Section 20 - Willamette Pass to Sisters
August 9
27 miles. I got a late start from Shelter Cove Resort
after morning coffee and cereal with cream-- or rather
cream with cereal. 3 days to Bend.
I crossed Willamette Pass by the ski area and headed
up the hill. It was a gorgeous cool morning. The lichen
lay like cobwebs on the trees and sunlight glistened off
last night's rain. The PCT is also a winter cross country
ski trail and in a few miles I saw why. The trail angled
up to beautiful Lower, Middle, and Upper Rosary Lakes.
The lakes were lovely in summer and would be fun to ski
to in winter. I found the Norwegians eating breakfast
and I stopped to chat for a few minutes before hiking
on.
The trail ascended to a saddle and soon disappeared into
the deep forest, not to emerge for most of the day. In
the late afternoon I had a few obstructed views of the
peaks in the Three Sisters Wilderness. I'll be there in
a couple of days.
I stopped for dinner at Irish Lake at the boundary of
the Three Sisters Wilderness. The mosquitoes were beyond
voracious. I donned my nylon headnet, jacket, and pants
and tried to ignore the insidious sound. I cooked dinner
and was ready to eat when I discovered that I'd lost my
spoon--probably in the carton of cream this morning. Damn.
The thought of slurping boiling noodles from the pot with
my tongue was less than appealing. I looked for a spoon-shaped
piece of bark. No luck. I rummaged through my pack and
found an empty 2-ounce plastic margarine bottle. With
a little engineering and some duct tape, a perfect spoon.
The surgery succeeded--despite a slipped scalpel and a
cut to my thumb--and I ate in civilized style.
I'm camped tonight at shallow, warm Jezebel Lake. If
I'd gotten here earlier and the mosquitoes weren't so
hungry I would have loved to go for a wade. Thunder and
lightning herald an approaching storm but I'm horizontal
and under cover.
A few minutes ago I heard footsteps outside my tent.
Definitely not human but something large and potentially
annoying. I yelled "Hey!" and looked out the
netting to see a...toad. A double-bacon-cheeseburger-sized
toad. It looked at me; I looked at it. A toad??? I yelled
"Hey!" again and it hopped, or plopped, away--the
ground shuddering under its oversized girth. I felt a
little sheepish, or toadish, about my prior concern.
I'm alone but Brian and the Norwegians are not far behind.
Tomorrow I should reach the South Sister.
August 10
30 miles. A flat, deeply forested hike for the first 20
miles, broken only by shallow lakes amid the lichen-covered
hemlocks. Every mile was the same as the last; every mosquito
as hungry as the next.
After 20 miles, the trail ascended a ridge--Koosah Mountain--and
I got my first unobstructed view of the Sisters peaks.
The summits of the South Sister and Mt. Bachelor extended
into the clouds but Broken Top was clear. The bases of
other peaks were visible too but I could not identify
them.
After dinner at Sisters Mirror Lake, I hiked across beautiful
Wickiup Plain, a high meadow at the base of South Sister.
The snow had cleared only a day or two before. A gathering
storm hastened my pace and I wished the sky had been clear
because the view of South Sister would have been incredible.
I'm camped at the base of South Sister, just above Mesa
Creek. I set up my tent just as another thunderstorm rolled
in, loaded with large hail, heavy rain and lots of lightning
strikes. Brian just walked in and is camped a few feet
away.
The snow is only just gone from most of this area. A
week earlier and I would spent much of the last 50 miles
on snow. Tomorrow I traverse the rest of the Sisters on
my way to McKenzie Pass.
August 11
20 miles. A tough, snowy hike to McKenzie Pass. I only
saw the trail for the first few hundred feet and the last
5 miles. The final two miles of trail was a lava field
and I came off the last rocky switchback to see my friends
Darcy and Joel waiting for me by the side of Highway 242.
I was very happy and relieved to see them.
The morning dawned cool, damp, and cloudy--a
Northwest morning. I got up late, mistakenly unconcerned
about the relatively short hike. Darcy and Joel were meeting
me at 3:45 and I had 8 hours to get there. No problem.
A few hundred feet up the trail I thought differently.
Several feet of snow buried the terrain above 6,000 feet.
The trail hugged the base of South, Middle, and North
Sister at over 6,000 feet for 15 miles. The minutes turned
to hours and I thrashed across the slopes, increasingly
concerned that I would arrive hours late. High on the
slopes below North Sister, I crossed a steep lava field
in search of the trail. I found it, or likely one of the
many unmapped side trails, and followed it into a cinder
cone field behind Collier Cone. The cinder field was even
slower going than the snow fields below. At one point
I sat down on the field, totally frustrated by my lack
of progress, and yelled "!@#$%&*!!!" I felt
better, got up, and continued on.
At 3:15, I finally dropped below the snowline and found
the trail again. 5 miles to go, 1/2 hour to get there.
I ran the rest of the way and got there 20 minutes late.
Darcy, Joel, and I went to dinner tonight at the Deschutes
Brewery in downtown Bend. The Black Butte Porter on tap
was outstanding. I had two, along with some bread, onion
rings, swordfish, vegetables, rice, and a cheeseburger.
We walked across the street after dinner and I had a coffee
milkshake to wash it down. Life is good.
Tomorrow my mom flies up from the Bay Area and I'll go
with her to Black Butte Ranch to see longtime family friends,
the Rimmers, and relax for a day or so
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