Oregon PCT 2016: Day 6

Still plenty of downed trees

I awoke super early on day 6 hoping to get back on schedule. I had taken one or two short days (under 20 miles) due to downed trees and snow. Now it was time to get back on track to finish the state in under 20 days! I said adios to Burl and headed off at a good clip right after sunrise.

Not much snow

Baby trees

It was a beautiful morning and I sailed down the trail through a big burn area. It was cool looking at all the baby trees and flowers growing up from the ashes! After hiking about 10 miles, I tried stopping at a water source called "Jack Spring". Unfortunately, the spring was quite a ways off trail... and the connecting trail was pretty much impossible to see due to new vegetation and downed trees. But I thought I could follow anything that looked like a trail. Even if it were a deer trail, it would  likely lead down to the water source. Unfortunately, I was wrong...

Big burn!

Wildflowers

Lone wolf mountain

Like I said, big burn...

After wandering about 20 minutes or so down to where I though the spring would be, I found myself basically lost. There was no trail, no water, and everything looked basically the same. I felt pretty dumb about my choices for a little while... one does not go wandering about off trail to "feel" their way someplace. Also, it is a bad idea to "feel" your way back. I stupidly did that for another 20 minutes and got all turned around.

Mounts Maude, Ethel, and Ruth

In the end, nothing worked until I took a breath and made myself use a map and compass. I ended up taking a heading almost straight north through the woods without a trail. Here the burn helped me out quite a bit because I didn't have to climb over much more than downed trees. I finally came to a hill, climbed it, and was able to locate myself on the map using the topography around me. After a short break, I set a course back to the trail, locating it in about 15 minutes. My dumb navigational choices had cost me about 1.5 hours of time, giving Burls plenty of time to catch up. In fact, he hiked around the corner not long after I had found the trail again.

Lost the trail...

...and the snow returns...

Trail through the trees...

Crater lake, here we come!

After about an hour of hiking together, Burl and I saw a bear cub climbing a tree just off the trail. Unfortunately, we were both too close to the bear and felt it was wiser to hike on than stop for a picture and we didn't want to be attacked by a protective mother.

Union Peak

All was going well and we were making good time. It seemed like we had seen the worst of things but the trail was not done with us yet! It turned out that Devil's Peak was not the only place covered in large amounts of snow. As we approached Crater Lake, we came across large amounts of snow and lost the trail many times. It turned out that Burl had a great navigation app on his phone for just such an occasion so we worked our way across the snow and eventually down to the road!

Lots of snow to cover the path

...and tons more snow.

A small glimpse of the trail

Almost to the road

Road walking

We road-walked about a quarter mile down to the Crater Lake campground. There, we checked into a hiker campsite (with no parking spot) and went to a big dinner at the nearby restaurant. We both realized that the trail was way more difficult than we had originally thought. I knew that I would not likely make it to the Columbia River by my deadline. We were not sure about continuing and decided to sleep on it. Just as we finished dinner, another hiker ran into the restaurant and was denied seating because he was about 3 minutes late. He was heartbroken! But we gave him leftovers and showed him where to camp.

Crater lake picking up my food!

Mmmmm... a bathroom.

Trail to hiker campsites

Hiker campsites

As we got to bed, we discussed plans for the rest of the trail and compared stories from the trail. I had hiked about 17 miles, much less than planned. But I was happy to be there and in good company. We would enjoy a day off the next day as well all discussed future plans!

Good night!