At the junction of Highway
140 and the PCT, Swiss Army and I stopped for a few moments while I fished in
my backpack for my rain cover. Returning
to the trail after running his errands, Swiss Army knew he would be at least
two days behind me, and was concerned about catching up with me to return the
new backpack rain cover. I told him that I would be taking two days off in Bend
when my wife and daughter came to visit me, and I was confident we would find
each other there.
On the north side of Highway 140, I entered
Sky Lakes Wilderness, and a quick glance at my map explained the reason for the
name; the land was dotted with numerous small bodies of water, all the way to
Crater Lake. I only walked a few miles
farther after taking leave of Swiss Army and camped at Christi's Springs. Along the way, I passed numerous trail
junctions, many of which I wish I had time to explore. One went to McLoughlin, a relatively young
volcano, and only three and a half miles west of the PCT. A hiker could leave his/her pack and make the
round-trip to the summit and back in only a few hours.
Christi's Springs was off the trail just a
bit, so I set my pack down and took only my water containers to the
spring. Back on the trail, and a hundred
yards from the spring was a small campsite, and here I stayed for the
night. Storytime was just leaving as I
arrived. It was only six in the evening
and he said he wanted to make a few more miles before quitting for the
day. There was a small chance of rain
tonight, so rather than suffer the consequences of poor judgment, I put up my
tent and was well rewarded for my preparation; it rained hard all night long.
Just as I finished erecting my tent, Prophet
stopped by my camp. I invited him to
stay, but he, like Storytime, chose to move on.
I asked him if he stayed at the Brown Mountain Shelter last night, and
he said he did. He related that just as
he was entering the cabin site, he scared away a big brown bear that was
sniffing about the area.
Before leaving camp this morning, I put on my
North Face rain pants, not that it was cold, but I knew that my pants and legs
would become soaked from walking through the wet vegetation adjacent to the
trail.
Shortly after breaking camp and hiking for an
hour, I passed the southern end of the Red Lake Trail that headed off to the
left and skirted the east side of Red Lake before rejoining the PCT. A few miles beyond was the junction of an
alternative trail to the PCT – the beautiful Sky Lakes Trail that passed in and
around a number of small lakes before rejoining the official PCT via the Snow
Lake Trail at mile 1,804. I learned
later that Cookie, who was perhaps a half day ahead of me, took the Sky Lakes
Trail, and commented that it was a beautiful section of trail to travel.
The trail meandered across fairly level
ground until it was time to climb the steep grade up to Shale Butte and Lucifer
Ridge; and then it was onto Devil’s Peak and a descent to the lowland region of
the Seven Lakes Basin. (Lucifer Ridge,
Devil’s Peak – who names these places?)
Honeymoon Creek was a frog’s paradise, and
the ground along the trail was covered with tiny, brown jumping frogs that
reminded me of Mexican jumping beans.
Some were not too swift and had a penchant for being in the wrong place
at the wrong time and ended up becoming one with Mother Earth again.
In quick succession, I passed around the base
of Maude, Ethel, and Ruth Mountains – the naming of these mountains must have
an interesting story, and camped just beyond Jack Spring Trail at mile
1,817. Several miles before making camp,
I passed Runs-with-Elk who I found sitting on the trail having a bite to
eat. She was just preparing to leave, so
I waited for her and we walked together until reaching camp.
Since leaving Christi's Springs this morning,
I had walked twenty-five miles, and I was plenty tired and very desirous of
finding a place to bed down for the night.
My map indicated that there was a camp at the Jack Spring Trail area, so
that’s where I was heading. However, I
knew there was at least one hiker ahead of Runs-with-Elk and me, and when we
passed a flat place down off the side of a hill, I told Elk to go ahead and
take the camping spot at the Jack Spring Trail if the other hiker wasn’t there,
and I would go down the slope and camp in the flat place that we both could see
through the trees. I told her I would
see her on the trail in the morning.
As Elk headed on up the trail, I left the
trail and began walking down the slope, sidestepping dead fallen tree branches
until reaching the level ground I had seen from the trail up the hill.
From my camping spot tonight, it was only
eleven miles to Mazama Village – the store, post office, and campground
associated with Crater Lake. That was still five hours of walking for me, so I
wanted to get there as quickly as possible to retrieve my resupply package and
still have time for a meal at the restaurant.
I set my internal clock for 4:00 a.m., and the next morning I was ready
to leave by 4:30 a.m.
It was blacker than black around my campsite
this morning; not even the stars were shining.
I placed my Mountain Hardwear hat on my head, pulled it down tight over
my ears, and turned on the headlamp that was sewn to the front of the hat, and
started up the hill towards the trail.
In only a few feet, I realized, with some panic rising in me, that I
didn’t know precisely where the trail was located.
What I took for uphill climbing, may actually
have been side hill climbing; I took a few dozen steps more, hoping I would
recognize that the direction I was moving in would lead me towards the trail. But again, I couldn’t say for certain – the
vegetation, the ground cover, the dead trees, it all looked the same, and the
panic volume rose a little higher.
I decided to retreat back to where I made
camp for the night and wait for it to get light; surely then, I thought to
myself, I would be able to get my bearings and find the trail. I started back, but my headlamp was too weak
to put out much of a beam, and in the dimness of the light, everything looked
the same.
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