I wake up in the morning with my forehead and legs remarkably calm.   So ignoring the beast is probably the best plan.   I get all packed back up and have a double carnation instant breakfast.  I find the carnation instant breakfast seems to give me a lot of energy and also gives me a good dose of water to start the day.

I start the day about 6 and at 6:27 I’m starting to see some signs of snow.  Certainly nothing to cause any concern but at this point I am only at 6100 feet.

The blow down on the trail is getting worse.  Again it just slows you down as it forces you to find ways around.   Just tend to get scratched up a bit trying to find alternate paths through the trees.  The PCT site that gives Oregon trail conditions has this to say:  “Snow, debris and blowdown in mid- and high-elevation forests is still impairing navigation and keeping local SAR teams busy fetching lost hikers.”   At one point I did get a little misdirected when trying to go around debris.  Turns out the trail did a right turn just the other side of the debris and so when I went around and came back to where I figured the trail had to be, there was no trail!   Did not take long to figure out however.    At about 6:40 I do get confirmation that all is right with the world.  A sign!!

At 6:49 I decide to take a picture of the type of damage that is on the trail.  This damage is actually mild and easy to get around as you can see a clear path to the right.  Others, not so much.

About an hour later I take a picture of the view with but the picture does not capture the beauty

At 9:23 the trail goes along a rocky ledge on the side of the mountain.  At this point I meet up with the 5 hikers from the day before and they are resting.  Not much room but just enough to rest. I decide to rest as well for two reasons.  On this ledge there are no mosquitoes and in order to pass them they would have to get up.  It is a nice rest.

Not too far ahead the trail makes another one of those tight turns, this time to the left.  However there is another trail, a more obvious trail, that goes straight forward.  It is not until I start descending into the Snow Lake Basin that I realize something ain’t right here.  I am on the Divide Trail and not the PCT.  Pull out my app and sure enough I am 1/2 mile off of the trail.  I know exactly where I went wrong so I backtrack and take the left and I am back on the trail.

 

Not long after that I am on another trail cut out of the side of the mountain and there is snow that gives me pause.

I go on a mile or so more and run into more snow.  All I can see ahead of me is snow and I’m only at about 6600 feet.   About this point another hiker catches up to me and tells me how he has heard there is treacherous snow ahead but he is going to try to get to a trail where he can descend to a farm road which will take him to Crater Lake Hwy… HE HOPES.  Anyway, I decide, out of an abundance of caution that I will just turn around and head back to where I started.  As far as I know, I am the only one of the 8 or so hikers up there that decided to turn around.  So I turn around and head back to where I started the day and set up camp.  Within 500 feet of where I had camped the night before which was taken by others by the time I got back.  Seems like an easy day but between the snow crossings and all the diversions to get around debris, I was as very tired.  I told Lenora I hoped to get back to where we started by the end of the next day but was not sure I could do 16 miles and it might take me two.  Either is fine she says and she will watch my progress tomorrow to see if she should pick me up.  Time to eat and sleep.  Sad that I am backtracking but still happy to be on the trail and enjoying all its beauty.  Somewhere along the line in going through brush I have lost both my mosquito screen and my PCT bandana.  Must not have attached them securely enough.   Its always something.

Lenora’s Story:

I am determined to have both the side of the house and Chocolate ready for the finisher by the time Don returns so I spend much of his time away indoors and working on the needlepoint.  I do complete the da** stitches on both and go through my bin to decide what to work on next.  Knowing that Don is on his way back to the drop off point I am taking things easy.  Not sure when he will arrive but sometime tomorrow afternoon on the next day.  As usual it is hard to predict how things will go and I’m grateful for the Inreach device that keeps me posted on his progress.  I even get to watch him get lost or go the wrong way or backtrack miles.