Returning to the Pacific Crest Trail

About fifty years earlier, my mom dropped brother Bill and I off near Cascade Locks, and we hiked south for two weeks.  Now it was brother Scott's turn to hike the trail.  C and I were going along for the section from near Timothy Lake, south of Mount Hood, southbound to Santiam Pass.

And away we went.

The random start of our PCT hike had well developed signage.

Crossing the 500 kilowatt line, S was ecstatic.  The trail here seems more used than the road.

Whiskey you're the devil
You're leading me astray
Over hills and mountains
And to Amerikay
You're sweetness from the Bleachner
And spunkier than tea
Oh whiskey you're my darling drunk or sober

--The Clancy Brothers

Over or under logs can be perplexing.  Here, S demonstrates the butt scoot.

Olallie Lake.  The woman at the store said there were fewer thru-hikers, but more people from Oregon just getting away from it all.

Burned areas provide lots of opportunities for fireweed to express itself.

"Hey, I've got three bars."  Scenery is neglected.

Pensiveness at Breitenbush Lake.

Trampling the vegetation is what we do best!

Almost need crampons and ice axe.

Louie the Dog, with his handlers Patrice and John.  It was a chance meeting at the high point of the trip.  They were doing about the same route we were, only northbound.

Mount Jefferson was named for the second US President to be a slave-owner.  The Native American name for the mountain is Seekseekqua.

Seekseekqua near "Jefferson" Park.  Mt. Jefferson was named by the two white guy leaders of the Lewis and Clark expedition, one of who owned a slave, York, that was also on the expedition.  Lewis and Clark hired a French-Canadian fur trapper, who seemed to have purchased his wife, Sacajawea, from some Lakota Indians who had stolen her from her family.  This shouldn't be a pretty story, if history was written by the losers.

C crossing the mighty Russel Creek.

Camp in the boulders along Milk Creek.

Strolling the Pacific Crest Trail in the Mount Jefferson Wilderness Area.

Two of the Tree Sisters on the left, Three-Finger Jack on the right.

Tranquility at Rockpile Lake, just before the big wind.

Camp on the edge of Rockpile Lake.  View from the summit of Rockpile Mountain.

Partridgefoot (Luetkea pectinata).

Snags from the B&B wildfire of 2003.

Looking towards the Pacific Ocean.

Image of Seekseekqua.

C contemplates life above Wasco Lake, while dormant volcano Black Butte waits patiently.

Three-finger Jack looms over the intrepid hikers.

One of many switchbacks.

Broken Top, North and Middle Sister, Mount Washington (named after the first slave-owning US President).

The final few kilometers thru the 2003 B&B wildfire.

It was a good six days and 72 miles.  There wasn't much that had changed in fifty years--the mountains were still there, the streams, the canyons, the wildflowers.  There may have been more people on the trail this time, which we have grown to expect, what with all the human breeding going on.

The gear was much better this time.  We could afford better gear, and the clothing was all quick-dry synthetic garments, not the all cotton clothes of fifty years ago.

A good time was had by all.

Three Heathers, Three Counties

Four days of backpacking in the southeast section of the Eagle Cap Wilderness Area on the last days of July and first days of August proved to be the perfect prescription to avoiding any coronavirus.

We left from the Summit trailhead and headed north along the 1885 trail.  Maybe that was the year the trail was built, but chances are it was a random number the Forest Service assigned to the trail.  Past the base of Cornucopia Peak, beyond the junction to Pine Lakes, through scree and talus.

Z pushes across the scree.

The view of East Eagle.

Water flowing from the north side of Krag Peak.

Fleeceflower fields.

Looking across Cliff Creek.

Camp was set up in an unused meadow northeast of Crater Lake.  Day two had us day hiking through seemingly endless benches, cirques, meadows and alpine areas to the ridges between South Imnaha, Cliff Creek and East Eagle Creek.  Flowers and elk were too many to count, but the number of people was less than one.

Sunset over an unnamed lake.

Unnamed basins....

Running with the elk.

Steve ridge-bags.

Words fail to describe the fragrance of lupine

Phlox.

Checking out the point where three counties converge:  Baker, Union, and Wallowa, we noted the occurrence of three species of heathers in the region.

At the approximate point of the three counties, each person is in a different county.  No survey marker was present, and the map said the county lines were undefined.

White heather (Cassiope mertensiana).

Pink mountain-heather (Phyllodoce empetriformis).

Yellow mountain-heather (Phyllodoce glanduliflora).

Day three had our intrepid explorers checking out the headwaters of the unnamed creek north of Krag Peak, and up to the ridge looking into the Crater Lake region.  Nothing could go wrong, at least not until the descent, when one member of the party slipped, landing on one wrist, and injuring the bones.  Not serious enough for a medical-evacuation, but serious enough to start the hike back to the trailhead.

Krag Peak looms over another unnamed lake.

The intrepid explorers with their backs to Red Mountain.

The last unnamed water feature before the ridge

The unnamed mountain on the ridge between Crater Lake and Pine Lakes.

The obligatory ungulate picture (mountain goat that I later heard some men say they saw some sheep, "as white as a polar bear"), above Crater Lake.

Returning to camp we decided it might be best to hike out, or at least get a little closer to the trailhead, in case the injured party should get worse.  We packed up and headed to Schneider Cabin, which would leave us an easy five kilometers the next morning.

Strolling back was uneventful.

The area around Schneider Cabin was our last campsite.   It was a place for domestic livestock to hang out at as well.

The view back from whence we came...

Everything turned out fine.  The injured party went to the emergency room of the local hospital, had x-rays taken, and was provided a brace for the wrist.  There may have been a hairline fracture, but the images were inconclusive.  A good time was had by all (until the injury).