Returning to the trail after packing and shipping my resupplies for all of Oregon.
Pilot Peak
Looking back at Shasta
Looking toward my next goal: Mt. McLoughlin
Dry trail still has flowers
Flowers near Dead Indian Road.
Looking down toward Ashland. I grew alarmed I was getting so low and so close. The PCT is supposed to climb!
The trail descended quite a bit into oaks. I thought I was going back to Ashland for a while.
One of the important water supplies in this section.
Little Hyatt Reservoir
Little Hyatt Reservoir. I thought I would stay here but there was too much human waste along the shore.
After washing the dirt off my feet and legs I'm left with the rash I get from laundry detergent.
Here is Brown Mountain Shelter, probably more useful for snowmobilers in winter. There was a great hand pump for water here so I got water and cooked my dinner.
A picturesque broken bridge.
Lava near Fish Lake.
Mt. McLoughlin
I made a stop at Fish Lake to buy some more food. Some of the food I had bought in Ashland was moldy. I was so glad I stopped. They had a restaurant and a good breakfast lifted my spirits and put a spring in my step.
I've now made it to the other side Mt. McLoughlin. The north side of these mountains always has more snow.
My shadow as I walk the trail. Lots of mosquitoes here.
McLoughlin is fading into the distance.
Anemones
A toad! Get to work, toad! There are mosquitoes to eat.
So many pretty places but they're all filled with mosquitoes.
Finally a mosquito-free zone. I stopped for a nice lunch.
This spring was desperately needed by me and by others I spoke to. It was hard to find and some people I met couldn't find it.
Here's Jack Spring
I'm now in Crater Lake National Park.
Lots of flowers in the park.
The trail goes along the rim for hikers but not for horses.
I was amazed how blue. This was not photoshopped. It's what my camera saw.
Here I am at Crater Lake.
A Clark's Nutcracker.
I stayed up at the rim all day. What I decided to do was slackpack in a way. I hitchhiked from Mazama Village up to the Rim. Then I hung out at the Rim all day reading a book and relaxing in the lesser mosquitoes of the Rim. Then I hiked down the Dutton Creek trail, camped over night and emerged back at Mazama Village at Annie Spring. Then I hitchhiked up to the Rim again the next day and continued my hike.
Here I am continuing my hike the following day. I've spared you the millions of pictures of the lake I took. I had a good all-I-could-eat breakfast both mornings at the Annie Creek restaurant. I met Mosa and Boone again at the restaurant. They had caught up to me. I expected them to blow by me sometime during the night tonight, but they didn't. They caught up to me again later at Elk Lake and that was when they finally blew me by.
The trail was cut through the snow.
A fire between me and my next objective: Mt. Thielsen.
The trail was flat and boring once I got down from Crater Lake rim.
I've made it past the fire which wasn't near the trail after all. That line in the trees is Highway 138 which I had crossed at dinner time. I'm looking for a camp site soon.
My campsite. It looks so flat but I was perched on a steep hill in a small depression formed by a long-ago fallen tree's root hole.
Mt. Thielsen
Smoke in the valley
Thielsen was interesting with colorful rocks
Lots of snow on the trail
Only the PCT can make the Oregon/Washington highpoint seem so low.
My next high point would be near the very end of the trail unless I took a suggested alternate route on Goat Rocks, which I did. But never again would I be this high. Only the PCT can take you to the highest point and then make you climb all afternoon after that. Strange.
Here is a much-needed water source I thought I had missed. I couldn't find it and made my camp with only half a liter of water left. Since I was plagued by mosquitoes, I had a choice to make. Wash out my cookpot which I had to pee in, or use the water to drink. I washed out my pot and suffered with a dehydration headache. I was grateful I found this pond!
I found the pond because it was marked with all kinds of arrows and things. I found the tennis shoe and added it to the markers. The shoe is on the gray rock. The reason this water source was so hard to find was that the guide book said it could be found near a broad saddle. Trouble is you are in completely viewless forest. You have no idea if you're on a saddle or just a flat place. Faint trails to the pond were marked in two other places. Miss this source and it was 8 miles, I think, to the next water. It had been about 7 or 8 since the last water, which was a scummy spring with giant frogs in it 500 feet elevation loss from the trail.
My next objective: Diamond Peak.
There was a nice breeze up at Diamond Peak so I had lunch up there with mosquitoes only on my lee side.
Lots of snow on the trail here, too.
I think those are the Sisters, my next objective.
Pretty sub-alpine conditions coming down from Diamond Peak.
Looking back at Diamond Peak.
Bunch berry?
I descended to Shelter Cove Resort for my resupply. They made the best cafe Americano here.
Shelter Cove is on Odell Lake. I was worn out by the mosquitoes. It's nice the large lakes have fewer mosquitoes. I camped nearby after getting a shower and my resupply box. Then I came back in the morning for some coffee and to buy a t-shirt to protect me from mosquitoes and some DEET I could spray on my clothes. The mosquitoes were biting me through my shirt on my shoulders and back and through my pants on my knees when I bent down to get water or set up my tent. I needed multiple layers or at least chemicals to protect myself.
There were so many nice lakes in Oregon but I could never stop for a swim because of the mosquitoes. Don't go to Oregon in July!
Another inviting lake. The mosquitoes didn't need lakes to breed. They bred on the margins of melting snow. By breeding there, no fish were eating them.
I slept in this dead forest where there still were lots of mosquitoes. My tent zipper finally quit in the morning so I hiked as fast as I could to Elk Lake so I could sleep without mosquitoes and await my shoes and my replacement tent.
Fog rises on this lake.
A pretty meadow just before arriving at Elk Lake, my destination. I walked as fast as I could with the help of chocolate covered espresso beans. Always carry one dose of something like that for an emergency. You don't want to eat them every day or else they won't work.
Mt. Bachelor
One of the Sisters
My lunch at Elk Lake. A heart attack on a bun. Egg, bacon and cheese on a burger. Sweet potato fries. Mmmm good!
Elk Lake
Elk Lake resort
Broken Top mountain
After I waited at Elk Lake Resort for 71 hours for my new shoes and my tent to arrive (thankfully they both arrived in the same batch of mail) I headed out to hike the shoulders of the three Sisters.
This was the view from my tent after I got my shoes and tent and hit the trail again. I believe this is South Sister. Still lots of mosquitoes but I could sense a waning of them.
I was never sure which Sister was which, plus there was a wife, a brother and a husband, too.
Black Butte (I think), Mt. Washington, Three-fingered Jack and Mt. Jefferson.
Now that I've walked by all the Sisters here comes the lava.
With few mosquitoes, I stopped and took a dip in this warm, shallow lake.
Hiking to my next goal: Mt. Washington. That they could build a trail through this lava amazed me. It was quite a feat of engineering.
The lava went as far as the eye could see.
Looking back at where I had been.
I felt like this tree. I think it was close to 100 degrees. It was 103 or 106 in Portland according to people I talked to.
Finally the lava is over.
Once I get out of the burn zone, things are really pretty.
A welcome cooler of snicker bars and sodas at Santiam Pass. Thank you, Irish! You really understood where it was needed most. I should have drunk two Pepsis because the one I drank didn't have any effect.
Three-fingered Jack seemed to have a lot more fingers than that.
My next objective will be Mt. Jefferson.
But first, Three-fingered Jack
This was a really nice lake named Rockpile Lake. Just after passing this lake, which already had people camped at it, I met a south bound thru-hiker named Socks. His partner, Dirty was a day behind. Socks still had the fire in his eyes. I felt burned out and sorry he had to meet me being such a downer.
I've passed Three-fingered Jack now and am about to traverse miles and miles along a slope with hundreds of one-inch frogs right in the trail. It was quite treacherous trying not to step on them.
Jefferson looks so pointy from this perspective.
Mt. Jefferson. Egads the mosquitoes were awful here.
Mt. Jefferson was really pretty.
I stopped here for lunch. It was breezy. But the mosquitoes wouldn't leave me alone so I ate my lunch pacing back and forth. This spot was a pass I climbed after walking by Mt. Jefferson and some lakes. I had met Dirty at the lakes.
I had to climb down through this snowfield. I just aimed for the trail below and went straight there. That's a nice plus about snowfields.
Once I got all the way down from the mountain, through the sub-alpine to the forest again, I was in deep shade with sun beams through the trees and dust. The trail was flat and I walked until almost dark for my longest day: 36 miles.
I stopped at Clackamas Lake for some water. Its inflow was a spring that was flowing strongly out of the hill in a six-foot wide stream. A couple of kayakers paddled by as I drank a cold lemonade.
Timothy Lake was my goal for the night. Actually, it wasn't really my goal so much as I ended up here at the end of the day. I finally made camp when I saw a nice spot at about 8pm. I figured I needed the last waning rays of sun to kill any mosquitoes that followed me into the tent. Otherwise, I felt like I could keep walking.
A big frog and a little frog.
My last objective in Oregon: Mt. Hood.
I walked through viewless forest toward Mt. Hood. I was going to try to get to the post office in Government Camp but instead I continued on the trail, struggling as it got very steep until suddenly I emerged and saw I was ON Mt. Hood. It shocked me!
There were so many perfect lupines and purple asters on Mt. Hood. I thought Hood was the prettiest of all the mountains so far. I really liked the Mt. Hood area and Tony and I returned for some day hikes on our way back home.
Timberline Lodge gleamed on the horizon like the Emerald City of food.
I got to Timeberline Lodge and looked over toward Mt. Jefferson. I was shocked as I realized that only the day before yesterday I had stood on its shoulder. I walked all that way in two days. There was nobody at the Lodge who could understand that. I was dumbfounded at my own achievement.
After a lot of good food and a relaxing zero day in Government Camp I resumed the trail and hiked the west side of Mt. Hood.
I never saw these pretty flowers anywhere else.
Bouncy hiker bridge across Muddy Fork.
Muddy Fork. I attempted to ford here but could not. I was glad I found the sign to the hiker bridge.
As I began the descent from the Timberline trail toward Columbia Gorge I startled a small bear who climbed a tree. I stopped, backed away and waited to see if mama bear was anywhere. I heard and saw nothing, so I slowly walked down the trail, snapping pictures of baby bear and looking around for mama. I never saw a mama bear and once I was past this bear I walked away as fast as I could.
Looking back at Mt. Hood.
I climbed a ridge in the morning and could see Mt. St. Helens, Rainier and Mt. Adams.
On the Eagle Creek trail I bumped into a PCT volunteer trail crew. Sorry about the butt shot, folks.
The trail dropped and dropped and I was in thick rain forest. Everything was draped in moss.
Eagle Creek was a favorite spot for backpackers and dayhikers seeking swimming holes. It was hot and people were hiking the trail in bathing suits. The water was very cold.
Tunnel Falls. The trail goes behind this waterfall.
I'm approaching the tunnel.
You can see the tunnel.
The tunnel opening.
The tunnel is completely in the rock. You do not see the backside of the water. You only hear the thunder.
Emerging on the other side.
Looking back at the falls.
A strange clot of fallen logs in the deep gorge. Once I reached the end of the trail I had to find my own way to Cascade Locks. The guide book and the real world did not match. Cascade Locks was the last town in Oregon and I did all my resupply for Washington there. I could have done it in Stevenson instead, but I had free accommodations in Cascade Locks.
