Within
ten miles, I approached a major trail junction at Windigo Pass. The official PCT lay straight ahead
while the older Oregon Skyline Trail veered off to the right. Both arrived at the same
destination - Shelter Cove,
but the Skyline Trail was many miles shorter.
When next
I saw Storytime and Cookie, they were cooling their feet in the waters of Summit
Lake. I dropped my pack beside the trail and joined them. We all
concurred that this lake was undoubtedly the most scenic lake we had seen on
the trail. After taking pictures of one another and filling our water
bottles, we moved on. Within minutes, the two of them were out of sight.
There was
a primitive campground and boat ramp around the lake from where we were
sitting, and a dirt road that give access to the facilities. Within a
short distance, the trail crossed over this road and moved off into the trees,
to parallel the road.
After
crossing the road and following the trail into the trees, I suddenly become
very weak, to the point that I had to sit down on the trail to regain my
strength. I had no idea what the problem was, but suspected I might be
having a heart episode, however, checking my pulse, I found it close to normal.
I rested for a few minutes, then got to my feet and attempted to move on
once again. Almost immediately I felt wiped out and again sank to my
knees and then to the ground where I sat and rested for a few minutes.
After this happened a third time, I opened my backpack to find my
first-aid kit which contained my heart medication. Of course the kit was
on the very bottom of the pack, which required that I pull everything out of
the pack and lay it on the ground.
After taking the medication, I
stretched out on the ground to rest. I prayed that no one would come by
and see me sprawled on the trail with all my gear lying beside me. They
would undoubtedly think I had had a heart attack and would be terribly
concerned not knowing what to do for me. I fell asleep for ten or fifteen
minutes, and when I awakened, I quickly repacked my pack and stood up on my
feet to see what was going to happen. Lucky for me, I finish packing my
backpack just before a father and son passed by me.
This
time, I was able to stand upright without falling down; I attributed my
improved condition to the heart medication I took. I decided to follow
the road around the lake to where the PCT crossed it again in case I should
need help. At least if I were on the road, someone might find me.
The
following morning, I found Storytime and Cookie just rising from their beds.
For the first time in a long time, they both had camped under the stars.
They immediately asked me if I had any water I could spare as they had
used all of theirs in putting out a smoldering fire they found at the base of a
tree. How it started, they didn’t know, but they knew they couldn’t just
walk on by and try and report it later. As I always carried plenty of
water, I was able to give them a full liter. The maps said there was a
stream just ahead on the trail, but Cookie said she walked quite a ways last
evening, but couldn’t find it.
After
leaving them, I encountered the stream just a short distance from where Cookie
turned around last night. Its source was the snowfields high up on the
glaciated face of Diamond Peak. As with most of the peaks in the Diamond
Peak Wilderness area, Diamond Peak was an extinct volcano. The large curved
bowl of the mountain looked like the remains of a caldera through which the
trail passed.
Another
few miles brought me to Pengra Pass and a side trail that lead down to Shelter
Cove Resort at Odell Lake. Shelter Cove was my resupply point, so I broke
from the trail and walked the two miles to the resort at Odell Lake.
There
were at least fifteen hikers at the resort, and I knew all of them. I
took my pack off and leaned it against the stone foundation of the store.
Beside it was the hiker box and I immediately started digging through it,
looking for anything I could use to supplement my own meals. I scored a
few items and set them aside.
Shelter
Cove was a beautiful resort with boating facilities, cabins to rent, and a
large RV campground. I had to walk through the campground to get to the
resort store, and noticed there were a lot of late-model pickup trucks attached
to good-sized fifth-wheel trailers, which equated to a lot of money tied up in
just one truck and trailer.
The clerk
at the counter retrieved my resupply box for me, and in exchange for five
dollars gave me a handful of quarters for use at the coin-operated shower.
After taking a shower, I partnered with another hiker to share a load of
laundry, and when it was finished, like always, I didn’t bother with the dryer,
but put the clothes on damp and walked around while the sun dried them out.
It took
about an hour to repack my backpack with the supplies from my resupply box,
plus trying to stuff in the extras I scrounged from the hiker box. I did
the repacking on the spacious lawn in front of the lakefront. Sitting
next to me on the lawn was Sherpa C. For shelter, he used a Big Agnes
Copper Spur UltraLite1 tent. I asked him to demonstrate it for me, as I
wanted to see just how fast it could be erected. At $370.00, it was an
expensive tent, but were I to hike the trail again, this is the tent I would go
with. I liked the fact that it was freestanding, had double-side doors as
opposed to entering and exiting through the front, and had a detachable
rainfly, which would help considerably in reducing condensation which was a
real deterrent with single-wall tents such as I was currently using.
In
preparing for my trip, I let the weight of an item dictate whether it was
purchased or not, as I was determined to go as light as possible and ounces
added up to pounds. It was for this reason that I went with the Rainbow
Solo Tarp tent. It weighed less than two pounds, whereas the Big Agnes
Copper Spur UltraLite 1 weighed in at 2lbs 8 ounces. In the end, I
sacrificed a few ounces of weight for the comfort of a better quality tent.
This was not to demean the Rainbow Solo, but the difference between the
two, on rainy or snowy days, was significant. First and foremost on the
trail, it was important to stay dry, and I couldn’t always achieve that with
the Rainbow Solo.
These two photos show several original Pacific Crest Trail logos tacked to the trees to mark the trail.
In times past, there were many more, but hikers have taken them as souvenirs.
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