Two Thousand and the Two Towns

I headed back to the PCT-hiker centre where there was a freshly brewed pot of coffee waiting. As I sat in one of the comfy chairs, sorting out my some of my stuff, I found myself very relaxed, not in any rush to hike out. There’d only be six miles left to the highway before I would try starting to hitch into Bend, so I felt I could take it easy.
Around ten I was finally ready and with a light pack I was excited to get into town to shower and relax. After an hour I passed the 2000 mile marker! I stopped to take some photo’s but then paced on to the highway where it took me quite a while to get a hitch.

I had a fun conversation however with the friendly gentleman who’d picked me up. He could drop me off in Sisters, the town between the PCT and Bend (still 20 miles away). Since it would bring me closer to my destination, I happily accepted the ride.
In Sisters I got out at the parking lot of a large grocery store, got a pint of ice-cream and sat on a bench, watching the afternoon people shopping. Refreshed I started hitching out towards Bend again. After some time without any luck, I realized that my hitching-spot was no good; I was trying to hitch very close to where the majority of the drivers entered the town of Sisters. So after not getting a ride for almost an hour I hiked to the outskirts of the town in the direction of Bend to try my luck once more with drivers leaving Sisters.
I got rewarded quickly. Within ten minutes I got a ride into Bend. When I arrived I figured I’d possibly run into hikers at the REI, so I took a stroll downtown and along the river, quite scenic, it looks like a real cool place.

I caught up with Gourmet and Arms who were relaxing in the shade near the riverbank, and then gave Freewheel a call to find out if they were in Bend also. They were. And they were headed towards their motel-room where I was invited to join them! Yihaa, succes! Once more reunited with Rocket and Freewheel and Peachman we chilled out in the motel-room for a while glad to all be able to shower.

Time for food and drinks. Bend is very popular for its many breweries (highest number of breweries per capita in the states), and so we headed to this place called Crux. The brewery was pretty cool, with an outdoor festival-like setting with food-stands and pick-nick tables all around. As we sat beneath the starry night, our bellies filled with delicious taco’s and Arctic Monkeys and Blink 182 playing on speakers in the background I felt at home there.

The brewery closed at 2200 and so we started looking for places that would stay open till later. I found a spot that supposedly would remain open till 0100, and with phone in hand I started guiding the others towards the alleged Whiskey Stihl Bar. Google maps send us through a couple of poorly lit residential areas, which became subject to lots of jokes about whether or not we’d ever make it to the pub alive. After about 15 minutes however, the neon-lights appeared in sight, and it became obvious we’d made a good decision. It was a very bougie cocktail-bar with an excellent menu too. Freewheel went absolutely mad for the Truffle-style Mac & Cheese, and said it was the best he’d ever had in his life. So we ordered some more.
Bend is pretty cool.
Everybody got pretty tired, so we called it a night. Tomorrow I’ll get some chores done and see if I can catch a ride back to the trail-head again.