Joel is happy when Amy is happy.

(from Natalia: sorry I'm a little slow on posting this note from Amy and the accompanying pictures... it's my fault, not hers!)

This is Joel’s wife, Amy -- reporting from the homefront. As both Joel & Natalia mentioned in their recent blog updates, I went out to Oregon to visit Joel last week. Initially, I was hoping to have an opportunity to hike part of the PCT with Joel again during our 2nd trail reunion. Unfortunately, I’ve recently developed a mysterious, nagging pain in my knee that prevented me from doing anything that could even remotely resemble backpacking. Since I couldn’t hike, Joel chose to stay off the trail for a longer period of time than he anticipated so that we could maximize the window of time we could spend together. And not only did Joel take almost a week-long break from the trail to hang out with me, but he also let me decide what we would do for 4 of our 6 days together. If you’re a woman, you’ll understand why this decision made me very happy. J Ever since we started dating, Joel’s motto has been, “When Amy is happy, then Joel is happy”. I must admit, I’ve always been a fan of that philosophy!

So, as you’ll see from the accompanying photos – much of what we did together in Oregon is much more “romantic” than what you’d typically read about on a PCT blog. We drove down the coast from Astoria to Tillamook and spent hours walking on the beautiful, rugged beaches along the way. We ate at seaside restaurants and meandered through historic streets lined with antique shops in small, coastal towns. We picked wild blackberries until our hands were stained violet. We strolled for hours through both the Rose Garden and the Japanese Garden in Portland – and took oodles of pictures of pretty flowers & landscapes. We drove the historic highway along the Columbia River Gorge and stopped to gaze at lookout points and waterfalls. And we even stayed overnight in a lovely French-style inn at Arch Cape and watched the movie, “You’ve Got Mail” while listening to the ocean from our 2nd story room. (Joel may not quite finish the trail before our 2nd anniversary in Sept., so we thought we’d celebrate a little early). J Needless to say, I LOVED Oregon and love my husband even MORE!

If you’re curious about what we did the other 2 days … just scroll through the photos. It took us 1 full day to sort, pack, & mail all of Joel’s resupply for the state of WA. Thankfully, the amazing Ms. Stephanie Mack (who graciously let us stay with her at her apt. in Vancouver, WA while we were in the Portland area) helped us with this daunting task, so that we could complete it all in a day. Stephanie is a whiz at rolling fruit leather and may have the set the new Guinness Book of World Records time for sealing the greatest number of freezer bags ever sealed in 10 hours. You rock, Stephanie! The other day was set aside for traversing the many miles back to the place on the trail where Joel had been picked up earlier in the week. If you’ve read Natalia’s story about “Joel caching”, the magnitude of this feat will be very clear. By the mercy of God and a somewhat reliable GPS, we did find our way back to Olallie Lake – and miraculously timed our arrival to meet up with another PCT thru hiker (Munchie) that Joel knows well. The “Disco – Munchie reunion” was a welcome surprise and celebrated by the 3 of us indulging in some wonderful trail magic that was just a mile up the road in a campsite along the lake.

I’ve been able to talk with Joel twice since I left Oregon and both he & Munchie are doing well. If you’ve been following his progress on the map, you’ll see that he made it to Washington. That means only one more state to go. I’m confident that he can finish and I can’t wait to see the little hiker icon cross the Canadian border on the map in about a month!

P.S. Several of the latest pictures are from areas of the trail in Oregon prior to my visit. Joel especially enjoyed hiking around Crater Lake during that stretch of the trail.