Day 44 – Oregon Returns

First, I owe you an apology. Yesterday was not pretty at the end, and I certainly let my frustrations show. One of the cardinal rules of the trail is “don’t drag people down with negativity.” If I weren’t writing this blog I would have gone to bed and hoped for a better day tomorrow. But I think it helps for you to understand that trail life isn’t always great. And sometimes our biggest impediment is ourselves.

I resolved (prayed) this morning that I would approach the day with new eyes, accepting the difficulties with energy and humor, keeping my chin up and looking for the good in all things. I feel better already for having done that. Mount Jefferson and Lake Pamelia lie ahead. They are waiting for Doolittle to discover them.

I say good bye to my safe harbor last night.

It’s a brighter day

I feel more hopeful already. The world seems to mirror that hope. I am happy to be here.

Gifts are offered to me upon every hilltop, and I gratefully receive them.

Mount Jefferson!

And then it is there, through the trees and above the trail. I have seen glimpses of Mount Jefferson often over the last few days, but today I will walk its slopes. Of all the mountains I have seen so far, it is the classiest. It does not compare in magnificence with Shasta. But it’s rugged symmetrical shape captures the eye like nothing else in Central Oregon.

Observations

As the trail moves back into the forest, I begin to notice how many deer tracks are on the trail. My campsite was covered in deer tracks this morning. (Thank God for earplugs, otherwise those “stickbreakers” would have kept me up all night!) But these tracks on the trail this morning are some of the biggest I have seen. Might this actually be a llama?

I chat with a couple who had camped by Lake Marion last night. They were going to do a few more “loops” today and camp again tonight. The lady was happy to chat, but the gentleman seems pretty annoyed to be questioned so early in the morning, and by a complete stranger. For those of you that know me, accosting strangers is a passion of mine. You can’t appreciate what you don’t know!

With so many pollinators busy on the trail, you wonder how they all make it home at night. Well, I guess they all don’t. This little black bumblebee spent the night on this thistle flower. And he was not the only one. In a short span on the trail, I discovered four more just like him. I poked him to make sure he was alive. He was.

Jefferson’s finale

I get several photos of Jefferson this morning, but this is my favorite because it shows the foothills and the forested skirt of the mountain. I would spend the rest of the day until I turned toward Pamelia Lake walking around the base of Jefferson. It was some of the most enjoyable hiking this week.

Remember that old Sesame Street song: One of these thing just doesn’t belong here…”? Well this photo reminds me of that. On a mountain clearing with nothing but white rocks everywhere, a red one stands out.

One last look at Jefferson.

Jefferson has some real-deal boulder fields. And ever since that rock tumbled down in front of me on Devil’s Peak, these areas make me nervous. I inspect the boulder field above before crossing now.

Promises delivered

I enter an area where the mountain has been denuded of trees from as high as I can see to the bottom of the gorge. What happened here? Was it logged? Has it been cleared for power lines? I can see Pamelia Lake below. It has a ghastly appearance from here – green water with the bleached bodies of dead trees in it. The ends of the trees stick out of the water at odd angles as if the trees are touching bottom on one end but still buoyant on the other end.

As I enter the forest again a hush falls over everything. It is as if I have entered a library from a city street. The tall trees are back! The forest cathedral. I have missed you so! This is the Oregon I love best. It is an old growth forest – a heathy mix of old and new trees, with little deadfall laying about. I do talk to myself at times when I hike. Here I find myself whispering. There are few birds here. The wind noise comes from high above. I stop and place my sit pad directly on the trail. I will have lunch here. I want to remember this place.

I reach my turn-off at the trail to Hunt’s Creek. It will take me to the Pamelia Lake trail and to Pamelia Lake.

Here is the lake. The trees in the water that I saw from above are barely noticeable down here. If you look carefully at this photo, you will see the denuded section on the hillside above from which I viewed the lake. How different the world looks from other perspectives.

The Pamelia Lake Trail is quite a gem, too. The old growth forest I encountered on the PCT above is even more magical here.

I meet a dozen folks on the trail to the parking lot. Along the trail is Pamelia Creek. It is really rushing.

Pressing to Bend

In the parking lot at the trailhead I ask several people if they are headed back to Bend. One couple is, and the man says he can take me to Bend when they finish their hike in a few hours. His wife pulls him to the side. “We can take you” becomes “We’ll see.”

I decide to take my chances hitching out on the highway at the entrance to the park road. This nice young couple from Detroit (Oregon) gives me a cold drink and takes me to the highway. Unfortunately they are heading the opposite direction from Bend.

Going out to the highway might have been a mistake. The traffic on the highway by the park goes by so fast and the shoulder is so narrow that nobody can really stop. So after 90 minutes of trying to get a ride, I start walking. If I hear a car behind me, I turn and put my thumb out. The results are no better, but it feels better to be walking. If no one picks me up by 6pm, I am just going to sleep by the road and try again tomorrow.

Then just before I give up hope, someone pulls off the road. His name is Lynn and he is driving a small pickup with firewood in the back that he bought in the valley. He is lives in Bend and is on his way back there. I am overjoyed. But, you are not going to believe why he pulled over. He recognized me from a Wander Women video! I mean, he was going to pull over anyway, but as soon as he did, he said I looked familiar and then he asked if I had hiked with the Wander Women. Sheesh, those ladies really are famous.

Lynn had almost completed a thru-hike of the PCT when he was younger, but bad weather in Washington had forced him off the trail. He is intimately familiar with the PCT in central Oregon, and we compared trail notes. (He lost his front tooth when he hit a pine tree at the bottom of a slip down a snow chute on the trail.) He took me all the way to my motel and even waited while I got my room. What a great guy! Thanks Lynn.

Tomorrow I will do laundry, shop, rest and work on the blog. If I have time, I might put some boxes together for Washington resupply stops. On Saturday, Stan picks me up for the skip up north. It was a great day and I hope there are many more like it ahead.

• July 15
• Starting mile: 2015
• Ending mile: 2028
• Daily PCT miles: 13
• Total PCT miles: 656
• Off-trail miles: 5
• Miles hitched: 50