pants. My entire base layer was soaked through and sweat was quickly seeping through my outer layer. My hair was dripping as if I had just come out of a shower. The irony of how I must now look like the ruddy faced tourist hikers I was making fun of earlier was not lost on me. I have never spent so much time in my life fantasizing about taking off all my clothes and just hiking in my sports bra and underwear. I would have done it too had I not feared having to explain that to a passing spring break hiker as well as the chaffing that would surely have come from my rucksack. But the fever was surely trying to kill me. However, I reasoned that this is the whole point of staying in bed when you are sick. Stay warm and let the fever burn out your virus. Well I should be doing a bang up job of that I thought! Besides the fresh air was doing my lungs good while I was burning up the virus and the sights and sounds were a salve to my soul which would otherwise be wildly depressed to be lying in a bed in a darkened room. I was clearly not doing a good job staying hydrated with all the sweating. But I figured I could work on that one later; perhaps by drinking an amount of water equivalent to what is in an Olympic sized swimming pool. Before long, we saw and felt God smiling down on us on the trail.
We all stopped to take a deep breath and allow some cool off time. I kept trying to fan myself with small branches I would find along the trail. I will admit I prayed for a good stiff breeze to come through. Before long on the trail though, we came to a really interesting place. There are these large rock pinnacles alongside the PCT here among the talus and scree fields. They are fun to look at, especially today with the blue sky behind them. The last time I had hiked here the pinnacles were shrouded in thick mist in a hail storm and honestly were a little creepy. The wolf decided to see if she could do her best Pinnacle Pose! I think she nailed it!
As we continued along the Pacific Crest Trail heading North, we knew we would be coming along a nice waterfall. But I wanted to time our arrival at the falls so we could be alone there. This meant I needed to wait until later in the day when other hikers would be returning to their cars and trucks to get home in time for dinner. We would be having our dinner at the falls with any luck. So I decided to go ahead and just hike the PCT all the way to that farthest north trailhead you can get to in order to close out that section in my mind. You see I have been keeping track of every step I take on the PCT figuring if I don't have the luxury to take 6 months off work to hike it all at one time, I can surely section hike every step of it in Washington and Oregon over time. So I needed that final 2.5 mile section from the Oregon border to close off a good portion of the northern Oregon PCT on my maps. Up until now, I had always missed that section avoiding the busy road crossing by the Bridge of the Gods. This time I went ahead and ran across the road with the girls in tow so I could get to the bridge and use the restrooms at that trailhead there. Murphy's Law, those rest rooms were locked up tight. Alas, just my luck I figured. But in reality I was so dehydrated, I really didn't need to use it anyway. So I turned back around and started to run southbound down the PCT the same way I had just come in from. I received some very confused looks from nearby humans who saw my about face. Maybe they thought I had forgotten something on the trail and was going back for it. I am sure they thought I was nuts. They probably would not be wrong. I don't even want to imagine how sweaty and disheveled I must have looked. But I somehow found a second wind and was literally running up hill on a paved side road in Cascade Locks to get back to the trail and the waterfall. Our timing was perfect as we arrived at the falls after everyone else had left. This was just as I had hoped and prayed for!
The secluded ravine here contains a wonderful waterfall that comes down in a chasm in the basalt rocks. It is a 50 foot plunge into a small pool at the base of 300 foot moss covered cliffs. It is truly spectacular and a private amphitheater for your own enjoyment. The last time I was here it was just Nova and I in a snowstorm. That was special, but this was better as it was warm enough to go get under the base of the falls. But again, that might have been the fever speaking! Nothing felt better than that cold spray on my hot face! Besides I figured, I really couldn't get any wetter and I needed to wash some sweat off! Check out this perfect little pool at the base of the falls! The roar of the water obliterated all other sound here!
I suppose the only thing that would spoil a dip here was if another tree trunk came over the falls to land on your head. That would put a quick damper on your day! But the girls and I took some photos and played around for as long as we could.
Josie's favorite way to pose is to get right in the frigid water and drink so she can show what kind of beast she is. Nova, ever the perfect Princess, has much better ways to pose while keeping her little feet dry of course! There is a part of each of these girls living inside me.
All their posing was done as soon as that thermos of hot soup for dinner came out of the pack. After 10 miles of hiking, we were all ready for our noodle soup! The girls get theirs poured over bowls of special dog food they only get when we hike. They look forward to it every week. I just eat the remaining half straight out of the thermos. Today it was extra soothing on my poor throat.
After eating, I put my pack back on and realized that I was hitting a wall. A wave of exhaustion had moved over me and was settling in for the evening. I had kept it at bay as long as I could, but I could feel it in every single cell. There was no escape. But something else almost worse had occurred. My internal heater had suddenly turned off as quickly as if someone threw the switch. I was cold. I was really, really cold. I instantly knew that I had lost the fever standing there by the waterfalls. I also knew that I had about five and a half miles to hike back out to my truck. Never fear, I thought! Since it was almost Easter, I had a ziploc bag of jelly beans in my pocket for the hike out. I calculated that if I ate about 2.5 beans per mile I could accomplish two things. First I would have recurrent hits of sugar to give me energy to get out and secondly I could take my time to figure out what my favorite flavor of bean was. The jury is still out on the second part of that goal. But we made it out on the little reserves of sugar that kept me just to this side of my wall and my temperature was perfectly, spot on, normal at the trailhead coming out.
Now if anyone ever asks you what the best way to get rid of a fever is....don't tell them you heard from me that they should go on a 15 mile hike and stand under a cold waterfall. I do not want that kind of liability. But it surely worked for me! Or maybe it was just the soup, jelly beans and terrific views in our private ravine that did it.
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