I am currently sharing journal entries from my section hiking of the Pacific Crest Trail in Oregon. For this section, you can start here: Snuffy’s 2015 Pacific Crest Trail Journal : Bring on The Bugs.
Snuffy’s 2015 Pacific Crest Trail Journal : Six Horse Springs
June 25, 2015
Leaving Summit Lake after each drinking more than a liter of water and carrying 2 liters each, we headed off at 5am with a goal of making it to at least Six Horse Spring today. As we headed up an easy grade to a ridge looking back at Summit Lake, we passed a few more thru hikers. Bipolar, an older bearded gentleman who had lived in Oregon but resides in the Midwest now, was chatty and has a blog, Bipolar Hikes PCT. We also met Boa, a young man from California who had just seen Crater Lake for the first time (he said he hadn’t even seen a picture before!).
The lakelet north of Windigo Pass was there, but drying up fast. It also had a few fish floaters and I was missing the water abundance of Washington more and more. We cameled up again and continued on down to the pass. The road of Windigo Pass (FR 60) is a red dirt road here; I’m guessing it doesn’t see a lot of travel.
We found a small group of folks sitting around on logs at the junction; section hikers, thrus and a traveler making fresh salsa from a food processer hooked up to his Forerunner. His name was Chris and he was passing through on a road trip, unintentionally providing trail magic.
The water cache was empty and he was sharing water with the hikers there, we were okay having filled up at the lakelet. We sat and chatted for a short while, and I slyly passed turkey jerky to his dog (after asking permission, of course). It was at this part of the trip that both Elizabeth and I realized we had completely over packed on the food. For me, I’m guessing at least 5 pounds worth. I was doing anything I could to eat what I had and I saw the perfect opportunity to shed a few ounces to Chris’ canine partner.
After giving Chris some interesting destinations to hit while in Oregon and Washington, we continued our journey south. We hoped to make it to Six Horse Springs by dinner time, load up on water and then make a few more miles before dry camping. Before the spring, we did make a lunch stop and napped for 2 hours in the shade, it is just too hot! I am noticing a rash on the back of my legs in the areas that are not covered by my knee braces. It is red and sore. I think it is because my pants keep the dirt out for the most part but the finer particles get through and into my skin, irritating it. Not helpful.
Also, the extra weight of our food became mental weight as well, both of us obsessing about how we could have done this to ourselves (SWOYC). Our plan had been to be down to one day’s worth of food by the time we had to carry enough water to make the 27 mile stretch into Crater Lake. Now it looked like we have more than a few extra days’ worth. I know for me, this is where I started dreaming of a garbage can at HWY 138.
Arriving at Six Horse by 6pm, there was already a tent up in the spot closest to the side trail down to the spring. I observed that the owners of the tent were into stuff sacks, the contents of their packs arranged inside like large rabbit pellets. I waited a short while for Elizabeth to catch up with me, and we headed down to fill up. We passed the young couple coming up the trail, looking as if they had just stepped out of a REI catalog. They were friendly and let us know that the bugs were out in force down at the water. The young man also confirmed that the first water you come to is stagnant and you have to continue further down the path of the spring for fresh flowing water (per the water reports). What a delight it was to have cold water without worrying about what might have steeped in it.
We drank another liter of water and filled our bottles, then slugged it back up the trail to our packs. We walked just down the PCT to another campsite and sat for a bit eating dinner. I am enjoying my homemade crackers, prosciutto, cheese and Kalamata olives on this trip, as well as the raspberry chia jam. And of course, mustard. Today, the muscle that runs along the inside of my leg by my knee has been tight and I have been trying all kinds of stretching to alleviate it. It is new to my hiking, and I can see I will have to do some research when I get home. It may be because I am wearing knee braces consistently this year and causing my legs to work differently. I do a few stretches before packing up.
Deciding that we still wanted to tack on a few more miles, we took off down the trail while there was still some sunlight left. I could tell Elizabeth only had a few more steps left in her, and I knew there was some flat terrain up ahead. However, she ran out of steam before we could get there and we ended up camping on the down slope of the trail at a slight angle up against some trees. When you are tired, you can’t be too picky. That ended our day and we made plans to make it to HWY 138 the next day before slogging it up to the rim of Crater Lake. Discussing how the heat is just draining us in the middle of the day, we set our plan to be hiking by 4am to take advantage of the cooler temps in the morning.
Interested in more of my Oregon PCT adventures? You can read up on the year 2014 here: Snuffy’s 2014 Pacific Crest Trail Journal-Oregon Day 1.
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