Day 118: Olallie Lake

Date: Mon 8/13

PCT Start Mile: 2019.7

PCT End Mile: 2045.6

PCT Mileage for Day: 25.9

Total PCT Mileage: 2045.6

The Highlights: Mount Jefferson and Olallie Lake

This morning I woke up, all of my hiking clothes surrounding me in my sleeping bag, nice and toasty to change into. Extricating myself from my sleeping bag is definitely the hardest part of the day. On the plus side there no condensation on my bag this morning, so that was nice. Dry sleeping bags are cool.

Generally speaking, our day included an eight mile descent, followed by an eight mile climb, and then about ten miles of downhill-ish, with a lot of undulation. I find that our downhills include a lot more uphill than our uphills include downhill. Maybe I’m just complaining.

The day began with more beautiful views of Mount Jefferson. At some point during our descent, we entered burn area from last year, the trees charred and very little new growth on the forest floor. Unlike yesterday, there were plenty of water sources, with rivers and streams crossing the trail every mile or so on the way up our long climb. One of the rivers even required a Sierra style rock hop across the rapids.

Unfortunately we are back to the milky white skies of smokey haze. Not sure which fire this is blowing in from, there seem to be so many.

We ate lunch sixteen miles into the day, at the top of the long climb. Shawn had reached the top before me and when I arrived, he was eating lunch with a soon-to-be high schooler named Cameron. I had met his father and other hiking partner just a ways back on the trail. They were doing a section hike for about a week through Oregon, also ending in Cascade Locks.

After lunch, Shawn mostly hiked ahead, bouncing down the rocky trail as I gingerly made my way through the rocks much much slower. Eventually the trail calmed to more manageable – less rocky – sections.

Our stopping point for the day was Olallie Lake Resort, a fairly primitive campground and cabin resort with only solar power.

Situated along the shores of Olallie Lake, there was a small day use area where PCT hikers could camp. No showers or laundry, but they did have a small but very well curated store that had plenty of resupply options, our main reason for needing to stop through.

When I arrived, Shawn was chatting with Slide, a section hiker that we had met the evening before we hit the Oregon border. He was finishing up a section in Ashland, and then doing a short section around Olallie Lake, and eventually making his way up to Washington to finish up the last 200 miles of the trail. We chatted with him for awhile before we finished setting up our sleep stuffs and went to the store for resupply to round out the remainder of what we needed for the hike to Cascade Locks, where – if all goes as planned – we should arrive on Friday morning.

After trail dinners of mac n’ cheese, we were into our tent by 8pm, waiting for all the other hikers to pipe down so we could fall asleep for our early wake up tomorrow. Up next? The 50-mile challenge… more on that tomorrow…

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