8/7/2023
Section: Milepost 1774.6 to 1750.0
Total Trail Miles: 1189.3
Distance: 25.45 Miles
Moving Time: 09:52
Elevation Gain: 2700 ft
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Ah, so…many…huckleberries today! We had not expected there to be many this early in the year. In Washington they usually don’t appear until deep August or early September but they were out and Amanda and I were happy to see it….which made things a little slow in this stage.
The path today descends a very short distance before crossing highway 140 and continuing through lava rock fields around the western flanks of Brown Mountain (real original name…). The trail crosses a large network of forest service roads before reaching a forestry shelter where a broken pump would yield a good flow of water after some effort. From there, the path crosses through the Pederson Snowpark trailhead and continues through another labyrinth of forest service roads, eventually winding around Old Baldy and traveling west over Griffen Pass. From here, the PCT moves southwest towards Howard Prairie Lake and the final destination for the day, Apserkaha cabin camp.
We woke a little later than usual due to the late stop last night. Fortunately, the overly friendly deer had left the tent alone most of the night so we were able to get a good sleep. We had some breakfast and started downtrail, continuing to follow the Cascade Canal downstream. Before we closed the short gap to highway 140, we ran into the couple we had talked to at the Tehachapi BBQ place who had also seen the strange comet the night before we did on the LA Viaduct. At Amanda’s insistence I told them what my dad had told me about the strange red burst across the sky - that it was Elon Musk’s “StarLink” project to provide Wi-Fi to everyone worldwide. They listened intently and then we talked briefly about the paths ahead of us before moving on south.
The trail crossed the highway only about half a mile from where we camped and then, almost immediately, transitioned to lava rock. Lava rock got a bad wrap for us in central Oregon, especially around McKenzie pass where sharp mounds in the middle of the trail would annihilate the souls of our feet. Here, on the south side of Highway 140, it was actually not too terrible. The trail here had been filled in with nicely pulverized lava rock to fill in gaps and make the path surprisingly smooth and painless to walk on. There was some blowdown but, other than that, we moved very quickly in the early sections of this trail. The first huckleberries showed up shortly after the lava rock ended, about 8 miles in and we gorged ourselves. They were perfectly ripe and so delicious. I promised Amanda, then and there, that we would set up a specific trip next summer in late august, pack in pancake mix and all of our backpacking cookware to take full advantage of these delicious little packets of sugar, since I was pushing us past many well laden bushes on this trip.
Not far after the huckleberries we arrived at the South Brown Mountain Shelter where we shook off our packs and settled in on a picnic table. We sat for a few minutes, munching on the snacks we had allocated for the day and then approached the old style pump. The handle had been stolen, which was abominable since it was not easy to use alone without it. Amanda held the bladder under the spout while I manually pushed up on the casing. It was a hard push but 1 or 2 lifts was all that was needed to fill 2 liters and Amanda was suddenly telling me to stop. We took the water back and, though it likely didn’t need to be filtered, we ran it through the Sawyer. As we finished filtering, an older group from Eugene and Junction City showed up. We had a somewhat grating conversation with the woman from Junction City which eventually smoothed out. They were in their late 60’s, early 70’s and hiking the entire Oregon section. After about 10 more minutes we bid adieu before continuing south.
As we left the cabin, a NOBO couple enjoying the huckleberries stopped us to spread the good word about the berries. “Oh no,” i said with a smile “we’ve already lost an hour to these things.” They smiled at us in understanding and we continued on. The rest of the day passed with relative ease. We crossed through a series of forestry service road labyrinths, only having to check Gaia a few times to keep things in order. I noted a few good places that might be worth coming back to for trail angeling next year and we cruised on.
After some annoying climbing late in the day, Howard Prairie Lake came into view. We followed the banks for a while and crossed some more gravel roads before the turn-off for our destination came into sight. This was Apserkaha cabin camp, a large area down by the banks of the lake, characterized by about 20 small cabins and 15 campsites. Usually, the place was reserved by school and church camps for a weekend gathering but, on the evening we arrived, it was completely empty. Amanda dropped into the seats at the outdoor communal dining area and I went up to the campsites where a single 5th wheel trailer sat outfitted with little blue string lights. I knocked on the door and a short shrew of a man answered with a nice smile. “Hello,” i said “sorry it’s late, but my wife and i just arrived and were hoping we could get a cabin.” He looked at me confused for a second and then smiled before coming down out of the trailer. We walked down to the common area where he gave us a little spiel and then said he would unlock cabin number 12 and bring us some watermelon. We thanked him and Amanda took her stuff to the cabin and showered while I paid and accepted the watermelon from the host who calls himself Pepper. Pepper then gave me most of his life’s story only stopping to let me go when I started stretching out my hamstrings. I said goodnight and thanked him for letting us into the cabin before joining Amanda for a delicious ramen dinner. Afterwards, I took a shower and brushed my teeth before returning to the cabin and passing out for the night.
