Tues. June 28   Miles today: 20.1      Total so far: 845.1        Oregon E, and begin Section F

Last night I listened to the rain for a long time before I fell asleep, because I kept hoping it would stop.  Instead, it just got heavier.  But we were well-protected in our grove of trees, and the rain never did turn into more snow.  Unfortunately, I was so tired when I was putting gear away before going to bed, that I did not cover my wet pack with a plastic bag, and as a result, the wet pack got the foot of my sleeping bag all wet, and that translated into COLD feet.  I put on more socks to compensate, and even put on my fleece jacket, trying to get warmed up.

We were up at 5:00 am to a cold, rainy world, surrounded by snow all around the tree grove.  Brrrr!  We broke camp, shouldered packs, and as usual, we prayed before starting our day’s hike (only this time, the prayer had the “added bonus” of “Lord, please help us find the trail again!”).  Bill took compass in hand, and said, “OK, north and a little west it is,” and off we went. 

The first “leg” took us down a very steep hill, through the forest, and so did the second.  Bill was ahead of me, looking for a tree or rock to use for his next “compass fix” and didn’t even notice that he had walked right across THE TRAIL!!!  I was behind him, doing MY usual job of looking for signs of trail, and I could hardly believe my eyes.  We had been walking only 15 minutes!  “Bill, stop!   The trail, the trail!”  I shouted.

To put it mildly, we were overjoyed, and we fervently thanked God for guiding our steps right to the trail so quickly.  I must admit I cried a little bit as we turned to follow the nice clear trail.  We know God did not do this for us because we somehow deserve it.  We are frequently foolish, selfish people.  But we know that when Jesus died on the cross, it was OUR foolishness and selfishness for which He paid the price so now we can freely come to God for help at times like this. 

 We were so happy to be back on TRAIL, that we almost bounced along, following the PCT  through the forest and up a long climb to the pass we’d been searchng for yesterday.  Eventually we came down again into an open area with a creek, right next to a lava flow.  A very cold wind was blowing, and it was still raining, but the big lava flow rocks made a somewhat sheltered place where we could rest, and the creek provided breakfast water.

Then it was up ‘n over another pass that included some more losing-the-trail-and-finding-it-again, whenever we hit a large snowfield.  I wished somebody would put up a row of those nice posts like we saw the day before!  And Bill’s bootskiing was really getting good.  He could just whiz down a hillside!  That was definitely a help when we were beating around looking for where the trail went.  We were still in cloud and could see no landmarks, and another difficulty was that several times when we’d found the trail again, and followed it to a junction, there was no trail SIGN to tell which trail was which, or where either trail went.  The junctions were “marked” by just a big pile of rocks.  So at each of these places, we simply took whichever trail headed north, and hoped it was the PCT.  I strenuously disagree with the purists who think trail signs should be eliminated!  If that’s the case, then there shouldn’t be a trail, either!

Eventually the path entered a very desolate, eery, twisted lava flow area.  There was a series of short, tight switchbacks that led up the end of a canyon.  Awhile after that, we lost the trail again for a little while, but during that time, suddenly some of the clouds lifted, the sun shone, and we were able to see North Sister towering above us.  Wow, beautiful!  What a sight!  But a few minutes later, back came the clouds and that was it.  I found the trail, and from then on it was a steady downhill, with no more snow.   Finally, in a field, we came to the first PCT sign that we’d seen in a long time.  What a huge relief!  Now we knew we were going the right way.

Down, down we went, crossing steaming pumice fields and going through very colorful lava.  I was impressed with the way mountain hemlock can grow even out of lava.  Very few other plants seem able to do that.  And then after a few miles of “green tunnel” forest—there it was: a “Sisters Wilderness” sign.  I don’t think that many other thru-hikers besides ourselves have made it all the way through Sisters yet this year.  We stopped and thanked God again for helping us make it OK. 

The trail eventually came out of the forest and began winding through lava beds.  It was tedious going, picking your way along a trail made of ankle-twisting, wobbly, rough rocks.  We did meet a couple who were very enthused when they found out we were hiking the PCT, and they were a lot of fun to talk to.  Finally we reached Highway 242, the end of Oregon Section E!

OREGON SECTION F

Across the highway, the “lavawalk” continued, and we went till we were out of sight of the road, then we stopped to hold a thru-hiker “garage sale”.  Every bit of our gear ended up spread all over the lava in the nice warm sun, while I cooked lunch.  We were just sipping hot mochas when three jolly, friendly old guys came by.  They were just dayhiking for fun, but told us that the new lightweight backpacking methods had made it possible for them to go backpacking again, after having had to give it up. Their comment about PCT thru-hiking was “If I were doing the PCT, I would start at Campo, hike till August 1, then go to Washington and hike to Canada, then go back and hike south from Cascade Locks.  That way you miss most of the bad weather and cold.”  Sounds good to me,  but hopefully we will have reached Canada by August 1, and then we’ll be back on California PCT.

By the time we finished lunch, the wind and bits of sun had done their work–most of the damp gear had dried, and our poor wet, cold feet were warm and comfortable.  We packed up and continued picking our way through the lava, toward one of the forested “islands” up ahead.  What a relief to get there and have nice soft DIRT under our feet!  We walked past impressive Belknap Cinder Cone, and got to normal forest at last!  I did notice one particularly gnarly,interesting tree. 

 We were now in the Mt. Washington Wilderness, but Mt. Washington itself stubbornly kept its had stuck in the clouds.  We stopped for supper in a meadow where we could watch for the mountain if the clouds moved out of the way, and suddenly no clouds, and there it was!  We continued hiking around it.  

Beargrass ready to bloom lined the trail, and it took awhile before  we finally found a flat campsite.  No need to hang our food tonight–we had no food left.  We set up camp with “help” from the local mosquitoes, and realized that actually one “benefit” of being lost for a couple of days was that there were no mosquitoes up there in the snow!  I debated which was worse–being lost in snow, or dealing with mossies.  I think I’ll choose the mossies.  It is only by God’s grace that we are not still lost in the snow.  We wondered what had happened to Jacob and Brandon, and prayed that God would take care of them and help them make it safely through, too.  And we were looking forward to a “people food” breakfast at Big Lake Youth Camp tomorrow morning!