Today was smoke all day, beginning with an orange-red sun early in the morning. The beams of light coming through the trees were also red when they hit the forest floor and tree trunks, so it almost looked as if the forest were on fire. It rapidly turned into a hot day— ninety degrees in the shade. Fortunately, there was plenty of shade! The forest was beautiful, with enough openness that you didn’t feel closed in, and broadleafed trees as well as evergreens.

With so much smoke in the air, it was like walking all day in sunset light— sort of made everything glow. A few people were camped at big blue Timothy Lake— swimming, yelling and splashing. Man, would we have liked to join them, but we needed miles, and there were rumours of a hiker cache at Wapinita Pass…true rumours!

We cheered at the sight of a cooler. It had apples, soda, beer and candy— great additions to our crackers, peanut butter and dried fruit! From there we went on till a couple of miles before Barlow Pass and managed to organize a campsite on a forest floor full of plants and fallen tree branches— not easy!

Walk with Aragorn to Minas Tirith: In the land of Lamedon, home of Gondorian sturdy hillmen

Today was a day of rocks, fire and God’s perfect timing. It was an experience I will not soon forget! Early morning when we started out there was a beautiful “moonset” in the west— a golden round moon, clouds pink from sunrise, and the blue of early morning sky. Very gorgeous! We were looking forward to seeing Jefferson Park— one of the prettiest places on the whole PCT. But two things worried me.

One was a constant parade of helicopters overhead (never bodes well in the wilderness). The second was the trail. We’d been spoiled hiking on nice dirt trail— now it turned to rocks. Groan. I am a complete klutz on rocks, so we slowed way down. No problems crossing any of the snowmelt creeks off Mt. Jefferson, and the beauties of Jefferson Park soon came into view— the big green meadows, sparkling ponds… but weirdly, no people. Very strange. Usually you see everybody here— backpackers and dayhikers.

We climbed up the rocky trail to the ridge above the park, and in the forest down below were thin grey columns of smoke from at least four fires. Hmmm. From the map, it looked like the PCT managed to squiggle between them, so down we went. But at Breitenbush Lake road, a USFS guy in a red pickup truck was waiting. “Sorry folks, your trail is closed.” Oh no! “But we’re running a shuttle for you hikers around the fire zone.” So he gave us a ride, and it was right past one of the fires. Just as we were going by the fire, suddenly it was as if it exploded. Very scary!

The USFS guy grabbed his radio to warn everyone and said to us “you guys will be the last hikers we can shuttle through. We’ll have to close everything down.” We were in awe of God’s timing. And when he dropped us off, we headed north on the PCT as fast as we could!

Walk with Aragorn to Minas Tirith: Reach the northeasterly lands of Morthond

We cowboy camped in the woods of Big Lake Youth Camp and woke up to everything WET— fog was all over the lake and us! Oh well— we headed back (at 6am) to the nice warm laundry room at the camp, washed out socks and dried everything else. Breakfast was a fabulous all-you-can eat feast, and the cook came out to eat with all us hikers. When he asked, “would anyone like some ice cream?” there was a collective gasp of delight followed by a chorus of “yes, please!” So in addition to everything else, we got ice cream!

We loaded up on water— one of the SOBOs warned of “no decent ontrail water for 30 miles!” and headed out. Just before Santiam Pass, surprise! A cache full of what I guess is the official Oregon thruhiker cache drink— Pepsi. Then on into a burn zone for the big climb up to 3-Fingered Jack mountain with awesome views of the 3 Sisters, Mt. Washington and Mt. Jefferson.

I love the “high alpine” feel of this whole area. All the plants, trees, etc and the very dramatic mountains make you feel as if civilization is far away. Found a nice campsite in a small grassy hollow with the wind rushing by high overhead. We did put up the net tent so we could sleep in peace (and we did!)

Walk with Aragorn to Minas Tirith: Left Paths of the Dead and reached the Morthond Vale waterfall

Brrr! A cold 38 degree morning! We packed up fast and hit the trail, hoping for a hill to climb! (Hills warm you up!) We hiked part of the morning with Phooey, and we are all just going outs over the views of the Sisters and the wildflower meadows. Obsidian Falls were very pretty and it’s true— the whole place really does have lots of obsidian! 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.

The PCT in the “grey boulder pile” zone is truly awful. The trail is horribly rough. Even Bill was groaning in pain with his feet before we were done. But we could actually see Mt. Washington, and soon we were on nice dirt trail and on a tear for Big Lake Youth Camp. Turned out that they are done for the summer, but promised us breakfast in the morning and we were able to get some hot chocolate and cook a late “trail dinner.” Oh, and showers, too! We are camped in the woods by Big Lake.

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

We spent most of today hiking through the Sisters Wilderness “pond and lake” zone, which means a lot of up and down through rocky knolls in the forest, interspersed with mostly ponds and a few real lakes. It’s damp here, and there were whole “lawns” of moss. Some of the ponds had water lilies— nice! We even got a few glimpses of the Sisters mountains up ahead.

By suppertime we were at Sisters Mirror Lakes, then on to the wide pumice fields of Wickiup Plain. We spent a lot of time oohing and aahing because we could see the Sisters rising up huge and magnificent so close to us! The pumice plain was dotted with many tiny, dwarfed wildflower plants in bloom. I wish I could have spent more time there, but there was a very strong, very cold wind blowing, and we had to make more miles.

We camped in a grove of trees and set up the tarp, prepared for a very cold night. The clouds (which appeared to threaten rain all day) were blowing away in the wind.

Walk with Aragorn to Minas Tirith: Brief rest at Meduseld in Edoras, then south toward Harrowdale