I arose early in the morning. I could smell coffee brewing, but I heard no noises. I lay there wondering how many were now in camp with us. As I climbed out and made my morning dash into the trees, I counted three more. The guy who came in as the light was fading was our last arrival making six of us in the camp next to Jude Lake. The last guy was cowboy camping with a tarp set up. I had wondering while listening to the conversation, and hearing the sounds, if he was hammocking it, which reminded me of Jupiter and made me sad that he wasn’t along on this trek.
On the return to my tent to get food, I noticed that the lake had a weird fog covering it. It actually looked like the lake was steaming as the breeze blew the fog lifting off of the lake across it. It was super eerie looking. I grabbed my camera and phone took some shot and a couple of videos.
Magic Man was up and stirring about, but no one else was, so I tip toed over and made coffee and breakfast. Quietly conversing with Magic Man about the day. Soon Mama Bear was up and stirring. She had been messaging Papa Bear/Superman on her Inreach and was wanting to know today’s stopping point to see if there was a road nearby or that we would be crossing. So the confusion of the morning started. Magic Man was saying that according to my camp number that I had set, we were going to be traveling 15 miles today, not 13.8. I said that couldn’t be right, I know I had only mapped out 13.8, he showed me the number, and what his Guthooks app said. I thought it had to be a mistake. Then I started to get concerned, his numbers matched what I had on my paper, but when you subtract one from the other you only get 13.8. What is happening? Mama Bear gave Papa Bear/Superman the location that I had on my paper. He was going to attempt to meet up with us and switch out the water filter. Magic Man said not to worry about it, we could all use his and hopefully it doesn’t fail.
We had our breakfast, I was still confused about the stopping point, and were all of the mileage numbers off now? This is not like me at all. I contemplated this while I ate a delicious breakfast from Packit Gourmet. Their Good Day Sunshine Bowl. https://www.packitgourmet.com/GoodDaySunshineBowl.html
I knew I would want something full of good energy for the 13.8 (maybe 15 mile) day. What could I have possibly done wrong? I couldn’t check my stats on the HalfMile app, because it automatically said that we were off trail. I would have to consult the genie in the app, once I was back on trail to be 100% what was happening and what I had done wrong. Magic Man had it in his mind that we were doing 15 miles that day, he also said that camp was listed as Warm Springs River, I knew that wasn’t right. Everything I had read said Warm Springs River was a popular spot.
All of the thru’s had packed up and left, we were the first to arrive at camp and the last to leave. We still hit the trail at 7:30 AM. As soon as we were back on the PCT, I consulted the app, the camp location was correct; 13.8 miles away, small camp near a spring. Magic Man still wanted to push onto Warm Springs River and be ahead of the game. I wasn’t even sure we would make it the 13.8 miles, I had an alternative plan which was to stop at the top of Pinhead Butte at the dry camp at 10.5 miles if needed.
The sky was flirting with rain, so I had my pack cover and rain gear handy in the back pocket of my pack.
We made it approximately 4 miles when the sky started to spit rain on us. We kept moving for a while, me still in the lead, on the flat dirt sidewalk. Soon though, it became too much, I had to relieve myself any way, so we stopped, dropped pack and put rain coats and pack covers on. It wasn’t quite enough of a torrential downpour that I felt I needed to put my rain pants on yet, but they were still tucked into the back pocket, ready to toss on. Almost as soon as we geared up, did the rain stop. But we only had a mile to go before the next water fill up. We had heard through the trail vine that Lemiti wasn’t really great water, but Trooper Spring was much better. That was our goal. With a flat trail and an early start we were flying down the trail! If we were stopping at Trooper Spring, we would have an early lunch. We would probably arrive at Trooper around 10:30 AM.
We passed the Lemiti camp spot and we were glad we hadn’t made the trek there, it was one large open camp area, near the spring, which had a decent amount of water in it, but yes, it looked a little on the yellow side, but then again Jude Lake was a little on the red side. We went ahead and moved onto Trooper Spring. Everyone but myself was good on water. Because the Sawyer Squeeze is so time consuming and I wanted to hit the trail early for the long day, I had opted to not fill up my water bottle, but I did have a half liter of electrolyte flavored water. I would have to fill up at Trooper Spring.
We landed at Trooper Springs right around 10:45 AM. The sky had opened back up as we dashed for the cover of some trees. I headed down to the spring to get water in my now “dirty bottle” and took Mama Bear’s dirty bottle too. I was still concerned with mileage. Mama Bear used the squeeze to fill my clean bottle and hers as well, while I got some lunch out. Which ended up really being snacks, but we’ll call it lunch. This time, I didn’t eat any of my lunches, but instead had the snacks that I brought along. The other two had had snacks when we stopped to rain gear up. The sky opened up and started dumping, the thunder was booming and flashes of lightening as we huddled under the trees eating lunches. I was now not only concerned with miles, but lightening again. From Trooper Spring, we would begin our ascent to the Pinhead Buttes and the ridge line between them, not really a place you want to be during a thunderstorm. We were a little over five miles on our 13.8 mile stretch. The up ahead of us wasn’t steep, but it was a steady climb. At the top of the climb, we would decide, continue on 3 more miles or stop at the dry camp on Pinhead Butte South. I was concerned about this, so I went back and refilled my dirty bottle. I also wanted to grab a cell phone shot of the gorgeous purple blue flowers in the meadow next to the spring. I wasn’t taking my good camera out in the rain.
Earlier in the morning Mama Bear had been texting with Papa Bear/Superman regarding the water filter situation. He had said that he was going to meet us at a particular road at 6:00 PM, but I said that we would be well passed that road at that time. We had also decided to just use Magic Man’s Sawyer Squeeze. He wasn’t answering her InReach texts and she was starting to get concerned that he had not received the don’t meet us message. It was at the least a 3 hour drive down an unknown access road and who knew what shape the road would be in. But he had not responded to her text messages. She sent another text to him, that we would just use the Sawyer. The rain wasn’t letting up and it was coming down pretty hard. It was time to don the full rain suit. I sat down on a log and went to put the rain pants on, instead I put my foot right through the crotch and tore my brand new never even used them Frogg Toggs! *SMH* seriously? Well I guess I didn’t really need crotch coverage, so I put them on anyway, recovered the pack and we were off again.
It didn’t take long for the rain to stop, and the uphill climb to start. We passed a SoBo thru hiker, everyone seemed to be grumpy and in a hurry this year, must have been the having to flip and return to the Sierra’s later this year. He was in a hurry and just waved us off when we asked a question as we stopped to remove the rain pants. As we began our uphill, the sweat started pouring and overheating myself and Mama Bear, since we were in full gear. But hey, at least I had a ventilation system in the crotch of my pants. We peeled off rain gear, put on the long sleeves and continued our trek.
We came to a large power line clearing, that was near the top of the climb up to Pinhead Butte South. It was the first vista we had seen in a while and the opening was full of the bright pink pop of Fireweed. We had to stop and take in the view and smell the flowers. I also wanted a quick snack. I had been pushing hard, I wanted to be on the down hill side if another storm popped up.
I could hear thunder off in the distance and the clouds were rolling in dark and ominous. I wanted no part of being on the Butte or the ridge line during a full on storm. I hollered back to the others, I am going to move on now. I started across the wide open space. It was also full of huckleberry bushes. I grabbed a couple of ripe ones and tossed them into my mouth. They burst full of flavor, warm from the bit of sun that we had. Almost across the clearing, a funky livestock smell hit my nose. I looked around and saw no horses. You need to yield to horses on the trail. I like to keep a wide berth of them, as you never know what might spook one, and trust me, a hoof to the ass hurts like hell! At the end of the clearing, just before stepping into the tree line I saw it. Magic Man was right behind me at that point and Mama Bear was still a bit of distance behind. Fresh, still steaming bear scat! That must have been what I smelt. I broke a piece off with my hiking pole and put it in front of Magic Man, pointed with my pole and then rolled it off the trail and kept moving. I didn’t want to alarm Mama Bear. We didn’t speak of it, until we were off of the trail.
The trail got a little steeper as we made our way to the Pinhead Butte South. When we reached the top, we spied the designated camp site. It was still early and we were on the start of the downhill. Magic Man was still interested in getting all the way to Warm Springs River, I know I had three more miles in me for sure, but five more was questionable. It was after all our first full trail day. I didn’t want to wear myself out from the get go. We crossed the ridge line and started the down, down, down. We crossed a road that Papa Bear/Superman had said that he would meet us at and we knew that camp was shortly after that. We saw the spring sign and made the turn into camp, it was 2:30 in the afternoon. Magic Man hates getting to camp so early, but I honestly didn’t know if I could do another 2 and some change.
We made our way down to the camp area and spring. It was in deep woods. There was very little sun getting through and we all had wet rain flys and Magic Man’s sleeping bag had gotten damp as well. We hung up gear and hoped that just hanging it would help dry it, even if there was very little sun penetrating the forest campsite. There were plenty of trees, so I was able to use my Kickback Arrowhead Equipment hammock chair. https://www.arrowhead-equipment.com/store/p633/KickBackHammockChair.html
I usually don’t bring a chair on the longer treks, but this was super light and easily squished into my pack.
Mama Bear kept worrying about getting messages through. Why hadn’t Papa Bear/Superman messaged her back? As we set up camp She kept checking for messages. Nothing. We relaxed a little after getting all set up. I had brought some dice and yahtzee papers, but no one was interested in playing. I thought it would be a great time killer on days like today where we got to camp super early. Instead we went about figuring out how to dry stuff out, and what the water plan was going to be, we were running low, Magic Man had already filled up his water. I was occupied with trying to get a check in signal out, but it wasn’t working a great deal. It was so dense in our little camp spot next to the spring. I was concerned about it being buggy as well, since it was super moist and the rain had made the ground even wetter.
Mama Bear kept pacing, still looking at her Inreach. There was still no response. She was worried he hadn’t received the message. She thought she was going to have to walk up to the road. It really wasn’t that far. I told her I would walk up with her. She was worried that he might not make it up the road. I said we should be able to hear a car from here, the road is literally .08 miles away from our camp. Would he hike in?? Maybe. But he had an injured foot, so he probably shouldn’t. Literally as we are having this discussion, we hear a voice from the bushes up the trail…..
“I heard someone here needed a water filter?”
And he didn’t just bring one, he brought several to chose from and a couple of Smart Water bottles as well! He had also parked on the road that we had not yet crossed and using her Inreach coordinates hiked up the trail into our camp 1.6 miles!! So Papa Bear or Superman?
I asked my own husband later, if he would have done the same thing. His response is exactly as I figured it would be. He is a much better person then me. You had Magic Man’s filter, you would have been on your own!
Mama Bear walked down the trail a mile with Superman, so that he could get back to his car before it got dark. When she returned we pumped water and soaked our feet. While we were down there, of course there was the tradition of my shot to cheers the day, while I feet soaked. A Sobo thru hiker came down and I offered him up a shot of my Peanut Butter Whiskey from Screwball (maybe this would come to haunt me later) Made our dinners. And really relaxed! I had picked up some Packet Gourmet grocery DIY meals. I bought roast beef, potatoes and cheese. I wrapped it in a tortilla and it was sooooo delish that I tried to pass it around to everyone! I was wishing I had a second one. I’m usually not hungry on the trail, so I packed lighter foods and split meals into two.
We chatted for a while, there was a fire pit, but we opted to not use it. The spring was close, but shallow and we were heavily forested. Because it was so dense, it was getting dark quickly. Magic Man is an early bed early riser. So we all headed to our tents. Mama Bear had a book on her phone. I was again kicking myself for not bringing something. It was 6:00 PM again and I was tired, but not that tired. So I played a solo game of yahtzee. Mama Bear and I chatted through the tents. I wanted to double check tomorrow’s miles and elevation. I really wanted to try to camp on Timothy Lake. One of the Sobo thru’s said they wished they had stayed on Timothy, the camping was really good there and many spots had campfire pits and because they were close to the lake, a fire was acceptable. There was no fire bans in the area, we had checked prior to trail dust.
I looked over the map and the first camp on Timothy Lake was 13.4 miles. I had only planned a 10.5 mile day. The elevation looked pretty good. I knew we would be downhill until Warm Springs River, then there would be a strong uphill section coming out of Warm Springs River, but then it would level out again until Timothy Lake. What do you think Mama Bear? Another 13 miler tomorrow? Then we’ll be off course a little, but we’ll be off of the Warm Springs Reservation and back in the Mt. Hood NF. So stealth camping would be acceptable. We talked about it for awhile and decided we should push towards Timothy Lake. That would make Magic Man happy too, he dislikes short days and we had just done 13.8 miles and arrived at camp at 2:30 in the afternoon.
With thoughts of Timothy Lake and an uphill climb out of Warm Springs (this one had more bite, the blog I read had said) I finally drifted off to sleep. Day #2 down in the books and complete.
Journeys of Snake Jumper 