Today took me back to where the Bombshelter (with its new tires!) was waiting on the dirt road north of Bridge of the Gods and the Columbia River. It was a long downhill trek back to the river, which as I mentioned earlier is the lowest point on the PCT.

Then I had a wonderful evening of fun conversation, great food, and amazing company, as I got to meet Rani and Bob, my tire angels! They live a little east of where the PCT crosses the river, right along the road that I had to take north. In fact, I basically drove right past them on my way to start this section, but since the shoes for Shyla had taken me so far out of the way to Redmond, I was driving late at night and couldn't stop when I went by on the 23rd. But I am so glad that I got to meet them today! And we had more "it's a small world" coincidences to talk about, too, as it turns out that I met Rani's daughter back in August (without knowing who she was, and before Rani reached out to me the first time) when she and I were both on a section of the PCT north of Scissors Crossing! She was doing a section hike then, having completed a thru-hike in 2008, and we stopped and chatted about horses. And now here I was having dinner with her mother. The world works in strange ways sometimes . . .

#2016PCT