Episode 67 - PCT Update #15
Crater Lake —> Shelter Cove
I’m currently sitting in front of the General Store in Trout Lake WA, relaxing and writing some banger blogs. Yes, I’m quite behind, but I have a few hours to kill before the trail angel shuttle comes to drop us off back on trail. Might as well whip out my Apple Notes and start writing!
As always, please feel free to mail letters, postcards, mail, business cards, or care packages to me on trail! Really, mail me anything, I’ll be so happy. I always get so excited heading to the post office, and the next one will be in Snoqualmie Pass! There are only two more post office stops left on the trail (😢), so I’m listing both addresses so that y’all can prepare your mail. If you’ve ever wanted to send something to a REAL LIFE PCT HIKER STRAIGHT TO THE TRAIL, these are your last two chances!!
Thank you so much to everyone who’s sent me packages, post cards, and letters so far; going to the post office is like Christmas, each and every time! It’s honestly so crazy that we’re reaching the end already, the very last post office! So sad :(
Here are the last two post office addresses on trail, along with my ETA to them. In case you’re wondering what to send, Brooke and I love Trader Joe’s baby food pouches (all snacks from there, really), Walking Tamales (picture of these below, red ones are the BEST), and colored Goldfish (elite flavor). They’re the most delicious snacks ever!
Dennis Gavrilenko, PCT Hiker, 9/14/2025
Chevron Station
521 WA-906
Snoqualmie Pass, WA 98068
(Yes I know this one’s to a Chevron Station, but it has a post office inside!)
Dennis Gavrilenko, PCT Hiker, 9/20/2025
c/o General Delivery
31 Defacto Lane
Stehekin, WA 98852
Let’s go!
If this is your first episode and you’re thinking “what in the world is happening right now”, start here!
Day 104, 8/22/2025:
3 miles today with 60 feet of climbing. lol
After our four GLORIOUS days off in Ashland, brooke and I knew that there was no way we were catching up to Flo and Pablo on trail, so we decided to make a strategic bypass to Crater Lake. Strategic bypass = skip, but just fancier. It seems a lot cooler to “strategically bypass” a section of the trail rather than skip it. lol
And so off to Crater Lake we went! We organized a ride north from a trail angel, and arrived at the Mazama Village area by noonish. We didn’t have many plans except to just hang out and explore the national park, which we ended up doing with some tourist in town for a vacation. She drove us all around the park, until she locked her keys in her car and some truckers broke into her car to rescue us. It was wild: they fashioned a wedge to pry the door open, then used their truck antennas to pull the driver side trunk latch. All that was left was crawling through the trunk, opening the side door, and we were all set. Honestly pretty hilarious.
Later, we hiked down to the lake and swam in the only part you’re allowed to, then hitchhiked back to trail and hiked a few miles in the dark with Tanya, our Australian friend.
But my goodness, the water. So blue! So beautiful! Blu! Blue! Blue!
Day 105, 8/23:
18 miles today with 1900 feet of climbing.
Today was our first full day back on trail, and it was quite pleasant! We didn’t want to push the mileage too hard today, nor did we want to start too early and not feel well-rested, so we went ahead and slept in until 8:30, left the campsite at 10, and properly started hiking at 11.
Our first stop of the day was at the Highway 209 water cache; even though Oregon is supposedly nice and wet (hence the greenery), there’s actually not much water on this stretch of the trail, so a few extremely wonderful trail angels maintain large stores of water for PCT hikers. Our heroes. 🙏 This particular cache features tons of 5-gallon jugs inside a bear box, in which Brooke and I dropped off our extra food and carried on our way. Now that we’ve planned out and mailed ahead all of our food for Oregon, I’m trying to be much more disciplined about leaving extra food in hiker boxes, since anything extra I don’t eat will have to be carried 300 miles to Cascade Locks. No gracias there, señor.
With lighter packs and higher spirits, brooke and I set off north, back on the PCT proper at last (the Crater Lake portion wasn’t actually the PCT, but actually the Rim Trail). The next 9 miles were very flat and extremely cruise-y, during which I finished reading the last of my British sailor pirate series (my favorite in middle school) and had a delicious ramen lunch with Brooke. I’d found some dehydrated kale flakes and bone broth packets at the Grocery Outlet in Medford, so now my ramen lunches could properly earn a Michelin Star. Maybe even two? ⭐️ ⭐️
After the 9 miles of flat trail through forests thinned by drought, we exited the national park (next one is Rainier!), crossed the BUSTLING highway 138, and refilled our waters at the delightful water cache there. Boy, these trail angels are our SAVIORS out here! I had another delicious coffee before chatting it up with some SoBo hikers, who warned us of the quite sparse water on trail up ahead. Bruh moment, I thought we’d left those days behind us in the desert.
But the show must go on (I’m realizing that I like this phrase and use it often in this blog lol)! Brooke and I cameled up on water and continued north, this time uphill onto the slopes of Mt. Thielsen. We were fortunately in fantastic spirits, since we had a lot to chat about regarding our long and lovely stay in Ashland, plus the entire Epic Systems podcast by Acquired to boot. Brooke’s gonna be a PA and I wanted to relisten to it, so we enjoyed sharing the AirPod audio together on the ascent.
Finally, we made it to the junction to head up Thielsen Peak, and BOY was it a beauty! The sharpest and pointiest mountain I have EVER seen, just like the Lonely Mountain in The Hobbit! It took all my willpower to not drop off my pack and hike straight to the top, but alas we didn’t have four extra hours and daylight was quickly fading. We instead took some lovely photos with Thielsen in the back, wrapped up the last 2 miles to camp, and saw the most gorgeous pink/orange sunset before setting up our tent in a beautiful grove of trees a tenth of a mile off trail.
I had Joanne’s soup today for dinner, and boy were those lentils yummy. Combine that with epic views of Thielsen’s north face, a new moon with no cloud cover that provided EXCELLENT stargazing, and a chocolate left on my pillow by Brooke, and you have yourself a recipe for a happy camper right there. It’s good to be back on trail!
Day 106, 8/24:
25 miles today with 2500 feet of climbing.
What a tremendous day! It started off with an early rise around 7 am, and we were off and hiking by ~8:30. Not too shabby.
Immediately, we ran into Sam, Sky, and Noam, who were taking a break right near the creek we’d camped at. We hadn’t seen them for weeks and chatted for a good while, during which we heard all about their epic adventure to PCT Days up at Cascade Locks (it sounded like an epic time), before we learned that they three are attempting the OREGON CHALLENGE.
I’d heard of people doing this challenge, but never actually met anyone who was doing it until today. In a nutshell, the challenge is to hike across the entire length of Oregon… in just 2 weeks. That’s ~32 miles a day of hiking, and Sam, Sky, and Noam (ok I’ve decided to call them the Three Amigos) were already 6 days into it; boy, did they look beat up! Turns out they were waking up at 5 am and leaving by 5:45 every single day, timing their breaks, and being extremely focused and disciplined with their mileage. Crazy stuff. But also intriguing.
Intriguing enough, in fact, that brooke and I decided that we wanted to tag along with them for the day. We filled up on water at the creek (the next water was 22 miles ahead 🫠), and started up the first climb of the day. We reached its summit an hour and a half later, where we were greeted with a lovely sign that the summit was actually the highest point in all of Oregon and Washington! Wow! Brooke and I naturally celebrated with an on-trail PSM (pumpkin spiced mocha: an instant coffee packet with a Swiss Miss pumpkin spiced hot cocoa packet), took some photos, and took off with The Three Amigos when they caught up to us.
The descent was smooth, and our 45-minute timed lunch break was delightful. During this lunch, I learned more about their Oregon Challenge Attempt, and the various duties each member of The Three Amigos had: Sam was in charge of deciding when and how long each break was (45 minutes every 7.4 miles); Sky was the on-trail mathematician who decided how far they needed to go each day and between breaks; and Noam was the shortcut queen, in charge of finding any potential shortcuts off trail to save them on-trail miles and crucially, precious time. It is, after all, just the Oregon Challenge, not the Oregon PCT Challenge! It just so happens that most of it is on the PCT. lol
And then there was Brooke and I, straight chilling and along for the ride.
The rest of the day continued in a similar fashion: 7ish miles of hiking, a 45-minute break, then rinse and repeat. We eventually arrived at Windigo Pass for dinner, where we delightfully refilled on water (I can’t believe there was a 22-miles stretch without water in OREGON BRUH), I checked out the books in the hiker box (it was a decent selection), and then we carried on ahead to camp. I also learned that Sky’s brother is an aspiring author, so much so that he even emailed me the draft of his upcoming fantasy novel to beta read. I’m SO excited!
And in an exciting turn of events, Noam the Shortcut Queen found a detour via another trail that shaved off 8 PCT miles between Windigo Pass and our resupply at Shelter Cove tomorrow, so we took that to camp and set up as the sun was setting. I hiked the last few miles with Sky (lovely), played a few games of Durak in the tent with Brooke, and headed to a relatively early bed.
It’s a 5 am wake up tomorrow!
Day 107, 8/25:
23 miles today with 2100 feet of climbing.
Since Brooke and I joined forces with The Three Amigos and were cosplaying as Oregon Challenge Hikers this morning, it was a dark and early start today: 5 am wake up, with a 5:45 am departure. Absolutely crazy stuff; I’ve woken up and hiked at these hours before on trail, but the fact that The Three Amigos are doing this every day for 2 weeks is (1) crazy and (2) extremely impressive.
The great thing about waking up so early, however, is that you can crush mega miles hours before you normally would, and there’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of having walked 9 miles by 9 am. Sometimes we’re still in the tent by then, but here we are, already done with a 1/3 of the days hiking! Brooke and I hiked ahead of the others for much of the morning, until we all stopped together to find a geocache just off trail… Sky’s first! He kept telling me about “how this is just like a treasure hunt!”, and later even made a Geocaching account. Amazing stuff :)
Us 5 carried on toward Shelter Cove, taking the first long break of the morning at the Whitefish Horse Camp. The long break ended rather quickly, but the 10 miles from the land of horsies to Shelter Cove proceeded quickly; brooke and I hiked most of it together, enjoying the river nearby and the giant moss growing in the trees.
We arrived in Shelter Cove before 2 pm, and spent the next few hours there relaxing and doing camp chores: charging devices, taking a shower, doing laundry, lounging. Brooke and I had sent a resupply package to the resort (our first in Oregon) but it was actually due to arrive later that afternoon. That meant we had a few hours to kill at the lake, which we happily did, and when the FedEx truck finally arrived to deliver mail, Brooke and I literally jumped for joy. The best part was that we picked up our package directly from the FedEx guy, so we didn’t have to spend $10 on a package pickup fee from the general store! Amazing news!
With the package in hand, we slowly packed up our bags (during which I discussed Skippy the Magnificent with another PCT hiker, that was the best thing EVER iykyk), got pressed by a sexist man who was mansplaining high fructose corn syrup to Brooke (?), picked some blueberries from some local blueberry bushes, and headed back onto trail before dark.
Finished the day off with a WebCam Geocache (these are geocaches where to “find” it, you take a picture of yourself on the webcam the geocache is hidden by; elrojo14 told me about this one months ago, and both he and my dad snapped photos for us!), and hiked uphill for an unnecessarily long time looking for a campsite. What a day 🙃
