So at the end of the day yesterday I was looking for a way out.  About  5 miles ahead there seems to be a place.  The trail goes right along Summit Lake and at Summit Lake there is a dirt road and “Large campground with Ranger Station”.  That seems very promising.  So I indicate to Lenora that I can make it but if possible it would be nice if she could pick me up Summit Lake.  She looks at some maps and it looks pretty easy which makes sense.  After all, it is a “Large campground with Ranger Station”.  So I go to sleep knowing I will be off the trail (Until the next Monday) tomorrow and I can figure out what I am going to do about food going forward.

Get up about the normal time and get on the trail a little later because I only have 5 miles to go but I arranged with Lenora to pick me up at noon.  The 5 miles I have left are either level or down hill so all is good.  Below is the trail.  Back to nice soft forest trail.

 

So I hike and get to the south side of summit lake at about 8:20 or so and let Lenora know where I am.  Then I realize this is NOT the spot with the “Large Campgound and Ranger Station”.  That is actually about 1.3 miles away at the other end of the lake.  So I indicate to Lenora I am not at the right place and where the right place is and I proceed to get there.  Below is a picture of the lake.  Pretty huh…. Crater Butte Mountain in the background.

Here is what it looks like on the PCT Hiker map.

So I am there at about 9 am which was intended.  I wanted to know what I was dealing with before Lenora left.  I tell her I am there and she says I have a long time to wait cause she is just leaving.  Just as expected because the pickup time was noon and it was now 9 am.

So I look around and sit around.  At one time a thru hiker comes through and sits down by me and we talk while he has a snack.  I ask him what he likes to eat on the PCT since I obviously need something new and he mainly eats packages of things that are wet on their own to which he always adds a generous amount of olive oil.  To make them wetter and to add calories.  It all makes sense and I decide I am going back to the meals that I used at the start of the PCT when I had no problems eating.  They are freeze dried and pretty varied in texture and content.  I stopped using them because they were heavier that other things but obviously lighter just does not work if you can’t eat it.  His name is lickety-split and was so named because he says he gets up earlier that most to hike.  I ask him what time he starts and he indicates 6:30.  I ask him to hold my beer 🙂

Where I am sitting is where 3 roads come together.  Just up one road is where the PCT crosses so I want to be able to see that.  The other road has a sign on it that says Hwy 58 14 miles up that road.  I figure that is where Lenora will be coming from.  The other road is the one that goes around the lake and so that is good just in case Lenora comes in from that way.  So I figure I have it covered.   A couple arrives that goes down to the lake and does some kayaking.   Another couple arrives and goes up to the trailhead on the PCT and goes for a hike with a couple dogs.  All seems good.

It is 12 pm.  No Lenora.  Ok, it could take a little longer than expected.  1 pm.  No Lenora, I’m starting to get concerned.  I have walked up and down all the roads and they seem a little rough but OK for as far as I walked them.   But at this point I start to panic.  Hwy 58 only 14 miles away!!  If she is 1 hour beyond expected arrival something must be wrong.   I text her but get no response which is what I expected because I am sure there is no cell service where ever she is.  So I text Martha and then Martha and Meagan because I felt something had to be wrong.  Lost, ran out of gas, flat tire, broken axle, the list is really endless.  By 2pm I am in full blown panic.  Something has to be wrong.   A biker comes by and I ask him how long he was on the road and if he saw anyone.  He didn’t see anyone but he was only on the road for 1 mile.  I’m waiting for the kayaking  couple or the hiking couple to return to see if they can give me a ride up the road to see if I can find Lenora.   By 3pm Martha and Meagan and everyone else back in Georgia is trying to figure out what to do.  911 was called, Toyota was called to try and locate the car.  I have a problem…. should I leave and try to locate her or should I stay and hope she is just delayed.  What if she gets here and I am gone?  I just can’t believe she is delayed, there has to be something wrong.  The kayaking couple returns and I ask them if they happen to be going back to Hwy 58 and explain my fears.  They are amazing and indicate they are and will give me a ride and help search.  I get in their 4 wheel drive truck and they start to turn left down the road that follows the lake.  I say WAIT, can you get here more than 1 way?  The sign says Hwy 58 is to the right.  They say there are two ways and the road to the right is a TERRIBLE road and that she gets sick when they take that road.  I indicate Lenora is coming from Redmond and they both agree that the GPS would have directed her to take the TERRIBLE road.  Amazingly even through this road will make her sick they agree to go that way to try to locate. I describe the car and we are all looking for any signs of a car leaving the road or stopped or parked or whatever.  The road is indeed TERRIBLE.  At two points he had to stop and determine the best part of the road to take to get past ruts and rocks.  At one point had to back up and try the opposite side.   And then folks a miracle occurs.  He asks me what color car was she driving?  White I say.  Well, this is unbelievable but there is a white car behind us right now.  He stops and lets the white car catch up.  It is Lenora!!  It is 3:47 pm.  Crying and hugging involved.  While we were crying and hugging the angel couple left.  I feel very sad not to have their names and address.

By the way, the “Large Campground and Ranger Station” needed to be read in context.  Large was by PCT standards.  Rather than 1 to 4 tent spaces there were probably 10.  The Ranger Station consisted of a box where you could leave the fee for using the facilities.  Believe me I searched for a Ranger Station, you know where Rangers actually live and manage the area, thinking they could help.  The kayaking couple indicated they come here because they are always the only ones on the lake.

Back on the boring old PCT trail next Monday.

Iphone says 9.4 miles and 23572 steps.  5 miles of PCT and 4.4 miles walking up and down roads hoping for a miracle that eventually happened.

Lenora’s Story:

Possibly a day better forgotten than remembered but also a good lesson in how easy it is for things to go wrong.  I get my expected slow start and at 9:00am I message Don I am leaving and I lug computer, two maps, phone, extra water and myself to the car.  A short time down the road I remember I was supposed to fill up with gas before the pick up trip.  Next exit says Gas, Food, Lodging so I exit.  It is north Bend, Oregon where nothing is ever what it seems.  Can you remember Alice in Wonderland?  Lots of food, a couple of Boutique style hotels and tons of yuppie restaurants in downtown Bend but not a gas station in sight.  I make my way back to the highway and try again 2 exits later with same results.  The third time is the charm and I am leaving a town 14 miles south of the hotel about one hour and fifteen minutes after I start the drive.  The computer has recommended a route way northwest of the Lake and then drop back down as roads are few and far between in these parts but on Highway 58 I see a turn-off to Summit Lake and I turn onto it.  It said Summit Lake 14 miles and 17 minute drive in current traffic conditions.  I am a little curious that this was not the way I found on Google maps but I drive.  I have only been on a road this bad once before and I was not driving.  It scared me so I got out to walk down the mountain on that trip and beat the car to the bottom by about 15 minutes.  I made it in about 5 miles in 45 minutes and the road was not getting any better.  I figured if Don ever saw that I was on this road he would be furious so I found a wider spot among the boulders and ruts and managed to turn the car around and head back to highway 58.  By now 11:00am is looming and I have 40 miles or so to go but I feel good about my decision.  I may be late but at least I won’t be in trouble for choosing a bad road.

The next hour goes pretty slow as once off 58 I am in dirt road world and I make some errors in following the tracks.  The map shows a left turn and I am at a spot with a right turn or straight.  I try straight and the road quickly deteriorates so I go back and try the right.  That road ends abruptly and I turn around to return to the bumpy road.  After a few miles, a couple more wrong guesses as to how the map mimics reality and almost two more hours have flown by.

I finally find myself crossing the PCT, I see the trail and the sign and the Guthook map says I am near the mile marker I am heading for.  Another half hour I have gone up and down this stretch of road passing the same camper 3 times and there is no other place to look.

All day I have be heading to the campground and ranger station on the south shore of this lake with no success.  All other options exhausted I recall that the first place Don stopped was not right and he was going on further so I make the turn to head north along the lake and drive slowly pausing to honk my horn at every crossing track or path hoping to find him.  When the road around the lake turns to the right I keep following it rather than heading away from the lake and I realize it is now about 4 pm and it is going to get dark and I have had no cell or wifi all day and have no idea how to ask Don where he actually is.  I am at my wits end by now sure I am going to be spending the night somewhere other than with my husband and very very discouraged.  I realize I am crying and I start to pray, out loud and really loud.  I ask Dear Saint Anthony to help me to find my lost husband, to carry my need straight to my Father in heaven.  I admit I do not have the answers and I need the Lord right now.

For about 5 minutes there has been a van ahead of me going as slow as me.  It is the first car I have seen on the road for hours.  Suddenly this van pulls to the right and stops and the driver sticks out his hand in a stop motion.  I stop.  I sit. Seconds pass and nothing happens and I wonder if I should have stopped.  Then the back door of the van opens and I see Don start to climb out.  All I can do is cry over and over, “Thank you Jesus, Thank you Jesus.”  I am shaking so hard it is difficult to get out of the car to hug my ‘found” husband.  In the midst of the reunion the van drives away and we never found the names of the people who helped this unlikely reunion happen.

That is the thing about this adventure of ours.  We keep getting ourselves into strange situations where we are headed on parallel roads with no idea of how close we are, or take a ‘wrong’ turn or give up and just sit down only to find that a small ‘blessing’ occurs and suddenly we are both in the same place once again.  I know now that Don and the girls were very worried but I was not worried.  I did not feel lost or in danger at any moment I just could not find the desired location.  I did not worry until I realized how very much time had passed with me unable to get to the right spot.  As it turns out the TERRIBLE road Don talked about was the road I tried to go down at the start of the day and if I had just persisted I would have ended up at the very right place.  It was also the road we took to get out of Summit Lake and back on the highway to the hotel.

Not a stitching day, a long and emotional day and we both felt like we had run a marathon so the day ended early.  The next 3 days will be fun because we will be together and figuring out how to make next week go better.