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!  And only a couple of minutes of walking took us to Shale Lakes, which are a pretty set of little lakes.  The PCT began to climb up and up, headed for Jefferson Park.  Along the way, hooray!  We came to a whole lot of rhododendrons by the trail!  No flowers, of course (wrong time of year) but rhododendrons mean we’re getting closer and closer to Mt. Hood and the OR/WA border!  I cheered when I saw the rhodies! 

The trail was slow going, though.  It was very rocky, and I could not hike fast for fear of tripping and falling.  I managed to avoid doing that, but poor Bill did fall once, right off the trail.  He ended up scratched and bruised, but no worse.  Whew!  I’ve seen people who just bop along a rough rocky trail, moving fast–wish I could do that, but I’d be on my face in no time!  The slow going continued all morning and into the afternoon.  “There’s no way we’re going to get 30 miles today,” I thought to myself, and was a bit bummed.  All I could do was resign myself to doing the best I could.

The scenery on this part of the PCT is great, though!  We had grand views to the west, as well as glimpses of Mt. Jeff towering alongside us.   I wondered how bad the crossings would be of the various snowmelt creeks coming down off Mt. Jeff, but we had no problems.  At Milky Creek, Bill decided to stop and wash socks.  I was wondering how it would be at notorious Russell Creek, but no problem there either–Russell was an easy rockhop.  Several other backpackers (not thruhikers) were hanging out at Russell and they had a dog with them that barked and growled at us ferociously.  Its owner promptly dragged it off the trail and made it sit down while we went by.  Thankyou!  Often we have to remind the owner to get control of their dog.  This guy didn’t need any reminders.

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 “Where are the hikers?”  When we were here in 2005, the trail in and near Jefferson Park was a busy place.   Today the only hikers we’d seen so far were the few at Russell Creek. 

Finally we reached the unbelievable beauty of Jefferson Park.  It’s hard to describe.  It’s like you are right at the foot of snowy Mt. Jeff, among intensely green meadows full of wildflowers.  Little sparkling lakes with sandy beaches are scattered here and there; pristine little snowmelt creeks are meandering through the grass.  This is one of the most beautiful sections of the whole PCT, and we strolled along, stopping to admire everything.

But something was weird and different.  I couldn’t figure out what it was at first, then suddenly I realized what it was.  “Bill,” I said, “where is everybody?”  We were the only people in the entire Park.  Usually the place is swarming with dayhikers and backpackers.  And it was a beautiful day, in August, prime hiking season.  Very strange.

Shrugging our shoulders, we hiked on, tackling the big rocky climb up over the shoulder of Mt. Jeff.  Our feet were very sore by the time we reached the top–I guess we older folks just don’t have as much fat padding on the bottoms of our feet!  But the climb and rough trail were SO worth it!  The views are gorgeous.  At the top are a lot of tough little gnarly trees that somehow survive the rigors of life up here, as well as alpine wildflowers barely an inch or two high, but very pretty. 

As we expected, the north side of the Mt. Jeff shoulder had plenty of snow!  Most of the trail was completely covered over, but there are rock cairns to help hikers figure out the general direction to travel.  So we started scrambling down the snowfields-interspersed-with-rocks.  It was sort of High Sierras all over again.   I even glissaded down one of the snowfields.  But we continued to puzzle over “Where are the hikers?”  We could not even see any footprints in the snow!  

And now we had yet another concern.  From up high on the shoulder, we’d had a great view of Mt. Hood  (yeee-ha! ) but also a great view of FOUR separate narrow plumes of smoke in the vast forests down below.  Were they burn piles?  Hardly likely–this is wilderness area.  Were they Forest Service controlled burns?  Maybe. We got out our maps and decided that the PCT went inbetween a couple of the smoke plumes, so hopefully we were OK.   Our stomachs were yelling for lunch, though, and it was very chilly and extremely windy, so we agreed to hike downhill enough to get out of the wind before stopping to eat.

After getting through all the snowfields, we found a nice little sunny, windprotected hollow.  That sun felt good!  We cooked and ate lunch, then rested for a few minutes in the warmth before hoisting packs to finish the descent to Ollallie Lake.  We were planning to get water at Breitenbush Creek, once we reached the road.

But then everything came to a screeching halt.  At the 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.  Are there any more thruhikers coming in behind you?”  Bill and I thought of Phooey, but we hadn’t seen him all day and had no idea where he was.  We told the USFS guy, a Mr. Peterson, that we only knew of one, but he might be ahead of us.  Peterson looked at his watch and said, “I’ll wait 45 more minutes, but then I’m taking you guys around the fire.  By the way, would you like something to eat? ”   Well, the fact that we’d eaten lunch not too long ago did not deter us from saying, “Sure!  Whatcha got?” 

Peterson gave us some US Army MRE’s that even heat themselves up.  So we had meatloaf and mashed potatoes and other goodies while waiting the 45 minutes.  Peterson told us that all the access roads and trailheads to Jefferson were closed because of the fires. No wonder nobody was at Jefferson Park!  After the 45 minutes were up, there was no sign of Phooey, so we tossed our packs in the back of the red pickup and off we went, bouncing and jouncing on the very rocky road.  “There is a short way back to the PCT,” Peterson told us.  “But I can’t take you that way anymore–it’s closed by the fires.  So I’ll have to take you the long way.”  “How did the fires start?” we asked.  “Lightning strikes?”   “Yup.  We had a storm a couple of days ago.” 

It turned out that Peterson was basically the “Chief Kahuna” of this whole USFS area, and it was on his authority that the hiker shuttles were running.  THANKYOU, Mr. Peterson!  The longer route we were following took us right close by to one of the fires, and it looked pretty scary–a lot worse than it had looked from up high on Mt. Jeff.  Peterson stopped the truck and got out to have a look at it.  “I don’t like this,” he said.  “I’ve been bugging HQ that they ought to knock this one down instead of just letting it burn like that.”  He started talking on his radio, apparently “bugging HQ” some more.  “The best way I can describe what the fire looked like would be to say that there were a lot of tall trees on fire in such a way that they looked like torches.  There was a lot of smoke, too.  I mentioned this to Peterson, and he said, “Right.  What you’re looking at is a “torch” fire.  It’s nasty, but could be a lot worse.” 

Suddenly, it was like the fire exploded!  It started expanding like crazy, right in front of our eyes.  Peterson leaped into the truck and grabbed his radio.  “Get in!  Quick!” he said.   “It’s gone to a crown fire!  You guys will be the LAST hikers to get through. Even the road isn’t safe now.”  “But what will the other hikers behind us do, then?”  I asked.  “They will have to turn around and go back,” Peterson said, as he steered the jouncing truck down the rocky road.  Clouds of smoke were billowing behind us, and orangered flames.

Bill and I were riding along and thinking, “Lord, we are in awe of your timing, AGAIN.  If we’d reached Breitenbush Road even an hour after we did, we’d have had to turn back.   Instead, we’re on the LAST hiker shuttle to get through. Thankyou, Lord, thankyou!” 

Very soon, helicopters were flying overhead, carrying water to dump on the fire.  Peterson stopped off every now and then to check on the closed roads, to make sure that not only were they closed, but that there was a USFS person there to enforce the closure.  At one of them, the “guard” asked anxiously, “How long do I have to stay here?  That fire is getting bad!”  Sure enough, ashes were falling all around us.  Peterson gave him some instructions about when to leave, and drove on.  “I’ll take you as close to the PCT as I can, ” he said, and finally took us up one of the closed roads to a trail crossing near Jude Lake.  We thanked him fervently for his efforts in fighting the bureauocracy and getting the hiker shuttle running, plus driving us all this long way round.  “My pleasure,” he said.  What an awesome guy!

Once we got back to the PCT, we made tracks north as fast as we could!  Behind us was what looked like big gray clouds coming in, but it was SMOKE.  We did not want to be anywhere near it!  Fortunately, the trail was nice smooth dirt through the forest, and we could move fast.   We reached Lemiti Meadows and kept going as quickly as we could till we were past Chinquapin Viewpoint.  At sunset we stopped and cowboy camped on a saddle.  It was a pleasant, breezy evening, with crickets singing.  We were sorry to have missed 10 miles of PCT–10 very pretty miles, with lots of little lakes, plus of course, great big gorgeous Ollalie Lake.  But oh, are we grateful to God for His perfect timing! 

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

We had cowboy camped in the woods of Big Lake Youth Camp last night, and woke up this morning 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, where I put our very grubby socks to soak, and explained to Bill how to wash them once they’d soaked awhile.  Then I went off and took a “thorough” shower, trying my best to wash off  the ground-in dirt on ME!  But no matter how hard I scrubbed,  I just could not get the dirt off the bottoms of my feet.  I wondered how far some of that dirt has been travelling with me??  I finally gave up, dried off, bundled up in all my warm clothes (it was a bitter cold morning) and dashed back to the warm laundry room, where I worked on finishing up journal entries. When I went to see if our socks were done, I discovered that they were still just soaking, and Bill hadn’t washed them at all.  Sigh. 

But we managed to finish up the socks, and get our damp sleeping bags dry in time for breakfast– a fabulous all-you-can eat feast, and the friendly cook came out to eat with all us hikers. When we were all just about done with our first round of food and were thinking about going for seconds,  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 each got a great big ice cream sandwich!  And then we still went off for seconds on the regular breakfast food, till we were stuffed to the gills.  We enjoyed talking with all the hikers.  One guy was thruhiking SOBO with his dog, but had decided to skip the “lava horror walk” since it would be too hard on his dog’s paws.  He volunteered to join the work party at the Youth Camp today, as he waits for a friend to pick him up, then drop him off at a different point along the PCT.

We went back to the laundry to collect our now clean and hopefully dry gear, and found the BLYC laundress had arrived to work on the Camp laundry items.  She was a very sweet lady, and we had a good time talking to her for awhile about the Lord and about how different people react when they find out that you are serious about following Christ, and when you (gasp!) actually try to tell them about how to know Him.  She said that yesterday there were 10 thruhikers at BLYC, and they all wanted to do laundry, so she just laid aside all the camp laundry and told them, “Go for it!”  She in effect let them take over the laundry.  “It was really strange, though,” she said.  “The hikers stayed in the laundry room and the art room next door ALL DAY.  Usually hikers go out to the lake for a swim, or hang around on the porch.  I guess it was just too cold to do that.”  No kidding–it was still a very cold morning!  Brrrrrr!

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, which was there in 2005.  Regrowth has been very slow.  There were lots of wildflowers, but only a few small pine trees.  Very sad.  The PCT launched into a  big climb up to 3-Fingered Jack mountain with awesome views of the 3 Sisters and Mt. Washington to the south of us.  We met some more very clean backpackers who were heading OUT of the mountains.  I guess they didn’t stay IN the mountains very long, or they’d have been grubbier!

Finally we were up high enough to have views of Mt. Jefferson, and as the day progressed, those views of “Mt. Jeff” got more and more impressive!  One of the fun things about the PCT in Oregon is seeing a magnificent peak on the horizon, then watch as it gets closer and closer.  We were still hiking in “burn zone”, and everything was ashy and charcoal-y.  I was very glad when we reached an unburned, green “island” where we could stop for our Snickers break!  The trail was often very rough, and had a lot of fire zone litter on it–pieces of burned bark, small branches AND even some snow patches!

Finally we were up on the shoulder of 3-Fingered Jack, and from that point on, the trail is absolutely awesome!  The views are fantastic.  Far below us were green meadows at the foot of “Jack”,  the massive “Mt. Jeff” lay just ahead, we were out of the fire zone, and the day had finally warmed up enough that we weren’t shivering!  When we reached Rockpile Lake, we decided to stop and get water, and there was Phooey, taking a break.  “I’m tired,” he said.  He’s been doing 30 mile days, too, trying to get to Cascade Locks in time for Trail Days.  We all agreed that Trail Days had better be good, considering the effort we’ve been putting out to get there!

It was wonderful to be getting closer and closer to Jefferson Park.  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. We ate dinner on a saddle with a great view of Mt. Jeff.  At 7 pm, we were still on a long contour along a steep mountainside, and I began to worry about finding a place to camp before dark, but awhile later, we spotted  a small grassy hollow.  The wind was blowing hard and very cold, but down in the hollow it was rushing overhead instead of blowing right on us.  We put up the tarp (for dew protection) and the net tent so we could sleep in peace, with no mosquitoes.  The sound of the wind in the treetops was very soothing.  Our only concern is that we are both smelling some smokiness in the air–it seems to be coming from the south and west of us, so we should be OK up here on the PCT.  Jefferson Park tomorrow! 

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!) 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

Last night, a lot of clouds moved in, and this morning it really looked like “maybe rain.”  So we put our packs into “rain mode” just in case, before heading out along the trail.  We spent most of today hiking through the Sisters Wilderness “pond and lake” zone, which meant a lot of twisting up and down through rocky knolls in the forest, interspersed with mostly ponds (some with water lilies!!)  and a few real lakes. It’s damp here, and there were whole “lawns” of intensely green moss. The trees have long strands of graygreen lichen hanging from every twig. Finally we started getting glimpses of the Sisters mountains up ahead.

As we walked along, we’d been joking about taking the side trail down to Elk Lake Resort to get a big juicy hamburger, but when we actually got to the junction, it was a sad, sad sight.  There had been a forest fire, and the hillside was blackened and ashy, all the way down to Elk Lake.  Bummer!

But the farther we hiked, the closer we got to the Sisters, and our excitement grew.  “No getting lost up there THIS time!” we cheered.  In 2005, the whole Sisters Wilderness was full of snow, it was raining so hard that we could see no landmarks, and we got quite lost for awhile before relocating the trail. 

This morning, we were doing the climb up into Sisters, when we met a hiker going SOBO and stopped to talk.  Good thing we did!  He was actually a NORTHbound thruhiker, who’d stopped for a rest and then when he started out again, he forgot which way to go and headed SOUTH!  We were able to set him straight, and he hiked with us for a little while, but soon we left him behind.  We were hiking a lot faster than he was.  And by the way, Bill is feeling much better.  I don’t know if it’s the prospect of going through Sisters Wilderness, or what, but he has been able to hike right along today!

The PCT took us up to a green-meadowed crest, then down to the Sisters Mirror Lakes.  A number of people were camped there already.  We found a nice rocky perch by one of the lakes and ate our supper.  The sun even came out for awhile, and it felt good!  Our suppertime entertainment was a mama duck and her ducklings foraging along the shore nearby.  Then we shouldered our packs and kept going, till we reached the “high point” of the day, not in altitude, but in amazing-ness.  It’s called the Wickiup Plain.

In 2005, all we could see of the Plain was a wide pumice field, because we were in rain and clouds.  This time, we saw…wow!  The Plain is huge, and South Sister rises right out of it!   We were standing right next to the South Sister Peak, all snowy and gorgeous and magnificent.   We spent a lot of time oohing and aahing as we went crunching across the pumice.  And not only that, but the pumice was dotted with many tiny, dwarfed wildflower plants in bloom, all colors.   I wish we could have spent more time there, but it was late in the day, there was a very strong, very cold wind blowing, and we had to make more miles.

The PCT route is marked with a series of upright posts across the Plain, and this time, when there was a trail junction, there was actually a SIGN on the post to tell which trail was which!  There were no signs in 2005, and it was tough.  We met another thruhiker named “Symbiosis”, who told us about “Carhop”.  Carhop has a unique plan for thruhiking, which involves two of his own cars, so that every time he needs to go offtrail and resupply, one of his cars is waiting for him. 

We got across the beautiful Wickiup Plain and headed back into the woods.  We reached the creek where we lost the trail in 2005, and I was very curious to see where the PCT actually went!   Well, turns out it switchbacks WAY down the mountainside!  The forests and meadows right now are gorgeous–very green, and full of wildflowers.  Much prettier than our 2005 experience of snow and rain!

Eventually we stopped and camped in a grove of trees and set up the tarp, prepared for a very cold  and possibly rainy night. The clouds (which appeared to threaten rain all day) looked like they might (I hoped) be blowing away in the wind.  And best of all, with the wind and the cold–NO mosquitoes!!   And Bill is so much better–he can’t hike “on a tear” like he was before, but he was able to eat and hike at “normal” speed, all day today.  Tomorrow we get to see MORE awesome Sisters Wilderness! 

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

Since we camped last night near the RR tracks, I got to see some trains go by before I went to sleep, and one of them was an Amtrak train— on time, if I remember my Amtrak schedules correctly!  Amazing! I had no idea that Amtrak ran so close to Shelter Cove!  Other trains came by later on, but they were all freight trains.  I enjoyed listening to them–camping near a railroad is great! 

At 5:30, I started writing some journal stuff while still inside my sleeping bag, and at 6:30 we packed up and went to the store for breakfast–burritos, muffins, cheese, coffee and juice.  We ate on the porch of Shelter Cove store with a great view of the lake. Bill is definitely feeling better this morning!  He was able to eat (but nowhere near as much as I did).  I was still eating and organizing our data book papers, guidebook pages, etc. for the PCT coming up, and looking through the resupply box and hiker box to see what I might need to buy at the store, when Bill said he’d go hunt for where the laundry was so we could at least wash our socks. 

If I’d been paying better attention, I would have noticed that he was taking his pack with him, including his food bag.  So when I got to the point of inventory-ing the food bags, Bill’s was gone.  Oh no!  So I went off to hunt for him.  I wandered all over the place amid the cabins at Shelter Cove.  One of the employees there saw me and asked if he could help.  He offered me a ride in his golf cart, and we drove around looking for Bill.  No luck.  It was as if he had totally vanished.  I was very frustrated!  All I could do was go back to the store and make a guess as to what was still left in Bill’s food bag.  Based on that guess, I finished my food “shopping” and was loading up my pack when Bill finally came back.

It turned out that he’d been way off someplace washing HIS socks–he’d forgotten to bring mine!  He was annoyed to find that I was “still not finished” with the resupply, and I was very unhappy about not having clean socks!   Grrrr!  I had to take my socks and wash them in freezing cold water in the bathroom, while Bill waited some more.  It did remind me once again, that if you are thruhiking with someone else, and for some reason you have to split up for awhile, be SURE you are both really clear on who’s doing what and when/where to get back together!  I had been so preoccupied with sorting out the resupply stuff that I didn’t pay attention very well. 

It was still a very chilly morning when we started walking down the road by the lake, headed back to the PCT.  Good thing we are getting out of here today, though! Tomorrow is a big fishing derby, AND the start of the “Where’s Waldo?” footrace on the PCT from here over to Waldo Lake area.  Shelter Cove will be a total zoo, I am sure–glad we don’t have to deal with it!  We met Phooey again as we were doing the roadwalk–he was headed IN to the store, and was amazed to find that we’d beaten him to it.  When we told him we took the alternate, he said, “Oh!  So THAT’s how you made it here so fast!”

Once you get across the highway and back on the trail, the PCT out of Shelter Cove is very pretty— it goes by a gentle grade up tothe Rosary Lakes and on to some really fine views. The trail junction signs could use some help, though— they are very confusing!  There were also people out putting up signs for the race tomorrow.  We passed the pretty viewpoint where we ate breakfast in 2005–it has a great panorama of all the Rosary Lakes, plus Lake Odell and Crescent Lake.

Then the trail started going up and down, with some pretty big “ups”.  Bill was feeling better, but still not himself yet. He lagged behind all day, and I often stopped to let him catch up, even though I was not hiking as fast as usual.  In spite of the slower speed, though, my klutz factor still kicked in–I stubbed my toe on a root, tripped, and went flying down off the trail.  I landed on nice soft forest stuff, though, not rocks!  Thankyou, Lord!

The woods along the trail here are very pretty, but the mosquitoes swarm you the moment you stop, and at one point, we got to a junction and couldn’t figure it out.  We ended up on a quarter mile long trail that led to a lake!  Oh well, Bill needed more water, and he had to empty out his whole pack to get at his platypus, since he doesn’t stow it in the “hydration sleeve”.  While he was doing that, I walked back to the PCT and using sticks, I made a “PCT” sign and arrow pointing to the correct trail.

Awhile later, I was the one who ran out of water, so Bill waited while I ran down a 1/10 mile side trail to Charlston Lake to fill my platypus.  Turned out there were a lot of people at the lake–it is very pretty, and it’s near a road.  Based on the Where’s Waldo? race signs on trees, I gathered that Charlston Lake is on the race route for tomorrow.  A little while later, we stopped for supper, but Bill had lost his appetite again and ate hardly anything, so I ate it all! 

Then we hiked on for a couple more hours, through a forest fire zone that in 2005 was an awful mess to get through. It’s still a fire zone, but this time we didn’t have to climb over blackened trees and search for some sign of the trail.  The tread is now clear and well-maintained.  It was interesting as we walked along, to observe the differing degrees of recovery in the forest, AND the fact that the forest is just barren tree trunks made it so we could SEE two of the Three Sisters up ahead.  Awesome!  We met two guys hiking along with fishing poles, looking for the Lily Lake side trail.  We hadn’t seen it–all we could figure out was that maybe only the PCT tread had been cleared after the fire, and the side trails were still covered with fallen, burned mess.  We hadn’t seen a junction sign for it, either, but back in 2005, all the trail signs were gone–they’d been burned up in the fire–and the PCT route was literally marked with arrows scratched on rocks.  So all we could tell the fisherguys was, “Good luck!”  A short time later, we met their wives?girlfriends? walking along the trail, too.  We felt sorry for them–I don’t think they will be able to find the lake, which is out of sight to the east.

Eventually we made it back into green forest, and stopped to camp near Riffle Lake.  The mosquitoes swarmed us the minute we stopped, so we had to set up camp while wearing our “mossie gear.”  Since the lake was close by, we went over there to wash our very dirty feet and legs–but it was a fast wash!  The mosquitoes pounced the minute we took off shoes and socks!  While we were setting up our net tent, Phooey came by, and also two PCT SOBO’s.  Once the tent was up, we zipped into it and now we are very comfortable listening to the clouds of mossies whining outside.  We have a great view of the lake with the moon shining over it–very pretty!  Once again, I could only pray like crazy that Bill will feel better tomorrow.

Walk with Aragorn to Minas Tirith: In green meadows crossing many streams