PTC Oregon

Pacific Crest Trail - the State of Oregon 500 miles
September 1998

On September 1st my friend Mani from Katmandu, Nepal and myself
set foot on the PCT trailhead where Road 20 ends at Highway 99 and our plans were to take the month of September and hike the State of Oregon.

Mani had been in the US going to school, he wanted to improve his English and consequently move himself up in the trekking jobs in Nepal. He had four weeks left before he had to return to Nepal and when I approached him to come hike with me, he said sure I will be on a flight tomorrow.

It took us two days to get our resupply boxes made up and I borrowed gear for Mani to use. This hike was before I was introduced to Lightweight backpacking and our packs were mighty heavy. Also, it was a dry year for water and we had to carry more than usual each day. So many of the little creeks were dried up.

On this hike I did not keep a journal, so much of it is from memory, pictures and notes in the guide book. The first day we camped at 12.9 miles and from then on it was hike, look for water and camp. One of the highlights for Mani was Crater Lake. We went to the Mazama campground and it was filled with RV's, they told us we could set our tent up there but we would have to leave all our food in the office, which we did. That night the campground was visited by a bear, people had left apples on one of the picnic tables, but we slept soundly and the bear did not bother us.

We hiked the rim around Crater Lake, all the ups and downs and our packs were loaded with extra water. We went via Thielsen Creek Trail and bypassed the Diamond Lake area. At one point on the trail we were rerouted onto the Oregon Skyline Trail because of forest fires. We also went through an area that had been burned prior and there was no signs of any trail or PCT markers, the only thing that led us through this section were the footprints of a horse and rider. We followed these prints for over two hours and were very happy when they brought us out to the PCT trail again.

By the time we reached Shelter Cove Resort to pick up a resupply box, Mani's inexpensive tennis shoes simply fell apart. In the Nepali stoic tradition he said not to worry, he still had his flip flops (thongs). Well it did worry me and as were spending the night at Shelter cover I asked most everyone in the resort area if they would sell me a pair of tennis shoes or lightweight boots. This was my first encounter with a Trail Angel. One of the ladies who worked there, went home and brought back three pair of light weight boots and shoes for Mani to try on, they both had the same size foot. One pair fit perfectly, she would not take any compensation and said it was just great that she could help.

We work our way through this section of many lakes, The Belknap Crater and the Three Sisters and the Three Sisters Wilderness, we hiked on crater rocks that make up the trail. This brought us out to the McKenzie Highway. Our next resupply is at the Big Lake Youth Camp, operated by 7th Day Adventists. When we arrived, only the caretakers were in residence, they allowed us to take showers and do our washing and then give us a cabin for the night. Great Trail Angels.

Next the trail takes us to the PCT crossing over the Santiam Hiway and as we hike we see views of Three Fingered Jack, our destination for the night is the Rockpile Lake area or a little further. About four miles before reaching Rockpile Lake the skies opened up and poured rain. We are in the worst storm ever. The trail becomes a creek running down the hill and the trees are being blown over sideways with many of them uprooting. We felt we had to be near a water supply before stopping, so we went as fast as possible and reached Rockpile Lake. Here we stop and are soaked right through to the skin and very cold. Mani and I get the tent put up very quickly, crawl inside and get out of the wet clothes and into our sleeping bags, Mani starts the stove and makes us something hot to drink, about 30 minutes later I stop shivering and realize that I was dry and warm in the tent and everything would be okay. To make a long story short, this storm raged for three days and we stayed put in the tent. The morning we woke up and found a clear sky we made the decision to hike back down the trail to the Highway and hitch into the town of Sisters where we could buy more food to replace what we had eaten up. We were lucky at the trailhead and found a ride immediately. When we arrived in Sisters I went to book a motel and found all the motels were very full due to a big Jazz concert playing in town for three days.

After trying every resource available, I remembered I did know one person in Sisters, the Catholic Priest, Fr. Faucher. He had been our Pastor in the small town of McCall, Idaho for several years. I made the phone call and within ten minutes he picked us up. He took us to his home where we made use of the Showers, Washers and Dryers . Mani got to watch European soccer on the TV and we ate out at a fantastic restaurant. After two days there, we had washed and dried all our equipment. He then made arrangements with some of his parishioners to drive us back up to a spot where we could easily get back on the trail without re-climbing to Rockpile Lake. When I got back home, my oldest son asked me; why didn't you just get up in the morning, put on your wet clothes and walk yourselves out of the storm...you know that never occurred to me.

Back on the trail we had views of Mt. Jefferson and then into the final section of Oregon including marvelous views of Mt. Hood. We visited the wonderful Timberline Lodge and Mani was delighted to see people skiing on the permanent snow fields. We saw the beautiful Ramona Falls as we continued our hike.

As we approached Lolo Pass, the skies again opened up and it started to pour buckets, we were very near the road and found a flat spot and set the tent up quickly. We did not however have a water supply near us, so Mani put the awning up in a configuration that allowed the water to run off into our pot and the pot filled many times giving us the water we needed for the night and dinner.

The next morning, after we had discussed how much further we had to go we decided to end the hike there. Mani was concerned about getting to Los Angeles on time for his flight to Nepal. We again managed to hitch a ride to Cascade Locks and my husband drove up from Idaho to pick us up. We had a marvelous hike to that point and Mani just made is flights in time.

A couple of years later I did finish this last section through Eagle Creek and all the marvelous water falls. Click on the following URL to see how it all ended up. Lolo Pass to Bridge of the Gods - BPL 2000 Click here.

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