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