Spring snow loop drive Stanley-Challis-Missoula-Lochsa-Grangeville-McCall, short ICT snowshoe hike

Mar 18 10am
Having breakfast at Lochsa inn to use the wifi.  No cell svc around. 

First day drove in and out of Featherville, got some nice sunset panos of purple snowcovered prairie with pink mt backdrop. Overnighted at reststop at rd jctn to Ketchum. Saturday up to Stanley with lots of stops, made sidetrip over Banner pass to G...? Overlook. Short snowshoe walk on ICT north from Camelhump. Overnighted at Park Creek TH. Tried snowshoeing there but got hypothermic so cut that short. Did another snowshoe wallk in warming sun from Stanley airport park. Heading north photographed a herd of elk from Stanley museum with sawtooths backdrop. Continued north to overnight at east fork CG.  Sunday continued over Chief Joseph pass to hwy 12 jct short of Missoula, then just past Lolo Hot Springs to overnight on snow-covered forest rd. Lots of snow all the way, least around Challis.

Hope to do more snowshoeing at the two ICT TH's off of hwy12, probably will overnight in that area. Tomorrow probably past McCall but might try road into Elk City if open. Should be back Tuesday late.

Mar 19 11pm
Just got back.

I did get a half day (abt 5hrs) of snowshoeing in at the first ICT
trail crossing, up Lochsa Peak the trail went, although I only made it
part way before 3:30 my turn back time, getting only a few
tree-screened views back down into the Lochsa River canyon.
Overnighted there at the trailhead. Today first made a short
side-drive up Selway Rd which got very potholed and slushy, then past
Kooskia drove the road to Elk City & back, most of the afternoon. This
is a town Mark had flown into a summer or so ago
in his home-made plane, as part of his cross-country flight, so I
thought I'd show him what it looked like in wintertime. Not much to
see, a broad valley surrounded by not very prominent hills. The drive
in & out along the South Fork Clearwater was the main attraction for
me, as was the steep drive out of that deep canyon up the Mt Idaho
Grade Road to Grangeville. Mt Idaho is a quaint community at the hilly
edge of, I guess, the Grangeville plateau, I guess still part of the
Clearwater Drainage, which I had been in since Lolo Pass where I
crossed over from the Clark Fork Drainage, that I had entered via
Chief Joseph Pass from the North Fork Salmon.  Left the Grangevill
Plateau via White Bird Hill, dropping back into the Salmon River
drainage but with signs for Hells Canyon - the Snake River. Very
confusing. Late afternoon I was just in driving mode and barely
noticed the sign in Riggins mentioning Little Salmon River. I should
have stopped for a photo at that confluence with the Salmon coming
from the east, turning north.  I blow on south making McCall still
with sunlight left for a photo of the lake.  At dusk I was in Cascade,
getting gas.

uploading 3 32GB CF cards of photos.

Washington Done. Meeting up with Sandy and Peter at Sunrise later this week.

Right now I have just a few minutes before the library here in Ellensburg closes. Expect to be back tomorrow afternoon again.

I completed my PCT hiking last Wednesday at Chinook Pass and that evening returned the GoPro camera I had bought at Fred Meyer in Yakima just before starting the loop, fetched my bike the next day at Snoqualmie Pass, and am now just slowly making my way back around via the libraries in Cle Ellum, Ellensburg, and Yakima, and in a few days expect to meet up with my friends Sandy and Peter at the White River campground on the north side of Mt Rainier. I've been trying to convince them to go slow getting here because the weather is turning rainy for the first part of next week - will be nothing much to see at Mt Rainier til the clouds clear.  Don't know what they'll decide.  They could arrive as soon as this Sunday.  There had been talk of subsequently visiting the Olympic Peninsula but now they will be heading directly from here east to Glacier National Park within probably a week so I will then probably mosey on home.

Meanwhile I've been catching up on some chores, including responding to a few job ads on Craigslist (yes, jobs in the SF Bay area.)

At the moment the specifics of my last loop are fading from my memory - I'll need to do some reconstructing to update this blog with the pertinent details - tomorrow.

I have also been contemplating how to organize the task of writing my (e)book.  I think I'll summarize the "loops" first as blog posts here, starting from Canada working my way south.  One question is whether I will use hand-sketched maps (can I still use colored pencils?) or annotate Google Maps or similar.   Both will take some practice to get to what I would like.

Oregon done, setting up for final 60 miles in WA

I've missed posting about several hikes (I should have a chance to do so in a week. But let me just list them.

A loop leaving car at Lolo Pass (the endpoint of my last loop around the west side of mt Hood,) bicycling down to Hood River, taking bus to Cascade Locks, bicycling a few miles west to Eagle Creek trailhead, hiking south back up to Lolo Pass.

A loop leaving car at Santiam Pass, bicycling down to Sisters, taking four buses via Redmond, Madras, and Welches to Timberline Lodge on south slope of Mt Hood, hiking south back to car.

This morning I got back to the car at Santiam Pass, fetched my bike and a cache at Frog Lake TH south of Mt Hood, showered at the Hood River marina again, returned the Nikon camera I'd used the last two hikes, and am now in Washington to check out the 40 mile bike ride from Chinook Pass to Yakima, and bus to Ellensburg, then figure out my options up to Snoqualmie Pass.  There's a "dial-a ride" bus service reportedly going to Cle Elum, which would be ideal, because I could then have a relatively short bicycle climb up the Iron-Horse RR grade to Snoqualmie Pass, but when I called the reservation number I was told it's only for disabled and "starving seniors".  There is also an airporter service from Yakima/Ellensburg that stops at Cle Elum, but only accepts bikes in bike boxes!  So one of the things I'll be doing is seeing how I might get a bike box in Yakima or Ellensburg.  There is the option of bicycling up all the way from Ellensburg, about 40 miles of steady uphill on gravel.  Once I get to Snoqualmie, it's a 60 mile walk back to my car at Chinook Pass.

Besides this scouting, I want to make a third try at buying an interim camera.  I might try a weatherproof design, though that may be too expensive for me right now.

The weather may turn out to be an issue. Right now it's a supposedly brief heat-wave, but by Sunday evening it should start cooling, then by Wednesday it may get rainy.  So I'll need to be prepared for rain the latter half of my hike.

Other than that, looks like by end of next week I'll be done in these parts, unless I decide to do the 8 miles in Canada. Also, I may still hang around to meet up with Sandy and her friend Peter who may be at Mt Rainier just about when I get done.

Been starting to look at job ads (back in the SF Bay Area - responded to two lab-tech type ads, but haven't heard back.)  While I'm up here (or on my way back) I may also do some "double-checking" of bike/bus connection alternatives for my prospective book.

Want to move on now. many miles to drive tonight.

Back from Panther Creek to Placid Lake hike (completing WA side of Gorge)

(this is a "stub" - will flesh out later)

I did manage to tear myself from the Camera issue soon enough to get the car and bike and me to the Placid Lake trailhead to overnight then after a slow sstart next morning getting packed, bicycle down to the PCT crossing on the west end of the short connector road to Panther Creek CG.

The first 3 miles of that ride was on gravel, and it turned out to be an unexpected challenge made worse due to my late morning start, because that morning workers had applied a thick layer of fresh gravel to the surface.  At first I had about two feet of un-re-surfaced road on one edge, but then I encountered the grader who was completing the grading operation, and the last half of the gravel section I was just barely managing to keep my balance skidding all over the 2in deep loose gravel.  Fortunately, no flats, and the balance of the 30 miles was on almost flawless pavement.  There was one substantial uphill over Oldman Pass (which has a number of Snow-Park turnouts.)  Virtually no cars made it a pleasant roll.

 At the PCT crossing, I traded my bike for the hiking poles I had left there the night before along with some water, so I could have a lighter ride.  Hiking, I discovered that my right shin (that I had banged on a low bench in a Papa Murphy's I had entered just to "look around"  - I'll have to add the details of that mishap...) had swollen up and felt like a sprained ankle.  Uphill this wasn't much of a hindrance, but downhill it was very painful walking.  It put a bit of a damper on my mood, adding to the bummer of only having my Nexus One phone camera along.  (I had just reviewed the photos taken with that phone from my last hike, the traverse around the west half of Mt Hood, with views that were certainly worthy a better camera.   Still, I went through the motions of capturing images of some nice views south of Mt Hood, east of Mt Adams, and west of Mt St Helens, all within a few steps of each other, though not all in a single panorama.  Lots of berries as well, blueberries, huckleberries, salmonberries, thimbleberries ripe and plentiful.

Got to the Placid Lake spur trail late afternoon, and pushed to get back to the car that day. I wasn't sure if I would be camping again at the trailhead or driving off that evening to fetch the bike, and check my email to learn whether my camera was repaired and "in the mail" as I hoped, on not.  Decided to go for the news, fetched the bike, checked my mail - no news. Left him a note guessing the news would be bad, asking for specifics.  Drove on early evening to the NE slopes of Mt Hood SW of Hood River, to scout out the bicycle ride I would be doing next.

Spent Thursday establishing the status of the camera and in response shopping for another Point and shoot camera. Walmart had a $99 Nikon L32 that uses AA batteries. It will do, and could still return it within 15 days.

A few more things settled, set for another hike, upper Gorge area, WA side

So last night I drove back to the Panther Creek area - this time staying at the adjacent Horse Camp - an improvement on the hunter's camp of the last two car-camp nights.  There was another hiker tent overnighting there, so I tried to do minimal rummaging before settling down in my dome tent.  Unfortunately, I had a hard time sleeping, possibly because of the extra coffee I'd had at the McD's day before, though I had just one large cup in the morning - donno what it was, my mind was racing...
Hear some thunder mid-way through the night, tried to ignore it, but it repeated a few times, so I got up and installed my rain-fly.  That seemed to settle me down, woke up late, with the other campers long-gone, everything still dry.

Decided to re-scout that road 65 vs 30 confusion I mentioned last post.  Sure enough, road turned to gravel soon after the road 60 junction (near Crest Horse Camp on the PCT - an access point I investigated last year - continuing east on 60 leads to the town of Trout Lake.)  The now gravel road 65 became an "unmaintained" road after it passed the Thomas Lake Trailhead -(which also heads towards the PCT, but a long several miles.)  Then it dead-ended just before Rush Creek.  Of my several maps, only the USFS PCT map gave a clue (and I had missed seeing it - a lightly printed "Bridge Out" near that point on the map.)  I must have noticed it last year but had forgotten.

Backtracking, to south of the Thomas Lake trailhead, I took what was shown on the map as a very minor unlabeled connector-road west to the other main road,  But this turned out to be a well-maintained gravel road.  Now on paved Road 30 heading north, past the Lone Butte Snow Play area, that road turned to gravel, just before its junction with road 65 (on the other end of the bridge-out.)  This was now a very minor unmaintained "jeep road" but still sported a very faded road number sign.  Continuing on another mile, my destination road 420 was well-signed "Placid Lake Trailhead".  Drove to the trailhead that I recall visiting last year. A very pothole-riddled road, took it slow.  A family was just setting out on the trail with fishing poles.

Returned south on road 30, paved  all the way from the Snow Play area to Carson.  Somehow missed noticing where I had parked the day before, where the PCT crossed road 30, but at any rate, my original choice was right.  I'll be bicycling from Placid Lake Trailhead down to where I had parked, then hike east on the PCT to the Panther Creek CG and on north from there to the junction of the Placid Lake trail with the PCT, then west about three miles to my car.  I'll probably overnight at the PL Trailhead tonight and bicycle down the 32 miles in the morning, then two days to hike up about the same distance.  So back to car Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, this morning I stopped at the Post office in Carson to verify General Delivery address and hours - in case my camera would be ready to mail today so could be received as I passed through Carson Thursday (though that is now unlikely.)

Next, stopped in Stevenson and used the library to check email.  Emailed the CameraTech  the possible Carson address and promised a few other alternative addresses in Cascade Locks, and Hood River, including in Hood River a UPS-Store address.  These would be more likely locations if the repair was delayed.   I got an immediate response back saying that, um, yes, the camera has seen better days, there is some corrosion on the main board and the back panel, but the main problem is a blown DC/DC converter, a $55 part that he did have in stock, but he couldn't begin work til tomorrow.  The total estimate with $15 shipping came to $269.44, I could pay via Paypal.  So, I've paid.

Done at the Stevenson Library, I continued west and re-crossed the Bridge of the Gods to Cascade Locks.  A hiker on the bridge was heading south.  Many hikers milling about in Cascade Locks.  Stopped at the PO there, got the address and hours - I could knock on the side door Saturday before 9:30 in the morning to get delivery of packages delivered and sorted earlier that morning.  Sounded  good for a package mailed Tuesday or maybe early Wednesday.

Continued to Hood River, took the Cliff road exit and stopped at the Walmart there to get another bike patch kit (Oh yes, I had been going mad looking for my patch kit before my last ride, finally realizing I had left it in my bear canister still stashed at Santiam Pass from when I swapped biking for hiking gear before my 9-day hike back to Crater Lake a couple weeks ago now, it seems. I'll get back to that cache in about a week.)

Then took another shower at the marina, then felt hungry (hadn't really eaten breakfast yet...) so settled for a mcwrap at the McD's across the street again and am there now - and looking at the time - really 5pm already???   OK, so I did find  the address of a UPS store here in town and verified they would handle my pckgs for $5.  This after researching the public transit options between Hood River and Cascade Locks, for my next loop from Lolo Pass bicycling down to Hood River then busing to Cascade Locks then taking the Eagle-creek trail up.  So there's only one bus option I found: the Columbia Area Transit has an "Opportunity Connector" shuttle mainly for disabled but will take anyone by reservation only 24 hrs in advance.  One bus a day M-F goes from Hood Rover to Cascade Locks at 2pm. (There are possibly two runs a day from CL to HR, one at 7:50am, an optional 2nd at 3:15.)  Called them up and "got logged into the system" with likely dates of this Friday or next Monday.  The bus happens to already stop at the Hood River Shopping Center at the southeast end of town on hwy 281 where the UPS Store is located (There's a Walgreen's next door...)  I would be bicycling down from Lolo Pass coming into Hood River on hwy 281, so, convenient if the timing is right.

So I still need to email the repairman the new address info.  Oh, and then still hoped to do some laundry.  Oh, and did want to use the library to try to download maps without all the glitches that I'm blaming on the McD's connection.  Don't know if I can do that all today, 5:30 already!  Gotta move on, close this blog post.

Stalled in Hood River after short 1.5 day hike Cascade Locks to Wind River/Panther Creek

So, I did manage to get going on my bicycle from NEAR the Panther Creek campground above Carson late Friday afternoon, heading into a blustery south-west wind on this first day of "cooling", though it was still sunny and quite warm at the two-digit elevation of the Columbia River.

I stopped at the Visitor Info Center / Forest Info Center in Stevenson (dripping sweat from fighting the still-warm headwinds, trying to avoid drenching maps I was being shown) to get specifics about a fire on south-west slopes of Mt Adams that affected parts of the PCT, according to a radio mention I had earlier just caught the tail-end of while having the radio on auto-scan.  I was given a confusing flyer dated Sep 10, 2012 about the Cascade Creek Fire of Sept 8 (didn't notice the date til later.)  When I got to the trailhead at the north end of Bridge of the Gods, there was posted a flyer with more specific info on a suggested Alternate Route, beginning at hwy 23 (main Road north from Trout Lake) that the PCT crosses just before it heads towards the south-west slopes of Mt Adams.  The suggested detour route follows in reverse the southern portion of the bicycle route I took when I did this section last year. Specifically, it follows paved road 23 north to Takhlakh Lake then goes east on gravel road 2329 to Divide Trail 113 which heads south-east back to the PCT at the northwest slopes of Mt Adams. (I did not take that latter trail, having started my bicycle loop at Potato Hill much further north of Mt Adams.) I recall that last year this section started out with quite an area of fairly recently burned forest.  Maybe that was the Cascade Creek fire - not sure if the timing or age of that burn traversed by the PCT matches the Cascade Creek Fire of 2012,  The current fire is named the Mt Adams Complex in http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/article/4360/25792/ consisting of the Horseshoe, Riley, Canyon, and 7-lakes fires, and seems to be nearly under control, thanks in part to the cool weather.

But the main point here is - it won't affect me. I've already been there. I'll be finishing up well south of there this year.

It was about 5pm after I'd stashed my bike at the trailhead and got walking. Still sunny and quite warm, I took my time noting the "unusual" low-elevation vegetation and the jumbled topography of that huge landslide that was the semi-legendary, semi-historical origin of the term "Bridge of the Gods" which is the substrate upon which the current Bonneville locks and dam and upstream Bonneville lake are built.  As I slowly progressed upwards I captured some could-have-been good vistas of the Bonneville complex, had I had a real camera with me.  Also dawdled while feasting on sweetly ripe Blackberries and later Salmonberries and thimbleberries.  There were also some  ripe huckleberries and blueberries though they seemed rather tasteless compared to the crop I enjoyed much later in the season last year.  I happened to be climbing up the steep slopes of Table Mountain as the light began to fade, uncertain whether I would find a good sleeping site, but just made it to the top of a ridge with a perfect site for my bug-tent (though there were few mosquitoes here.)

Next day I calculated that I could actually make it back to the car that day, in 22 miles.  the weather had actually gotten very much cooler, cold, even, compared to the heat I had become accustomed to.  I left on my thermal undershirt most of the morning.  Fog was condensing on the conifers and then dripping on the broad-leaf understory which was overgrowing the trail, so my pants were soaked along with my sandals and socks. I made good time trying to keep warm.  Down the deep Rock Creek canyon, back up the tall Sedum Ridge, back down to the broad Wind River valley, across a bit of minor civilization there, back up a bit to the car just as the light was failing.  I had allowed for overnighting just short of the car, since I didn't really have anywhere to go in the car that evening, but the "goal" prevailed, and so I pushed to the car.

Oh, good time to explain a goof in my execution: I parked the car not where I had intended, thus shortening my intended hike by about two miles, and now adding two short hikes to my task-list, to get to where I intended to be.  let me explain: Hwy 30 goes northwest from Carson but there's a road 65 branches north from 30 to Panther Creek Campground and on north from there roughly paralleling the trail from there to when it re-joins road 30 (which has curved east) just before the Placid Lake Trailhead which is my next "end-point" - the southern extent of my hiking in Washington last year.  Oh, but writing that down just now I realize I may have chosen the right parking spot after all, now realizing that road 30 rejoins road 65, and now seeing on the map that road 65 turns to gravel mid-way there, and I think road 60 doesn't, so I think I just subconsciously remembered why I should be choosing to park yesterday at road 30.  Actually, I still need to check that on another map, maybe even re-scout that route - to be sure.  Glad I just wrote this, lest I do some unnecessary hiking, though only a few miles.

Oh wow! 8pm! I've certainly squandered today, Sitting in McD's all day, battling wi-fi-connection resets every 20 minutes or so foiling my BCNav map tile downloads that is dividing my attention as I'm writing this.

Oh, yes, to catch up with "the history" part of this blog: after getting to the car last night, I took that gravel "connector" road 6517 across "Warren Gap" between the road 30 trail crossing (in the "middle of nowhere" though with a broad turnout for parking, where I did park) and the road 65 trail crossing (at Panther Creek Campground or more specifically the adjacent Horse Camp.)  The trail parallels then crosses this road about midway, but I'd missed the crossing a few days ago when I was scouting and looking for a car-camp spot. At that time I'd found a "jeep trail" that led to a tight turn-around at an obvious hunter's camp - bones everywhere, among the other litter.  This time, I had my "half-mile PCT trail-finder" app at the ready, and found the trail, as expected, at the road summit.  Drove past and took the first jeep-trail turnout, which happened to be the same one as last time, the hunter's camp. Oh well, good enough.

Got up early enough this morning, Sunday, getting very efficient packing my car-tent (standard barely-two-man dome-tent, vs. my two hiking tents: an ultralight compact tent with a proper rain-cover, and an even smaller "bug-tent" that I prefer in rain-free weather, but combines with a large poncho that accommodates a  backpack that I always carry, and some painter's plastic sheeting, in case of thunderstorm, but that I also always carry in case of unexpected conditions, along with a few large garbage bags.)  Got off to fetch my bicycle by 6am,  Crossed the Bridge of the Gods, heading for Hood River again, took another $1 shower at the Marina, then headed for McD's across from the Marina.  Intended to stay there in the morning, long enough to update my blog, download maps for BCNav, and of course check feedback from the camera-repair guy: He had emailed that he got the camera, will provide estimate Monday.  Partial success downloading, but frustrating glitches the whole time, some possibly related to the McD connection time-outs, but more to it than that, intend to rant about this when I get the chance!  Then I wanted to find a laundromat. Haven't gotten to that.  Will probably head back toward Panther Campground or the nearby hunter's camp again tonight for lack of other considered options closer by, but maybe I'll find someplace on this Oregon side, since I'll likely be back here at the Hood River Marina McD's tomorrow morning at least before the library or other businesses open so I can verify an address to send my camera back to (Mailboxes etc type place or General Delivery at some post office, probably in one of the Columbia Gorge towns. Also, indulge in another shower, and find that laundromat.  Hopefully I'll have prompt feedback from the camera repairman - oh, and assuming no glitches executing my payment option.

OK, I think I'm done blogging for now. need to move on.  Um.. after refreshing McD's connection - double-checking it hasn't half-scrambled my text with partial refresh of on old saved version, like it has done a few times in the past.  OK, looks good so far - try to post...

In between short overnight hikes Mt Hood and Colombia Gorge.

After 9 days of hiking, I got back to my car at hwy 138 just north of Crater Lake, went for a swim at nearby Diamond Lake. It was the 4th of July, and the picnic area at the south end of the lake was very crowded, but I did find a parking spot, changed into my speedo's and jumped into not very pristine water, along with a bunch of other families, just long enough to get the dust out of my hair etc.

Then I headed to Chemult where I fetched my bike, got a Subway Sandwich, then on to fetch my other food caches.  Finally approached the western edge of Bend by dusk.  Decided to take the side road that headed for Sun River (a small community just south of Bend) which is forest land with turnouts on the west side of road, to overnight.  After pitching my car-camping tent, I began hearing the fireworks somewhere in Bend.  I had thought earlier that I might get to Bend in time for that, but as I was heading into town, I was just focused on finding a place to overnight without unnecessary extra driving.

Fifth of July, A Sunday, spent all day in Bend taking care of business, two matters in particular:

One was researching of my next major loop: Probably between Santiam Pass - the north end of my last hike - to Mt Hood, though in which direction was the question - I could take the same bus to Santiam Pass, after bicycling down south from Mt Hood to Maybe Warm Springs then taking Bend-area local buses to Sisters via Redmond - except it turned out the local bus servicing Warm Springs from Redmond was discontinued, the only option being a regional bus between Bend and Portland, expensive for just a partial hop between Redmond.  So it's more cost-effective to leave my car at Santiam Pass, bicycle down to Sisters, take the local bus to Redmond, then catch the Bend-Portland bus from Redmond to Government Camp at Mt Hood.  (This turns out to be even more convenient, as I later learned of a $2 local shuttle from Sandy and some intervening towns including Zigzag and Government Camp, to the Timberline Lodge, the "high point" of the trail on Mt Hood, thereby much-simplifying my logistics in that area.)

The other matter was "negotiating" with a camera repair person to see if he could repair my camera at a reasonable cost.  I learned of this repair person rather accidentally, after mis-reading an offer via Amazon of a "refurbished" Canon 5D Mark II for under $600, which actually was for the older 5D (a crop-sensor camera,) not the Mark II (full-size 35mm sensor.)  But after emailing the vendor to clarify shipping and return-conditions (for the mis-read offer,) I learned that he does repairs at what promises to be a better price and faster turn-around than sending to Canon service.  After quite a Q/A conversation that day, I was convinced he could repair my camera in a week, for $200 or so. Mailed my camera off.  Done.

So now I decided to return the new Sony I had bought, within the 15 day window.  Done.  (Now I'm left with just my Nexus One phone for picts. Ugh!)

Decided  to head north to do some more scouting around the Mt Hood/Columbia Gorge area.  Forecast began calling for much cooler weather beginning next weekend and that might be an opportunity to do my unfinished low-elevation hikes on either side of the Gorge.  On the Oregon side of the Gorge, Lolo Pass (on a north-west ridge of Mt Hood) promised to be a convenient high-point from which to bicycle down both sides to complete the portion of PCT from Cascade Locks as it circumnavigated the west half of mt Hood to Timberline Lodge.  I could take advantage of the shuttle from ZigZag, (at the south end of Lolo Pass Road) up to Timberline Lodge.  It would be convenient to do this short 20mile high-elevation hike before the weather cooled.

This I just completed yesterday.  The route consisted of several substantial climbs and drops, much of it on steeply eroded ash as the trail attempted to traverse several glacial-stream canyons including the Zigzag, Sandy and Muddy-fork canyons, but also alternating between lower-elevation forests with still lushly green understory despite the bone-dry soil (although the mossy areas were visibly suffering,) and densely blooming alpine meadows as well as the dune-like ash-barrens.  Actually I chose two "alternate routes" (done by most hikers but closed to horses.) Both of these routes are above the "official route". The first of these was the "Paradise loop" trail, which went through lushly blooming alpine meadow. The 2nd was the Ramona Falls-Timberline Trail route, which passed the iconic falls flowing over a roughly textured basalt cliff, and also crossed the notoriously treacherous Muddy Fork glacial stream at a higher elevation, before many of it's tributaries joined to create a truly treacherous crossing.)   Too bad the spectacular views I experienced had to be pitifully-poorly captured by my tiny Nexus One.

Logically, I might have followed up with the northern half of that section, from Cascade locks to Lolo Pass (bicycling from Lolo Pass north-east down to Hood River (the upper part of this is gravel but I'll have a patch-kit allong...)  then taking a bus west to Cascade Locks (or more specifically just past the Bridge-of-the-Gods to the Eagle Creek trailhead which is the "hiker-only" preferred alternate-PCT, with specifically it's iconic tunnel underneath the falls, and general northern-rain-forest scenery,)  then hiking back UP 4000ft (normally PCT-ers are hiking DOWN this) from near sea-level in ten miles, then back down another 1000ft to the "pass" and my car.  But I wanted to save that for after I got my real camera back.

So instead last night I drove into Washington to the Panther Campground area just north of Carson expecting to bicycle back down from there to Carson then west along the Columbia River to the Bridge of the Gods, to hike back up the Washington side of the Gorge to my car about 36 miles, so a single-overnighter backpack hike.

Except, I forgot to charge my Nexus phone batteries during my drive, so would have been totally without picture options. I could have driven to Stevenson and used the library there this morning to charge, but too early for library to be open, so decided to drive to Hood River, and take the $1 shower at the Marina there while there.  Now I'm at the McD's across from the marina.  About to return to Panther Campground and get going.

(Ah, except after the typical McDonald's wifi system-related snags its afternoon already.  I had to redo some incompletely posted msgs... Grrr,  while also giving up again to download BCNav maps to my Nexus, so I'll be navigating paper-only, sort-of.  McD's access timing-out every 20 minutes or so wasting my time... now it will probably be a two-overnighter hike, with two half-days at the beginning and end.

So let me just look ahead a bit... My plans thereafter (assuming I won't yet have my camera back) is to continue the next 30-some miles up from Panther Creek campground to the vicinity of the "Berry Fields" in the Indian Heaven Wilderness (which was the southern extent of my hiking in Washington last year.)  Then (assuming by then that I WILL have my camera back) I'll complete the Oregon-side of the Gorge from Bridge of the Gods up the Eagle Creek Gorge and on to Lolo Pass, this after a bicycle ride down from the pass (gravel for the first few miles but I'll have my patch kit along...) to Hood River then a bus ride to Cascade Lacks.  

Beyond these three short hikes, in-between which I'll be keeping in touch with the camera repair-guy and hopefully getting it back in working order, (hmm.. it's Friday and I haven't yet heard that he's received my two-day priority mail delivery yet...)  I'll do the 100 mile 6-day section between Mt Hood south back to Santiam Pass, which will finish off Oregon for me.  Finally, I have left an approx 100 mile section in Washington between Chinook and Snoqualmie Passes, which will ALMOST finish up the PCT for me.

While I'm up here I also have in mind completing the 8 mile Canadian portion of the PCT that "most" hikers do, by doing it as an out and back 16 mile round trip day-hike from the Canadian side to the border and back (to complement the out and back from the American Hart's Pass side to the border that I did last year.)

(Also while "up here" I may have an opportunity to meet up with my friends Sandy L and Peter H vaguely planning to visit the Olympic Peninsula later this summer - our schedules just might coordinate - though I'm not counting on that, and may well visit on my own, along with a few other Washington spots such as Mt Baker that I hoped to visit last year but just missed the chance.)   This might be in conjunction with an exploration of what's described as "The Pacific Northwest Trail begins near the Continental Divide in Glacier National Park and travels more than 1,200 miles through Montana, Idaho, and Washington before reaching its western terminus at the Pacific Ocean near Cape Alava."  But that's another project entirely.)

Back on-topic, that leaves that 40mile "Aquaduct Walk" in the Mojave that I've "saved for last" pending a promised reroute of that just a little further west into the eastern foothills of the Tehachapi's through the Tejon Ranch.  I guess that reroute  won't happen as hoped soon enough, so maybe I will do that current Aquaduct Walk this next early spring, maybe in conjunction with another "desert wildflower" excursion with CNPS folk like when I started this PCT trek four years ago?

Beyond that, there's that "Section Hiking the PCT with Bicycle and Bus" how-to book I've got in mind to actually produce, which may well involve (to break-up a long "sit" in front of a keyboard) a few additional excursions along the "PCT corridor" to verify bicycle routes and perhaps car-camping options.  Also some PCT section re-do-photo-hikes after I discover serious gaps in my photo-data for that larger much more daunting project of documenting vegetation along the trail, for some sort of "Vegetation Transect" project that was my original stated purpose for this activity.

Presumably I'll be returning to the Bay Area as my home base, where my friends and family reside, but not necessarily, who knows.  Presumably, I'll follow-through on delivering the photo-documentation for the Pepperwood Phenology Project, and help finish up the Herbarium Data Entry project that I was involved in last winter, and, um, hopefully, find some sort of maybe part time paying job to supplement my meager current fixed income so I can deal with some deferred car expenses etc. On this latter front though, I'm thinking there may be an opportunity up here in Washington, involving what seems to me to be an obvious opening for a ducumentation and maybe UI tech position at the company Critter-Maps, that produces the BCNav app for Android that I've been trying to use without getting too frustrated by it's documentation and U/I shortcomings!  I'm working myself up psychologically to present my resume and a contract proposal.

But I've got to get going, I've got some hiking to do before teh weather warms up again here in the Gorge.