Days 114
Start: Maidu Lake
Finish: Diamond Peak
Daily Mileage: 32.8
PCT Mile: 1898.8
I got my best night sleep in a couple weeks last night despite another rain squall during the night. There was also some thunder which I found would come into play later today.
Honeybun and I were targeting another day in the 30s today to set up for our next resupply tomorrow. The resupplying has gotten more complicated in Oregon since some places require packaged food drops since the stores don’t sell sufficient supplies. That is ok, but we are also trying to balance some gear shipments through USPS which can only be picked up or sent while the Post Office is open. I didn’t want to plan ahead on the resupplies of this trip, but we have had to essentially put together a plan already through the end of Oregon to make sure we can get everything to work. Unfortunate, but necessary.
The trail was buried in forest on super easy treadway, so we got a fast start to the day cranking out the miles with little of interest to stop and see.
We stopped for a break at Windigo Pass which had a mysterious water cache. There have been entirely too many water caches on the PCT. This one was 2.2 miles from a reliable natural water source. I don’t understand all of the hand holding there is on this trail, and hikers now have come to rely on many, many handouts along the way, call someone for a free ride to town, a free place to stay, water caches at trailheads near water, etc. What is wrong with the old way of figuring it out and making it work yourself? Carrying water isn’t that hard, especially with lighter summer gear, and it is also quicker to hold out your thumb and hitch to town without making someone go out of their way. I just don’t get it.
Anyways, we continued down the trail, climbing through more forest, got water at the natural water source most of the way up the climb so we didn’t even have to carry water from the cache up the entire mountain, and passed around the Calapooya Mountains. That finally gave us our first view of the day of some rugged peaks which was much appreciated.
Continuing around the mountain, we got views to the north where we were headed and immediately saw the plumes of smoke from several wildfires that had apparently started last night in the storm by lightning strikes. We checked our maps to see if we would be headed by any of them, and one of the new fires appeared to be a mile or two from where the trail would pass in 3 hours or so. That fire wasn’t reported on Watch Duty, so I called it in to a ranger so they could be aware of it.
The fire near the trail ahead of us looked small and since we would pass it in about 3 hours or so, we figured we could get by it before it became a problem. The wind was blowing towards the trail but there had to be plenty of time. So we put it into high gear and flew down the trail at faster than normal speeds.
Forest on the way down so we couldn’t see anything, but when we got to Summit Lake we could see it through the trees and the small whisps of smoke had grown into a column in just a couple hours! I didn’t get a picture of it since there was no clear shot, but there was a similar but slightly larger fire just across the lake that had also grown in the last couple hours.
We put it into even higher gear and tore by Summit Lake and started up the trail to Diamond Peak where the new fire was. The area was probably the most mosquito infested we had passed yet, and it was a bloodbath. We had to quickly grab a little water on the way up, and I dug the fastest cathole of my life and we were on our way.
We caught the hint of smoke in the air as we neared the section of trail closest to the fire, and found a hiker camped out for the night. We told him about the fire and he seemed rather unconcerned and unwilling to move. We tried, but his choice.
The smoke was present but never got bad, and we never did get a good look at the fire to see how it had grown. However, we did make it safely past with no sign it was anywhere near and began circling the mountain to get it between us and the fire for the night.
And we once again encountered our nemesis. There were several large snow fields, and even a big area with fresh avalanche debris from a big avalanche. The snow was not bad but still we were tired of it. We crossed a couple creeks on snow bridges. In Oregon. In mid-July. That is just too much.
We did make it to the camp we had been targeting though, as far from the fire as we could get. There was not even smoke in the air, so I’m positive we are safe. However, we were not safe from losing blood, and the mosquitoes in camp are the worst of the trip so far. Just clouds of the bastards. I jumped into my tent for the night as soon as it was up. Their hum will lull me to sleep.
Today got pretty dynamic with all of the new fires. It was astounding how many new fires we could see and how quickly they were taking hold. Hopefully we have already escaped the worst of it and can continue north safely.
1 comment
Fun read! Glad to see you are making continued progress and in spirits enough to complain about water caches. Look out for the yellow snow!