general update from Enumclaw

Recently I've been hiking the PCT from about Trout Lake south of Mt Adams to Chinook Pass east of Mt Rainier.  After deciding I was getting smoked out of Oregon, I sort of took a hiatus in southern Washington by switching to "road trip mode" visiting Mt St Helens and Mt Rainier with the other vacationers.  Then, with the weather a bit touch & go, and constraining myself to remain within range of a possible meetup in the Colombia River Gorge with my son's family, I did a number of short day-trips on the PCT in the area south and north of Mt Adams, trying to dodge a series of fierce afternoon thunderstorms.  Once the weather improved, I did a larger hike past Mt Adams, and a large loop around Wallupt lake and into the Goat Rocks, before heading for my meetup at the gorge.  I then returned to the area to complete a larger section of trail from the northern Goat Rocks to Chinook Pass.

More specifically, logistically, the main high point for bicycle loop-backs in this area is road 5603, AKA Potato Hill Road, which happens to be a two mile long "island" of paved surface reachable only via gravel roads.  It crosses the PCT on it's way eastward into the Yakama Indian Reservation.  Gravel Road 2329 parallels the PCT generally downhill in both directions, north to Wallupt Lake, and south to Takhlakh Lake, connecting there with partly gravel Road 23 that continues south past Mt Adams to the town of Trout Lake. The PCT crosses road 23 between Mt Adams and Trout Lake, during it's short eastward jog across several small ridges from Mosquito Lake north of the Indian Heaven Wilderness.  A web of paved and gravel roads crisscrosses the PCT during this eastward jog.  This web allowed me to conveniently subdivide this jog into short loops during the spell of thunderstorms: a loop from where the PCT crosses Road 8810 to it's junction with Road 23, a short out and back between roads 8810 and 88, a loop from Mosquito Lake and the PCT junction with road 88, and a loop between Mosquito Lake and Road 24 at the Berry Fields in the Indian Heaven Wilderness.  (From there I thought I'd scout as bit further south, driving down gravel Road 24 through the Indian Heaven area, intending to go west on Road 60 to investigate the Crest Horse Camp PCT crossing as a bicycle loopback point, but since I was running low on gas, I instead went west to Trout Lake, stopping at the Ice Cave and Natural Bridges roadside attractions on the way, getting gas and provisions and using the wifi and shower in town, before returning north.)  

North of Potato Hill Road, I did a larger bicycle loopback north down gravel Road 2329 then east, unfortunately steeply up paved Road 2160 to the Coleman-Weedpatch trailhead just short of the Walupt Lake Horse Camp, hiking up from the trailhead to the PCT then south with an overnight back to the car at the Potato Hill crossing.  (If I had to do it over again, I might leave my bicycle at the junction of Roads 2329 and 2160, just walking up the steep road to the trailhead.)

With the thunderstorm regime ending, I did a multi-day hike past Mt Adams, with my car again at the Potato hill Crossing, bicycling south along Road 2329 past Takhlakh Lake and south on Road 23 to where the PCT crosses. Only regret is that I didn't start my bicycle ride about two hours sooner the first day, to avoid shadowed wildflower-meadow foregrounds on the southwestern slopes of Mt Adams hiking north that first day.  The second day was a weekend, and I encountered hordes of weekend hikers and equestrians reaching the trail from the numerous trailheads along road 2329 north of Lake Takhlakh.  Still, wildflowers were at their peak, and the gradually clearing clouds added atmosphere to my photos.

Lastly, with my car back at the Coleman-Weedpatch Trailhead near Lake Walupt, I did a multi-day hiking-only loop north on the PCT around the lake and up into the Goat Rocks wilderness, with an out and back slackpack to Old Snowy Mt where the PCT splits into a Stock and hiker-only trail, returning with backpack via the Snowgrass and Klickitat trails to the car.  (If I had to do this over again, I might consider returning via the Nanny Ridge trail to Walupt Lake and a roadwalk or short hitch to the C-W trailhead rather than the mostly viewless Snowgrass and Klickitat trails.  I'm glad however that I decided to do this loop, which was mainly motivated as a "filler hike" that I could do before my scheduled meetup at the Gorge, but happened to also whittle off the problematic portion of my next planned rather ambitious bicycle loop.)  

I did finally meet up with Stephen's family for a short picnic at the green below the library in downtown Hood River, then drove east and then north, restocking my camping food economically at a Food For Less in Yakima, then west back to Packwood, which had sort of been my "base town" along with Trout Lake for my series of short hikes around Mt Adams.

As hinted at above, I had been struggling a bit to come up with feasible logistics for the PCT section from Wallupt Lake through the Goat Rock Wilderness, past White Pass, to Chinook Pass. At first I had in mind a rather ambitious, gruelling bicycle slog along severely washboarded Road 21 from Packwood to Lake Wallupt.  The only alternative I could think of would be a long, probably headwinded ride westward along hwy 12 from Packwood to Randle, then southeast along the Cispus River up paved Road 23, then up mostly gravel Road 21 to another curious short island of pavement: Road 2160 to Walupt Lake, which unfortunately is very steeply uphill as well.  Fortunately, I chose to do that last loop hike around Walupt Lake with an out and back "arm" to Old Snowy Mt in the heart of the Goat Rocks.  Because I could then trade the gruelling bike ride south from Packwood to a simple 5 mile roadwalk or hitch from Packwood to the Packwood Lake trailhead and a rather longish hike to and around Packwood Lake and up from there to the PCT at Elk Pass, then another out and back slackpack south along the PCT to Old Snowy Mt where I left off last time.

On the map, it seemed I might in fact be able to bicycle all the way up to the lake, along an OHV trail that paralelled the hiking trail from the trailhead to the lake.  But that was proven wrong upon my first "groundtruthing" of Road 1260 from Packwood to the Lake Trailhead.

This groundtruthing happened to be on the evening when I was setting myself up to do this hike, which happened to be the end of the long driving day north from my meetup with Stephen in Hood River, via Yakima to White Pass, where I left a food cache, then continued down to Packwood and up to the packwood lake Trailhead to leave much of my backpacking gear: my tent and sleeping bag and clothes and food for the first few days, and water, all of which I packaged into garbage bags and hid in the bushes.  It's at this point I realized I would be leaving my bike in Packwood not at the trailhead.  Then on to overnight with my car at Chinook Pass.

Next morning, pack my camera & accessories and electronics and a bit more food and water for the day in a my backpack, and bicycle with that light pack back down to Packwood.  There I asked the RV camp host if I could leave my bicycle with them for 5 or 6 days.  They pointed out that next weekend, labor day weekend, would be a zoo in that town - a twice-annual flea market event billed as the biggest in the world going on.  But since I would be back by Wednesday, it would be OK.  (I gave them $5, which is what they charged me the last time for a shower (and I had paid another $5 to do my laundry there.)

Walked on to Road 1260, held my thumb out to a few cars going up the hill, but walked the first 2 or 3 miles before someone gave me a lift. He was a young logger getting over a knee injury, meeting up for some logger-related event that from signs I later learned is called "Man Camp" (?).  Re-shuffled my stashed stuff into my backpack, leaving behind a few things.  Headed up the trail, raching the lake to find a number of families camped & swimming in quite a clean-looking lake.  At a trail junction around the side of the lake, I chose the brach that went up, assuming the oterh was a local trail. Turned out I was heading up the ridge a bit sooner than planned, not to the end of the lake, which I think turned out to be a good choice with better views than a trek through the bottom of the valley.  Camped first night maybe 1/3rd way up the ridge. 2nd day just to the PCT at Elk Pass, with thunderstorm threatening, found a grassy swale in the first saddle south of the Pass, spectacular vantagepoint.  A minor sprinkle overnight. Next day still mostly cloudy, quite hazy, nevertheless slackpacked south to the "loop" where the Stock and Hiker-only alternative PCT's diverged, and scrambled up the spur trail atop Old Snowy Mt, talked to a couple one from Australia the other from San Francisco, took a pano that included them at the peak.  Back down to the south branch of the alternative PCT's, noting that the rockfall that had obliterated ther stock trail last time I was there, had been cleared.  Those trail maintenance crews are sure on top of things!  Returned via the Stock trail, missed where I had stashed my pack, had to do a little backtrack back down to the grassy saddle. Onwards along the knife-edge early afternoon with a thunderstorm brewing.  Made it just below the glacier/snow field to a meadow whn it started pouring. Quickly set up my tent in the meadow.  Lasted less thn a half hour.  Filtered some water and was ready to break camp when it started raining again. Waited another half hour and sun peeked out again.  headed on, but another half hour later anoterh storm developed, decided to try walking through it with my poncho, but didn't have my rain pants handy so decided just to pitch the tent again.  an hour later that had ended, and still three hors efore dark, so moved on.  In the woods now and another sprinkle developed, I just used my poncho.  Spent the night in a damp dark woods. Next day mostly in the woods but skies cleared.  Made it to White Pass, got my food stash, stopped at the camper of the "Pop Up Trail Angels" chatted about the Didgery Doo and Native American Flutes  they had there on display, tried the didg - no luck making music, had some lemonade, went on to the Crackerjack store a quarter mile west, bought some more peanutbutter & snickers bars, continued on ack into the woods.  The next day mostly passed hundreds of little lakes and pools and wet meadows before climbing out of that swamp, with some views back on Mt Adams. Made it to the edge of the Mt Rainier park, spent the night right at the edge of a cliff with east-facing view, would have first sunlight in the morning.  Heard elk all night.  Next day traversed mostly east of the ridge line, yielding disappointingly few views of Mt Rainier, though the topography north and east was still striking.  Got to Dewey lake, early afternoon, with a 3 mile climb left to Chinook Pass.  I took the time to take a swim, the lake had a nice beach, thought it would save me a from buying a shower at the RV camp before I could use the library.  The early afternoon light approaching the final descent into the pass slowed me down a bit for pictures.  On the road overpass/park boundary marker, I photographed a biker climbing up the road.  He stopped at the top, I chatted with him briefly about how I had just coasted down that road but preferred hiking uphill.  He had bicycled over several nearby passes that day, I mentioned the Death Ride I had witnessed at Carson Pass. He'd ridden in that before.   On to the car.  Changed clothes, plugged in my battery chargers, drove down to Packwood.  What a zoo! orange cones everywhere, vendor's tents everywhere, people everywhere. And only Wednesday before the weekend! Went straight to the library, transferred my picts, my new Toshiba 1gb working drive is full, used the Mybook backup only so only really have partial backup til I shuffle things around (hopefully this evening still, though it's getting late, been typing longer here than planned.) Chatted with the librarians - hours had changed, would be closed tomorrow through the weekend due to the event.  Randle library would be open tomorrow. Fetched my bicycle, chatted with the CG host a bit, off to fetch my things at the Packwood Lake trailhead, then resupplied food at the Packwood market, got gas, then on to the White Pass trailhead to fetch the small cooler I had my food cache in, and the garbage I'd left in it.  Overnighted there, not sure which direction I might head next day.  Next day (this morning) decided I'd head for Enumclaw, use the library there, with some logistical scouting on the way.    

So, I think Chinook Pass is a good loop-end-point because the long downhill coasts both north and south are nice perks, and to the north there is likely public transportation would get me at least part way back up I90 to the PCT at Snoqualmie Pass, even though to the south it was a bit more problematic.  No public transportation in this valley.  Trying to use White Pass as an endpoint would not have helped, it would split the section into rather small pieces at great effort without solving the main problem.   In fact, I shouldn't have left a resupply there - or at least not left anything I'd have to retriever, like a cooler, to save me the extra trip to fetch it afterwards.

Enumclaw is at the southeastern edge of the Seattle/Puget Sound urban sprawl, North of Mt Rainier, on route 410, which I drove westward this morning from the Chinook Pass area, east of Mt Rainier.  On the way I did a little bit of scouting of possible mid-way bicycle access points between Chinook Pass and Snoqualmie Pass, specifically FS route 70 to Naches Pass, but that would be an almost all uphill ride, about half on gravel, too much work with no real need to split up that 70 mile section of PCT.  It's looking like I'll probably hike that section southbound from Snoqualmie back to Chinook, after a bicycle coast down from Chinook to Enumclaw, then take the King County Metro bus route 143 from Enumclaw to Seattle.  I may then have several choices:  I could take Metro 215 from Seattle to North Bend, then hitch the rest of I90 to Snoqualmie.   Greyhound, if it will whistle-stop at the pass, would be a possibility from Seattle paying a fare between $27 - $44 depending to a scheduled stop in Ellensburg near Yakima. There may also be an airport shuttle along 90 from Seattle to Ellensburg/Yakima that might whistle stop at the pass.

But I might not do this section next.  It might be more critical for me to do the two northernmost sections K and L while the weather still has a good chance of being agreeable.  So I plan to focus tomorrow on working out possible logistics with bus and bicycle that I can "ground-truth" with my car during the next few days of forecast wet weather.  It may be a bit probelematic using Enumclaw as a library-base, as it may be a longer distance getting to some free place to overnight. Especially with this this holiday weekend. Would have been better to have been on the trail deep in the wilderness.  Don't have a specific plan though.  Still have a lot to research this evening before the library closes at 9pm today, tomorrow it's open from 10-6.  Need to line up a direction to head in the dark tonight.

So far,  logistics-wise, for furtehr north, I found what seems to be a year-round $22 bus connection from Seattle to Stevens Pass via Amtrak Thruway Connective Services. Still need to verify I could take this by itself without actually having to bundle it with an actual train ride.

Need also to groundtruth the feasibility of bike-llooping to the southeast end of Lake Chelen for the section involving Stehekin.  Oh, and importantly, I'll probably be actually mailing myself a resupply to Stehekin - not going to pay for a round trip ferry just to deliver a resupply there in person.
 Lots more to sort out before I can move forward.

edited copy of an email thread re: possible meetup in Colombia Gorge area?

Library is closing so I'm desperately trying to update everyone last minute so lemme try this...

intro: So again I've been spending library/internet time researching logistics, not updating blog, but I did mention a few details about what I've been doing in emails to Stephen, and since part of this story may involve meeting up with him on his vacation in Oregon, here's the gist of the emails (I trust he won't mind his "participation" being publicized here...)

email "edited transcript":

around Aug 4 I left phone msg w/ Stephen from Cascade Locks, asking about his travel plans

at Aug 5 1pm Stephen replied: (edited)

Hey dad,

I just listened to your message. We've worked out most of our road trip, and in light of the fires that keep popping up in the Eastern Cascades we've limited our time on that side and given ourselves more time on the coast and in Portland. After Portland we'll just be driving by the Cascades and stopping to sleep a night each near Bend and somewhere in southern Oregon, then to Shasta and back home.

I don't think it will make sense to try to meet you somewhere. So, if the only thing keeping you from going to Washington is the possibility of saying hi to us, you should go on to Washington.

I'll take a look at the blog to see what you've been up to. Happy hiking.


at 6pm Aug 5 I replied:

I'm well into Washington now.  Spent yesterday at the east side of Mt
St Helens, and this morning at the west side, and think I am now
heading to the west side of Mt Reineir, then across to the east side
tomorrow, then a new decision to make - do I head south to the Mt
Adams area (picking up on the PCT road-crossing & bike route survey I
was trying to do before getting totally off course at Mt St Helens, or
do I "follow" the PCT north, then likely just do an out&back backpack
to the Canadian border, then hike my way back south. Probably the
latter would be most efficient, but probably I "miss out" on meeting
up with some CNPS friends who were talking about meeting me for the
border crossing, probably in September.  And, of course I've probably
already missed the opportunity to cross paths with you.  But, I'm open
to change my course...

As far as my experience with smoke, as I think I mentioned in my blog,
it cleared out not that far north of Crater Lake (though that may have
been a change in wind direction than distance on the ground - donno.)
 It's been getting progressively less hazy as well, though that again
may be weather, not distance.

When are you actually going?

I might have some recommended routes and what to expect there.  I did
go through Bend, but in the other direction, from Crater Lake.

 One off-hand suggestion might be to take Hwy 30 from Portland area
(not 84 which will blow you by everything interesting) eastward along
the Colombia Gorge, being sure to stop at the several waterfalls (hard
to miss if you're on 30; I was there late afternoon and the sun lit up
the falls nicely. be prepared to take a dip in the pool at the bottom
of horsetail falls.) The Bonneville dam might be worth a half hour (or
a bit more if you take the tour...) and at Cascade Locks there's an
"island-park" for a picnic with nice views.)

If you did think you had a day to spare at that point,  a trip north
to Mt St Helens (east side - much better than the west side, IMO)
would be worth the probably 2-3 hrs each way there & back. Cross at
Cascade Locks, briefly east on 14 to Carson, north there on the "Wind
River Hwy" following signs to Mt St Helens.  Stop at the Fish hatchery
info booth about a half hour after Carson to get good free maps.
You'll pass about three FS campgrounds along that road, camp at one of
these for an early start next day at the Volcano.  Once in the park,
you hit a "T" with a FS info station a short distance on the left, but
then take the right branch and then Road 99 to the end at Spirit Lake,
stay for one of the early afternoon talks, and walk up the stairs to
the ridge overlooking spirit lake (and good views of Mt Adams.  I
walked along  that ridge a ways, going from barren ground to full lush
vegetation, with views of Spirit Lake the whole time.  In the
afternoon, backtrack to Cascade locks, though it might make sense to
camp again at one of  those FS campgrounds.

From Hood River, head south on 35, past Mt Hood (would be in good
light in the morning from that side) then 26 to... um... eventually,
Bend...  I was zigzagging past all the PCT road-crossings along the
"Crest" through central Or, but you'd probably continue southeast to
Madras then 97 to Bend.

From Bend, you might consider taking 46 west, past Mt Bachelor and
views of the Three Sisters from a very scenic lake-dotted meadowey
valley before 46 turns south for quite a scenic while, then bends east
back to hwy 97 at Crescent.

Finally, if you haven't already hit Crater Lake on the way up, it
would be a shame to just pass it by just a few miles east of there on
97, so just take that 20 mile jog west on 138 then south into the
north entrance to Crater Lake.  There is some construction with
one-way-road delay on the west leg of the rim road, so you might
consider going clockwise around the east side first (maybe taking the
I think 8 mile side-trip to the Pinnacles (and a 20 minute walk to
view those interesting features,)  but then also continuing part way
around the south-west side for the must-see views of spirit island
from that side (but turning around before you hit the construction at
the northwest side of the rim loop.)  Exit the park via 62 to the
southeast (you'll want to stop at the Annie Falls Overlook along that
road, but then at Ft Klamath take 34 along the west shore of Klamath
Lake (should have nice late-afternoon light of idyllic pasture land
and marshy wetland,) then 140 (south) east back to 97 at Klamath
Falls.

Of course you should budget at least a half day to Crater with all the
stops you'll make around the rim. Assuming you've overnighted at Bend,
with an early start you could do the 46 loop past mt Bachelor & the
Sisters with good morning light on the peaks), and be in Crater lake
by midday, Klamath Falls by evening.  I'm assuming you'll likely be
hotelling more than camping.  I would also argue it would be better on
Abe and parents' mood to have frequent breaks than be crunched up in a
car seat hours nonstop, no matter everyone's state of tiredness.

Well, I did get some picts downloaded here in Chehalis off of I5,
which has been my 1st wifi opportunity in a while, though I didn't
want to spend much daylight here.  Now I want to catch Mt Rainier by
evening light, so will postpone updating my Blog for the last few days
probably for another few days, given I won't be near any large towns
for an upcoming while.  I may not get any reply you send for a few
days...



at 4pm Aug 7 I emailed a followup:

just another update on where I'm at (physically, mentally and planning-wise.)

I'm at the library in Randle.  I was expecting to upload a bunch of
awesome picts form my drive (and half-day walk) at Mt Raineir, but it
seems the CF card that I just pulled out of my camera taking picts OK
all day today, plugged into my computer "corrupted", and recovery
program showing nothing to recover.  This is a bit devastating, to say
the least...   I was setting myself up to do a pretty ambitious bike
ride beginning tomorrow and hike about 6 days, from just north of Mt
Adams to east-north east of Mt Rainier.  Now I may hold off some
because I'm unsure about the state of my CF cards (some others I've
tested just now also had some weird behavior, and I'm beginning to
wonder whether my last picture loss that I blamed on a "disk crash" is
acually CF-card related.  My cards may be at the end of their lifetime
maybe (I've used them heavily for several years now.) I need to try to
sort that out first!)

The main reason I'm emailing you this rather than just update my blog
is because there may still be an opportunity to bump into each other,
depending on when you are heading back from your vacation.

In my last email I was assuming my "momentum" would find my further
north in Washington by now, but the circumstances (timing of where I'm
at at the moment and what I could "optimally" do next seems to have
headed me south. The "section" I'm about to do (was about to do?)
started off as a short overnight just east of mt Rainier, but in
looking at how it would fit into adjacent sections I would have to
then do, It's become larger, and now has me starting half way back to
the Colombia River Gorge, meaning that a "next logical" section would
be from Cascade Locks to just north of Mt Adams. So, depending on the
timing, It might not be out of my way to meet you at Cascade Locks (or
thereabouts.)

  I know you probably told me verbally when your trip was, but I
didn't really process what you said. When are you going/returning?

smoked out of Crater Lake - fled north to ... Washougal

I'll let you guess what state that's in.

As I stated in my last post, I planned to overnight at the trailhead at Fish Lake on hwy 140.  Got there by midnight, stopping only for gas. Slept in the car. Got up first light, wasted no time continuing east on 140 (thought I might stop first at the Fish Lake Resort for coffee and maybe breakfast, but decided I was too early and didn't want to hang around.  it was about a ten mile hill (would be uphill if I were to take this route) but it wasn't overly steep, I consider it feasible.  At the bottom of the hill, headed north on road 34 along the west side of Upper Klamath Lake. Initially this was along a marshy shore, then cattle grassland.  Stopped for a picture of the very red sunrise reflected on the marsh.  The pastureland was eerily atmoshperic as well, would have made some good photos, except I had misinterpreted the DeLorme maps (hard to tell want's paved and not) and "misled" by Google's bicycle directions which gave me a route that included dirt roads which I had not taken into account.  As a result, I was surprised to find myself already in Fort Klamath when I was still waiting to pass the junction with NFD 3200, and then found that NFD 2300, "Sun Mountain Road" was also dirt.  That was part of Google's Bike route "long way around" the east side of Crater Lake Park to the north entrance, which I assumed was less hilly than taking the rim road.  But 30 extra miles of dirt on a road bike was out of the question.

So I just took the southeast entrance road into the Park.  I passed a firefighter's staging camp on that route, and numerous fire crews on the road.  I talked to one of the firemen who was walking around near Annie Falls while I was taking picts there.  He said he had just sent his crew yo fight one of the two dozen lightning-ignited fires on the other side of Annie Creek.  They had dropped equipment at the site the day before, but the crew had to walk in (climb in... down Annie Creek Gulch and up the other side - I couldn't imagine what route they would have taken across, certainly not where I was standing, at the edge of a 100ft cliff of only slightly hardened ash!)

I continued on to the Mazama Campground & Visitor center store, which seemed to be overrun by PCT hikers.  I bought a book on Oregon Geology, and continued on counterclockwise from that southeast junction around the rim road.  It bacame evident from the stops I made that it was becoming very smokey - one could barely make out the outline of the rim across the lake.  I did get some "useable" images of the Pinnacles area, the features were "nearby", but photo's of the lake overlooks were pretty bad.  In from talking with various people I learned that theMt Ashland fire has grown from the small plume of smoke on the Mt Ashland ridge beyond Pilot Rock, when I was viewing it from Hobart Bluff the other day, to 4700 acres.  

I decided to abandon the section from hwy 66 to  Crater Lake, and just head north as far as needed to escape the smoke.

Actually, the smoke cleared out not that much further north, yet I was by that time in road-trip mode, one of the other weekend tourists.  Basically I was still "scouting" the PCT road-crossings, getting a feel for the terrain from a bicyclist's POV (passing lots of bicyclists in fact...)   I'll want to get more specific when I have more time (will have to make time soon) but the overall impression of the Cascades in central Oregon is one of a gently rolling plateau punctuated by isolated volcanos, which are easily dodged by the roads, so the climbs are mild.


But now the place is closing. Back later.

Catching up this Blog after a month hiatus

it being yet another zeeeeeero day for reasons not entirely under my control, thus killing some time here by the wifi...

I blame my failure to update on having better things to do... visit with friends, family, and, just hike.

First a quick review of what's transpired since I left Oregon, gosh, nearly a month ago now, is it, after crossing the border from California, to finish off the section between Tuolumne Meadows to Hwy 50 near South Lake Tahoe (that I got smoked out of doing last year by the Hunter fire,) timed so I could "drop in" on the (car-) camping trip that my "Phyto-fans" friends had planned at Woods Lake near Carson Pass.  This I sort of managed to do as planned, (except all four of the planned bus rides were replaced by some serendipitous hitches - and two more unplanned hitches...) and I'll (hopefully) provide the details soon (maybe later today?) by filling in the "missing" blog entries with back-dated posts (and also probably cutting out parts of what I'm initially composing in this post into separate posts.)  

The hiking (and "camping") was book-ended by visits with family (oh, and some CNPS field trips tossed in, and nearly a week's stay "back home" in Betsy's garage in Forestville.)  

Then it was back on the road: 

I left Forestville the Tuesday morning (the day after the impromptu family reunion at the Berkeley kite festival) dropping off a few odds & ends at my storage unit in Santa Rosa, then heading north on 101...  ...an hour later I passed through Ukiah and woke up after seeing signs for Lake Mendocino... oops, I wanted  to be on hwy 5, not 101.  Decided to backtrack via hwy 20 southeast to Clearlake then northeast to Williams, the whole time 2nd-guessing that decision, given the 100 degree temps with my Subaru's air-conditioning not working. (Brian had confirmed for me that the problem seemed to be a defective switch, a part that I "costed" at about $40 at an autoparts place in South Lake Tahoe, but they would have had to order the part, so I put it off... still am putting it off...)  I could have continued driving through foggy Eureka and Crescent City then taken 199 to Grants Pass and then back to Ashland on hwy 5, not much more mileage, though I probably would have overnighted somewhere near the coast. But I was intent on fetching my "abandoned" MyBook Disk drive at Callahan's at Mount Ashland by the end of the day.  I did manage to do that, windows wide open, loose debris in back secured from the wind, kleenex stuffed into my ears, barefoot and shirtless, blowing by Redding where I had planned to use the library had it been a few hours earlier, getting to Callahan's about an hour before they closed, and just fetched the Mybook from their "lost&found".  

Still had some daylight left. My default plan was to go back to what had become "my favorite" campground half-way up Mt Ashland, where it would be a bit cooler and I could find it in the dark.  But I thought I might first explore the road to the PCT trailhead near Pilot Rock, which was sort of a third of the way along the trail between hwys 5 and 66, which from my scouting last time I was considering doing as a series of out&back day-hikes, since there was no good bike or bus option to the hwy 5 end of that section (just an expensive "air taxi" service between Ashland and Callahans and a short hitch or mile-long uphill road-walk to the trail on Old Hwy 99, and a hitch or hairy bike ride on steep, curvey, shoulderless hwy 66 from Green Springs Summit to Ashland.)

That turned out to be a fortunate choice.  Nice glimpses (photoops) of sunset-lit Pilot Rock from the road, and a chance to chat with a team of trail-blazers camping at the trailhead.  They were re-routing the old "jeep trail" going steeply straight up the slope to the base of Pilot Rock (a volcanic plug) into a nicely crafted series of switchbacks.  I ended up staying there the next two nights.  

I was in the trail at 7:30 the next morning, first attempting to climb Pilot rock, described as a "scramble" but turned back after deciding the sandals I was wearing were inappropriate, I'd save it for later, with better shoes and more time.  Instead, I continued north 9 miles on the PCT, to where it crossed Soda Mt Road, which I had scouted out earlier as the other potential access point into that section.  That out&back day-hike was in the mid 90's at that 4000ft elevation, and the first sprinkles of a brewing thunderstorm started just as I got back to the car around 6pm.  The next morning I did the short out&back in the other direction to Old Hwy 99.  That I could have done as a one-way including my bicycle, but the road was very rough, large cobbles much of the way, and I decided the small time savings wasn't worth the hassle of getting my bike out, the risk of denting a rim, bending a spoke, or nicking my tires.  I was out&back in just three hours, before noon.  Again a thunderstorm was brewing, so I headed for the Ashland library, stopping first for a Subway ft-long and some fresh fruit&veges at Albertson's, while lightning cracked fiercely overhead.   

At the library, while offloading my most recent picts, I reviewed the data on the MyBook Disk Drive that I retrieved from Callahans, concluding that I still was missing about 2,000 photos from between June 11-13 and June 18-23, and that the "recovery" utility didn't actually recover any photos deleted from my "disk crash" of one of my 1TB Toshiba USB drives.  So I'm now concluding that I may simply have failed to properly offload picts from two of my 32GB CF cards  (Each of these would account for about 1000 picts.)   So the coincidental messages I remembered of disk drive errors, may just have been a red herring.  (Still, I also lost my Lightroom Catalog at that time.   I guess I'm still confused about what all happened.)    

I still haven't identified which part of the trail I was on at these times; intend to do that today.  No matter how it happened, I'll still want to (have to) re-do those sections of trail.      

When the library closed, I stopped by the nearby "Outfitters" store, bought myself a new water filter, my other one's getting clogged, becoming a lot of work to pump water.  Also looked at the Teva Sandals similar to the one's I'm currently wearing out, but at $100, will continue to just think about it for now.  

Then I headed up hwy 66 to Green Springs Summit and up the Soda Mountain Road to the saddle where the PCT crosses, a meadow (actually with a sign talking about an endangered frog, which I think was one of the arguments for creating the Siskiyou National Monument this location is within.)  Parked my car there at the trailhead for the night.  The earlier thunderstorm had dissipated, but a new one was brewing.  A rainbow appeared on the horizon in front of me, as the sun was setting behind me.  The rainbow gradually grew into a full semicircle double rainbow, and the lighting was such that the area inside the arc lit up intensely orange.  Meanwhile, a fierce lightning storm was ongoing, with some sprinkles.  I felt fairly safe in the car, having heard that the metal cocoon makes a good "Farraday Cage".   Still, I was of course taking pictures, and would periodically open my car door, step out, and snap a series of panoramas.  (Maybe I'll have time later to insert one here.)

The next morning I bicycled from there down the gravelly but otherwise smooth road back down to the hwy 66 Green Springs Summit, hid my bike near the PCT info sign on the north side and then walked south back to my car, stopping for brunch (and lots of picts) at the very picturesque Hobart Bluff side-trail en route, getting back to my car again well before noon.  

Retrieved my bicycle and drove on to check out the bicycling possibilities of Old Hyatt Prairie Rd that goes north from Green Springs Summit, past Little Hyatt Reservoir (very tempting to join some of the people I saw swimming there,) taking a right (south) onto Hyatt Prairie Rd then stopping at the entrance to the several campgrounds (administered by Siskiyou NM) at the south end of Hyatt Prairie Lake, that the PCT passes by, which has shower facilities.  $5 for a "day-use" shower, but available "for free" bundled with the campground fee.  Interestingly, the Wildcat Campground there, with pit toilets, is $7/night, half that for Senior Pass holders.  I asked, and was told the shower would be available for Wildcat Campers.  "I'll probably be back" I said to the guy at the entrance kiosk.

So I decided Old Hyatt Prairy Rd was not a promising bicycle route (too circuitous a route on gravel, rough in places, too much uphill,) and so wanted to confirm that I would probably stick with my original plan to do the whole PCT section from hwy 66 to hwy 140 as one loop (bicycling west from the trailhead just east of Fish Lake where I would leave my car, cycle west on 140 for about a mile past Fish Lake, then South on NF-37 "Big Elk Rd" for a few miles, then west on Dead Indian Memorial Rd for about a mile, then south on Hyatt Prairie Rd for a few miles past the Howard Prairie and Hyatt Prairie Reservoirs, then continuing South past the Campgrounds on E. Hyatt Lake Rd to the Green Springs Inn at the junction with hwy 66.  From the inn I would either have a steep climb west up hwy 66 to the PCT trailhead at Green Springs Summit, or there's a side-path described in the PCT guides going from the inn to the PCT just south of the Summit. (Oddly I didn't notice that side trail junction that morning walking that section of PCT.)   

Or, maybe I could still break out that southernmost section from the campgrounds to the inn as a day-hike loop.  To visualize that loop, after chatting with the guy at the campground kiosk, I continued south on E. Hyatt Lk Rd to the inn, and stopped there to ask someone about parking my bicycle there for a few days (for the "original plan" case.)  They said yeah, sure, it would be OK with them if I parked my bike overnight at the bike rack in front, but of course no responsibility for theft...  I asked about the path to the PCT, they sort of shrugged.  Onwards up hwy 66 back to to Green Springs Summit to visualize the climb.

At the summit some backpackers were looking for a ride back to Callahans (or rather, the trailhead on Old Hwy 99 that parallels I5 near there - they had been dropped off at the wrong part of the trail hitching from Ashland.)  I just had one available seat, but the couple decided to both squeeze into the passenger seat, so I drove them back to the other trailhead.  On the way they noticed the smoke from one of the fires on Mt Ashland, we chatted about how both of us had been in the Ashland library yesterday afternoon during that storm.  They noticed my Half-Mile maps and we talked about Half-Mile's awesome smartphone app, how he's thru-hiking the trail again this year with super-accurate GPS gear, we talked about the BCNav app with Half-Mile's PCT tracks and waypts, and about how we both had met Half-Mile on the trail, and about other famous "MYTH's" (Multi Year Thru Hikers)  we've met (such as Coppertone, Billygoat.)   They wanted to give me gas money that I wanted to refuse, and after some bickering I ended up with the crumpled $5 bill they had handed me (which later when I dug it back out of my pocket, turned out to be two 5's.)

After I dropped them off I picked up another hiker going to the trail from Callahans.  I passed him going up the I5 overpass as I was going down it, actually not sure where I was heading next, either onto I5 toward Ashland, or back to the Green Springs Summit area, I would have to decide in a split second because the I5 onramp was right there, so I guess picking up that hitcher was a way to delay that decision.  But I had to do a U-turn, and the onramp entrance was a convenient place to do that.  But another couple was waiting there for a ride.  As I did my U-turn I shouted at them (as they started for their packs) "I'll be back in a few minutes..."   I finished my turn and "chased" after the other hiker, gave him the short ride, then back to the on-ramp. They had evidently in the mean time gotten another ride.  But there as a group of 5 or 6 hikers walking up from Callahan's toward the overpass.  I laughed as I continued onto I5, picturing trying to cram half a dozen hikers and their backpacks into my Subaru already crammed with bicycle etc.

Whoops, this library is closed now. more later...

...Back.  BTW, the library I timed-out in above that I wrote the above was the Center Point Branch. A story behind why I was there, but I'll get around to that in proper time below... Now I'm at the Target store's cafe shop - again - you may remember I was there before, a month ago, doing pretty much the same thing I'm doing now - doing a backup of newer picts from my "working" Toshiba USB drive (bought a few weeks ago at Staples in S. Lk Tahoe) onto the Mybook (bought a month ago at BestBuy here in Medford.) Yeah, so what am I doing in Medford again and again? Lame story, but I'll get around to that in proper time below.

So... yesterday afternoon...  I was heading north on I5 from the Callahan's interchange.  But where was I now trying to go?    I had been toying with the idea of having a short afternoon hike on that section north of hwy 66 that I was scouting about midday, before being distracted by fellow hikers. That's why I thought I might be heading back to the Green Springs Summit area, via hwy 273 northbound past Callahan's.  But it was now well into afternoon, with good potential for another thunderstorm. The Ashland library was an obvious default option.

Another option was a long drive north beyond hwy 140 to the Crater Lake area: you see, in general I like to look at least two loops ahead of my next hike, to make sure I don't trap myself at a trailhead endpoint that I can't continue on from, because it's inaccessible via bicycle or bus (or a good-bet hitch.)  And the hwy 140 trailhead might be such a trap, because it's a long uphill to the trailhead from Medford or Klamath Falls, and no public transit (though there was a suggestion I haven't yet pursued to try and see if the "airporter" bus between M & KF might be persuaded to stop at the Fish Lake Resort.)  But just as NF-37 and the other "side roads" from 140 past the two "Prairie" reservoirs turned out to be quite feasible bicycle rides, maybe the northward continuation of NF-37 from 140 and other side roads leading past Butte Falls to intercept the "Cater Lake Hwy" 62 at Prospect, could turn out to be a feasible "traverse" to avoid going all the way down or up the Rogue River Valley to/from Medford.  It's hard to tell these things just from looking at a topo map. (Though I ought to make a better effort at doing so, would save me lots of gas...  Hah! so I just now did that, looking again into the elevation profiles for bike routes on Google Maps. I seemed to have trouble "repeating" seeing those profiles when I tried a few months ago, but now, it seems to work reliably! Well, Yay!  and look at that, sitting here, I found a better option for my loop north of hwy 140 - it seems the eastern route to the North Entrance to Crater Lake is the most "level" - I may just end up heading there - to Fish Lake - from here in Medford, tonight.)

At any rate, on with my story... driving up I5, deciding whether to go to the library or take a long drive. I got off at the hwy 66 offramp and "unconsciously" headed east. Donno what I was thinking at the time, but I woke up finding myself heading east, so, countinued east away from Ashland, now "committed" to the long drive. And it was long, and I found, not a good bike route.  a thunderstorm dropped some more rain while I stopped a the Prospect Ranger Station to ask them this irrelevant question: is there any public transit that goes up this way towards Crater Lake or north.  The person at the desk kind of scoffed & said, we can't even get emergency equipment up this way, referring to the recent fire starts.)  I continued on to Crater lake, around the west side making a few photo stops with interesting late-afternoon post-thunderstorm light, to the north entrance, checking out the PCT trailhead at the north entrance, then back on hwy 63 all the way to Medford, noting that it would be an almost perfectly monotonically descending bicycle coast from the north Crater Lake PCT trailhead to Medford, so it's possible for my to bicycle from Crater Lake to the Medford bus system and take that to Ashland, then hitch on hwy 66 to Green Springs summit.  That would probably mean an overnight somewhere "in town" though, I guess possibly the hostel in Ashland though I'd need to verify it still exists.  I would also need to drop a re-supply at Fish Lake (and layover there to offload picts & charge batts.

I did make it back to Medford in time to find the REI (confusing location of two adjacent shopping centers.)  Had 10 minutes to find & try on my 3rd pair of hiking pants (light-wieght "cargo's".)  We'll see how long before  this pair is shreaded like the others.  Didn't have time to look at backpacks, my Osprey 60 is falling apart as well.

But now Target is closing, so, again, more later.

Again Back. Amazingly, still the same day, just a few miles down the road, a McD's on Crater Lake Hwy.  Tried a few other "likeies" along this fast-food and big box alley out of town - this one includes  Walmart though I can't think of anything I need there after just getting out of Target (buying a new ear-bud-phone/mike there.  Anyway, this place closes at 11pm so I've got a bit over an hour to finish up.

So after leaving REI, I drove all the way back to Ashland then all the way to the Sr-discounted $3.50/night Wildcat campground at Hyatt Lake Reservoir, probably burning twice that amount on gas, but I needed  that promise of a warm shower the next morning.  I actually also put up my tent, no fly, to enjoy a mosquito-free night for a change. Woke up with the geese honking on the lake, folde my tent, had my breakfast, dumped some accumulated garbage, took a glance at the lake, and seeing no photoops, headed for the shower at the other campground, happening upon the completely empty walk-in campground, with the bathroom and shower all to myself.  Topped off my water containers at the campground faucet, headed on for the Ashland library, stopping for some groceries & coffee.  Found the library closed on Fridays.  Oh bummer! Likely all the libraries in the county had the same hours.   Now I'd be wandering around burning gas all day I feared.

Decided I'd go take a look at those backpacks at REI in Medford, and find a wifi place there with power outlets I could stay at for a while (eg, Ashland seems to have very few fast food places, specifically, no McD's, my fallback wifi location.)  Got to REI a bit too early, but used their wifi on my phone to check library hours of the Medford library. It too was closed Fridays. When REI opened I took a look at the new version of my Osprey backpack, and practically gagged at the $250 price.  I'll think about it.  I asked about a nearby wifi places I could be able to sit at for a while,and they suggested downtown Medford.  Found my way there, stopping at the Greyhound and RVTD transit station. Greyhound was closed til mid-afternoon, the RVTD booth got me a schedule (I had already studied that a month ago) and a chance to ask what transit systems RVTD connects with. "None" was the answer, though Greyhound here was an option, and another private operator was planning to start running "soon". (I guess I should have asked more about that...)   I asked for wifi places, and was directed to the row of pizza & taco shops across the parking lot.  I decided to buy a day-parking pass - before actually verifying the places.  Turns out one had just changed their wifi vendor & didn't know the passcode, the other place said they get really busy at noon...  I wandered over to the, well whaddya know, the Medford library next block over, and of course it was closed, but two girls were sitting there and I asked them for some wifi cafe suggestions, they suggested other libraries, I said I thought all the county libraries were closed today, one of the girls said she'd check, and I think she asked Siri "what libraries are open today" and got a list, one of which was the library at Central Point.

That's where I started this post.        

So why am I not hiking?

Well, my back hurts.

Not quite sure what I did or exactly when, but it seems to be getting worse not better. I'm walking around like an old man, bending over stiffly, sitting down slowly, wincing as I do so.  Very painful getting up in the morning, every movement.  I've been trying "stretching exercizes" with no obvious improvement.  Today I started taking some 350mg Naproxin that was subscribed to me for the hip issue I had earlier (that hip issue ironically seems to have nearly resolved itself, which I credit to my starting to use the ski poles as hiking poles.  Now this sudden lower back stiffness, - maybe a strain from loading/unloading my bike, or maybe some clumsy step that jarred my back, maybe from no longer using the poles for my day-hikes with just my day-pack.  Maybe the long hot drive from the bay area back to Oregon?  Donno. But I just hope it resolves by the time I've got my next long backpack figured out.  Meanwhile, taking care of other business makes sense.

So, my "backup" still hasn't finished (says 5 more hours to go, down from 22 hrs this morning, a few restarts ago to switch power&wifi outlets.)

Ithink I'm heading back to the hwy 140 trailhead at Fish Lake, then "verify" that eastern route to North Crater Lake, then choose between that and the western bike-bus-hitch Option, and see if I do it as one loop or two (the eastern option would allow it to be done as two loops.)

But  now McD's is closing and I'm done for now.