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briham89
Big Wall climber
santa cruz, ca
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Jul 17, 2016 - 06:28pm PT
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Aside from the wet it looked like a great few sections.
For some reason I want pancakes now...
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 17, 2016 - 06:54pm PT
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For some reason I want pancakes now...
Yes, you would.
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Flip Flop
climber
Earth Planet, Universe
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Jul 17, 2016 - 07:05pm PT
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This thread rules!
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Jul 17, 2016 - 07:30pm PT
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are you sure you are only 56 miles from the Pass?
how can you be so sure?
;)
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 15, 2016 - 06:56pm PT
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We're back home now from Oregon. I started another trip report on Mudn'Crud under the title:
"In Another State"
Here are the first two days (it's gonna take a while on this report; we hiked for - I think - 12 days):
What a great final trip for the 2016 PCT season. We finished in another state. And I finished in one too.
Tuesday, August 2:
Tricia and Vicki got back from Girl Scout Camp two days before this trip's Monday departure (while there, Tricia spent eight days backpacking with her group of girls, Vicki was a camp counselor).
After that much rest time, it was probably time to take off to THE trail again. We allowed a whole day for the drive, knowing that our "success" in our endeavor is making the drive longer and longer each time (but the drive isn't as long yet as it used to be to San Diego County!). Four of us start out on this trip; 11 year old Alex has joined us again (although to all of our disappointment, Steve and Laura can't go).
From a map, Mount Ashland Campground looks like a central, perfect place to stay for our first few nights. It's very windy when we get there though and the campground is dusty and not flat. Still the views are fantastic; from our campsite one can see Mounts Shasta, Eddy, and Ashland. The interstate is visible below, and regionally significant Pilot Rock can easily be seen ten or so miles to the east (here are three morning photos):
Naturally our first hike would start at Wards Fork Gap (where we left off last time). Twenty miles of dirt roads made for a slow, hour and a half drive out from camp:
The 20 mile drive parallelled and criss-crossed the PCT (they stay close all the way to Interstate 5). Since Vicki had to drive that same road back to our pick-up point, we decided that she'd wait for us periodically at crossings while we hiked. This meant that we got to hike packless:
The Dawsons spent a lot of time hiking (and climbing) with us when Alex was young (and they do now too). I like to think that my two girls played a significant role in making him the hiking fiend that he's now become (and I've grown proud of his hiking prowess). Yet, in the sometimes strange ways of the world, helping make him and my girls become excellent hikers, means that, on most hikes, I'm relegated to one of these two views (yes, I am their leader):
Our gentle uphill hike passed through Donomore Meadow:
And then we got there. Ten years in the making. Well over half of Tricia's lifetime. Always a thought in the back of our minds. California/Oregon, the border. We entered another state:
Tricia did a journal entry (and we found other entries blunt and funny):
Vicki walked down a quarter mile from the first PCT/road crossing to share this much-anticipated moment with us:
The rest of the hike involved gentle up and downs, mostly in the open, sometimes in the forest:
The open parts of the hiking gave us nice views. From the north moving clockwise/right, we saw the city of Medford:
Mount McLoughlin (which we first saw from much farther south in June with it's mantel of fresh snow):
Mount Ashland:
Mounts Shasta and Eddy (and Black Butte between them):
The Marble Mountains and Preston Peak:
We met Vicki again at Wrangle Gap, and then again at Siskiyou Gap:
I stopped to take photos and for another reason and the kids… they left me in the dust, a quarter of a mile behind:
Just past Siskiyou Gap we passed a second PCT milestone, the 1,700 mile mark (two fun points on the trail in one day!):
Tricia seemed proud to have reached now 1,700 miles from Mexico:
We then met Vicki at yet another Road 20/PCT crossing to end the first day, a nice start to what may be our final trip this year:
Wednesday, August 3:
Day two started with more wonderful, sunny weather:
An easy and pretty drive on Forest Road 20 got us back to our start point. We followed the same patterns today, Alex or Tricia in front, me (the trip leader mind you) bringing up the rear:
One great and fun PCT tradition that has developed over many years is the bestowing of "trail-names" by hikers on hikers. Normally through-hikers give their companion hikers nicknames as they get moving on a through-hike (the named person retains veto power though).
Some time ago Alex's mom and dad sort of gave him a trail-name: "Bear Bait." It comes from his habit of being way, way out in front of the hiking group (or, occasionally, way, way behind). He's resisted the name, but it fits him. Today Tricia and I tried to convince him to accept the name. We argued that it was a highly complimentary name, that it reflected how fast and powerfully he moves on the trail (at 11 years old). He disagreed. He argued that the name symbolized nothing less than his mom and dad's willingness to abandon him if they ever faced a bear attack. Of course, this was an argument only; Alex wanted a different name (that I've forgotten) which, in violation of all the traditions of trail-names he'd picked for himself
Bear Bait, or nondescript something or other? The verdict on this one has yet to be reached.
While we hiked in the cool forest for part of the day, open, alpine, pretty sections of trail predominated ("Sound of Music hiking"):
At 6.4 miles we left the PCT to join Vicki for lunch at Mount Ashland Campground. A little over nine miles then remained, easy and gentle downhill, paralleling the road all the way to the Interstate. The trail and the road cross at one point:
While crossing here I was amazed to see Tricia spontaneously do a cartwheel as she crossed the road:
Of all things, there was a decorated "Christmas tree" on the other side of this crossing:
The views remained expansive (straight across to Pilot Rock):
Soon we could see the interstate:
The trail then joins the old Highway 99 for almost a mile, "jogging" up past I-5 to an exit point where the trail becomes a trail again on its way up the northeast side of Siskiyou Summit:
We waited here for quite a while for Vicki to pick us up. Her "job" on these trips isn't all "wine and roses;" she'd had a hell of time getting camp moved from Mount Ashland to Hyatt Lake, east of Ashland (finding an open campsite and figuring out how to pay for it turned out to be ridiculously difficult).
Eventually of course, she arrived. As we drove over to our new camp we happened upon a hitchhiker/through-hiker on the road not so far from our now camp at Hyatt Lake. We stopped, but we were crammed full and had little room. He didn't mind though and we squeezed him in.
As we got to know each other he quickly decided to join us in our camp (it was almost 7:00 at this point). Of course we continued talking with our new friend. Tricia asked him a question she often asks of other hikers: "what's your trail name?" To her surprise and delight, he said: "T-Bird!" By chance we'd picked up the same T-Bird who's name she'd seen (and commented about) in two trail registers already this trip (recall that T-Bird has been Tricia's trail name since it was given to her in 2013). T-Bird and T-Bird both found great fun in "sharing" a trail name:
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johnboy
Trad climber
Can't get here from there
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Aug 15, 2016 - 09:37pm PT
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Glad the leader caught up to the pack ;-)
Thanks again for letting all of us to walk with you in spirit.
Bump for the best.
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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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Aug 15, 2016 - 09:54pm PT
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Nice
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briham89
Big Wall climber
santa cruz, ca
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Aug 15, 2016 - 10:00pm PT
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Thanks, as always, for vicariously bringing us along!
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John M
climber
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Aug 15, 2016 - 10:02pm PT
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Great stuff! I love this thread. And I love mount Shasta. How many trail miles do you think that you have been able to see Shasta?
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 16, 2016 - 08:22am PT
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How many trail miles do you think that you have been able to see Shasta?
We've been able to see it from the trail at least occasionally for 500 miles now. And an upcoming section 50 miles further (next year) near Mount Thielsen has high points that will no doubt let us see it more.
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 16, 2016 - 08:24am PT
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I finished the next two days:
Thursday, August 4:
Our third day was supposed to be 10 degrees hotter than the first two. And our hike started relatively low, stayed in the sun, and climbed for its first third. But we had to get up off of the interstate, so off we went:
The highlight of today's hike would be passing Pilot Rock. This "beacon" is visible from far away; it was a significant way-point for early settlers coming to this part of Oregon. And it was a bit of a beacon for us too; we'd seen it for much of the two days we'd hiked so far:
Approaching the rock I naturally wondered whether there were climbing routes on it (there are). I also wondered how a non-technical route could go to the top (one does, but it doesn't look possible):
Tricia and Alex continued singing their trail songs (like the song "Three Chartreuse Buzzards," which Tricia had just picked up with the Girl Scouts; I think I've heard that one enough). They called out different PCT signs, identifying them by their style and age (this one is "ancient"):
The rest of the hike after Pilot Rock was gentle, but quite a bit of it was in open and hot terrain (the forest hiking was much cooler):
The views into the town of Ashland made us realize how far we move day by day (although it doesn't seem so as we're doing the hiking):
A piped spring of cool water provided a nice break near Little Pilot Pond (glad we didn't have to drink from the pond):
The hike turned truly hot as we started our gradual descent to Green Springs Summit on Highway 66:
Vicki was waiting for us there:
A short drive took us back to our camp at Hyatt Lake. Once there the kids asked to go play in the lake and to swim (as if almost 17 miles of hiking wasn't enough). The answer was, of course, "yes;" I figured that they'd cool off and be right back to camp. No, actually, I had to walk down and insist that they come up to dinner 1 1/2 hours later! (Ah to have that much energy again!).
And finally a word about boys. I was one once. But I guess I've forgotten those years. I've got two daughters. I like them. I've enjoyed raising them. But they are girls. Alex is a boy. He may well be the closest thing I'll ever have to a son. This trip is the longest trip that he's taken with us without his mom and dad. And so I had to be more involved in caring for him than on prior trips where he's joined us.
Man oh man did I learn a lot about "raising" boys. Start with this fact: they/he don't seem to care at all about being really dirty (at all, really dirty; my girls don't care that much about being dirty, but they care some!):
(And, in case it isn't clear, he was a joy to have along and we'll take him again in a heartbeat if he hasn't been gotten by a bear by then.)
Friday, August 5:
We were back to better temperatures today and Vicki got us back to the trail fairly early. She joined the "touch the PCT sign" game that Katie started oh-so-many years ago (and that Tricia and now Alex have picked up to play occasionally):
A fairly new part of the PCT makes a gentle circle around Green Springs Mountain and Hyatt Meadow (adding two miles to the hike to avoid hiking next to a dirt road?):
The longer loop certainly lets a hiker look straight down into Ashland:
Today's entertainment included the "bash everything you pass with a stick" game (started by the boy, definitely a boy's game). I imposed one rule on their play - no bashing and no loud noise any time we were near other hikers:
And there were other hikers. Our place on the trail, combined with the time of year that we are there, means that we're seeing lots and lots of through and section hikers. Today we saw more than any day yet. Here's a bunch (including some of us) working around a fallen log):
We passed through the north end of Hyatt Meadow:
More of the large, carefully arranged rock cairns marked this part of the trail:
Little Hyatt Reservoir was overflowing:
And at just over seven miles into the hike we passed our campground. We ducked in there to have lunch with Vicki.
After lunch we set off on another nine miles of almost pure "forest marching." We make distance toward our eventual goal this way, but the hiking isn't highly inspiring and we've got to take our fun where we find it. Like this burnt out snag, which my ever-inventive child immediately called "The Eye of Sauron:"
We soon arrived near Howard Prairie Reservoir:
We crossed its outlet stream and made our way another mile and a half to Keno Access Road (what's with the name - is there a casino hidden in the forest nearby?):
The highlight of the day, at least from a "majestic view" standpoint, came on the drive back to camp. At one point, while driving along the reservoir, we got this clear view of Mount McLoughlin which we first saw on the far horizon while in California and are now about to pass and climb.
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John M
climber
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Aug 16, 2016 - 09:10am PT
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Thanks for the continued trip reports. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I get to see a trail that I have always wanted to hike.
You are going to have quite a complete documentation of the trail when you are done. Have you considered creating a table top book out of it? My family went on a cruise a few years ago. 4 generations. My nieces took all the pics and made a table top book out of it. It cost about a hundred dollars a book to get it printed in china. It turned out pretty cool and is fun to have as a memento. Not something for sale. Just something to have for the family.
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 16, 2016 - 10:31am PT
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Thanks John,
I've actually kept a separate journal about our trail adventures from day one. It's longer than these trip reports. I think readers here would find it dreadfully long and too detailed. But I enjoy it.
Once we finish the trail (if we finish), I intend to blend this journal in with the few hundred best photos from the years and give a copy to Tricia and one to Katie. My mother wants a copy too (that's what mothers do!).
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John M
climber
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Aug 16, 2016 - 10:39am PT
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I'm sure it will be a treasure for your family.
I forgot to mention earlier that its also been fun to watch your kids grow up on the trail. And as for boys getting dirty. LOL. I helped my sister raise two boys. One was fairly clean, but the other.. heh heh. We often needed a fire hose to get him clean.
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 16, 2016 - 07:34pm PT
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Saturday, August 6:
Today we did a quick and easy hike. The just over nine miles from Keno Access Road to Dead Indian Road were easy, but more importantly, they were quick. And quick mattered since, after hiking, we needed to drive into Medford to stay the night near the airport for Alex's early flight home to his parents in San Jose.
This walk was true "forest marching." We also violated our tradition of trashing our friend Sharon with a long or hard walk on her first day with us (she'd joined us in camp last night):
We took only two breaks, but Tricia apparently found the first one somewhat entertaining:
One rare break in the forest allowed a view of Shasta from way north (the view came on the shoulder of a peak called "Old Baldy"):
Little things like National Forest boundaries and such provide the only way-points in this type of deep forest hiking (shown here with two resting through-hikers who'd we'd been passing and passed by since early on day two):
More forest marching led quickly to our pick-up point and Vicki, and we were done for the day:
We ended the day by checking out our next camping and pick-up points and then seeing even more of Oregon while making the surprisingly easy drive into Medford.
Sunday, August 7:
Between getting Alex on his flight and the drive back up into the mountains, we didn't arrive back at the PCT until after 1:00. But that's OK, we'd only planned an 11.8 mile hike from Dead Indian Memorial Road to Highway 140.
I thought this hike would end up being another "forest march." Some of it was, but it was fun and satisfying, and the last two thirds were more of a "lava march" instead.
Less than two miles in we came to the trail junction that leads left 300 feet to the South Brown Mountain Shelter. At the junction we were amazed (and then, after we read it, pleased) to see this huge banner hanging from a tree (pleased, as in, come on, we just left a long, straight stretch of paved road - can't a pipeline, if one is really even needed be run near the road instead of two miles into an otherwise undisturbed forest?):
There was a full-on kiosk with information about the proposed pipeline too; I was mighty pleased that Tricia was interested enough to read it all (she caught up with us ten minutes later):
The nearby shelter is used mostly in winter for cross country skiers, but it has a pump and unlimited water (in a fairly dry stretch of trail):
After four miles in forest we started circling Brown Mountain, an old volcano. Huge lava talus fields alternated with forest:
The trail construction across these lava fields was interesting; built, level trails with small rocks and dirt to make them more "foot-friendly" (imagine trying to boulder hop quarter and half-mile sections of this kind of talus):
There were only a few fallen trees on this stretch of trail. One in particular required us to climb over it (class four!):
One hundred yards after this tree crossing, we encountered two horse-men stopped dead on the trail. Some people think that riding the trail is easier than hiking. I've never agreed with this view. Between tending to the horses and a limited ability to move across country, horse riding in the back-country has never really interested me. And I've never seen my bias more starkly illustrated than here at this fallen log. As we passed the horse-men, they were trying to decide what to do; the log was an absolute barrier to the horses, but so too were the lava talus fields, which extended way, way out on each side of the trail. We never did learn what they did or how they did it.
The highlight of the day came near the end of the hike. We came around a corner to a "holy crap it's right there" view of Mount McLoughlin:
Soon we ran into Vicki on the trail; she'd come out to meet us:
Shortly we arrived at Highway 140 and the end of Oregon's PCT Section "B:"
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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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Aug 16, 2016 - 08:15pm PT
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Nice! And more pics with dawgs.
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 16, 2016 - 10:34pm PT
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Thanks for the comments.
It occurred to me from Jody's post that, yes, this is actually one of the longest or longest ongoing trip reports on Supertopo. The trip has gone on longer than most and the trip report has followed suit. I hope we can keep going and that the report continues.
And yes Tad, this will be it for this year, although, believe it or not I'm not done yet posting about this last trip (we hiked 11 or 12 days - I can't recall offhand).
Here are the next two days worth:
Monday and Tuesday, August 8 and 9:
The PCT passes Mount McLoughlin to its east, three miles from the summit. There's a trail to the top, and the PCT guidebook highly recommends it as a side trip. And Tricia really wanted to do this summit (me too). We'd been looking at McLoughlin since June, and it sure seemed like the highest thing in far southern Oregon.
But starting from Highway 140, summiting, and then continuing to a PCT exit/side-trail to Fourmile Lake seemed like a bone-crushing type day. So we decided to do the hike to Fourmile Lake (spelled correctly) one day and then summit McLoughlin the next. The two days' paths would cross, sharing half a mile along the way.
The hike to Fourmile was definitely forest marching:
We gained 1,200 feet of elevation, but that wasn't the hard part. The hard part of this hike was the incredible number of downed trees. And some of them quite complex, almost as if designed to slow a determined hiker:
We took one break and got one view through the forest of this impressive peak:
Then we exited the PCT. Heading to Fourmile Lake we passed Squaw Lake, which I found to be typical of the area: large and utterly surrounded by forest:
We camped that night again with Vicki.
Sharon's knees begged out of the McLoughlin ascent the next day (in retrospect, a really, really good decision). Tricia and I got our usual, leisurely, late-morning start. We were surprised at the trailhead by the severe-seeming warnings at the trail-start kiosk:
Apparently is is very common for people to get sucked into the "easy" looking descent off this peak, and then to be way off trail out in forest and lost. Being new to the area, we payed attention to the warnings (and I could see on our descent how the wrong way looks "right").
On our ascent, forest hiking turned to uphill forest hiking, turned to steep uphill forest hiking:
Slowly the views got good. We saw Upper Klamath Reservoir from quite a distance:
Fourmile Lake and the relatively flat area the PCT traverses near it:
Brown Mountain, which we'd traversed on the trail two days ago (the PCT goes along the right side of the mountain in this photo):
And we had this view of Hyatt and Howard Prairie Lakes, Pilot Rock and Mount Ashland, and all of the country the PCT goes through for about 40 miles (the rock and the mountain are harder to make out in this photo than they were while we were there):
We started to emerge above tree-line:
The summit is fairly small, and the views are 360 degrees:
The descent came next:
I took this glory shot of Tricia on a protruding gendarme:
Once back on the PCT part of today's hike we contributed a little tiny bit to trail maintenance. I had a small, foldable saw with us in the car, and I'd brought it today. We cleared one (one!) of the medium-size trees that blocked the trail. The tree was still green, and our tool was too small. It took half an hour to move this one blockage (tomorrow's photos and text will make it even more clear that the Sky Lakes Wilderness desperately needs a trail crew for 40 or so miles of PCT that is horribly, horribly blocked by downed trees):
We ended this satisfying day with a campfire (and smores; Tricia still loves to make and eat them, and I sure appreciate the ones she makes for me too):
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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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Aug 16, 2016 - 10:55pm PT
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Nice. Your little girls have grown as this TR progresses. You on the other hand seem ageless. TFPU.
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mtnyoung
Trad climber
Twain Harte, California
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 17, 2016 - 05:45pm PT
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Well, that was interesting. The dogs were going bananas on the back deck. Tricia went out to shush them and, it turns out, we had a bear walking across our back yard.
I've got one installment left after these next two days:
Wednesday, August 10:
Back on the PCT today. We started with the easy hike over from Fourmile Lake. Tricia found the local flora amusing:
Forest marching predominated:
We got some views though, including Fourmile Lake, and Mount McLoughlin, "in the rear view mirror:"
We were into hot weather again and we took plenty of water:
Downed trees were still a problem. In fact, Tricia and Sharon started counting them just for amusement. We defined them first ("downed trees" are any that affect a normal hiking gait). Between Highway 140 and the south edge of Crater Lake National Park there are about 800 downed trees.
This example was easy to work around (other photos in later days will show - again - more massive messes that were a lot harder to pass):
We finished today by again hiking off the PCT to meet and spend the night with Vicki. In this case we hiked out to Cold Springs Trailhead (chased, for the first time on this trip, by mosquitos).
Another good day with fine progress north through Oregon.
Thursday, August 11:
Although today started with forest marching back to the PCT, and then some forest marching along it, most of the day wasn't that. Most of this day's hiking was in terrain that allowed nice views (sometimes really spectacular views) and which kept us in the breeze. This was a really great hike.
I started early, with a sunrise on the west shore of Upper Klamath Lake (we were camped there because it was a nice, central location). Soon everyone else was up and we were back to Cold Springs Trailhead (and Vicki was ready to give us some preventative mosquito spraying this time):
The dogs highly approved of today's return hike to the PCT; it went right by Deer Lake (lake - whatever else is in the name, it's the lake part they like):
Views and more open terrain started quickly (first photo is down to Upper Klamath Lake):
We got high enough to actually see some of the lakes that give Sky Lakes Wilderness its name:
Luther Mountain:
Looking at the next five miles of trail across Devils Peak and Lucifer:
Open hilltops and ridges on Shale Butte gave vistas all around (including Mount McLoughlin from well to the north):
We got a great view of sharp, distinct Mount Thiesen, which is north of Crater Lake National Park:
Devils Peak is a real mountain (not a forested hill). Passing its east side put us over 7,000 feet elevation again for short time:
We ended a long stretch without water among a series of nice creeks north of Devils Peak:
And then, just before today's exit point, we crossed the fourth "hundred mile point" of this summer:
We took the Sevenmile Marsh Trail out to meet Vicki (despite its name, Sevenmile Marsh Trailhead had nowhere near the number of mosquitos that Cold springs Trailhead had):
But poor Tricia was still suffering the effects of yesterday's mosquitos this afternoon. Both girls seem to have inherited my long legs, which, I think, is good for them. Unfortunately, Tricia did not inherit my relative immunity to the itchy nastiness of bug and mosquito bites; she is instead as sensitive to them as her mother (my "princess and the pea" little beauty):
And a nice sunset then capped off this, our second to last hiking day of a massively successful summer:
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johntp
Trad climber
socal
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Aug 17, 2016 - 06:28pm PT
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Eggcellent! Thanks!
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