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.

Wow! An official trail to Eugene!

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! 

Sunshine!

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.  

Snowmelt by the trail

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. 

Bill on lunch break (by snow patch)

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.

Bill on the trail/obstacle course

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! 

The ghost forest--burned 2 years ago

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.

Fri. June 24     Miles today: 19             Total so far: 751.6                Oregon section D and begin E

Amazing!  During the night last night, I thought I heard train whistles, so I carefully checked the map this morning, and yes indeed, Southern Pacific RR has tracks around here!  Bill and I deliberately got up at 4:15 am, hoping to avoid the mosquitoes for awhile, but no luck.  A lot of them were up already, and hanging around our net tent.  So it was headnets on, and hurry along the trail.

It didn’t take long to reach the road,  then we thought we’d get clever.  Looking at the map, it appeared to be an easy shortcut through the forest to Crescent Lake.  Not a good idea–we ended up doing a very long bushwhack (and I do mean BUSH–turned out there were lots of them) before we finally stood on the lakeshore.  Sunrise was beginning, and it was beautiful.  We hurried over to the sleeping campground for water, then went back to the beach for breakfast, in the morning breeze that kept away mosquitoes.  Crescent Lake is large, and has an awesome view of Diamond Peak.  Even though it was so early, fishemen were launching boats and heading out.  One guy in particular was so CLASSIC–the flannel shirt, battered hat, big dog and well-used fishing boat.  He wished us a very cheery “Good morning!” as his dog hopped right off the launch dock into the boat.  Hope they got a good catch!

We packed up and walked a couple more miles to the trailhead for our next trail.  (Note: we found out later that to walk the lower elevation trails was a wise choice.  The PCT was impossible without GPS and snow gear).  To get to the trailhead involved walking through a horse camp.  We noticed (through our headnets) that even the HORSES were wearing mosquito headnets! 

This is the trail/agility test course

A little way up the “Whitefish Creek” trail, we officially entered Diamond Peak Wilderness.  The scenery was very pretty, but the trail was awful.  It was very rough and full of tree roots.  Both Bill and I tripped and almost fell several times, and it was hard to hike quickly.  To add to the fun, there were many fallen trees across the trail–sometimes a whole mishmash of them.  Climbing over tree trunks is slow going, and if you slow down, the mosquitoes swarm you.  I ended up having to wear a lot of “mosquito gear’ while hiking, which made me very hot and sweaty.  We reached pretty Diamond View Lake, and boy, did I wish I could just go for a cool swim,  but didn’t dare.  There was also another lake which had a lot of “shooting star” wildflowers and violets.  The guidebook comment about both the lakes was right on: “When Diamond Peak is photogenically snowclad, the lakes are mosquitoclad.”  Just to take a picture, I had to pay the price of several mosquito bites.  Without the “mossies”, those lakes would be wonderful.

Lovely little mosquito pond

We marched on, over a ridge, to meet Trapper Creek, which the PCT follows for several miles through the forest.  The trail was lined with all kinds of ferns and greenery, while the creek foamed and roared and rushed.  We rushed a bit, too, in a hurry to get to Shelter Cove Resort at Odell Lake for lunch and our next resupply box.  But finally, we just had to stop and rest, and that’s when we were passed by a group of 3 young guy thru-hikers, moving very fast (“To keep ahead of the mosquitoes” they told us.)  They were also heading for Shelter Cove.

Just before we reached the resort, we crossed the railroad tracks (and the whole time we wer at Shelter Cove, I could hear freight trains going by.  It was great!).   But there was something else wonderful about those tracks.  Apparently mosquitoes don’t cross them!  We didn’t see another mosquito till we left the Odell Lake area. 

The Resort at Shelter Cove

The general store staff at the resort are extremely helpful and friendly.  They quickly had our resupply box, and best of all, a trail register–the first one we had seen in Oregon.  We signed it, “Bill and Monty Chipman, from swollen hot feet to cold wet socks.”   We were only the 4th hikers to sign it so far this year.  Cat’s Pa was just ahead of us.  I went into the store and got a hodgepodge of stuff for lunch, since the store has only an espresso bar.  We ate and relaxed on the porch, while the other 3 guys who passed us sat under a tree and had a few beers each.  I also tended to our food resupply and refilled our food bags with FIVE days worth, in case we had snow problems in Sisters Wilderness.  (Note: good thing I did!  We had “bigtime” snow hassles there!).   Since the food wasn’t all proper “trail food”, it made the food bags heeeeavy.  Groan.

"It's summertime" flowers

Then lucky Bill went off for a swim in Odell Lake (which by the way, is very pretty) while I sat on the store porch and wrote journal stuff.  I tried very hard to write fast, because I wanted to swim, too, but I kept getting distracted by the antics of a ragtag, ruffianly looking squirrel who was busy raiding the bird feeders.  The store owner came and started hanging some beautiful flower baskets.  “It’s summertime!” he said.  I hadn’t even thought about that.  But he was right–it was a beautiful summer-day-at-the-lake, for sure.  I finally finished writing, Bill finished swimming, and when we looked at the time, we said, “Yikes! We’ve gotta go!” 

Here come MORE hiker boxes!

Just as we were shouldering our packs to leave, the UPS van came in to deliver MORE hiker resupply boxes!  I guess we weren’t the only thruhikers to skip up to Oregon!

OREGON SECTION E

On we went, till we were across Highway 58, and the PCT took off uphill.  We stopped to cheer a little: “Yay, we’re in Section E!” before following the nice smooth (no more roots ‘n rocks) trail.  It’s a Nordic ski trail in winter, too, so of course that meant it was also well-marked.  We reached Lower Rosary Lake, where a family was camped and having fun out on the lake with an inflatable boat.  We’ve done that, too, and it reminded us of some good times with our kids years ago. 

Middle Rosary Lake

 On we went to Middle Rosary Lake with its dramatic Rosary Rock backdrop, and a welcoming committee of mosquitoes.  But we found a knoll where the wind blew all night long to drive them away, so our evening serenade was rushing wind, flapping tarp and faint train whistles.