[pct-l] warner springs monte...

Wed Feb 17 23:37:48 CST 2021

Jeff !

What's up?

First off... I must confess to outright lethargy in not answering your
message sooner. It's too easy to read something online and then zip off to
something else, with the FULL intention of rendering proper respect to
someone's effort later, yet stalling out in the grips of procrastination
and winding up resembling a loaf of soggy bread in one's efforts. THAT is
unfortunately the communications world most of us live in. Can I get an
Amen?

So, I thought I would list the subject matter contained in your post at the
PCT-L and comment accordingly.

You mention-

2005
Warner Springs Monte/Monty
central Oregon and the PCT trail
a spring
a hiker named "one gallon"
Timberline Lodge
15 SOBO thru hikers
Barlow Pass

OK- One at a time.

<<< 2005 >>>
Before my time. Actually, I was in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and hiking had
not yet entered my brain.

<<< Warner Springs Monte/Monty >>>
I met Warner Springs Monte/Monty near his home turf of... ready for it-
Warner Springs, CA. I can't really say when specifically, (2012-2016) but I
also met him at one or more of the ADZPCTKO's, at Lake Morena. I remember
meeting him on a stretch of the PCT in the San Felipe Hills, which would be
between mile 77 (Scissors Crossing) to about mile 101 (Barrel Springs).
Note: Monte/Monty is an acquired taste. No doubt about it. That being said,
I spent the night at his house as he was the consummate host/trail angel,
(Lake Henshaw) and was shushed into speaking quietly, several times, due to
his sensitivity to noises and loud mouths like me. Anyone that has been
shushed by Monte/Monty for speaking too loud will get my drift. By the way,
Monte/Monty hails from Illinois originally, as I do.

Note: I was offered a shower at Warner Spring Monte's/Monty's and took him
up on the offer. I will never forget the experience, because the shower tub
floor had zero slip precautions and in an instant I found myself writhing
in intense pain as I had slipped and fell down impacting the tub's design.
Injured, I chose to lay outside on his wooden deck in an effort to
rehabilitate myself in as quick a time frame as possible. Remember- I'm
still hiking while taking a zero at Monte's/Monty's.

In case any readers do not know it, Warner Springs Monte/Monty was
instrumental in convincing the Warner Springs Community Center to host PCT
hikers. This arrangement is a delicate one because the Community Center
shares physical property (land) with the local high school. What happened
next was that dirty and stinky hikers were washing themselves with a garden
hose out behind the Community Center, and some of them took liberties to
get liberated and this upset the school folks because children use the
property for their school rooms, rest rooms, and athletic fields. Now the
hikers were just being hikers and were scrubbing their bodies to get the
grime off themselves. Some were more discreet than others. I kept my
skivvies on while standing on a top of a plastic garbage can lid to keep my
feet out of the mud and washed my body using the direct spray garden hose
method. Later on, I washed the majority of my clothes in a wheelbarrow.

Due to the success of the Community Center, which ran a mini store and
cooked food for the hikers, the net proceeds allowed the members to expand
their kitchen with appliances, offer a decent menu of food for purchase,
build 2 wooden shower enclosures, add laundry services, and expand their
store inventory. Over time, the Center became too successful and caught the
ire of some of the school's teachers that were never in favor of the Center
helping hikers to the degree that they did do so, in the first place.

One day, the Federales visited the Center and found out that they were
operating without the requisite permits so all hell broke loose. The Center
had to scale back operations and discontinued some things and modified
others to enable them to limp along and morphed into whatever they are
today.

FWIW- The Warner Springs high school FFA ag team is well renowned for
raising championship Black Angus beef, winning interscholastic contests
against much larger schools throughout CA. Some of these docile (tasty)
beasts accompany hikers on their 2 mile clockwise circular hike around
Warner Springs.

Rumors being what they are, saying that other things happened and there
exists- some bad blood to this day... I'll just leave it at that for now. I
know more details but do not find them helpful in their revelation. So ends
my brief remarks on Warner Springs Monte/Monty.

<<< central Oregon and the PCT Trail >>>
OK, I was in OR. in mid NOV. and 2 feet of snow telegraphed a message to me
to get the hell off the trail. I was at McKenzie Pass and it was another 70
miles SOBO to Willamette Pass, in 2 feet of snow, or the other option was
15 miles down a paved road with diminishing depths of snow to Sisters, OR.
I bailed. I had the wrong type of gloves, the wrong sized gaiters, the
wrong kind of boots, and my tent fly was ripped from the skirt to the top
of the zipper. Easy call. Hello motel and hello AMTRAK.

<<< a spring >>>
Hiking south through "southern" Washington, (not Oregon) I ran out of water
3 days in a row. I had to hike an additional 10 miles each day to reach a
lake, where it was known that water existed. In the build up, I bypassed
multiple pools off the trail that held some stagnant water, but counted on
better water sources down the trail that never materialized. I had gone
from a rookie carrying too much water (2 gallons everywhere) (2012) to a
cocky "experienced" hiker (2015) only carrying a liter/quart of water and
got stung 3 days in a row. I opted for a minimum of 2 liters/quarts of
water for the remainder of my hike.

<<< a hiker named "one gallon" >>>
Regrettably, I do not know this hiker, but might know his motive for naming
himself "one gallon" which may be related to his compunction to carry water.

<<< Timberline Lodge >>>
I met a young man on the trail, from Norway. Seems he had a limited visa
and was determined to hike SOBO as far as he could get in the limited
amount of time he had in the USA. He was a Norwegian Special Forces
soldier, and a backcountry Norwegian forestry ranger. Due to the low
population of Norway, many public servants have to wear more than one hat.
This young man in his twenties wore two hats.

I was about to bust down financially, and intended to bypass Timberline
Lodge, until the youngster invited me to breakfast. The food was absolutely
divine and should not be bypassed by a single hiker, whether NOBO, or SOBO.
The mini egg souffles for breakfast were out of this world. We ate
breakfast and then loitered around until we could eat lunch. I found the
lodge's hiker box later in the day, but it was decimated and only held the
usual leftover oatmeal and tortilla basics.

My Norwegian friend reminded me of the fact that there was a 50 mile
challenge ahead. It seems that OR is so flat in this region that some
hikers try to hike 50 miles in 24 hours. He left the lodge around 3 PM, and
I left around 5 PM, in a 50 mile quest, although I was probably the least
enthusiastic at that point. I left about dark and hiked until about 10PM
covering about 10 miles. I crossed Barlow Pass, and sent a message to a
friend noting the area that I was in at the time. The next day I decided to
try and cover 40 miles so I kicked it into gear. At around midnight I came
upon my new found friend's tent, and learned that he had gotten blisters
from his new shoes that had not been broken in prior to him using them.

The next day we both hiked into Olallie Lake in a downpour. He beat me
there and left a note for me, on a box of food that the proprietors had
left trailside for the hikers. Olallie resort was closed for the season and
the food was all ours. My friend took half, and left me the rest. It rained
so hard that I sought refuge in a port a potty. Afters hours of constant
rain, I attempted to open my tent in the port a potty, attempting to speed
up the set up time and hopefully diminishing the time I would spend getting
rained on setting it up outside, when in fact the whole process turned into
a nightmare... (because) by the time I got my tent set up outside and the
fly on, everything that I owed at that point was soaking wet. It was the
worst night I ever had sleeping sopping wet, and yet I was inside a tent. I
had to curl up in a fetal position and shiver myself to sleep. After dozens
of sleep interruptions, the sun came out and I was able to dry
everything out and receive the heat of the sun.

<<< 15 SOBO thru hikers >>>
I southbounded from Canada, after first hiking 32 miles north to get there
from Harts Pass, and I thoroughly enjoyed every single NOBO hiker that I
met once I headed south. I left Harts Pass on July 10th. Somewhere south, I
began to meet the premier athletic PCT NOBO hikers on their race north to
Canada. I never met the first hiker to Canada, but I met # 2 thru # 99, or
what appeared to be all of the front runners. I met one hiker that was
trying to do all of Washington in 14 days. I took 93 days! LMAO! Anyway, I
asked him how his hike is going and he says to me that he is just ready for
his hike to be over. I thought to myself- what a terrible attitude!

<<< Barlow Pass >>>
I made mention of this area in one of my previous comments upthread, but I
remember forcing myself to hike at night in this area, to make up for the
time that I was behind a hiking companion, and in hindsight, I say screw
hiking at night if you do not want to hike at night, and just hike your own
hike.

All the best-

Paint (Paint Your Wagon)

PS I have my PCT SOBO permit in hand and will be leaving Kennedy Mdws.
south (Mar 1st) heading for the US MX border (Apr 30th).

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On Fri, Feb 12, 2021 at 8:35 PM Jeffrey Olson <jjolson58 at gmail.com> wrote:

> There have been a couple blips on the listserv lately.  I'm curious what
> Warner Springs Monte is up to.
>
> I was camped at a spring below the trail in central oregon. He, and
> another famous 2005 hiker (one gallon?) were moving south on the trail.
> They were debating the ethical reality of trail angels as they hiked.  I
> lay on my bed and listened/watched them walk by.
>
> I remember walking down into the Timberline lodge and like 15 SOBO thrus
> were eating breakfast.  I felt alienated and continued walking. I camped
> not far below Barlow Pass.  Everyone passed me over the next couple
> days.  I think Monte was part of that group.
>
> Jeff
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