7/28/2023
Section: Milepost 1963.1 to 1953.6
Total Trail Miles: 985.7
Distance: 10.99 Miles
Moving Time: 04:35 hrs
Elevation Gain: 905 ft
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I actually got up nearly on time today. Alarm went off at 5 am and I pushed snooze once and then deflated my sleeping pad. I have a pretty good set-up in place now. In the evenings I do my yoga and then set the Z-lite sleeping pad in front of the tent so that I can stage all my things, like shoes, sandals, and everything that needs to come out to the tent in the morning on it, so this morning was a breeze. I got out and Amanda followed about 20 minutes later. I never realized it but it’s all the little details that make up how fast you get up in the morning - like leaving a little bit of water in the jet boil so that you have it ready to boil for cleaning off your toothbrush or letting the last liter of water gravity filter overnight into your platypus so it’s ready to go - these are the details on the fringes that make the difference in shaving 20-30 minutes off in the morning.
Eventually Amanda was also fed and ready to go. As she finished up her last few details I went into the woods to take care of some of my morning business. As I was finishing up I heard something crashing through the trees nearby. We had also heard something around 2 am - loud enough that Amanda asked me “what was that?” I know that she didn’t honestly expect me to know but I answered “I have no idea, probably a deer.” Well, turns out, yes, it was a deer. A young buck approached me as I was finishing my business, totally unaware that I was there. I stood up and it froze, caught off-guard by my presence. This is the thing that bothers me about wild animals. When I am in the wild, I assume the native creatures are far more aware than me - better smell, better hearing, just better everything. I considered this as I stood 5 feet away from this young buck like “look, you were stupid enough to literally walk right into me, don’t make your problems mine,” then it took a moment while I looked away to crash off into the underbrush again. Actually, it made its way up to Amanda and then, taken by surprise at her presence there, tore off west into the underbrush. Not sure, honestly, how it has survived this long.
After the morning festivities we eventually got our collective rears in gear and were off, headed south. Amanda was making about 2.4 miles/hour in her pained state. Looking on WebMD (which is usually successful in telling you that you have a terminal illness) it sounded like a classic back sprain would heal itself in 1-2 weeks with moderate exercise suggested. It seemed like backpacking counted for that so we had decided to continue on carefully.
Amanda made her way north, traveling west of the Rock Mesa, a large lava rock shelf that stood tall south of the south sister. The walking was nice as we traveled through open meadows. The fire east of Eugene was casting smoke but it only became an issue in the afternoons - the mornings were very clear and nice. We made decent time as Amanda led the way past Sisters lake where a group of women camping there said hello.
Sisters lake is connected to about 5 other lakes in close proximity, making a perfect breeding ground for mosquitos which came out in droves and made our lives a living hell. From the lakes we retreated up Koosah Mountain. At the top we took a break. Amanda’s back was really bothering her and we had great views up at Mt. Bachelor which, just about 8 months ago, we had been skiing from a different angle. We took a 30 minute break and enjoyed some snacks before heading on down the trail. On top we talked to a girl from Ontario for a while who had gone to school at University of Vancouver and was familiar with the lower mainland and Bellingham. We wound our way down. Amanda was walking pretty well given the back pains. Soon we arrived at the first exit for Elk Lake but decided to stay on the PCT - we are purists when it is convenient and continued on to the second turn-off. Here we took the exit and wound down through burned area to the Elk Lake trailhead. From the trailhead we crossed and walked up Cascade Lakes Highway until we hit Elk Lake.
The plan was to arrive at the Elk Lake campground early on a Friday and secure one of the remaining “First Come, First Serve'' campsites. When we got to Fish Lake campground, however, we found none of these available and far less designated than Rec.gov would suggest, which upset me a little bit. None-the-less, as we were walking back from our search for a free campsite, a group in campsite 7 suggested we look at campsite 8 because the people who had it for the long weekend had not shown up and it was now noon so, technically, the site was free. As we approached we saw the folks from site 9 had gotten a jumpstart on our plans and were positioning camp chairs in the site. We talked to them for a while and, when they found out we were PCT hikers, said they would gladly give up the site for us. In fact they gave us lemonade and nut snacks to boot - really nice people. We sat and talked to them for a while before they headed off in their VW camper van for a new location and we sat there filling out a reservation form to take over the campsite. Amanda’s parents were coming down from Kennewick which was the main reason for trying to get a good site, but Oregon in the summer is tough on the weekends, at any of these campgrounds - we got super lucky with the good graces of those nice folks from Eugene.
After we had secured the site, we walked down to the Elk Lake resort for some lunch. We were shown into a somewhat shabby eating area and I ordered some beer and Amanda got a seltzer before we ordered burgers for each (Amanda went with Elk). As we ate, we talked to a pair of older woman in there late 50’s, early 60’s. One was from Santa Barbara and the other was from Olympia. They had been hiking together from Southern Oregon and were a blast to talk with. We told them our story about flipping north and they said they hadn’t even tried the Sierra given they were at Kennedy Meadows in late May. After lunch we returned to the campsite, happy to see that the people who hadn't shown up yesterday seemed to have no intention of showing up today. We went for a swim in Elk lake and then I did some blogging.
Later that night, we returned to the resort for dinner. The restaurant was much calmer. We then came back with some S’more supplies and I got a fire going. Ray and Sandy are about 30 minutes out as I write this and we are going to stay up until their arrival, but not much after because I am ready to pass out!
