July 14, 2016

Six Horse Springs Junction (mile 1869.6) to Diamond View Lake (Oregon Skyline Trail mile 15.7)

Miles: 21.8 (6.1 PCT miles + 15.7 miles on the OST)

Our campsite was in a little fortress of trees and logs. While it was cozy, the probability of rodent visitors was high. We both slept with ear plugs to drown out noises of critters that live in, under and around logs.

We woke up at 7 am. We felt like we were living in luxury, waking up naturally and taking our time to get ready. These are some of the perks of hiking alone. We are not accountable to anyone other than ourselves.

The night before we had decided to dial it back a bit. Our bodies were not liking the 24 mile hiking days and we constantly felt tired. We opted to slow down to 20 miles per day and take the Oregon Skyline Trail today, which would take us directly to Shelter Cove, provide more frequent access to water and save a total of 10 miles.

The PCT option near Diamond Peak was supposed to be covered in snow for 3 to 4 miles. At this point lakes sounded better than snow covered trail.

The mosquitoes were out and waiting for us to emerge from the tent. Andy’s clothing is baggy but since women’s clothing is more form fitting, Laurie gets bitten through her bug shirt and pants.

She put on rain pants and her raincoat to add another layer of protection for the 10 minutes it took to disassemble our home.

Just before we left Laurie took off her rain pants and rain coat and started wiggling around while telling the mosquitoes to stay away. No bites, wahoo!

We started walking at 8 am, one of our latest starts on this entire hike. The mosquito swarm followed us as we hiked. We attempted to eat breakfast (a bar) and drink water as we walked since movement seemed to be the only thing that kept them at reasonable levels.

Within 10 minutes of leaving camp we encountered about 15 down logs in a half mile segment. Some of these trunks were so large we couldn’t straddle them.

This is thru hiking.

No matter the trail conditions or weather, you just keep hiking.

These days it never feels like simple backpacking. There is always some added challenge – whether it is snow, heat, mosquitoes, rain, blowdowns or a combination of two or more.

We miss the simple trail in the desert. At least there the challenges (lack of water mostly) were predictable.

We suppose these lessons in living and continuing despite discomforts is good practice for life. As we all know, life doesn’t go as we plan, despite our wishes that it would.

We wandered six miles through the forest, catching brief glimpses through the trees to other ridges and some snow capped mountains.

When we are not dodging blown downs or swatting at mosquitoes, the walking is pleasant. The ground is soft and the bird songs are calming. The monotony of the forest offers time to look within for entertainment.

At one point Laurie stopped to go to the bathroom. The mosquitoes swarmed so badly that Andy had to come over and rub her legs to keep them from biting as she wiped. Now that is true love!

At Windigo junction we veered off the PCT for a 20 mile alternate on the Oregon Skykine Trail. We walked down a forest service road for 0.6 miles before cutting off on a string of trails.

Immediately the density of the forest decreased. With the increased sunlight, the number of mosquitoes decreased. For the first time all day, we walked without our headnets.

By the number of tire tracks, the trail appeared to be a popular mountain biking route. This worked in our favor since all the down trees had been cut. It was glorious walking 9 miles without the start and stop required to step over, under or around logs.

Around noon we took a short side trail to Oldenberg Lake to get water. With one glance at the lake Laurie decided she was going for a swim.

The water was surprisingly warm and felt good on her aching knee. Andy waded in to clean himself off. It was very refreshing and lifted our spirits.

We ate lunch as we dried off, watching dragonflies fly around us.

We cruised along, enjoying the clear trail and mostly downhill and flat walking. As we neared Cresecent Lake we left the trail in search of a spigot.

We first went to a group camp but there was no faucet. We continued on the road to a day use picnic area. Unfortunately there was no faucet there either, but there was a huge lake staring at us we could get water from.

Andy got water from the shore as Laurie went swimming, again. The beach was sandy and the water clear. It looked almost like a tropical beach, minus the palm trees.

Crescent Lake was so pretty it was hard to leave. So we didn’t. We had cheese, crackers and lime flavored water for happy hour and then dragged ourselves back to the trail around 5pm.

The first 3 miles were nice. Again the blow downs had been recently cut and the walking, although uphill, was easy. After 3 miles though, the trail became a maze.

“Maybe these trees blew down after the trail crews had gone through” Andy told Laurie.

We wound our way around and over logs, slowly making our way to camp.

As we neared Diamond View Lake we ran into Derek, the first northbound hiker we have seen in 2 days. Ten minutes later we approached a campsite with 3 tents, one of which we recognized.

It was Speed!

He crawled out to give us each a hug and hung out as we made dinner. It was nice to see Speed again. We had become a trail family and it had felt different these past 4 days hiking alone.

The mosquitoes were fiesty. There were less near the lake so we stood on the shore to eat. It wasn’t very comfortable standing to eat but we didn’t want to lift our headnets anywhere else.

We chatted with Speed, Katie and Boone (Speed’s friends) and made a plan to hike out to Shelter Cove together in the morning.

We all retreated to our tents to get away from the mozzies. The moon is bright and the air is getting cooler. Today turned into an awesome day with two dips in Oregon lakes and reuniting with friends.

Tonight we are grateful for clear trail and swim-able lakes.

July 13, 2016

Bushcamp (mile 1845.4) to Six Horse Spring Junction (mile 1869.6)

Miles: 24.2

Our total miles: 1463.3

We both slept soundly despite being 0.1 mile from highway 138. It was a cold night. Laurie woke up at 5 am but was too cold to leave the warmth of her sleeping bag. She fell back asleep and around 6:30 Andy woke up and encouraged us both to start moving.

We were walking by 7:20 am. The air was chilly and best of all there were no mosquitoes!

We walked about a mile into the Mt Thielson Wilderness.

“Oh no, not another wilderness” remarked Laurie. Given our experiences the last 2 weeks, “wilderness” means no power tools and thus no chainsaws.

Basically, we anticipate more blow downs in wilderness areas because it requires more effort and expertise to cut the downed trees.

We were pleasantly surprised by clear trail. We gradually climbed, sneaking peaks of Diamond Lake through the trees.

At the junction we met 2 women who were on a day hike to Mt Thielson. We chatted for a while and they very generously gave us snacks. Once hearing that the summit was only 1-2 miles from the junction, we were tempted to join them. Andy, once again, was the voice of reason reminding her that we still had a long day ahead of us.

About 30 minutes later we were so happy with our decision. The trail disappeared into a field of snow. We followed footsteps, some of which led us to the next clear stretch of trail and some led us astray. We used GPS to reorient when needed but it was slow going and tiresome.

Eventually we hit Thielson Creek where we got water for the next 16 miles.

Those next 16 were more of the same – forest, mosquitoes and down trees blocking the trail.

We reached the high point in Oregon and Washington around lunch time. Surprisingly the high point was an open Meadow. We sat by a tree and enjoyed a brief lunch before the mosquitoes drove us back to the trail.

It was a hard afternoon.

Laurie’s right knee has been hurting since Crater Lake. As a result of an old soccer injury she doesn’t have any cartilage in the lateral compartment of her knee.

The 24 mile days and frequent stepping down and over slippery and unstable surfaces had taken its toll. Laurie had hoped a zero would make everything better, but it hadn’t.

Being in pain and worried about the long term consequences of continuing to hike weighed heavily on her mind and heart.

“I don’t want to stop, but I want to be able to walk when I am 35.”

Andy was not without pain either. His feet were hurting, particularly his left arch. Laurie, being a physical therapist, is knowledgeable about the body which is helpful but sometimes too much knowledge can be detrimental.

Laurie worries about shin splints and plantar fasciitis on a regular basis.

The mosquitoes were out in full force. Whenever we stopped to refill our Platypus bladders 50 or so mozzies would swarm and land.

Laurie was miserable.

She was bitten through her insect repellant shirt and scratched her way down the last few miles to camp.

We got to camp at 6:50 pm and immediately put on our rainpants and rain coats as additional armor.

Laurie crawled in the tent to make home and organize food for the next day while Andy walked 0.8 miles round trip to get water.

Today was hard. We are tired and moral is low. Hopefully a good nights rest will help our aching bodies and tomorrow will be a better day.

Tonight we are grateful for reliable springs and snacks from friendly day hikers.

July 12, 2016

Rim Village to bushcamp (mile 1845.4)

Miles: 18 via Crater Lake Alternate Trail

Our total mileage: 1439.1

We thought it would be fun to see sunrise at Crater Lake. However, once we saw that sunrise was at 5:41 am, we changed our minds.

We had a nice morning which started with tea and hot chocolate in bed courtesy of Joanna. The next few hours were filled with last minute town items and packing and repacking our backpacks, and the car.

We got to Crater Lake around 9 am. We stopped first at the Mazama store and then the campground in search of hikers. Joanna had a trunk full of trail magic and we were in search of hungry souls.

Unfortunately with the inclement cold weather and the fact that we were ahead of the pack, there were not that many hikers around.

We found the PCT specific campsites and filled a bear box with crackers, soda, beer, brownies and pie. It will be a wonderful surprise for those that arrive today. Thank you Joanna and Karen for making many hikers’ day!

We drove up to the Rim Village, took a few more pictures and hugged goodbye. Saying goodbye is usually very hard for Laurie and she felt tears streaming down her face as we walked away. They were tears of love, gratitude and sadness in one salty mixture.

Laurie experiences a moment of let down after a much anticipated event. We had been looking forward to Joanna’s visit for weeks and now it was over. It was wonderful spending time with her and, like all of our Nero and zeros, it felt like a whirlwind.

On top of the emotions of goodbye, we both felt exhausted. No matter how much we feel we accomplished, there is always more on the to do list. It is like we are trying to cram a weeks worth of responsibility and tasks into 24 hours.

Zeros are supposed to be rest days but they quickly turn into “get it done” days.

It feels like we live in 2 worlds: trail and town. Switching between the 2 worlds is exhausting. It takes time to adjust on both ends, the desire to veg is contrasted with the need to do laundry, clean water filters and organize our resupply. All of which makes our time in town even shorter. Once back on the trail our minds continue to race, creating to do lists for the next time we have service or get into town.

It is a constant struggle to just be – whether on the trail, sitting in a laundramat or sorting through 5 days worth of food.

The trail from the Rim Village took us up and down along the spectacular Crater Lake Rim trail. With every glimpse we were amazed and in awe of the deep blue color.

After a few miles we turned north and ran into snow. Some sections were easy to navigate but others were steeply graded and if one were to slip it would be a long way down to the road.

After about 6 miles we turned away from the lake and headed down into the valley. We stopped for a late lunch and found that we had service. We ordered new shoes for Laurie before continuing down a long and flat descent complicated by down trees.

We walked under the shields of our headnets into the evening light. We got into camp at 7:15, ate dinner and quickly fell asleep.

Tonight we are grateful for our tent providing protection from the mosquitos and natural wonders.