Sat. June 25   Miles today: 24.1      Total so far: 775.1         Oregon Section E

Our Rosary Lake campsite was windy all night (hooray, no mosquitoes as a result!) and we woke up to 50 degrees and dark cloudy skies.  With packing up done, we took one last look at Rosary Rock across the lake.  The guidebook says it is very popular with rockclimbers, and I could see why–there were zillions of hand and toeholds in the obviously volcanic gray rock.

On the trail, we climbed steadily till we got to an awesome view spot where we could see all three Rosary Lakes plus Odell Lake, and even Crescent Lake!  After eating a great breakfast in such a perfect breakfast place, we continued happily on the very good trail.

Then the clouds moved back,  the sun come out, and  the forest was full of light.  Beautiful! 

At the trail junction to huge Waldo Lake, I found a post with an emblem “Eugene to Pacific Crest Trail.”  Sounds like something that folks in Eugene would organize.  Good for them! 

Further on, we encountered more and more snow on the trail, but the clear markings still made it easy to follow trail-across-snow.  Then we reached a rocky area where the guidebook suggested a short detour of scrambling over the rocks to our left for an awesome view of Waldo Lake.  We decided to go for it, and wow!  It was worth a side trip!  We decided to have a snack and savor the view for awhile.  

Back on the trail, we passed many snow patches, which were melting fast.  And at noon, there was the perfect spot to stop and cook lunch–a clear little stream (water!) plus gravel and dirt over the steam culvert (cooking place!) plus a nice breeze and no mosquitoes. even though there was snow all around us. 

We were just repacking our sleeping bags, which we’d been airing during lunch, when thru-hiker “Easy” came along.  He liked our idea of airing gear and cooking at noon–said he would try it, too.

In the afternoon, we spent MILES walking through the burned, desolate wreck of a 2003 fire.  It was very slow going.  So many dead trees had fallen across the trail that it was hard to know where the trail went.  But some helpful somebody had carved “PCT” with an arrow up on a dead standing tree, and another time, it was scratched on a rock. 

 Because the going was so slow, and there was no wind, there were lots of mosquitoes, so to add to the fun, we had to wear headnets.   Finally the wind came up, the mosquitoes left, and I pushed my headnet up out of the way on my hat, where unnoticed by me, a big gust of wind blew it off.  “Easy” and another thru-hiker, “Greenman” were behind us, found my headnet and picked it up, so when I came frantically tearing back down the trail looking for it, they greeted me with a cheerful, “Looking for something?” and produced the headnet.  “Saved you half a mile, I bet,” grinned Easy.  Ah, true gentlemen!  Thankyou, thankyou! 

It was late afternoon before we were out of the burned forest.  That fire must have been awful.  We stopped at Brahma Lake for a tortilla and cheese supper, eaten under headnets, while the “rest of us” was wrapped up in plastic groundcloths.  The mosquitoes were literally crawling all over us.  After that, our goal was 6,000 ft. elevation Stormy Lake–maybe there would be less mosquitoes there??  We passed Easy & Co, who had already stopped for the day.  They had a ROARING fire going, and were standing by it.  Hmmm–mosquito defense, maybe?  (we found out later that yes, it was!).

It was really getting late now, and we were tired, but one more challenge faced us–we ended up losing the trail for a little while just short of Stormy Lake, and when we finally reached the lake, we were faced with the worst clouds of mosquitoes yet.  After we zipped into our net tent and had some peace, I calculated our mileage for today, and we were very disappointed.  We thought we’d done 26 miles at least, but it was only 24.  I guessed that going through snow, detouring for the Waldo Lake view, then climbing over all those dead fallen trees, then getting lost a bit had really slowed us down.  The sleeping bags feel good–it’s a COLD night here at 6,000 feet.  I am grateful that I still have my headnet, and thanked God for Easy and Greenman coming along at just the right time.