Tuesday, August 19, 2025
10 miles – PCT mile 2117.3 to 2110 + 3.5 mile hike out
Well, sometimes shit happens. I woke up on day 3 and the IT band on my left hip was super sore. This is the other first I was talking about earlier. I’ve never had that pain whilst hiking before. Pain is of course inevitable, but this seemed different. Here’s the video I made when I got back to Portland. Afterwards will be photos from Day 3 of my hike.
The day began with a big climb and my first Mt Hood view!
I descended down another 1000 feet to Muddy Creek and crossed on a log. Right after this was when I started to realize my hip was getting worse.
The trail to Ramona Falls was slightly uphill, but my hip made it feel much steeper. It started to become apparent that I may need to bail out. Ramona Falls was beautiful though.
There were plenty of day hikers around. I scoped out who I thought might be a good mark to “yogi” a ride from (thru hiker term) and found Mike and his dog Rogue. He was with another couple as well and I could tell they were good people. The art of yogi-ing a ride is subtle. I started by asking how far it was back to the parking lot and if there was any cell signal there for me to call an Uber. I then explained my predicament and Mike volunteered to take me back to Portland, as his drive brought him near the airport anyway. Success!
I was about 11 miles short of my intended stopping point of Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, but I’ll come back another year. I think I may have undertrained a bit for this trip, compared to my hikes in the previous years and perhaps I also went too fast out of the gate. Regardless, it was a great hike and I got to check some more miles off my ultimate goal of finishing the entire PCT over the coming decades.
Mexico to Canada 2023 (and beyond) 