I'm back from vacation and taking it easy - enjoying a Saturday off. I have a pile of wet, smelly laundry to do and I'm letting our equally wet, smelly tent, packs and boots air out in the backyard. Our time in Portland was relaxing and enjoyable. As you previously saw I spent some time riding a rented bike, walked the city excessively, visited Powell's books multiple times, and ate out for each meal. At 'The Farm,' a restaurant that exclusively features local products, I had one of the best (and most expensive) meals I've ever had - a plate of local cheese and fruit, Columbia river sturgeon with root vegetables and heirloom tomatoes, a bottle of Willamette Valley pinot grigio and pecan dulce de leche cheesecake. Oh man, my mouth waters just thinking of it. On Saturday we visited the Portland Farmers Market, which I believe is the largest farmers market in the US in terms of number of vendors. For lunch I purchased what were sure to be the worlds juiciest peaches, a sourdough loaf from a local bakery and some great fennel-ed chevre. The temperature did reach 105 for a couple days and it did keep me indoors for longer than I had wanted, but I successfully enjoyed the city and gave serious thought into relocating there. I don't think I'll ever go into a move as optimistically as I did my move to Chicago, but quality of life seems to be pretty high there and they seem to have my lifestyle interests and activities widely available - from local, good vegetarian cuisine to plentiful bicycling and a seemingly endless supply of great backpacking within hours of downtown. Don't get me wrong - there are plenty of jerks there, and some neighborhoods were definitely better than others (I was terribly disappointed after visiting what was described to me as the 'logan square' of portland), and I felt a little square, but I'd definitely be fine with relocating there in the near future. So, Xtina won.
The second part of the trip involved us backpacking the famed Timberline Trail around Mount Hood. But due to recent heat and a short spring half of the trail was closed due to washouts and forest fires. We altered the trip to include a section of the Pacific Crest Trail with a side trip to the top of Yoakham's Ridge where we saw real live glaciers melting and bald eagles nesting. Camping at Ramona Falls the weather turned cold and it rained for almost thirty straight hours. At some point we decided we weren't equipped to deal with freezing wet windy weather (we weren't) we hiked eleven miles out and 1/2 mile up to the historic Timberline Lodge (where they shot 'The Shining') to try and check in for the night. Struggling against the wind and rain we waddled into the lobby during a wedding, looking and smelling terribly and checked into the cheapest room they had left. And while it was more then I had ever personally spent on a hotel room and the food was shamefully expensive ($14 boca burgers, folks), we had a wonderful time. Our room featured what had to have been the softest bed on the face of the earth (all down), a hot shower and dry, safe space. There was talk of me, as a soft bed afficionado, starting a new magazine called soft beds quarterly where I review hotels based on the softness of their beds, discuss the latest trends in mattress softness and even include soft beds personals.
The lobby and breakfast buffet were adequately filled with backpackers, many of them hiking through the PCT. Because we had packed more food than we would have guessed we would use, we offered it to some rad PCT dudes who were also toughing out the storm. They gladly accepted the food and after some conversation it was revealed that it was my college friend Mando's Group! Only he wasn't there. It appeared as though I missed slick B by only a matter of hours because he did a side trip with some hippies. Mando - I'm sorry I missed you on the trail. It's funny too because when I checked in I thought how funny it would be if Mando would start the pct in april and I'd randomly run into him in Oregon months later. It would have been a great coincidence.
Now, it's back to work and Xtina starts school on Monday. I'm terribly jealous, I've got to figure out something to do that doesn't involve working a retail job.
