I got new hiking boots! I went to REI because my old Ahnus have a lot of miles on them and are looking a bit wonky, and I needed some new waterproof boots for fall, winter, and spring hiking. I was looking for a pair I saw advertised in an email I got from a different outdoor gear company, but REI didn’t have those. I tried on a pair of Altra Lone Peak mid-high shoes and although I wear regular Lone Peaks for summer/dry weather hiking, I didn’t like the mids as much. Then I decided to try a couple of other pairs and liked the La Sportiva pair. Then I tried the wide women’s size and I liked that better for the wider toe box. Then I was disappointed because they only came in brown and not black, but THEN I realized that the men’s version came in black/gray and would have a wider toe box. And THEN the lady helping me told me that she has these same shoes, and they are very grippy and she loves them. So I was sold, and I can’t wait to wear them on Friday for our hiking adventure! (And if they don’t work out, I can return them, that’s why I buy my shoes at REI!)
Ahhhh…nice, peaceful, goes-with-everything black.Grippy Vibram soles — look at those lugs!
Yesterday we hiked the Waterfall Loop at Sahalie and Koosah Falls, near McKenzie Bridge, Oregon. You walk on the McKenzie River Trail for a couple of miles and then turn back to do the loop.
It was a beautiful day weather-wise, but so chilly in the morning that I had to start out in my puffy coat! Marnie’s car told us that it was 39 F while we were on our way to the falls.
We parked at the Sahalie Falls viewpoint parking lot. There is a convenient restroom there. Walking from the parking lot you shortly get to this Sahalie Falls viewpoint.
Kangaroo, Ninja, Sweet Pea at Sahalie FallsSahalie Falls
After Sahalie Falls, the trail follows the McKenzie River down to the Carmen Smith Reservoir.
McKenzie River
There are quite a few stairs to go down on the way to Koosah Falls, if you do the loop in a clockwise direction.
Kangaroo and Sweet Pea descending the stairs.The TrailKangaroo gets the shot.Sweet Pea admires the riverscape.Neat hollow log.McKenzie River
It isn’t long until you get to the viewpoints for Koosah Falls.
Koosah FallsKoosah Falls
The sound of the river and the waterfalls is loud but soothing during this hike.
Here the McKenzie River flows into the Carmen Smith Reservoir. The Reservoir is stocked with trout so is a good place for fishing and boating, but it is closed until sometime in 2023 to address sinkhole concerns. You go across the reservoir road bridge to get to the trail on the opposite side.
Carmen Smith Reservoir
There is a convenient restroom available near the reservoir and right next to the trail that continues around the loop. We took a restroom and snack break before heading up the trail on the opposite side of the river.
Convenient restroom.Trail goes this way.Wasp nest (?) in the cleft of a tree. Thankfully, nobody was home.The trail.A bit of fall color coming out.Tiny plants on a rock.
Then we came at Koosah Falls from a different angle:
Mist from Koosah Falls.Koosah Falls
We followed the river back to Sahalie Falls:
A picture of Kangaroo taking a picture of Sahalie Falls.Sahalie Falls from the other side.
We could see that some kids had gone down to the bottom of the falls. It is generally thought to be unsafe to do that. When they started slipping and pushing each other, we couldn’t watch lest one of them go in the water. Without a miracle it is doubtful one could survive a fall into the McKenzie River here, especially without a life jacket!
Below Sahalie Falls — some kids had gone down from the first viewpoint area. The McKenzie River above Sahalie Falls.Bridge back over the McKenzie River.McKenzie River flowing under the bridge.Big log jam in the river.The trail.
We eventually came back around to Sahalie Falls, where there is another viewpoint deck.
Sahalie Falls from the upper viewpoint.Below Sahalie Falls from the upper viewpoint.
Unfortunately some people had carved or written words all over the railings of the upper viewpoint, which we didn’t consider kind, good, or loving no matter what their words say.
The view from the upper viewpoint was great and none of us had ever seen that view of Sahalie Falls before. None of us had hiked the Waterfall Loop before either, so that was new and fun to do. Kangaroo and I had hiked at Sahalie and Koosah Falls a few times, but had never gotten around to doing the Loop. We enjoyed our little hike and were glad to see things we hadn’t seen before! Kangaroo has expressed interest in backpacking the 25-mile-long McKenzie River Trail, and we did see some campsites available along the trail.
After our hike we decided to eat lunch on our way home and went to Takoda’s restaurant in Rainbow, after a stop at the Obsidian Grill to find that they weren’t serving lunch that day. Takoda’s is nice and I think we will stop there again. They had a big Jelly Belly jelly bean machine and since there were cream soda flavored Jelly Bellys I had to get some. They were delicious. I didn’t get a photo of the jelly beans or the little dwarf African froggies in biospheres that the restaurant had for sale. I’m sure those froggies would be a whole blog post in themselves!
My grilled cheese with bacon and applesKangaroo had a turkey club, and Sweet Pea had a black bean burger.
We enjoyed our day and have planned a pretty hike in the same area for next week. There are several trailheads in the central Cascades that require permits, and I was able to get one for the trail we chose. Tune in next week to read about that hike!
On Saturday we went out to Willamette Mission State Park for a short hike. The ladies at church have asked me to lead a hike in October, and I wanted to recce and see where the picnic areas and bathrooms are on the trail I want to walk, and pick a good spot for everyone to meet. We parked at the first parking lot and walked about a mile and a half to the Filbert Grove day use area, where we started what was supposed to be a 4.2 mile loop. The park is fairly flat, no hills to worry about. I wanted something that pretty much anyone could do since I’m not sure of the fitness level of the ladies who might want to join us. I also wanted to find a good place to have a snack or lunch with the ladies.
Willamette Mission Park also has a lot of history, so I hope to be able to present some history of the park to the ladies as well. This year Oregon is celebrating 100 years of its State Parks system.
Jason Lee and the Willamette Mission100 years of Oregon’s State Parks system.
Near the parking lot we passed some blackberry bushes and Linda had to give some a try.
Someone stuck a feather in this post.
The sky was very hazy due to some fires happening around the area. We didn’t smell smoke though, and didn’t have any trouble breathing. It was supposed to be sunny and 95 degrees, but I think the haze kept things a little cooler. The sun didn’t come out much at all.
Hazy skyThe sun looked like this (zoomed in)
On our way to the Filbert Grove, we stopped to use the bathroom and saw some horses. The riders were standing on a picnic table to get up onto the horses! There are many equestrian trails at the park.
Once we got to the Filbert Grove area, we took a path that led to the 4.2-mile Willamette Mission Loop, found on the AllTrails app. The loop is on mostly paved paths with a smaller part on dirt trails. On our walk we detoured a bit to go to the Wheatland Ferry dock to watch the ferry for a minute. A man went down to the water to fish for wide-mouth bass.
Wheatland FerrySomeone left these headphones on the little bridge (?)The man caught a bass and was getting out his phone to take a photo. He let the fish go after he got a picture of it.
Here is some more of the history of the park. The Willamette Station of the Methodist Mission was started across the lake there in 1834. Some “ghost buildings” have been placed to represent the first mission buildings that were built on that site.
If you zoom in on this photo you can read the history of the Mission.Mission “ghost buildings”.
On the walk you can see the nation’s largest black cottonwood tree across the lake.
Nation’s Largest Black CottonwoodCottonwood sign. You can see the tree in the background.
Marnie is very good about picking up trash along the way. She found more than one cigarette butt. Really, smokers? I mean, come ON.
Marnie does trail maintence.Dirt trail.Paved path.
There were still a few flowers and berries left here and there.
Mystery berries. We didn’t eat any.TeaselPine tree. Rose hips.Osprey nest.They have their own sign.
There were no ospreys in the nest that we could see, which was too bad. I guess it isn’t time for osprey babies. We saw many birds and squirrels during the day and a couple of deer that were too far away to get a photo of them, and one of these orange and black caterpillars. We wondered what kind of butterfly those turn into. (Edit: They turn into the Isabella Tiger Moth.)
Wooly Bear caterpillar.
The loop was supposed to be 4.2 miles, but somehow all our various devices said we walked between 8.5 and 10 miles. With the extra mile and a half each way back to the car from the loop start we would have added 3 miles, but we wouldn’t have made it to 8 or 10 so I’m not sure how that happened. My feet sure felt like it was more than 4.2 though! We had a good walk and I know a lot more than I did about how to plan for the ladies’ hike in October.
Marnie texted and invited me to hike yesterday, and suggested either Silver Falls or the beach. I felt like a beach walk, so that’s where we went. It was supposed to be right around 60 degrees all day and cloudy to partly sunny with winds from 5 to 10 mph, so I had no idea what to wear. At first I thought I’d wear my exercise leggings and a long-sleeve merino blend top with a light jacket, but you never know how warm you’re going to be when the sun comes out. Likewise, you never know how chilly you’re going to feel when the wind is blowing, which usually happens at the beach. Would I need a warm hat to keep the wind out of my ears, or would a baseball cap do? The times between winter and spring and summer and fall are always a crapshoot regarding what to wear. I settled on the leggings and a t-shirt with the light jacket, put my puffy coat in my backpack in case I felt cold, and brought all the hats and my merino Buff with my Crocs and extra socks in case my shoes got wet. I usually bring an extra bag to leave in the car to carry those sorts of things.
We got going and stopped to get our Harvest Pumpkin lattes at Bentley’s, a local coffee kiosk next to where Linda’s Hubs works. Delicious!
Bentley is the little doggo.
Then we drove the hour and a half to Lincoln City, deciding to walk on the beach at the “D” River roadside. The “D” River is the shortest river in the world. It was a bit drizzly on the way there, and then quite foggy at the beach and a bit chilly, so I put my puffy on. We headed south on the beach for our “hike”. While we walked Aryn was playing Pokémon Go on her phone and caught lots of the little critters!
Into the fog.There is this blue fabric thing leading out onto the beach. For wheelchairs, maybe? If so, I think it should lead all the way out to the hard sand instead of stopping where the sand is still deep. We found it convenient though.
There were quite a few people on the beach and many of them had dogs. We saw a Corgi, a Great Dane, a Doberman, a Setter, an Australian Shepherd, and various ‘Doodles, along with some smaller dogs. We got there early as always, so it wasn’t too crowded while we were on the beach. The breeze became warm occasionally, which felt very strange. Usually the breeze at the beach here is cool or cold. We walked and talked for about two miles before stopping at a beach access point with a restroom. There is this statue of Joe the Sea Lion at that spot.
Joe the Sea Lion of NelscottUnfortunately, some of his whiskers are missing.
Here are some other photos of our leisurely little adventure.
Marnie and ArynLindaBeach houses. Some of the ones up on the bluff had long, long stairs down to the beach, and we decided that we would like it better if our beach house had easier access to the beach.Barnacles on a rock.Marnie gets the shot.Someone had taken the time to stand these up in the sand.Can you see…?…the surfer? They spent a lot of time just bobbing up and down more than they did catching a wave. I don’t know if it was a good surfing day.Sanctimonious SeagullBlue sky for a minute.Marnie searching for agates and beach glass.
Marnie enjoys looking for agates where the tide goes out. She has a great eye and always finds some neat things, even the tiniest of agates or sea glass. This time she found a giant agate! She saw it in the surf and went towards it but some other people had seen it too. They all had to wait for the water to go out far enough so they didn’t get their feet all wet claiming the rock. Marnie finally ran down and got it, and the other lady conceded and said Marnie could have it. She found lots of wonderful treasures today with her eagle eye! I, on the other hand, didn’t really bother to look for treasures because I seldom see them. I found a small agate and a tiny piece of white beach glass. Linda said she doesn’t know what she’s looking for when she’s beachcombing. I said I know them when I see them, I just don’t see them, ha.
Marnie’s nifty treasures!My treasures (quarter for scale).
After walking for four miles or so on the beach we got back to the car and went to the ’60s Cafe and Diner where we like to eat. The diner has a wide variety of food and the food is always good.
Marnie and I each had a BLT. Linda had a corn dog. Aryn had chicken strips.
We were so efficient today we got home by 1:00!
Beach selfie. Hmm, I’m beginning to think I don’t look well in hats.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2
“12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14
These passages have been hard for me to get through my head, and I’ll tell you why. I ran track when I was a sophomore in high school. The Sis and The Sis-In-Law and the rest of our friends were on the track team, and I thought it would be fun to join them. Because I wasn’t fast enough to run sprints and couldn’t run for long enough to do the longer races, I ran the 400 meter race. (I am told now it’s one of the hardest races to run. Thanks for letting me know then, track coach (not).) Turns out I am just a very slow runner, and I lost every single race. I mean, I came in dead last. Every. Single. Race. I went to every practice and every meet, but since I wasn’t one of the winning team members the coaches pretty much ignored me and didn’t give me any pointers. When it was time to give out awards, I really hoped that I could get a letter just because I tried as hard as I could and ran every race regardless of my lack of talent and subsequent embarrassment, but you only got a letter if you received a certain number of points and that meant you had to win events. (Our school didn’t offer letters in choir. If they had, I totally would have gotten all the letters.)
Hebrews 12:1 talks about running with endurance, and Philippians 3:14 talks about winning the prize. Well, I ran but I didn’t have much endurance (hence my not being able to run the longer races), and I never won a prize. The only competition I’ve ever won on my own was a spelling competition in middle school, and then when it came to the bigger contest I didn’t come close to winning that one. Not being a competitive person by nature, I don’t enter contests if I know I will be competing directly against others. I don’t like competition. I mean, I enjoy winning but really don’t have confidence that I will.
So I have always been rather flummoxed when reading these Bible passages about running and winning, since now I can’t even run at all (Well, I can run half a block. Then I have to stop because I can’t breathe. Ow. Running hurts.) and I have never been good enough at anything to win any important competitions. And I am not that great at pressing on toward goals I set for myself, so there’s also that.
I have decided, however, to replace “run” with “hike” in my thinking. I can hike with perseverance and reach the hiking goal, so that speaks to me better then the idea of running. I have reached many summits (though not any 14ers, but then I haven’t tried) and have only had to turn around a couple of times, mostly because of sketchy snow on the trail. This gives me hope that although I will never be like Jesus completely, I can move forward and become more like Him as I hike through life. I’m a slow hiker, but I get places.
Me on a summit
Obviously there is so much more to these scriptures, but that is for another post!
I like stickers. I have liked stickers since I was a little girl. When I was in middle school they started selling rolls of really neat stickers at the card and stationery stores, and you could buy just one sticker at a time. They were shiny and glittery! It was awesome!
Anyway, I still enjoy stickers, especially waterproof vinyl stickers and decals, and I put them on water bottles, coffee cups, my bear canister, and my car windows. (Not on the paint. Never the paint!) When it comes to the stickers on my car I change them occasionally, because I don’t like to drive my sweet ol’ hooptie around with stickers that are half coming off. A couple of weeks ago I noticed a few of my stickers on the car were looking a bit shabby, so I ordered some new ones.
These are the old stickers:
Two of my favorites, the “Conquer” sticker and the “Onward” bear sticker, were coming off and had turned a funny color. The other ones I intended to replace were the Bigfoot and the one that says “Hiking is always a good idea.” They just didn’t look so great anymore.
I ordered some new stickers and decals from Etsy and they came this last week, so I set out to remove the old stickers from the window. Easier said than done! At least for me. I was using an X-Acto style knife to remove them, and that was taking awhile. The Hubs came out and saw what I was doing, and then went to the shop to get a regular flat razor blade to remove the stickers for me. He just went zoop, zoop, zoop, and the stickers and leftover sticky were all gone! (I won’t use a naked flat razor blade because I stuck one in my thumb once. Ow.)
This is the decal on the passenger-side back window. I hope it stays on for a long time, I really like it.
Here are the new decals and stickers (sorry the window is so dirty, I did run through the car wash last week but it didn’t stay clean very long):
The “Mountains, please” decal and the kitty sticker both have some brown spots, but I am going to keep them until they start coming off the window. I really like the “Mountains, please” decal, and Marnie gave me the cute kitty sticker.
The “Be Strong and Courageous” comes from Joshua 1:9, one of my favorite scriptures.
I really like the King James version (below). “Whithersoever” seems like a lot more places than just “wherever”, ha. It is spelled wrong in this meme though! “Neither” is also spelled wrong, but I like the photo and you get the idea. “Dismayed” means feeling distress or anxiety, typically at something unexpected, or to look around in terror. I tried so hard not to be afraid or dismayed when we were hiking in SoCal and kept coming upon rattlesnakes. Talk about looking around in terror! I don’t know if I succeeded in obeying God’s command there. That’s a tough one sometimes. But thankfully we live in a nice, venomous snake-free area and don’t have to worry about them here!
After The Hubs scraped the stickers off and went back to the shop I realized I had forgotten the decal on the driver’s side back window which I also wanted to remove. I liked it but it was pink glitter and didn’t really match with the other stickers. That decal looked like this but was a rose-gold color, about 5″ X 5″. Thankfully it came off easily with my X-Acto knife.
I have an idea of something to replace it. I will share it after I put it on the car!
PCT Days this year opened on Saturday at 8:30 a.m., so Marnie and I decided to get there at opening time in order to get a good parking space on the road. There were many, many more people there this year than prior years, mostly hikers, and Thunder Island (the camping area) was full to the brim with tents. We walked around and visited the vendor booths and picked up the goodies they were offering – there were stickers, headbands, lip balm, and even a cork massage ball, which if you buy one can cost as much as $10, so that was a great gift! There were a lot of things available that we didn’t even take. Marnie won a raffle prize from Backpacker Magazine. They played, “Never Have I Ever”, and she still had nine fingers up out of ten at the end of the game. The first ones out and the last ones standing got prizes.
This was early, a lot more people arrived later.Goodies
There were a couple more food trucks this year than there have been in years past, but we went to the Eastwind Drive-In for our lunch again. They have a walk-up side and a drive-up side, but instead of having the walk-up side open they only opened the drive-up side so we stood in line with the cars to get our lunch. With cars driving in and others trying to get out of the parking lot, it was an interesting experience! Eventually cars and people were lined up clear out into the bike lane. When we were almost to the front of the line a couple of hikers named Galileo and Something Else came up and asked if we would get them milkshakes since we were already in line, and of course we said we would. Something Else was wearing a California flag as a cape, and Galileo was wearing a white tablecloth with lace inserts as a poncho or toga. It looked like he had had his friends sign his tablecloth. Fun!
Waiting in line with the carsSomething Else and Galileo, and me
As we made our rounds we were able to find Marmalade who we met in 2019 (on YouTube at Marmalade Outdoors), and we found our friend SnuzzNuzz who we spent time with in SoCal. SnuzzNuzz was very happy to see us, and it was nice to visit with both of them. We talked with a hiker named Autograph and SnuzzNuzz while we were sitting at one of the picnic tables, and the couple next to us had brought a whole large watermelon and a big knife and cutting board from home and she started cutting up that watermelon right then and there! The lady offered us each a slice of watermelon, which we gladly accepted. She got out all sorts of other food to share as well. We also found Legend, who we were not expecting to see! He is a trail angel and was setting up the hostel in Campo when we were there, and we spent a lot of time with him helping with the hostel and getting rides to and fro. He is hiking the trail with a German girl and they are only doing 5 to 10 miles a day, which Legend says is perfect for him. We stopped by the booth where Liz Thomas (who wrote the Long Trails book) was signing books and got a photo with her. She posted our photo on Instagram and had me do a video testimonial for her book! I wasn’t sure what to say but I hope it helped. I found another hiker named Ninja from Japan, and heard from someone else that there is a German girl also named Ninja. We were told that the Japanese Ninja looks more like a ninja then I do, ha. We found Boomerang, another hiker we met in SoCal at the Gold Rush Hotel in Julian. He and his friend Sailor had given us advice about our pack weight. We also met Kyle and Flossy from the Kyle Hates Hiking YouTube channel, and they were very gracious and let us fangirl for a minute! We saw Turtle, who we had met down at Scissors Crossing near Julian, Jupiter from his JupiterHikes YouTube channel, and Manny from Manny on Trail, also from YouTube.
MarmaladeSnuzzNuzzLegendSnorkelBoomerangFlossy and Kyle
We didn’t spend a whole lot of time looking in the vendor booths because neither of us really need anything, although I tried on an alpaca zip-up sweater in the Arms of Andes booth and it was really nice. The $250 price tag was a little high for my budget, though, but I am considering saving up for it. It is something that would last forever. There was a big stuffed alpaca at the booth and it was covered in real alpaca wool. We enjoyed petting it because it was so soft, and I thought they should make portable alpacas to use as stress relievers! It’s very calming to snuggle an alpaca!
Kangaroo snuggling the alpaca.
We participated in a couple of vendor raffles but didn’t win anything at those. There were a ton of people at the Granite Gear giveaway as usual, and we could hardly hear the man as he called out the trail names they drew, he needed a megaphone! They Hyperlite Mountain Gear booth was giving out some nice prizes too, so I was a bit disappointed not to have won anything there. Marnie’s prizes from the Backpacker Magazine raffle were a hat and a little snap-together bowl. She also got a free hat from the Sawyer booth. I didn’t take a hat because I have so many already!
A crowd at the Granite Gear giveaway
We saw people in many interesting outfits, a couple of girls were wearing satin lingerie robes as sweaters (I suppose they are light!) and one was wearing both the matching nightgown and robe! I think a few hikers had stopped by some thrift stores and picked out some things, ha. There were men in kilts and even skirts, and then the usual interesting thru-hiker ensembles. The people watching is always fun at PCT Days!
We both decided not to buy tickets to the big raffle at the end of the day, because the last couple of years we haven’t won anything and we didn’t know if we wanted to stay that late. We did end up leaving around 4:30 or 5:00 so we got home at a decent hour (still past my bedtime though!). The weather wasn’t too hot, which we appreciated, though we each did get a bit sunburned. All in all it was definitely a fun day!
People at the Backpacker Mag raffleLiz’s Book — Long Trails – well worth the read to prepare for your thru-hike!
This is something I hadn’t considered, but a new post from REI that I received in an email today takes the idea of layering clothing to a different level. It never occurred to me that who you’re hiking with might influence what you should wear!
Hiking group at Tumalo Falls, ORMarnie (Kangaroo) wearing a t-shirt and shorts for a warm summer backpacking trip
In summer I always take (or wear in the morning) a light merino jacket when hiking, and in spring/fall/winter I take my puffy (Patagonia Micropuff) in my pack for lunch stops. I hardly ever start out wearing my puffy because I just get too warm too fast and have to stop to take it off, so I try to start off “cold” because I know I’ll warm up, especially if hiking uphill. When it is raining or snowing, I wear my rain jacket to stay dry, with a merino or fleece underneath. In cold weather I’m usually wearing a merino base layer top under my merino jacket or fleece, and if it’s very cold I’ll wear some base layer leggings under my hiking pants or rain pants. Sometimes if I know I will be exerting myself a lot I’ll wear my merino knee warmers instead of leggings, because my knees/shins get cold faster than the rest of my legs and then there is no danger of getting uncomfortably warm. I also wear a merino Buff to keep my neck cozy. I wore a sunshirt in the desert on the PCT with light pants, and with shorts for our July/August PCT backpacking trip in southern Oregon. (Advantage: get a great “hiker tan” from where your shorts hit down to where your socks come up to!) When backpacking, I always have my puffy for cool nights. I pretty much layer the same way no matter who I’m hiking with, but will think more about that from now on!
Don’t forget to read installments 1 and 2 of our Oregon PCT hike!
As we hiked toward Fish Lake, three horses and riders were coming along just as we had stepped over a small log across the trail. There are horse camps at various places along the PCT, and the PCT is graded for horses and hikers. Like any other area with usage by different categories of users, hikers and horsepeople are sometimes a bit at odds. The riders greeted us as we stepped aside to let them go on, but as we started up again the middle horse started bucking and having a fit when he saw that he would have to step over the log. The rider kept her seat admirably and managed to calm the horse down after a very long few seconds, as we watched from where we had stepped as far off trail as we could. We kept quiet and didn’t move so we wouldn’t make the horse more upset. They finally rode off and we were glad not to see them again! This is my concern about horses on the trail – the trail is usually narrow and there are many obstacles, horses are very big and often unpredictable, and sometimes there is no place to escape from an equine stampede! It’s always a relief when we pass horses without incident.
On the PCT in this section most of the PCT emblems are worn off the metal markers. We have come to recognize a blank, white metal diamond on a tree as marking the path of the PCT. On much of our hike we were entertained by graffiti that people had written on the diamonds, such as “Be a traveler, not a tourist,” “Just be kind,” “Born to be wild,” and other encouraging or just silly sayings. Some of them are even like the old Burma Shave signs and make a verse as you go along!
Nomnom.
We soon came into Klum Landing Campground at Howard Prairie Lake, a large tent campground sort of in the middle of nowhere. Comments on the FarOut app said the campground had clean restrooms and showers but was mostly deserted, and we thought, “Clean restrooms and picnic tables? We’re in!” We got to the camp before anyone else did and picked a site near the restroom. The restroom was indeed clean and new, and well stocked with toilet paper, paper towels, and soap! (We didn’t check the showers but supposedly they were also quite nice.) There were no car-campers at all, a few cars pulled into the parking lot here and there but none of them stayed. We weren’t sure why the restroom was so well taken care of (I suppose just in case campers came in) but we appreciated it very much! More hikers came after we got there. A man in a pickup truck came around looking for a “tall blonde” while we were in our tents. He said he had some new food for a girl hiker because she wasn’t going to be cooking food anymore while hiking. It sounded a bit nonsensical and we thought it might have been just as well he didn’t find the girl. He said her name was Pepper.
Other than getting scraped and dinged going over logs, we weren’t too much the worse for wear by the time we got to Fish Lake. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land we walked through after Hyatt Lake was 10.5 miles of downed trees. We hit a number of log “nubbins” (what used to be a branch sticking out of a tree, now a short sharp thing sticking out in every inconvenient place on a log one has to go over) and one took a chunk out of my leg. During another log crossing I hit one and it HURT, and I told Marnie I was going to say a bad word. I managed not to, but only by the grace of God!
My going-over-logs leg wounds, a week and a half after getting home.
A lady we met both at Callahan’s and Hyatt Lake told us that the trail is better maintained in the National Forest and once we reached the Rogue River National Forest sign there wouldn’t be so many blowdowns. She was right, and it definitely made for must faster going. Marnie fell on the trail and “left a dent in it”, getting a skinned knee and leg and a bruise on her hip. I tripped on a step (I had gone up successfully many times before) going up into the cabin at Hyatt Lake and hit the deck and skinned my knee, wrenched a muscle in my back, and bumped some ribs. Thankfully, we hiked the 8 miles of lava flows between Hyatt Lake and Fish Lake without losing our balance, although I think it meant that I missed some nice views of Mt. McLaughlin and Mt. Ashland because I was concentrating on my feet so much. If you fall in the lava, at least part of you will land on a pointy rock. In fact, without a miracle all of you would land on a pointy rock. The trail maintainers have made a trail through it, but it is all either small rocks or medium rocks instead of dirt. Thru-hikers just glide over it, but hiking through the miles of lava was exhausting for us because we felt like we needed to watch every step. We were glad there were small shaded forest “reprieves” where we could rest a bit before tackling the next lava flow. I did wear my bug head net through the lava, though, because the bugs insisted on flying in my face and buzzing my ears which drives me bonkers, and I didn’t want to lose my footing because I was gesturing wildly at some insect! The lava flows were the most eventful part of the walk from Hyatt Lake to Fish Lake, so much of this is about our time at Fish Lake.
The trailTrail through the lavaTrail through the lavaMt. McLoughlin
We arrived at the junction of the PCT and the Fish Lake trail and found a good sitting log to rest on there, glad to be done hiking through that lava! One trail goes two miles to Fish Lake, and the other way goes six miles to Lake O’ the Woods Resort. A thru-hiker couple came by who were also going to spend some time at Fish Lake, and we said we’d see them there later and continued our little rest time. We had been rationing our water all day since there was no water source between our campsite and Fish Lake, so we finished it up knowing we only had two miles until we could get all the soda we wanted, ha. Marnie and I both had to use the “ladies room”, and had to walk up the less traveled trail towards Lake O’ the Woods to find a spot. I walked up aways and took a spot behind a shrub, but there weren’t a lot of private spots to choose from. In the middle of things I heard a noise and looked up, and there was a bicycle coming down the trail! I was, in the least, mortified! I hunkered down as far as I could, but the colors of my sunshirt are so bright I was certainly visible, and I’m sure the cyclist was aware of what was “going” on. Thankfully he just looked politely ahead and continued down the trail, and I put myself back together and hurried back to the junction. I sincerely hoped the cyclist was staying at Lake O’ the Woods and wouldn’t be coming back to Fish Lake, and I was glad that I could change into my “town clothes” at the resort and therefore not be recognized just in case he did come back in our direction!
My sunshirt
The trail from the PCT to Fish Lake is a joy to walk on, two miles of wide, graveled path with only a couple of hills to go up. Once again we zipped up the trail, in anticipation of a good lunch this time and in hopes of getting a cabin for the night. We arrived on Thursday instead of Friday, and I had been praying the whole day that we could get a cabin with a bathroom to stay in Thursday night so we could get our showers in our own private bathroom instead of having to use the “communal” shower. I never know what to do with my feet in those things. Do I stand directly on the shower floor? (Ick.) Do I wear my Crocs in and then just stand on top of them so I can wash my feet, and then have to put my feet in my wet Crocs to walk back to the cabin? (Also ick.) We didn’t have to answer that question though, as God answered, “Yes,” to my prayers and someone had checked out early and left Cabin 5 available to us. We had to wait a couple of hours for the cabin to be cleaned, so we had some BLTs and curly fries and milkshakes for lunch on the restaurant deck and talked to the couple we had seen at the junction. They were busy planning their resupply and their next few stops.
Yum-o!
When the cabin was ready we gleefully scampered up to it and took our showers! You see, Fish Lake’s “rustic” cabins that we had reserved for Friday and Saturday nights don’t have bathrooms. They do have a little kitchen area with cold running water and a fridge, so at least one can wash one’s face and brush one’s teeth, but we needed showers and the private bathroom was such a blessing! God takes good care of us! (We had cleverly brought the tiny bottles of shampoo and tiny bars of soap with us from the cabin at Hyatt Lake, just in case there were no amenities like that at Fish Lake, and it was a good thing we did. There wasn’t even any soap for the shower!)
Cabin 5Interior of Cabin 5Interior of rustic cabin – table is behind door at right
We enjoyed our time at Fish Lake, even though there was a heat wave going and the resort doesn’t supply any fans in the cabins. (This is made clear on their website.) Both days it was 90 degrees out already at around 10:30 a.m. Cabin 5 had a screen door so we could let the evening air in until bedtime and a covered porch where we could sit as the air cooled a bit, and we each kept a cold washcloth near us or on us to try to keep cool. The rustic cabin did not even have a screen door, so we opened the windows (except the one over the bed, which had a big crack in it mended with packing tape) and attempted to sleep. By the time we were both awake in the morning the cabin had finally cooled off enough to be comfortable. Unfortunately we both had to go to the bathroom in the night, but we walked there together and the road was very well lit. Neither of us likes to wander around by ourselves after dark.
We spent most of our time relaxing on the deck sending and receiving messages from our InReach satellite devices (no cell signal at the lake except AT&T) and just watching the people who were coming to the lake, which was most populated on Saturday. People brought their stand-up paddleboards, boats, kayaks, and unicorn floaties and had a great time beating the heat in the lake. There were many dogs paddling around as well and I was glad to see they all had life jackets to keep them safe. The view of the lake from the deck is partially blocked by trees, so we didn’t get photos of the lake-goers. The people working at Fish Lake, while not quite as delightful as the ones at Hyatt Lake, were perfectly nice (well, one girl was rude to Marnie, but I buttered her up by complimenting her polite little girl and she was okay after that) and the girl who worked the restaurant window was especially fun. She joked around with everyone and remembered our names and how to spell them, so we didn’t have to tell her every time. The days we were there we had milkshakes for lunch and then an early dinner, even though they were out of strawberries so couldn’t make a strawberry milkshake (the store was too far away to go get them, they said). They were not stingy with the whipped cream and it was lovely to have a cold milkshake with lots of whipped cream on the over-90-degree days!
There were chipmunks living at Fish Lake too, and at one point a little girl dropped her basket of curly fries on the ground. We watched a chipmunk stuff his little cheekies with curly fries, it was the cutest thing! They would come up onto the deck if there weren’t too many people and take food right out of your hand. I fed one some of my salad and he appreciated the lettuce and tomatoes. The next night I fed one a sweet potato fry and he enjoyed that as well. If it was a mouse or a rat, everyone would be freaking out, but chipmunks are so cute it’s okay when they beg for food, ha. They have better press, I guess!
Chipmunk eating a curly fryLook at his lil’ hands!
We didn’t spend any time down at the lake ourselves, although while we were waiting for our laundry to finish we walked out to the beach near the R.V. park and took a look. The beach on that side was rocky and the water looked muddy, and that didn’t look like much fun to me, but we had seen many people going into the water from there. The sandy area was where the boat ramp went down, and since that was the nicest beach with the best access that was where most of the people sat and played. While watching the people, we also enjoyed watching the R.V.s come through and trying to figure out how much they cost! I was impressed by how they could get them down the narrow road and then maneuver them into the tight spaces in the R.V. park area. Driving goals!
While we were at Fish Lake we met other hikers including Packin’ (from New Zealand), Uncle Nomad, Tough Cookie, and Lively. We noticed Lively was very upset – there was a family tragedy and she needed to get home to the Seattle area. She and T. C. had scheduled an Uber for the next day to take them to Medford so they could rent a car and head to Washington. We talked with them for quite awhile that Saturday and hoped that they would get everything they needed.
On Sunday morning at 7:30 we were expecting to wait to go to breakfast when the restaurant opened at 9:00, and then wait for The Hubs to come get us. I expected him about 10:30 or so. We were all packed up and were about ready to go to the deck and hang out there, when we heard footsteps on the very creaky (seriously, in the night we thought we were going to wake up all the neighbors because of the creakiness) porch stairs and someone knocked on our door, and it was The Hubs! He had started from our house at 3:00 a.m. since he is used to being up around that time. We bundled our packs into the trunk of the old Avalon and started towards the front of the resort, where we found out that the Uber that was supposed to come pick up T.C. and Lively had overslept and wasn’t going to bother to come. Uncle Nomad was going to go to Medford to rent a car as well. The Hubs decided we could take them to the airport but we only had room for T.C. and Lively and their packs (barely), so Uncle Nomad said he would just go up to the highway and get a hitch. He had started out hiking but came back already that morning, the smoke was getting bad from the fires in southern Oregon and NorCal and he didn’t want to hike in it. I felt bad that he couldn’t go with us, and we hope he got to where he needed to be. We managed to get near the rental car area of the Medford airport to drop the girls off. Of course, we completely didn’t think about getting anyone’s number to be able to contact them again! After Marnie bought us breakfast at McDonald’s, we drove home.
Lively and T.C.
When we were at the Brown Mountain Shelter getting water at the pump, both Sleepless and the British girl said that when they stopped having fun they wouldn’t keep going. “It’s just a hike,” they said. Marnie and I realized that we weren’t having fun on our hike. While we admired the scenery and appreciated God’s beautiful creation, we enjoyed our time at the resorts much more than our time in the woods. Being out in the woods with our packs just started feeling like a chore more than a fun trip. A thru-hiker at one of the springs said, “Now I understand Oregon. It’s so chill.” The thru-hikers were cruising along up and down while we were struggling with the climbs, not thinking it was chill at all. It was discouraging, although when we thought about it we knew we could be no match for their 1700-mile legs. In spite of all that I think we would have continued on at least to Crater Lake, if we could have found a solution to the water situation. There is a 20-mile water carry between Fish Lake and Crater Lake, which for us would have been difficult since we aren’t doing 20s. Then there are fires just past that area as well and a lot of smoke so we might not have been able to get a good view of Crater Lake even if we made it there, and obviously fires and smoke make it unsafe to hike. Most NOBO thru-hikers are flipping from Fish Lake or Ashland up to Santiam Pass (Bend) or Timberline to avoid the fires and smoke. Then once you get to Bend/Santiam Pass, you have to get a ride around the Lionshead fire closure to Olallie Lake (if someone doesn’t mind taking you down the horrible road) or up to Frog Lake or Timothy Lake near Mt. Hood. We have already done Shelter Cove/Willamette Pass to Lava Camp Lake and Timothy Lake to Cascade Locks and hadn’t planned to do those sections over.
Takeaways:
Wildlife takeaways: We did not see any bears or mountain lions, just deer, birds, chipmunks, and the occasional squirrel. While we would love to see a bear from a safe distance, we’re just as glad none came into our space!
A deer that passed by while we were taking a break.
Thru-hiker takeaways: Thru-hikers are an amazing set of people. They were encouraging and none of them criticized or judged us (at least outwardly) when we were slow or took a long time going over logs.
Me taking a long time to go over a log.
Water takeaways: While it isn’t fun to carry water, you should always have a little more than you think you need. Not all water sources are reliable, even if your app says it is “flowing”. Also, drink lots of electrolytes in your water.
Mmmm, pond water…
Food takeaways: Eat plenty of food in town, as backpacking food isn’t all that tasty. Although it might seem expensive, eat some freeze-dried backpacking meals before you go so you know whether they’re any good or not. Then you won’t end up with an inedible meal and have to deal with the leftovers. (You carry them in your trash. Hopefully it won’t be too long before there’s a trash can to dump it in.)
Delicious town food.
General backpacking takeaways: Backpacking is harder than doing things at home. It’s hard to carry a backpack. It’s hard to set up your tent sometimes. It’s hard to walk uphill. It’s hard to sleep. There’s mostly nowhere to sit except rocks and the ground, and rocks are pointy and the ground is dirty. Everything is dirty, especially your hands and fingernails. (Hand sanitizer doesn’t actually clean your hands, it just slides the dirt around.)
Sitting in the dirt on a break.
Central takeaway: If it isn’t fun, don’t keep doing it. It’s just a hike.
In the end, Marnie and I have decided that we don’t need to go backpacking again for awhile. We will clean all our backpacking gear and put it away carefully and be content to be at home with clean fingernails, flush toilets, and chairs to sit on while we contemplate our next adventure.
Before I go into the next sections, there are a couple things I forgot to write about our first section. The journey to the CA/OR border of the PCT was very interesting. Marnie’s hubs Steve drove us in her VW Tiguan. It takes some doing to get there. The Google Navigation Lady takes you up a lot of roads, some paved, some gravel, and some just a trail up the side of a mountain full of ruts and potholes. Then you come out onto a lovely graveled Forest Service road (why couldn’t we go on THAT road?), go up the road a little ways, and then go back because you missed the small pullout where the trail comes through. Spoiler alert: On the way back, Marnie’s hubs got a flat tire on the freeway and had to buy two new tires for her car!
We reached the pullout area and hopped out to walk (sans backpacks) the .3 of a mile to the CA/OR border. There were standup post signs on each side of the F.S. road that indicated a trail, but we didn’t see the PCT emblem. We got our photos, signed the hiker log, and were back up to the pullout in a jiffy to get our packs and start our hike on the opposite side. As we got to the road, we each looked at the standup trail signs and noticed there WAS a PCT emblem on them. We thought we were going nuts! “There wasn’t an PCT sign there when we went down, was there?” “No, I’m sure there wasn’t, how did we miss it?” etc. Then Steve, who was waiting for us, told us that workers had actually just come and put the signs on the posts. He tried to wrangle three signs for us from the worker and the worker was going to give them to Steve, but then the worker’s boss came along and wouldn’t give them away.
Hiker Log
Another thing I forgot to include in my last post was that as we were walking on a very overgrown trail, a large white horse suddenly appeared in front of us. Thankfully there was a place nearby where we could step off the trail, because there certainly wasn’t room on the trail for us and Mr. Mega Horse! We stood quietly and let the horse and rider go by. Later that day we met the horse coming again, and stepped aside to let him pass. His rider said, “If you talk to him, he’ll know you aren’t a mountain lion,” so guess what we all three said to the horse? “Oh no, we’re not mountain lions,” we said, practically in unison, ha. The horse passed and soon we came upon a large downed tree with limbs everywhere. A sort of trail had been made by hikers up the side of the hill to go around the end of the tree, so we scrambled up and around. We still wonder how the horse got around that tree…
Many of the photos are Marnie’s. I didn’t stop to take quite as many photos because I was in the lead the whole time this trip. I was chugging up the hills and trying to encourage the others to chug along too, ha. Chug up to a shady spot. Catch your breath. Chug up to the next shady spot. Catch your breath. Whew. Down the hill – ow, my knees. Up the hill – ow, my calves. Flat trail – wheee! I think most of my best photos were of the hotel/resorts, ha.
We left Callahan’s and took the “blue blaze” road walk up the old highway to where the PCT comes out on the road, instead of going back through the railroad yard and up the steep trail we took coming down. I don’t like road walks, and this one (besides being uphill) was on a well-traveled road. It wasn’t too bad most of the way, but when a semi-truck was in our lane and a dump truck was coming in the other lane at the same time, it seemed pretty harrowing!
Once we got on trail again some people were coming up behind us and I saw Kung Fu, a hiker we had met down at the Pioneer Mail Picnic Area in SoCal and spent some time with at the Stagecoach RV Park. We had seen him the day before at the picnic table/water faucet on trail but he was busy conversing with other hikers at that time. When we saw him on trail, Marnie said, “Hey, Kung Fu!” and he looked a bit confused, but once we reminded him where we’d met he remembered and was happy to see us. He is called Kung Fu because last year when he hiked the PCT he had a Kung Fu mustache. Another hiker took our photo with him. I imagine he is in Washington by now. Our friend SnuzzNuzz who we also met in SoCal might be at PCT Days this month, and we are looking forward to seeing him if he is able to be there.
Marnie, me, Kung Fu
Our campsite the first night out of Callahan’s was very nice, with views of Mt. Shasta and Pilot Rock. We had many views of Mt. Shasta throughout the first and second sections of our hike. Most of our campsites were forested with no views, although we did have a view of Hobart Bluff one night. We also had many views of Mt. Ashland, as we moved further and further away from it. Every time we turned around there it was again! Marnie got a photo every time we looked over and saw the mountain, just to show that we were still seeing it.
Mt. ShastaPilot RockMt. Ashland
Much of the trail this trip was very overgrown – we walked through (literally) manzanita, thimbleberries, Oregon grape, star thistles, grass as high as my face, wild rose, wild cucumber, many unidentified shrubs, and huckleberries. There were one or two huckleberries that looked ripe out of all the bushes we passed through, but no thimbleberries yet. Thimbleberries aren’t bad to walk through with their big soft leaves (they are also known as “Nature’s Toilet Paper”) but the very pointy star thistles were not fun for our legs. We saw what might be a rare lily (or maybe they had mostly all bloomed already) in the forest. There were all manner of flying insects flitting about, bugs and butterflies, dive-bombing us and buzzing around our heads. There were a few bitey bugs, but we didn’t see too many mosquitoes.
ThimbleberriesOvergrown trailLily — we only saw a couple of these.
On one day we were walking through the Green Springs Wildlife Refuge. There were the usual signs everywhere about keeping your pets leashed because it is, well, a refuge for wildlife. As we walked through the refuge an older man with two large, happy doggos came toward us and the dogs galloped down the hill and started visiting with Linda and Marnie. My first instinct after he assured us the dogs were friendly was to correct his error and tell him that he should keep the dogs leashed because we were in the wildlife refuge. His response as he walked by? “I’ve never seen any wildlife around here!” I was shortly required to eat my words as a thru-hiker came up and said, “Cold drinks at the top of the hill! That man with the dogs said he left a cooler in his van for us!” and when we reached the parking lot at the top of the hill we joined a bunch of other hikers and took advantage of the cold Gatorade the man had left in his cooler. It sure hit the spot! I mean, if he left trail magic he couldn’t have been all bad, right? (Except he also let his pups potty on the trail and didn’t pick up after them, so…) At the parking lot there we met Crash. When we were in Julian, CA, in April we heard about a hiker and trail angel getting in a car accident one of the days we were there, and Crash was that hiker.
After our break at the Green Springs trailhead parking lot, we went across the road and back up into the forest. Eventually a man in a bright Hawaiian shirt came walking down the trail and stopped to talk for a bit. He mentioned a person who was supposed to be a PCT hiker and asked if we knew who she was. I know of her from the PCT 2022 Facebook group run by the Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA). The Medford newspaper had done a big writeup about her, he said. This was the second time we had been questioned about her, the lady with COVID at Grouse Gap Shelter had asked us almost the same question. We never did come upon the person during our time on trail. We told him we were going to Hyatt Lake and he said that the people there were delightful, and told us to tell them we had talked to Dan the Man. He said that he was going back down the trail to collect flags that had been left during a trail maintenance job he had helped with the day before where they had picked up many pounds of trash. Funny thing was, we hadn’t seen any flags…
During a break one day Marnie was organizing her waist pack, and Linda suggested Marnie’s trail name should be “Kangaroo”, because her waist pack holds an immense amount of things. Marnie accepted her trail name so Marnie is now Kangaroo and we all have trail names!
Kangaroo with her waist pack
On this stretch of the PCT there are many different kinds of water sources, one being a spring that has had a pipe put in so the water comes out in a place that is easier to reach. We came to one of these piped springs and were eager to start filtering water. Marnie and I each filled up our CNOC water bladder and Linda put her pump filter in the spring puddle and started pumping. As we were sitting there, a family came along with a father, mother, and adult daughter. It’s unusual to see a whole family on trail hiking together. The father was running back and forth taking water to the ladies to filter, and then he plopped down on his mat and his wife threw him some snacks. For a smallish man he sure was taking up a lot of space! The mother and daughter were also very small in stature and we wondered how they were getting over some of the downed trees. After this piped spring, the next water source was a terrible pond. Its comments on FarOut read something like, “Aside from all the snake friends, this pond isn’t too bad,” and “If you are entertained by watching garter snakes eat tadpoles…” etc. I said that I would die of thirst before I would go to this pond to get water! We took a break at a campsite near the snakey pond and didn’t want to get any water there, but Marnie did go down and get some emergency water for Linda in case she needed it later as she was running low. I think Marnie may have scooped up some tadpoles too! There was a less-icky pond for a water source another day and we did get water at that pond. The first time I scooped up water in my bladder there I got a large bug as well, so I poured him out and got some bug-free water. It tasted okay after filtering. There was another piped spring that was supposed to be “flowing” according to the comments on FarOut. We got there and talked to a British hiker named Sparkle for a little while, he was trying to eat his lunch but was being accosted by bees. Another hiker came along and went down to the spring before we did, and when we got down there she informed us that the pipe was just dripping, not flowing at all. After a long while she finally got half a bladder full of water and went over to filter it, while Marnie put her bladder under the pipe. One of the comments on FarOut said that if you pushed down on the pipe more water would come out, and that worked for a minute. After waiting for the water for so long, we decided that we should just dip our bladders in the puddle and be done with it. We did that and went back up to filter, and some other hikers came along. They pooled their resources (cups, Buff for extra filter, etc.) and all went down to try to scoop some water out of the puddle. When they came back up they said that the pipe wasn’t even dripping anymore. We had gotten there just in time. This was a spring that people were counting on for water, and we felt sorry for anyone that came after we did since the pipe had gone dry and it was a number of miles to the next water source.
Then there was a pump at the South Brown Mountain Shelter, between Hyatt Lake and Fish Lake. The water still had to be filtered, but it was cold and clear. The pump was huge and most of us needed help working it. When we arrived at the shelter there were people at the picnic table. One was Sleepless, a girl we had met as we were leaving Hyatt Lake. There were a couple of British girls who later purloined the campsite we wanted, forcing us to walk two extra miles to another campsite (which we were actually happy about later as it meant we didn’t have to walk so far in the lava the next day)! One of the girls was a thru-hiker and had taken some time off to fly back to the U.K. for ten days, and then came back with her friend who was hiking the Oregon section with her. Another girl came along who had a collapsible hula hoop attached to her pack! Marnie found her on Instagram, she says that another hiker was teaching her tricks with the hula hoop, ha.
Hiker at dripping piped springSouth Brown Mountain ShelterInterior of Brown Mountain ShelterThe less icky pondLinda using her pump filter at the flowing piped spring
The night before we got into Hyatt Lake, we camped at a site in the forest near a dirt road. (It had a helpful stump “table” where we cooked our dinners!) After we were cuddled up in our tents I kept hearing crazy laughing and some screams, and knew it couldn’t be hikers because hikers would walk on by and the noises would keep happening. Linda and I wondered if there was a maniac loose in the woods! Marnie was set up closer to the dirt road and noticed some bicyclists, and it turns out they were the ones making the noise. I had thought we were in the middle of nowhere, but I guess not!
We finally got to the trailhead at the Hyatt Lake Campground, and noticed a sign that said, “Call us at the resort and we’ll come get you!” and we eagerly got out our phones and…had no signal. Marnie and I both have the same phone carrier. Linda has Verizon which is known to work better in the mountains, but her phone was dead because the cord she had for her portable battery wasn’t working. The signs at the trailhead neglected to indicate which direction the resort was in, so I flagged down a pickup coming out of the campground to ask which way to go. Once we got on the right track, we did the 1-1/2 mile road walk to the resort, hoping there wouldn’t be too much traffic on the curvy road with little shoulder. I was in the lead booking it towards a nice brunch! I had the idea that drivers might not be able to see us on one side of the road, so I kept changing from one side to the other with the curves in hopes we could be seen better and not be squashed.
No signal to call the people at Hyatt LakeRoad walk. My backpack kept listing to the right. I never figured out why.
The people at the Hyatt Lake Resort are indeed delightful, as Dan the Man had said. We arrived a little after 10:30, and after we finished breakfast they let us hang out on the patio until our cabin was ready. They even asked the maid to clean ours next since we were waiting. Then, the maid came and sat with us and we had a nice conversation with her, and she said we were her favorite hikers. She came and talked with us a few times during our stay while we were sitting on the patio. She was about our age and German, I think. She had seen a mountain lion not too far from where we were on her road and there was a sign that one had been seen in the campground, so we felt very thankful that we were staying in a solid, cougar-proof cabin! The cabin was very nice and full of bear-themed décor, which made Marnie and me quite happy because bears are our favorite. The cabins are like tiny homes, and ours had a big deck with plenty of furniture outside upon which to drape our clothes to dry (we had to do sink laundry since they don’t have laundry facilities available at Hyatt Lake). Linda slept downstairs in the bedroom while Marnie and I slept in the loft which had a low ceiling. You can’t stand up in it and have to do a sort of hunch-walk to get from the very steep stairs to the beds, but the beds were quite comfy and we slept well with the windows open and a fan on.
Hyatt Lake Cabin 20Sweet Pea and the interior of Hyatt Lake cabin 20
Linda had decided to go home that first night out of Callahan’s and had called her hubs to meet her at Hyatt Lake to pick her up. She hadn’t been having a good time from the get-go and she couldn’t get her tent set up properly, and she has decided that she is done backpacking for good. Marnie and I saw them off and then spent the rest of our zero day relaxing on the patio where there was wifi, and surreptitiously feeding the plump chipmunks who live there. A man from the resort gave us a ride back to the trailhead, where we started off towards Fish Lake. The delightful lady at Hyatt Lake had even let us use their phone to reserve a cabin at Fish Lake when we couldn’t make a successful call out with our cell phones! We were able to reserve a “rustic cabin” for the next Friday and Saturday nights.
Hyatt Lake — it was very low and nobody was playing in it, but there were plenty of vacationers at the resort anyway.Hyatt Lake patio
every day's just like starting over 