Brrr! A cold 38 degree morning! We packed up fast and hit the trail, hoping for a hill to climb! (Hills warm you up!) The clouds of yesterday and last night were mostly gone, so I took a picture of one of the nearby Sisters.  I’ve learned that up here in Sisters Wilderness, the clouds can blow in really fast, so if you can actually SEE the mountain, better take a picture of it quickly, before it’s shrouded in clouds again! 

The PCT wandered all over the place, up and down, and around hillsides.  The farther we went, the more AMAZED we were that we ever made it through here safely in 2005, when we were so lost that all we could do was take a compass heading and try to travel north. 

In the early morning light, the trail took us through several very pretty meadows, full of wildflowers.  Some of the meadows were “lupines only” and some were “mixed bouquets”!  I felt as if I were walking through a flower garden.  Backpacker tents were scattered here and there, usually in the trees at the edges of the meadows.  Nobody was up yet!  We stopped for a quick, very shivery cold breakfast in a cold wind, and as we were just finishing up, along came Phooey, and he hiked with us for awhile.  All of us were in awe of the scenery, and we were running out of superlatives to comment on it!  Eventually we left Phooey behind and were hiking by ourselves again.

I was particularly looking forward to seeing Obsidian Falls and wondered whether there really was that much obsidian in the area.  Well, the falls were very pretty and it’s true— the whole place really does have tons of obsidian!  In 2005 everything was covered with snow, and we couldn’t see the ground at all.  I enjoyed walking the PCT by the falls this time, and seeing the ground all shining with obsidian flakes. 

But finally we were into what I call the “lavalands”— miles and miles of all sorts of lava, from dramatic, twisted red formations to miles of grey boulder piles.  We stopped to get water from a spring at the beginning of the lavalands, and then headed up into what feels like another world.  The few trees up there are “bonsai-ed”–all dwarfed, twisted and gnarly.  I am in awe of the fact that they are able to survive.  The trail is very rocky and often steep, but the views of Sisters are spectacular.  If we were not thruhiking, I would want to go exploring this area or at least just stop often and “soak up” the scenery. 

Eventually we reached a multi-trail junction marked by a big rock cairn.  Paths headed out in all directions–but there was no trail sign!  We stopped and puzzled over our maps, tried going up one of the paths, concluded, “This one is not the PCT” and went back to the junction just in time to meet Phooey and Symbiosis puzzling over THEIR maps.  All of us finally decided which trail was the PCT and Bill & I took off.  By this time, I was starting to think about the possibility of supper at Big Lake Youth Camp.  If we hurried, we might make it!  But I also knew, from 2005, that many miles of what I call “the lava horror trail” lay ahead of us, where we’d be forced to slow way down. So I decided that every place I could, I would run instead of walk.  Bill was feeling very well, and had no trouble keeping up!

Soon we were meeting lots of very clean backpacker groups who were heading IN to Sisters Wilderness.  The difference between them and us grubby thruhikers is quite striking!  We stopped for a quick lunch at South Matthum Lake in a bitter cold wind that was blowing a lot of clouds our way.  Symbiosis caught up with us while we were eating, and stopped to talk.  He really admires Bill for doing the PCT at age 70!

The trail comes down off the mountains, goes through some pretty woods, and then begins the “lava horror trail”.  It extends all the way to the highway, and then miles beyond that.  All around us were acres of lava boulders.  The trail wanders among them, and the trail tread itself is  lava rocks.  No nice pumice or gravel tread here!  It’s ROCKS!  It is unbelievably rough, and our pace slowed to a crawl.  It took us a long, long time before we finally reached dirt trail again, and by the time we got there, even Bill was literally yelping in pain.   My feet hurt so much that I could hardly walk.  We stopped by the dirt trail, sat down and took off our shoes for awhile.  My feet were literally throbbing, and Bill said his hurt something awful.   If anyone asked me, “What are the toughest parts of the PCT?”  I would tell them “The lava walk after Sisters Wilderness!”

  But we could actually see Mt. Washington to the north, and thoughts of  Big Lake Youth Camp dinner were very encouraging, so after a bit we got back on the trail and hurried along as fast as we could on our sore feet.  The PCT takes a very convoluted route to reach Mt. Washington, which includes a very long downhill, then a very long uphill, some more lavawalking and a route that goes way off to the east instead of travelling north.  To add to the fun, it was all a forest fire zone of blackened tree trunks and ashy ground. 

But finally the trail turned north and west again, climbed back up to Mt. Washington, and went back into green forest.  Looking to the west, we could see that the Willamette Valley was clear and sunshiny, and so were the drylands to the east of us, but up in the Cascades, where we were walking, dark clouds were blowing in fast.  Well, we were hiking as fast as we could along the trail, even running again when possible, and that’s what we were doing when we caught up with Phooey.  (He’d passed us during the lavawalk section–the rocks didn’t bother him!)  Phooey was down on hands and knees, collecting pine cones and making a SIGN in the trail that said, “2,000”.  Wowee!   “Are we really at the 2,000 mile mark?”  we asked him, and he said, “Well, according to my GPS, we are!”

We walked on a few more minutes, and there was the turnoff to Big Lake camp.  But at the camp, all appeared deserted.  Nobody was in sight.  Phooey came along, and we all tried to figure out “Where’s everybody?”  Finally we flagged down a camp staff guy, and he said all the camps were done for the summer.  The last camp finished up yesterday!!  But he said we were welcome to use the kitchen (including any food we spotted there), do laundry, etc., and he got our resupply boxes for us.  He told us there’d be a nice big breakfast in the morning, since this week was a “work week” to get the camp ready for winter.

So we got all the hot chocolate we wanted, plus some fruit, and I cooked our trail dinner on a “regular” stove!  I sorted our food and got the packs ready for the run to Timberline Lodge.  At 30 miles per day, we should make it in 3 1/2 days.  Then I got to take a shower!  I was so tired, though, that even though it was nice to be clean, more than anything, I just wanted to lie down!  Once all was done, we headed off along the lake to find a campsite in the woods, and set up camp with the sun already set, and the woods growing dark.  Once I lay down, it hit me how tremendously tired and sore I was, and I felt a bit overwhelmed.  Trying to do 30 miles a day I always feel like I have to hurry, all the time, and it is not fun.   I am very glad to be here at Big Lake, though–it is so beautiful.

Walk with Aragorn to Minas Tirith: In Paths of the Dead, all light fails, the Dead follow

Tags: Big Lake, Big Lake Youth Camp, Mt. Washington, Obsidian Falls, Sisters Wilderness