August 9th, 2022 by Jon
We woke to the patter of light rain on the tent. How long had it been since that happened? We got ready in the tent and even had breakfast inside it before finally getting up and packing everything else. By 6:20, we were ready to go, and so we told Stealth and Tits we would see them later and began our biggest mileage day on trail yet. The trail started out pretty flat, winding through pine forest and passing a number of large ponds and small lakes. That would be the name of the game today; the land was absolutely picketed with small basins where water collected.
We swatted as mosquitos then entire time. They wouldn’t leave us alone; they went for our ears, necks, and elbows more than anything else. We killed as many as we could and stumbled often due to our wild swatting we would do midstep to kill one that buzzed in our ear. The trail itself was nice, though. We cruised through the forest, enjoying really easy terrain and views. We took our first break after 6 miles and enjoyed a nice rock in the sun where the mosquitoes didn’t seem too bad. When we started again, the darkness began to roll in overhead, and the rumble of thunder could be heard in the distance. We continued hiking, and the clouds got even darker. Lightning struck somewhere nearby ish and created a massively loud crack. We kept hiking cautiously, but safely below the tree line.
We came to a small lake where Tits and some other hikers were filling up, and could smell smoke. The lightning had probably started a small fire. We would find out later in the day that a hotshot crew put out a fire about a mile away from that lake. We kept hiking, and then the rain came, and boy did it fall. We ran under a large evergreen tree and threw on our rain jackets, but they only helped somewhat. Soon, everything outside of the jacket was drenched, and hail even fell for a short time. Thunder and lightning cracked overhead, and we could see the flashes fairly nearby. A few of them were deafeningly loud, and it felt like the storm was right over us. Storms are both impressive and terrifying at the same time.
It stopped after about 45 minutes, and the clouds seemed to continue on, and the sun began to shine down on us. We had another few miles of hiking before we came to Island Lake, named for the small patch of grass growing on a rock in the middle of the lake. We sat by the water’s edge and had some lunch there with Tits, who got there about 1 minute before us, and Stealth, who got there a bit later. We were enjoying ourselves very much until the rain started again. We packed up, threw on our jackets, and began hiking again. We had already gone 16 miles for the day, and we wanted to do another 12 to camp.
The trail wound its way through long strings of trees, but broke out into meadows at times, which was a welcome change from the morning. The trail became full of sunshine again, and it actually became quite pleasant. As we got about a half-mile before the creek we were headed to, thunder rolled across the sky, and the dark clouds that had formed unleashed another torrent of rain. We practically ran the last bit of trail and found a large pine tree next to the creek that protected us from the worst of the onslaught, but it was still quite wet. This would be the last water source for 8 miles until we go to the lake we were camping next to. We scooped some up and began filtering. As we did, the trail filled with more and more water, threatening to soak our bags. I scraped a small trough to funnel water off the trail and into a small depression that led to the creek. Crisis averted, we finished filtering, and by the time we were done, the rain had mostly stopped.
We kept hiking and now had large puddles to dodge that had formed right on trail. We continued through the pine forest and crossed a few more meadows before making our way up on top of a rocky ridge. When we got to the top, we had wonderful views of My. Bachelor, the Sisters mountains, and Mt. Jefferson. It was impressive. We hiked along the ridge for a bit and had great service, so I downloaded another audiobook, and we talked with Stealth, who would be getting off at the Elk Lake junction ahead to take care of some personal stuff in town. We still plan to take a shuttle together on Sunday from Bend up to Timothy Lake to get around the fire closure, and we will see her when we get into town in a few days.
We began a long, gentle climb up the hill in front of us, and the clouds would roll in, then roll out again. The sunshine came and went, and thunder boomed in the far distance. The breeze dropped pine needles on us like strange snow, and we watched the sky, wondering if we would get our 4th rainfall of the day. It turns out we wouldn’t, and when we got to the top of the climb, we took a break to enjoy the views of the mountains. We called Singsong’s sister, who lives in Bend, and she confirmed we could stay with her while we were there and that she would pick us up when we got to the highway. Feeling like our plans were all falling into place. We marched downhill to finish the last 1.5 miles to the lake.
The trail took us through more forest and rocks before coming alongside a small pond. Feeling a little disappointed, we looked at our map and realized the lake we were headed to was a bit farther away. We kept walking and soon came to a beautiful lake with clear water and a sunset that was reflecting off its surface. We walked along it and found numerous campsites on the other side. Many of the spots were already taken since we got there so late, but we found a nice nook for two tents and set up there. We quickly got inside our tent due to mosquitoes and ended up cooking in our vestibule. Unfortunately, our fuel ran out, so my rice pilaf didn’t hydrate as nicely as I would have hoped. The grains were quite crunchy, even after leaving them in hot water for about 40 minutes. That will mean 2 mornings of cold oatmeal and a cold dinner. Thankfully, we both have couscous left, which we always leave for last in case this happens, since it’s easy to cold-soak.
Tomorrow we will pass by the Sisters and a few fields of old lava flow, which should be interesting. If we can do the 24 miles tomorrow, we should set ourselves up for an 18-mile day on the highway the following day!
