Sunday, July 9
Start: McKenzie Pass
End: ponds by Wasco Lake
Miles: 26.6
Elevation gain/loss: 3753’/3527′
With the call of ‘town food’ and a potential breakfast buffet, I was up at 4:55am with no alarm and on trail by 5:15am. I decided that I could push hard and make it to Big Lake Youth Camp by 9am for breakfast. I suceeded, pushing as hard as I could go for those 3.75 hours, going through the Belknap Crater and around Mt Washington. I rolled into camp right around 9am, to discover that since the camp week ended on Saturday and starts again on Sunday afternoon, breakfast had been at 8-8:30am for camp counselors and staff. But they kindly gave me some leftovers – hard boiled eggs, milk, cereal, yogurt, and a few other things. I enjoyed the food and then headed back to the PCT cabin to do laundry, shower, charge my devices, and take care of town chores and repacking my resupply box into my food bag. I went to lunch at 12:30pm, ate two plates of food (after eating a 2lb bag of fruit gummies right before…), and full to bursting, headed out from camp at 1:30pm.
It was extremely hot – the actual was right around 100 and it was probably 105-110 in the sun. I was beyond uncomfortable in my body with such a full stomach, hiking in the heat. On my climb out of Santiem Pass, the massive burn section greeted me with endless sharp blowdowns and maybe 1% shade anywhere near the trail. I made it a few miles into the climb and had to sit down/collapse with a small tree for shade and close my eyes for 5 minutes, just to let my body settle down a bit. I was so happy for my body to digest the food I’d eaten out of my stomach so I could stop feeling like I was going to split down the middle.
I was very done by the time I got to my campsite at 7:30pm by two small ponds in the burn area by Minto Pass. The endless, very sharp blowdowns were getting in my head; I cut my knees open badly twice, spilling blood on the ground. It was very exposed and beyond hot.
As I started to set up my tent, the wind started picking up and only got worse. It was 35 MPH gusts, and every gust threw the yellow-brown dirt into my tent along with burned tree ash. There were increasing clouds in the sky and thick clouds started eating the nearby mountain (Three Fingered Jack) that look concerning as well, but the weather prediction only notes winds (easing as the night goes on) and a lower temperature tomorrow but not precipitation. We shall see how it goes.
Transcending Mountains 