Legs and Borders

It took an entire day and night to get from Florence to San Francisco. I got quite quickly to Eugene from Florence by bus but then had to wait until 5:30pm for a connecting overnight train to San Francisco. I've spend few hours walking by the river, parks along the way and a brilliant, massive bookshop called Smith Family Bookstore which contained way more paper than Powell's Books in Portland and had some very obscure themed sections like: 'Health: Allergies, Astma, COPD', 'Labor Studies', 'Addiction and Recovery', 'Childrens Sleep' or 'Marriage'. Amtrak arrived on time and I took my seat upstairs next to an Australian girl called Nichole who was visiting her friend in Eugene and an American guy Frank who was going to see his family in Sacramento. We ended up chatting and looking for interesting details outside the window as the train was going inland. It even crossed the PCT at one point at Shelter Cove Resort where I was resupplying a ...

[Wakonda Beach to Exploding Whale Memorial Park] Today was my second day of last days for the inevitably ending trip to US, it was the last day of hiking and it couldn't be more.. anticlimactic. It was one of the most dull days I had on trail ever, no grand finale just rocks and dust (or wind and sand). I hiked the few last miles in the morning and got to Yachats just in time for a shuttle to Florence - I paid 3$ for it and 50 minutes later I reached my final destination. As the bus was approaching the stop I noticed Forrest, the very guy who convinced me to hike OCT, standing there waiting for his transport. It turned out that him and Flash also had enough of beach and road walking and decided to end the hike in Florence, just like me! We talked for a while before Forests bus arrived and he admitted that starting this trail after PCT has been a doomed idea, he even rescheduled his flight back to Germany for the next week (originally he was supposed to fly back in the middle of Sep...

[Gearhart to Arch Cape] Way more varied but horribly foggy day. It started of with few miles of road walking and going through a big town called Seaside with all the usual food chain suspects and even a Safeway. I had a McDonalds breakfast and a discounted Ben&Jerry's ice cream (Jimmy Fallon themed this time) from Safeway, I think I start to get addicted to those, they are just so good! Also putting a generic 888-888-8888 phone number at the checkout is a must as it gives you (sometimes completely unexpected) savings, it knocked 2.5$ out of the Ben&Jerry's for me, woohoo! After this hearty and nutritious breakfast I carried on walking by the beach until I reached first actual trailhead called Tillamook trail, it went through a forested area for about six miles and then it transitioned into another few miles long trail where quite a few movies has been shot, including: The Goonies, Twilight, Kindergarten Cop and Point Break. Next on the list was more beach walking, fog g...

[Warrenton to Gearhart] Out of the few options I was considering to take like hiking the Olympics Park, Tahoe Rim Trail or even Colorado Trail, I went for the easiest in many ways the Oregon Coast Trail. First of all this trail didn't require any extra permits or long distance traveling. Resupplying seemed quite easy with many small towns along the way, it was also completely different to the PCT. Another good thing about it is that I don't really care all that much about thru hiking it and if I don't it won't be a problem. I'll just see how and if I enjoy it, hike for a week or so and then perhaps go to sightsee few more cities before going back to Europe. It seems like the most budget friendly option as well. So did I like the trail so far? Not really, turns out that walking log distances on a beach is not particularly enjoyable, I'm hoping that next few days will bring some variance. There's so many cars on the beach, people living around here love to dri...

I got the bus to Portland from Seattle at 1pm so I spend few remaining hours walking around the city, had a delicious meal consisting of Kung Pao chicken, Mongolian beef and steamed rice at Uwajimaya in Japanese town near the bus stop. After that as I was sitting in the shade provided by the supermarket, three people walking out of it offered me food and drink, I must have looked especially rough that morning. Flix bus arrived on time and it took three hours to get to Portland. Once here I called Sketch on his landline but he wasn't answering, so I texted his friend Gnarly to ask for the address, I got it but Gnarly said that Sketch has some errands to run and he won't be home for the next three hours. I started to have an impression that Sketch didn't really want me to stay at his place, haha. So I browsed for hostels in the area, luckily there was one called Lolo Pass, quite cheap (35$ per night) and not that far from the city centre. I ended up going there instead for th...