Oregon

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Oregon welcomed me with a torrential rain storm. While not ideal for camping, I was happy that the rain cleaned the air from wildfire smoke and I hoped that it also helped keeping the current fires at bay.

Welcome To Oregon


I waited out most of the rain at Callahan’s Mountain Lodge which is located right on the trail. The lodge has an excellent restaurant and I decided to have a nice dinner to celebrate hiking through California and making it to Oregon.


Real Food…


The heatwave was finally over and temperatures in the next few days were perfect for hiking. My heat blisters healed up quickly. Breathing cooler air and hiking through lush green forest felt amazing after the heat in California.


Pilot Rock

First visual highlights of this section were the lava beds of Mount McLoughlin and of course the views of the almost perfect cone for of this volcano.

Mt. McLoughlin 

I entered Sky Lakes Wilderness and took another detour to hike through the beautiful mountain lakes, camp at Trapper Lake and finally go for a swim and rinse my hiking clothes.


Sometimes I go 2 weeks without shower, but there are lakes and rivers…

Blending In

The undisputed highlight of Southern Oregon is Crater Lake, which I reached next.  I had visited here before, but was still blown away by the sheer size of the crater. I hiked the Rim Trail which runs parallel to the official PCT, but is a lot more scenic. 


Crater Lake


The National Park has a post office and I picked up my next supply package with the food for the upcoming section. My friends had added a colorful surprise that I fixed to my backpack.

Resupply With Surprise!

The trail was closed for a brief section for another fire and I wasn’t going to see Mt. Thielsen up close, but was still able to get a good view from a distance.

A Storm Is Brewing…


I was able to hitchhike around the closure in only one hour, so I could still hike a few hours to beautiful Rosary Lakes where I camped for the night.

Lower Rosary Lake


I was rudely awakened by rain in my face. Like many nights before I had only put up my bug net as I didn’t expect rain that night. I quickly draped my tarp over the net and hoped this would sufficiently protect me. The following day brought two thunderstorms and ended the period of carefree camping. I set up the full tent from that day on.


Day after day the vegetation became a little more familiar. The trees started to have Beard Lichen, moss-like organisms that are very common in the Pacific Northwest. 

Looks Like Home

As I entered the Three Sisters Wilderness I started to see glimpses of Mt Bachelor, the Le Conte Crater as well as the three volcanoes that gave this wilderness area it’s name. I was now in weekend travel range from Seattle and these familiar sights gave me a rush of fresh energy.

Le Conte Crater

I needed this energy to hike across the immense lava beds that connect the Le Conte Crater, the Three Sisters and Mt. Washington. These were very scenic hiking days.

The Sisters And Mt. Washington 

There was a small area called the Obsidian Special Entry Zone that requires a specific permit (included with the PCT permit). There I found an incredible amount of enormous obsidian rocks glistening in the sun.


Obsidian 

Just before getting to Santiam Pass I reached another big milestone, 2000 PCT miles. Well, not quite at that point. While my mileage was way ahead for most of the trail due to my extensive side trips in the prior regions of the PCT, especially the Sierra Nevada, I was now a little behind due to the two fire closures that I could not hike around. 


PCT Miles I could not hike:

McKinney Fire closure: 110 miles

Windigo Fire Closure: 60 miles


Additional miles I hiked:

San Jacinto Mtns: 10 miles

Sierra Nevada: 120 miles

Oregon: 10 miles


Shortly after Santiam Pass I hiked around the Lionshead Fire closure in the Mt. Jefferson area. This was a 42 mile hike to cover the 20 closed PCT miles. So now there is only a difference of 8 miles between the miles I hiked and the official PCT miles.

Walking The Long Road

Despite the detour I was able to get a few nice views of Mt. Jefferson.

Mt. Jefferson 


The walk around was mainly on roads and went through some areas that were badly damaged by the fire. 


The small town of Detroit, OR had been badly damaged too, but was now hustling and bustling with rebuilding activities.

The Other Detroit


I eagerly anticipated the next highlight of the hike: Mt. Hood. I had hiked the Timberline Trail around this volcano the year before with my friends Adrien, Chris and Rob. It felt really good to see the mountain again. A big step closer to home and to Canada. Winter may be coming, but I had a good chance to get to the end of the PCT before any serious snowfall.


Hello Again, Mt. Hood!


I decided to camp near Timberline Lodge to enjoy a few drinks in the evening and the excellent breakfast buffet in the morning.


Beautiful Timberline Lodge

As I hiked along a portion of the Timberline Trail, wildflowers made a big comeback. 




As Mt. Hood slowly moved into the background as I hiked on, three of the Washington volcanoes made an appearance, Mt. Adams, St. Helens and Rainier!

St. Helens, Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams (left to right)


I was getting more and more excited to reach Cascade Locks and make it across the Columbia River into my home state of Washington! The only thing slowing me down as I was hiking along the Bull Run Reservoir, a major source of drinking water for the City of Portland, were the ripe berries that popped up everywhere along the trail. Hiker hunger is real and needs to be satisfied!


Thimble Berries

Huckleberries

Salmon Berries


Comments

  1. Alex BAugust 24, 2022 at 5:45 AM

    Finish line not insight but much closer. I hope you enjoyed those lamb chops..2000 and counting.. Keep it going Buddy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. PTSeptember 4, 2022 at 6:56 AM

    Good luck for the remaining miles! You will make it.

    ReplyDelete

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