8/4/06
Trail Miles: _____ + 17.2
Elevation 5590

Back to the trail to finish Oregon. I am out with two friends from Outdoor School. As many of you are aware, last summer I went out n a little backpacking trip on the Pacific Crest Trail. Because the trail has its own plan for all who walk it, the rerouting, shuffling, skipping, and hopping has left some area unhiked. Well, naturally, this leaves me with a slightly empty feeling, an incomplete feeling, which will probably only cease upon completion.

As I am still recovering my finances from the hike last year, and the subsequent low paying/ highly rewarding job, I figured I cannot go finish the trail this year. I however, can finish Oregon.

I missed a 53 mile segment last year due to gear failure, excessive snow, and a lack of confidence in my ability to way find in the snow. Nonetheless, the trail pushed me in the direction it needed to, and for that I am thankful, for I have met a number of wonderful people as a result of the snow at Mt. Thielsen.

Two of which have joined me to hike this section, and one who served as a trail angel. �Boone� helped us out by helping station the car at the terminus of our hike. He also put us up for a night as we were passing through on our way to the trail. Past readers might recall �Boone� from the �Boone� and �Sas� (Loren and Denise) duo. These two people made the end of Oregon a rollercoaster ride for me. We three taught each other a lot, and had fun doing it.

Thanks �Boone� for being our trail angel.

Today I was dropped at Willamette Pass, where I was to hike roughly 17-18 miles to Summit Lake. While I was hiking, my two partners (�DK� and Cam) went with �Boone� to drop off the car and return to Summit Lake to meet me at the end of my hike. I was covering the distance I was to shorten the days for �DK� and Cam. We only have limited time, so while they stationed the car, I hiked.

And what a lovely hike it was. Albeit, a minor slap in the face. I haven�t been out really for nearly a year, so naturally my body is screaming at me for �punishing� it to such a hard first day. But it was a very nice day, sunny but not too hot.

As I first hit the trail, I saw the PCT marker, and my heart skipped with excitement. Then I was off. Along the way, I hiked south into the Diamond Peak Wilderness. Along the way, I ran into a few day hikers, some weekend hikers, and two thru-hikers. The first thru-hiker has been hitting parts of the PCT for 40 years, and not small parts either. This year he is hiking roughly 2000 miles, at age 72. Krikey!! Go �Monk Go.

The other hiker I met goes by �Trip.�

Check out his journal at http://peeseetea.blogspot.com

Trying to hike, and be a trail angel, I packed beer for thru-hikers. �Trip� and I sat on some rocks enjoying a Guinness before we parted ways. He asked where water was, and I offered him a beer. How delightful.

The hike today was a decent hike. I climbed up roughly 1500 feet, and then dropped roughly 1500 feet. How come I have to descent to reach �Summit Lake�?

As I hiked along, I enjoyed the smell of he woods mixed with my first day hiker smell. It was a very nostalgic smell. I hiked in and out of the shade of the trees, catching glimpses of Diamond Peak and its neighboring snow capped mountains. As I started my decent the views disappeared, and I had to focus on the microcosm of the area immediately around me. I saw brilliantly colored fungi, the occasional purple flower, and a whole lot of pine duff. But it was still nice.

Except for the mosquitoes.

The mosquitoes were nearly unbearable at the end of the day. I knew I should have packed a lightweight long sleeve shirt.

Oh well.

When I arrived at Summit Lake, �DK� and Cam had already set up the tents. I took refuge with them until I felt I could survive the mosquitoes enough to throw up my tent. That�s what I did, and now it�s nearly dark. Time to sleep. Wonder how my body will feel tomorrow.

8/5/06
Trail Miles: ____ + 30.9
Elevation: 5820 ft

We woke up this morning around 10 am, something I rarely (if ever) did when I was out last time. But we were only hiking 13 miles today, so the timing is less of an issue.

The three of us filtered water and took off around 10:30. Leading them, I was soon off and hiking with Cooper. Cooper had abundant energy. He would go ahead, stop and come back to make sure I was still following. I tried to tell him that it was a waste of energy to go all that extra distance, but he ignored me. Oh well, it was fun to have him for company. If I ever seem to get a little more settled than I currently am, I might be inclined to get a dog, so that I can always have company when I hike.

With the exception of the company, today�s hike was quite similar to yesterdays. Uphill for the first half, downhill for the second half. While the scenery was less significant than yesterdays, it was still magnificent. The forests had minimal ground vegetation, leaving a very �brown� forest. I decided that I like this look. The shadows from the trees are more dramatic, and the random ground plants give nice splashes of green for effect.

Halfway through the day, I met a couple section hikers, or rather trail runners. With a strong support team, they were traveling extra light, and hitting around 30-40 miles a day, regularly.

At lunch I found the perfect reclining rock, where I sat and looked out at a view toward Cowhorn Mountain. Soon enough �DK� and Cam arrived. After lunch we had an afternoon siesta in the shade. The mosquitoes were finally down to a tolerable level, though I probably have well over 100 visible bites. Last year when I hiked, the mosquitoes were pretty much the same, or worse, however, the visible bite marks were less apparent of frequent. I think that being out for as long as I was, and being in a much healthier state, my body reacted quite differently to the bites.

Once lunch and siesta was done, we carried on. The trail went a few 100 feet further up to a saddle on the west side of Cowhorn Mountain, and then it dropped roughly 1500 feet over the next four miles.

Arriving at our destination, I took off my boots and ate a dinner, while I waited for the others to show up. After we all ate dinner, the hunt for water began. We were down to less than one liter each, and the tail guide said water was 0.1 miles east. We went about half a mile east before we decided to set up camp and figure it out in the morning.

As I lay here writing, a thru-hiker passed by and found the water. Se let us know hat it was flowing before she went on her way.

On a side note, it was nice experiencing a solid thunderstorm in the afternoon, but it naturally left me with wonders on whether ditching the rain gear at the last moment was a good decision.

Only time will tell.

8/6/06
Trail Miles: _____ + 30.9 miles
Elevation: 5400 ft.

The trail personified.

Once again, I miss this section of the PCT. Yes, I did make the decision, but in retrospect I am happy with my decision. At the road we could either follow the PCT or hike the road down and hitchhike to the car. We chose the latter. While the trip isn�t over yet, it was a good decision in retrospect. About a mile into the hike, my ankle started hurting drastically. I would be moving along just fine, when all of the sudden, shooting pain shot through the backside of my heal. I wonder if my body is telling me that I jumped to quickly into hike mode. It probably doesn�t help that I didn�t get a chance to break in my boots, but that�s another story. S we hiked about seven miles down the road. When we were taking a rest, I hitched a ride from someone to the car. It was very nice of him to do this, considering he was heading in the opposite direction.

Once I got to the truck, I returned to pick the others up. We went to Lomond Lake Resort, where we sat on the back porch drinking coffee and a beer. Over a game of cards, we discussed our plans.

The plan: Camp at the Mt. Thielsen trail head and see how the weather is in the morning. You see, shortly after I got to the car, it started raining off and on through the rest of the day. There was a decent thunderstorm, and the area is put on a high fire watch.

Well, being ever pack weight conscious, I scrapped the rain gear just before leaving. Only twice I have done this, and both times it has rained. Fortunately I was not up in the mountains, miserable and wet.

After resting a bit at the resort, we returned to the trail head. We set our tents up, and climbed into Cam�s tent before the rain really started coming down. The downpour wasn�t too heavy, but I am quite happy that I didn�t have to hike in the rain.

So back to �The Trail Personified�

Last year, at Mt. Thielsen, I was offered a chance to summit Mt. Thielsen. I declined to push more miles into my day. Well the trail had its way. I was miserable, lost, and with broken gear, so I turned around, and went to Bend. (See journal #25, for a fun recount of the events)

This time, I made the decision to reroute our hike so that we would have time to hike Mt. Thielsen. Apparently, I must summit Mt. Thielsen before I am permitted to fully pass its western side.

The result of last years turning back brought me to some wonderful people, and I have no regrets. This time I will have no regrets, because I have been able to change my plans around to include the summit. Furthermore, it gave �DK� and Cam a bit of a PCT experience, in the sense that a road is a tempting �out,� a means to get to a relaxing spot, and a decision point. It seems that in retrospect of last year�s hike, many roads led to many side adventures, which are inherent to my fond (and not so fond) memories of y PCT quest.

And while I can rationalize this all I want, and personify the trail all I want, the fact of the matter is, I still have just less than 20 miles of Oregon that I have missed. But, the trail says I must first summit Mt. Thielsen. I will get those miles in one of these days. Until then, I will conquer Mt. Thielsen and earn my right of passage.

8/20/06
Trail Miles: ____ + 30.9 miles
Elevation: ??

Mission Accomplished.

Well at least one of them. While I still have around 20 miles of Oregon left to do, I have summitted Mt. Thielsen, and earned my right of passage over that segment of the trail.

I did not get to writing this journal entry until many days after I the hike, so the details are vague, but I need to finish the journal entry and get it online.

It rained over night, so we decided to leave our tents up to dry while we followed the summit trail up Mt. Thielsen. The hike was a relatively easy four mile hike up to the crossing of the PCT and the Mt. Thielsen �Lightening Rod� Trail, where I met the four �Peak Baggers� last year. �DK� hiked mostly by himself up, while Cam and I leisurely strolled up. I taught her one of the songs from when I was a young kid at Outdoor School. We hiked along making up our own verses to the song, covering everything under the sun, that probably would not really be appropriate for sixth graders, or even make sense to many people, but it was fun, nonetheless.

I woke early to the sounds of other �Peak Baggers� passing on their way up. It was a group of six. Three of the group were high school girls who have the goal of hitting all the major summits in the Cascade Range. So far they have hit South Sister, Three Fingered Jack, and some others I don�t remember. When I finish on my long distance backpacking ventures (if ever), I have a similar goal. I am interested in hitting the highest peak in all 50 states. I, however, don�t know if I will ever get around to that.

We hit the trail crossing, and met this party of six. They had been sitting up there waiting for the weather to get better to make the summit a better experience. We took second breakfast and started up. I left my backpack behind with Cam and Cooper, who decided not to make the venture up. It was a good decision too. I don�t know if Cooper would have been able to manage the climb. The trail is called the �Lightening Rod� trail because it goes nearly straight up. Frequently I was on all fours grabbing hold of rocks to make the climb easier.

I was the seventh person started up the mountain in the morning, and the first to reach the summit, well sort of. The party of six took a long break, and I did not actually go all the way to the top. The last 80 feet is rated as a class 5.1 climb. Not being much of a rock climber, I did not tempt fate with climbing the last 80 feet. The summit was around 9100 feet. The other party made it up, and roped up for the final ascent. �DK� arrived shortly thereafter. We watched the other party climb a bit before heading down.

We were offered the opportunity to use their ropes, but I did not want to take up their time, or make them feel slightly responsible for me if I were to screw up. Besides, the thrill is in the climb, not the actual summit for me. Clouds had obscured all of the views, so the view from the top would have been just looking into a cloud. I had that from where I was already.

On the descent, I lost the trail. I took �DK� a couple hundred yards in the wrong direction on loose scree. His shoes were filling up with rocks, and he was a little upset with me. I realized my mistake and turned back. An error due to a conflict between my intuition and internal compass caused this short side trip, which I actually enjoyed.

We made our way back to where Cam was waiting for us. She had already started down the mountain. We caught up with her when she found something on the side of the trail. It was a letter box. Someone set up these boxes with �journals� in them. She then set them in waterproof containers all around the place. This particular one had signatures and notes from people who had found it and hid it. We each signed it and rehid the box.

Back down to the car, we finished packing up and headed home.

We stopped in Eugene to hang out with �Boone.� He let us crash at his place for the night, so we took him out to dinner. Then we went back to his place and played some cards until late in the evening. In the morning we wandered around Eugene for a short bit before heading back to Portland.

Once we arrived back at Portland, I found a little �present� in the mailbox. �Whistler� and �H� had put together a DVD of the PCT class of 2005 photos. The three of us watched the DVD, which reminded me again why I love the trail so much. Originally I was planning to go back and finish the trail next summer, but after watching the DVD, I have the desire to take another stab at the whole trail in 2008.

Only time will tell.

Happy Trails, Inner Peace, & Harmony
As always, I am hiking for Cherryville Heartsongs.
Email me to find out how you can help this organization, or check out my website for details on Cherryville Heartsongs