Killdeer Chronical

  Day 141 - 143: ( August 19 - 21 )  Zero in.         Cascade Locks There is a Trail Days tradition for hikers to clean up the streets of Cascade Locks before Trail Days opens. In one hour we collected enough trash to fill the back of a pickup truck. Good work Hiker Trash !!  Trail Days started at 1 PM on the 19th. There were several companies showing hiking gear, talks and demonstrations, free food samples (true hikers never turn down free food) and giveaways galore. I tried several different backpacks but didn't find one I really liked. While I was standing in line, I met Alyssa and we chatted for a bit. I dropped my tent and sleeping pad off for (free) repairs and picked them up on the 20th. Saturday night,  after Trail Days closed, I camped on Thunder Island with a lot of hikers Sunday, we moved off the island ( camping is only allowed on Thunder Island during Trail Days ) to a campground in town. Thunder Island from Bridge of the Gods  It surprised me to see how many hikers we

  Day 133 ( August 11 ): A hop, a skip & a jump So much for reliable websites...  My plan called for hiking to the State Line Transit Center, boarding a bus to Reno, getting on my flight to Redmond ( Oregon not Washington where Microsoft is. Don't feel bad, I didn't know there was a Redmond, OR either ) and then getting on a Bus to Bend ( Bus to Bend almost sounds like the name of a Rock band doesn't it ? ). Well my plan fell apart immediately ( thank God I got a very early start ). I turned out the only bus to Reno had just left before I got there ( so much for the websites schedule showing a bus every 30 minutes or so ).  So I  tried Lyft. After spending 10 minutes persuading ( with some "colorful metaphors" muttered under my breath ) their website to work. I was able to hire a ride. William showed up EXACTLY 1 minute after I requested my ride. For $135 I had a good conversation and a pleasant ride to the airport. William dropped me off early enough that I