Portland (August 16)

Admiring Mt Hood or Oliver's Finger?

Our destination is Ashland, an out-of-the-way town in southwest Oregon that we've heard some nice things about. We really need to visit.
Question: How should we get to Ashland?
Answer: Looks like the best way is to fly to Portland and hike southbound on the Pacific Crest Trail. That will get us very close, and then probably we'll walk the rest of the way on little Forest Service roads and mountain bike trails.

This blog should help anyone who's trying to keep track of us during this time. If the gears are spinning correctly, the map should update our current location every now and then. Please drop by if you're in the area!

Today we've made it to Portland and paid a visit to the famous Powell's City of Books. Thanks to the Pacific Crest Trail Association and a hardworking hiker/mapper known as Halfmile, we've got a pretty good pile of trail data to keep us alive and on course for the coming weeks. Even so, I hoped to get a glance at Yogi's PCT Handbook, which was unfortunately not available by mail for our launch date. No dice, but they do have a very good selection of hiking books and maps. For those navigating Powell's looking for local hiking info: Some books are in the "Outdoors" aisle of the "Sports" section (Rose Room 651), some are in the "Pacific Northwest" section (Purple Room 702), and a few books plus all the maps are in the "Travel" section (Red Room 801 and the vicinity.) The map selection is pretty good; they have hiking maps from National Geographic, Geo-Graphics, Green Trails, and a few others.