8/6/2023
Section: Milepost 1801.7 to 1774.6
Total Trail Miles: 1164.7
Distance: 27.8 Miles
Moving Time: 11:18 hrs
Elevation Gain: 2551 ft
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Today’s stage starts where it had left off, in the Seven Lakes Basin and makes a bold climb in the morning up through slate gardens to cruise over 3 passes in a row staying below Devils Peak, Lucifer Peak and Slate Butte. From Slate Butte, the trail follows a ridgeline south and passes west of the Sky Lakes basin. The trail then winds south around Island Lake and spends the last half of the day circumnavigating the east side of Mt. Mcloughlin. The camp for the night was less than a mile from Highway 140, on the Cascade Canal.
We woke in the morning and got our things together. There were still many little frogs out and about and we did our best to not step on the little guys. After some tea and our warm-ups we were ready to go. The sky was actually gray which was the first time we had seen it like that it in..well, maybe we hadn’t seen it like that on trail at all yet. The path wound up and up, eventually leaving the treeline and continuing through a shale garden on a stony pathway. The warning squeaks of Pika’s rained down on us as we climbed. I caught a funny looking toad that Amanda had noted and we identified it using Amanda’s identification app. We let the little guy go and continued on, finally attaining the first pass. From here the trail stayed high on the ridge as we wound our way east and south. Along the way, we ran into a couple from Scotland and talked with them for a while, telling them about all the wonderful places to visit on-trail in Oregon. We said goodbye and continued on. From the high shale lookouts we got some good views, which was epic.
After about 2 more small passes the trail descended shortly to a south running ridge which we followed for some time, taking in beautiful views of the Sky Lakes basin below. Probably so many good swimming spots but we weren’t going to descend a few thousand feet to make that happen. After a while we passed Island Lake and, while swatting at a cloud of mosquitoes, ran into the young Estonian girl who had ridden with us in the bed of the PCTA workers truck out of Kennedy Meadows. She was hiking with another European guy who had a massive backpack on. We talked with them for a while, promising a culinary adventure in the state ahead of them and reminiscing about the Sierra before going our separate ways. Not far after her, we ran into another woman, Serpent, who had been in the bed of that same pick-up truck. We told her we had seen the Estonian girl and she smiled, saying they had been hopscotching each other for the last 100 miles or so.
The last 3rd of the day was spent circumnavigating Mt. Mcloughlin which loomed large on our right as we headed south. I did the math, as I often do toward the end of the day to calculate out when we would be at camp. The evaluation came out to just before 9 pm, far after sunset. I begrudgingly told Amanda she had to hold off on any further Huckleberry stops, despite the fact that, as we headed south, the bushes were ever more laden with ripe berries. We walked on and on and, eventually, the sun set on us and we continued to walk. Towards the end I popped in my headphones and listened to Odesza while looking up at the massive Douglas Fir trees and staying back from Amanda - it was oddly peaceful.
Eventually, the sound of the Cascade Canal could be heard. We rounded a corner and a massive creek, big enough to activate Sierra Creek PTSD, came into view. We followed it downhill and, a bit further, several small tent sites were located. We stopped at the first one and I attempted to do a little reconnaissance on some further down the trail. “Let’s just check a few more downtrail,” I said to Amanda. In no uncertain words, which included some swearing, Amanda told me that we were stopping at these tent sites and we set our packs down. As we set up that night, a deer who was just a little too friendly started walking around our site, sniffing our packs and the tent. We had heard that this might happen. The deer are very salt deficient and look for stuff to lick - including backpackers equipment. We made dinner and fended off the dear. I ran down to the river and grabbed 2 liters of water to filter overnight before we turned in and passed out, attributing all the snaps and pops to the overly friendly deer.
