The Lanman Adventure Blog

Day 3: It’s Hot and the Forest is Burned

September 1, 2022 by Staff Leave a Comment

We woke up to the sun at 7:15. Mandy and I are not early risers. Last night I had terrible gas, which kept me awake for several hours. Camp food will really mess me up. I packed up my sleeping gear and started hot water for tea/coffee. Today there is a 9ish mile water carry, but we don’t know how long precisely. We think the first two creeks Alder and Pole, are dry. There is also 12 miles of burn scars from the 2017 Mill fire and the 2012 Pole Creek Fire, which burned a combined 50,000 acres of dense forest in the Sisters Wilderness. I’m feeling a little nervous about a full day of burn and sun exposure. Mandy and I drink extra water before leaving camp and each carry 2 liters.

Leaving Matthieu lake, we turn our feet east towards the sun. The first descent was in a mix of burn and live trees. It is a quiet morning and we don’t see anyone on the trail. We begin the first climb of the day – 1000 feet up a ridge of burnt trees. I check my water, and still have 1.5 liters. It’s 11:30 and starting to get warm. Soon, we meet the group of 4 from yesterday, we learn they are from Sacramento. They had camped a couple miles before the Matthieu lake, and did not stop to fill up before heading into the burn. They were unaware that the first 2 streams in we would cross in the burn are dry, making the water carry over 11 miles for them. We wish them well then keep moving. Shortly after, Mandy suggests that we turn around and give them some of our water. I agree. They welcome the extra water. I’m fact, one of the people in the party is completely out of water.

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Day 2: Opie Dilldock and Life on Mars

August 29, 2022 by Staff 1 Comment

Monday, August 29th

We wake from our epic perch above Reese lake. I roll onto my back. Mandy looks at me.

“Last night, you didn’t move at all. I thought you died!”

First night’s sleep on trail is always heavy. I am so tired from all the fresh air and exercise, that often I will sleep for 10+ hours the first couple nights until my body adjusts.

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Day 1: Leaving home for the Sisters

August 28, 2022 by Staff 1 Comment

Sunday, August 28th

I wake up in my bedroom in Bend, OR. My friend, Mandy, had flown in from WA the night before. For the next week, our only job is to hike around the Three Sisters, a trio of volcanoes visible from my bathroom window. But first, we had to get to the trailhead, and we had so much to do!

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Biking OREGON

May 25, 2022 by Staff 1 Comment

Since moving to Oregon, I’ve been very excited about all the unexplored terrain it has to offer. But we’ve been so busy with work, family obligations, and other forms of “adulting”, I have had little free time to check it out.

I’m in between jobs now, and plan to take advantage of the time and go for a bike ride.

Oregon has lots of Ecoregions. Some of them are similar to Washington, but many are totally unique to Oregon. Here’s a good list of them, with their descriptions:

Northern Basin and Range

West Cascades

Willamette Valley

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Familiar Faces and Places (PCT Day 131)

July 26, 2021 by Jon Lanman 1 Comment

I awake to the smell of smoke. We slept near one of the snow lakes, and this morning the smoke has blown in. I’m not sure where the smoke originated but I assume it’s from the bootleg Fire which is currently consuming wildlands and woods to our west.

We eat breakfast and drink coffee next to a small lake near our camp. The setting feels more like home, with trees scattered around us and huckleberry bushes standing petite and low to the ground.

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Where Have We Been? (PCT Day 130)

July 25, 2021 by Jon Lanman 3 Comments

Today is July 25th and we are now in Oregon, just south of Crater Lake. Tonight we’re camped next to one of the Snow Lakes, which is more like a small pond. Today was one of our prettiest days in Oregon yet. We passed by miles of huckleberries and green forests then climb upward at the end of the day to walk along a ridgeline, obtaining our first scenic view in Oregon. Now we lay under the stars as I reflect on where we’ve been.

It’s been hundreds of miles since we last made a post, and I apologize to all of you who’ve been following along on our adventure. When we last left off, we were in South Lake Tahoe. Since then we’ve been through a number of small towns speckled throughout Northern California, and benefitted from the kindness of strangers on several occasions.

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Carson Pass and Lake Tahoe (PCT Day 92)

June 17, 2021 by Jon Lanman Leave a Comment

Today we awake, glad to be alive after Lupine’s brush with danger yesterday. The weather has been warming over the last several days, so we sleep without the rainfly on, and I awake to the buzz of mosquitos hovering around our tent. I roll over and look at them as they hover then land randomly on the mesh fabric of our tent. They are desperate to eat me.

I apprehensively rise from bed and am amazed that I am able to leave our camp relatively unscathed. We quickly pack up all of our gear then make our way down the trail, hoping to find a more peaceful place to eat our breakfast. When we eventually spot a large stone slab sitting in the sun, we branch off the trail and begin our daily regimen of coffee and muesli. At first, our place is peaceful, but before long the mosquitos have tracked us down, and we disappear under our bug nets.

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Lupine’s Wild Ride (PCT Day 91)

June 16, 2021 by Jon Lanman 16 Comments

Last night we had one of our best camp spots of the trip. We camped at mile 1,046 and our tent sits atop a ridge where I fell asleep watching the sky turn pink in the horizon, a ribbon of color above the mountains. Now, this morning the mountains are glowing again, telling us the sun is on its way. We best prepare to start our day. But it’s so comfy in our tent. My legs hurt last night, aching in my sciatica. So I’m hesitant to get up, but eventually I must rise. I summon the courage and rise.

Yesterday we did about 20 miles. The plan is to do the same today.

We leave camp around 7 am, and bid good day to a fellow hiker camped nearby. We do not see him again today.

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Good people (PCT Day 90)

June 15, 2021 by Jon Lanman Leave a Comment

When I awake to the alarm at 5 am I can hear the wind swirling around overhead, stirring above the trees. I envision the clouds swirling and twisting like liquid in a caldron. I remember watching the clouds last night move quickly across the sky. Before falling asleep I slipped in some earplugs to help clear my head. Fortunately our tent sits sheltered beside some boulders, avoiding most of the wind.

I ask Lupine how she’s doing as her eyes barely open. “I’m tired” she says as her eyes then seal back shut. I’ll lay here a little longer and then get moving I decide. Lupine wakes up at 6, and writes a quick and simple account of the day.

Woke up at creek. Slept in till 6.

Breakfast and coffee at our campsite. We are tired this morning and need come caffeine to get moving.

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North from Sonora Pass (PCT Day 89)

June 14, 2021 by Staff 4 Comments

We wake up at Deadman Campground under a huge cedar tree – slept well, but woke up hungry. Jon was so tired the night before he put on two right shoes, one of them mine, to use the bathroom. I reapplied Jon’s KT tape, packed up and headed down to Kennedy Meadows for breakfast around 7:30. Only one table occupied so far, the normally bustling cafe was very quiet. The local dogs in the adjacent lobby looked at us, but obediently did not enter the cafe. I ordered biscuits and gravy, 2 eggs, 1 pancake and ham. I’d been craving biscuits for the last 200 miles or so. Jon got 2 pancakes, 3 eggs and sausage. Coffee was excellent, not too strong or weak, just right. The food at KM has been really good, and affordable. I feel rejuvenated from our last 3 meals here.

While packing up last night, I made a horrible realization – I left my treeking poles in Steve’s car. I am unable to buy, borrow or steal any trekking poles at Kennedy Meadows North, so I resolve to hike the next 75 miles without poles. I can borrow Cactus’s poles for snow crossings, if needed.

The shuttle back to Sonora Pass had 9 hikers and their packs piled into a van. Our driver, a soft spoken older man, pointed out old wagon trails from the 1850’s along the way. Amazing that settlers haven’t been here very long, just in the last 200 years? I once stayed at a friend’s house in Austria. It had been in his family for 400+ years. The driver told us a story about a hiker who found a 15 lb rifle along the wagon trail, dating back to the 1880’s.

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