We woke up to a sky much more clear and normal— the smoke seemed to have pretty much blown away, so the fire situation must be better.   Our motto for the morning was “second breakfast at Timberline Lodge!” At Barlow Pass, there was a nice picnic table, so we stopped there for some granola before tackling the big climb up towards Mt. Hood.  The PCT seriously goes up, up, up, till between the trees you start getting glimpses of the deep sandy snowmelt canyons coming off Mt. Hood.  More climbing, and you start to see the ski lifts, and finally you are out of the forest, and out on the sandy shoulders of Mt. Hood itself.

It’s an amazing sight– Mt. Hood  is “right there,” plus wildflowers galore (goldenrod, lupines, paintbrush, many more) and a very strong, cold wind blowing sand and dust in clouds off the sides of the mountain. The wind was strong enough that I was staggering a bit, and it’s like hiking on a sand dune as you slip and slide along the trail. But it wasn’t far to Timberline Lodge, where we headed for the Day Lodge to see about breakfast.  But the cafeteria was CLOSED!  A jolly employee grinned wickedly at us and said, “Oh, but we have some REALLY nice freezedries you might like!” before directing us to the dining room in the main Lodge where they have an all-u-can-eat breakfast buffet.  Oh yes!

We headed for the restrooms at the Day Lodge to clean up and change into “town shirts” before we headed over to the buffet.  To our great relief and delight, at the buffet, there was  Phooey!  We’d been very worried about him–did he make it past the fire?  Well, turned out he was on the shuttle just before ours, so he was OK, and he had asked HIS shuttle driver to wait a bit for US, in case we came along!  So all of us were very glad to see each other.   Awwwwww!  

We then proceeded to eat everything in sight, especially the fresh-squeezed orange juice.  We all could barely walk, we were so full, when we went out into the big lobby to sit on nice, soft, comfortable couches for awhile and just relax.  Along came Dave, who was hiking the Oregon PCT, and we all compared “fire adventure stories.”  Dave and his hiking buddies were behind us, and they’d reached the shoulder of Mt. Jefferson, saw the fire situation, and immediately turned back.  They hiked down to a trailhead, found a ride, and had hitchhiked around the fire zone.

Once we’d sufficiently recovered from breakfast, we got our resupply box and a few more odds ‘n ends, then it was back to the trail again, on a very cold, very windy day.  A film crew with big impressive cameras were setting up their stuff in front of the Lodge, and were having an awful time with the wind.  Some very nastylooking clouds were blowing in along with the wind, and we decided to put everything in “rain prep” mode before seriously starting down the trail.

The PCT around Mt. Hood is a real rollercoaster–down into deep snowmelt canyons, then up the other side of them.  At the bottom of every canyon is a snowmelt creek.  The first one was a rockhop for me, and I was glad to make it safely across.  Another hiker who was trying to cross at about the same time I was, well, he was having a tough time, and a friend of him was sort of “coaching” as the timid hiker went from rock to rock.  I normally do NOT like rockhops–to me it’s a lot safer to just wade–but I was enjoying the sensation of DRY shoes and socks, and hoping it could last just a little while longer!

The wildflowers along the trail were gorgeous, and helped to keep my mind off of thinking about the Sandy River crossing up ahead.  In 2005, that was scaaaaary!  but a Boy Scout leader who was there at the time helped me get across on a log.  “How will I make it across this time?” I wondered.  And then it started to rain.  Oh joy!  Now there was rain to add to the snowmelt. 

When we got down to the bottom of the long downhill into the Sandy River canyon, I looked at the river and said, “Oh!  This isn’t any worse than those High Sierra rivers!  I can do this!”  Way upstream were what looked like 3 skinny, slippery logs across the river,  Bill said, “I’m crossing on the logs” and headed for them.  “I’ll ford this,” I said, and waded in, facing the current, trek poles braced, just like the High Sierras.  The river was never more than a bit over knee deep, with a nice bottom of small rocks and sand.  I ended up with  clean feet and socks!  Then Bill and I got back together again.  He said the skinny logs were lashed together to make a  little bridge.  Oh well!  The important thing is, we both made it across.

At that point, the “trail” was a series of rock ducks that led us off through the sand and boulders of the canyon floor, till we were back into a sort of Oregon Desert-type forest with one new addition: moss!  Every rock was covered with moss.  The rain continued to fall.

We were in and out of forest on the way to Ramona Falls, and then made the long steep climb up to Lolo Pass.  Phooey had already stopped to camp, and was trying to build a fire in the misty rain, so he could get warm.  He said he’d gotten rather wet in the rain and needed to dry out and warm up.  We started looking for a campsite, too, and it was not easy.  Finding a place that wasn’t totally covered with underbrush was almost impossible.  But after some beating around up and down the trail near the road, we finally decided on a spot in a grove of trees. 

As we were setting up our tarp, along came Dave, and he asked if it would be OK for him to camp next to us.  Seeing as there was no place else, we said, “Of course” and he began to set up his tent.  “Look at that sunset!” Dave said.  “It’s showing red.  That means the weather should be better tomorrow.”  I sure do hope he is right!   It’s setting up to be a very cold night (I can see my breath!)  but if all goes well, we should make it into Cascade Locks some time tomorrow.  Sure would be nice to hike without rain!

Walk with Aragorn to Minas Tirith: Reach the River Ciril

Today was smoke all day, beginning with an orange-red sun early in the morning– and a slightly late start  because I didn’t wake up in time.  As we headed out along the PCT,   beams of light coming through the trees were actually 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.

We spent the morning walking through Warm Springs Indian Reservation. The folks there were busy with some logging.  Several spots along the trail were freshly clearcut, and we could hear the sound of chainsaws in other places.  Yesterday on our long drive around the fire,  we’d had a discussion with Mr. Peterson about forest management, including logging.   He said that believe it or not, there actually is a trend towards logging with horses (just like “in the olden days”), the reason being that horses don’t damage the forest like mechanized equipment does, AND they are cheaper than helicopter logging.  Interesting! 

We reached the nice log bridge over the Warm Springs “River” (creek, actually) and stopped to rinse socks and get water.  The light in the forest was incredibly beautiful, because of the smoke haze in the air.  All the trees and rhodies and plants looked as if they had a golden glow to them. 

Finally we reached big, blue and very smoky Timothy Lake.  Only a few people were camped  there (instead of the usual summer crowds), and those few were out in the 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, as it turned out!)  We had planned to stop for water at Little Crater Lake, but changed our minds when we spotted a really nice spring just below the trail.  It had a wooden sign that said, “Water”, but somebody had marker-penned in an indignant request, “People Stay Out!”  The spring does flow into a pretty little pool, and I guess maybe kids were playing in it??  We took a little rest break in the shade at the spring, and enjoyed the COLD, wonderful water!

All afternoon long, I felt as if I were hiking at sunset, which is my favorite time of day to hike!  I loved the golden light and the beautiful forest, but felt bummed that this loveliness was caused by a forest fire.  The trail is easy walking and we decided to aim for eating supper at Wapinitia Pass, just in case there was a cache there.  The PCT went on a long contour along steep mountainsides covered with rhodies, and most of the rocks were covered with moss.  Finally we reached the mountainsides where normally we’d have awesome views of Mt. Hood just up ahead, but (sigh) because of all the smoke, we could barely see Mt. Hood at all.

As we approached Wapinitia Pass, there was a great big log with (hooray!) a large cooler next to it.  We cheered and yelled, slung off our packs and looked inside to see what we could find.  Oh yes!  Goodies!   It had apples, soda, beer and candy— great additions to our crackers, peanut butter and dried fruit!   We got very comfortable, sitting on the ground with the log as a backrest, and enjoying the food.  It was hard to get up and go on. 

From there we hiked (the PCT was a Nordic ski trail at this point, well marked!)  till a couple of miles before Barlow Pass and managed to organize a cowboy campsite on a forest floor full of plants and fallen tree branches— not easy!  From what we could see up ahead, it looks like there are no more forest fires between us and Cascade Locks, and the smoke from the fires behind us is slowly lifting and blowing away.  I hope they are getting those fires “knocked down”!    Mt. Hood still has lots of snow on it, which will make the river crossings tomorrow rather “interesting”.   Bill and I agreed on “Second breakfast tomorrow at Timberline Lodge!”

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