Thurs. June 16    Miles today: 21.6  PCT + other miles      Total so far: 601.9!!!    Oregon section B

Today is special, because we passed the 600 mile mark!  Hooray!  The morning began very cold and dark.  Since the store didn’t open till 7:00 am, I stayed in my sleeping bag writing journal stuff till 6:45.  When we got to the store, we saw lots of ominous dark clouds, and there was a lot of wind once we were in the open by the lake.  The “store guy” got our boxes down from the loft, and I drank fresh hot coffee while sorting through the food box and the “gear” box, which included maps (at last!!) and more “mosquito stuff.” 

When that was all done, we enjoyed several great “breakfast sandwiches” and conversation with the caretaker and “store guy”.  They were totally fun to talk to–man, can they tell stories!  If you are a thru-hiker, and you resupply at Hyatt Lake Resort, ask them to tell you about the time a “storm-out-of-the-blue” turned the whole boat dock over! 

But besides the fun stories, the guys also warned us about the weather–the forecast was for rain, turning to snow above 5,000 feet.  Hmmm.   And listening to the news on the radio, we heard about a 7.0 earthquake in northern California, which worried us (we LIVE there!) till we found out it was in the WAY north, near the Oregon border.  Whew!   The two guys told us a shortcut back to the PCT, and a bit after 9:00 am, we were off, and glad that in our small way we could help the cash flow at the Resort.  All the Oregon resorts are really hurting so far this year.  They had no snow this winter (so lost all that business), then in spring (April, May, June) when the boaters, fishermen and campers normally start to come, it’s been cold, rainy/snowy and miserable.  Not a pretty picture if you are in the resort business.

Back on the PCT, while we enjoyed the hike through the woods around Hyatt Lake, and with me still going nuts over all the wildflowers, we felt it–our first “drip from the sky”.  It was as if the rain was trying to make up its mind whether to start or not.  I got out my “just in case it rains” gear, which means I tied my raincoat around my waist and had my umbrella handy.  Half an hour later, it really DID start to seriously rain, but that didn’t stop us–we practiced hiking in the rain before we started the PCT. 

Around noon, we reached a CANAL out in the middle of the forest, full of water running fast, and a little way beyond that, there was a gravel path leading to a bridge–the perfect spot to stop and fire up our little alcohol stove, far from the pine needles on the forest floor.  The rain was stopping, too, hooray!  However, the air temperature was only 50 degrees, and we quickly discovered that alcohol prefers to be warmer than that before it will light.  We had a bit of a hassle getting our stove going!  From now on, we decided, Bill will put the fuel bottle inside his jacket for a couple of hours to warm it up before we cook! 

Back on the trail, we were very grateful for the fact that the rain had stopped, and for the very well-marked trail.  They use little silver diamonds, which are easy to see–and they put them both up high and down low.  Just for fun, at one roadcrossing, somebody made a “PCT emblem” with sticks! 

But one thing really annoyed us.  (Brace yourself–I am getting up on a soapbox here!)  We were going through a stretch of forest that looked very pretty and healthy–vigorous trees, plenty of wildflowers, some “down logs.”  Then we came to a roadcrossing where signs warned that it was only OK to take downed wood (with permit, of course) in the woods we’d just been through.  But on the other side of the road, the forest was to be left alone.  The “left-alone” forest was absolutely a horrible mess.  The trees looked sick, the forest floor was covered with dead trees and branches, and it was a forest fire explosion just waiting to happen.  It made us feel very angry.  I am NOT an “environmentalist”, and this was a classic example of WHY!!!  I think that forests are God’s gift to us, and should be CARED for, not “left alone.”  The planet we live on is not the perfect place God created originally.  Ever since we people decided we could tell God to “get lost”,  our planet Earth has taken the brunt of it, first having to endure the massive destruction of Noah’s Flood, then the massive aftermath of the subsequent Ice Age, with extreme weather changes, etc.   And since then, it’s been either being abused and exploited, or worshipped and “left alone”.   Either way, the earth suffers terribly.  The Bible is not kidding when it says in Romans 8:22,  “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together .”  Anyone who wants to “protect” the environment by “leaving it alone” is really being cruel and heartless.  The environment needs us to care for it and help it any way we can.  And obviously,  picking up dead branches in the forest makes a VERY HAPPY forest.  (End of soapbox!)

Anyway, we continued on, reaching the summit of Mt. Baldy, with awesome views of a huge valley below.  And there were more wildflowers–including lots of wild delphinium.  We had a very long downhill stretch (hooray for patella support straps!  No pain!) and reached a large flat with lots of very mossy trees.  There was moss all over the ground, too, and it was tempting to stick some in my hair so I’d look like a Marshwiggle (from C.S. Lewis’ book “The Silver Chair”).  In that same forest, we came to a tree marked with red and yellow tags to identify it as a “Bearing Tree”–to mark a section corner, where you could literally “take your bearings” from the tree!

Late in the day, we reached Dead Indian Memorial Road, and turned off the PCT for an alternate route that would take us past Lake of the Woods, which has a restaurant and store.  We walked a mile or so along the road before turning off into the Winema National Forest and setting up our tarp for the night.  it was a chilly 46 degrees when we hung our damp socks on the “clothesline” under the tarp, and we were glad for warm, comfortable sleeping bags, and VERY pleased when we did our “mileage math” and discovered that we’d passed the 600 mile mark!