Trout Lake | Farm Life

So the idea on this hike is to connect the dots between Trout Creek, which I got to at the start of August and Trout Lake where I ended up a few days ago. It is about a 52 mile stretch. We had to delay doing this because over the labor day weekend, Washington basically caught on fire. There were extremely high winds and a lot of people recreating and apparently that resulted in numerous fires. One of the big ones was just south of us in the town of Omak and has the major south bound road (Hwy 97) closed. We had to wait for that to reopen. We travel down to Trout Lake where I need to start and it is about a 7 hour drive. Most of that drive we are in pretty heavy smoke. We can see the devastation from the road as we travel. When we get to Trout Lake and the PCT the smoke is really pretty light and it seems save to everyone to continue. At this point there are no fires to the south which is where I am heading.

At the start of the trail here a trail angel has left bags of oranges. After Martha gives me a blessing, I grab an orange and head out. It is about 3 pm and I want to get to Trout Lake Creek (5 miles) to camp tonight. I will meet the trail angel that left the oranges later in the hike and we will return the favor.

The hike to Trout Lake Creek is an up and down affair. Nothing serious and I arrive in a little after 2 hours. Pass the nice little meadow along the way and I plant that I have not noticed before

Trout Lake Creek is a wonderful campsite. Probably one of the best I have encountered on the PCT that was not a public camp. I have not seen anyone on the trail and there is nobody at the campsite when I get there and I figure I might have the place to myself. I figure wrong as after I am settled and trying to sleep, a couple campers come in. Then a couple more. Then a couple more. In the end we are tent cheek to tent cheek. Below are some images of the camp.

PCT 2229 to 2224. Tentsite at Trout Lake Creek

During the middle of the night I woke up and I could smell smoke. Figured it was just blowing in from one of the many fires. Went back to sleep.

Miles: 5
Steps: 13152
PCT Mile: 2224
Elevation: 3325
Location: https://w3w.co/deployed.tightrope.irrational

Get an earlier than normal start and again have a delayed breakfast because getting water from the muddy and silty Lewis River did not appeal. But there is Riley Creek in a couple miles where I can get good water and have my normal breakfast. I do start out the day with Spam and tortilla smothered with ranch dressing at the camp site however and after the breakfast I am loaded up for some serious hiking. Unfortunately, a lot of the day was spent in a burn zone that I would be told was from a fire in 2016. Very hot and so I tried to do quickly. Eventually got back into forest and spent the rest of time in shade until arriving at Hwy 23 and the Trout Lake pick up point. I arrived early but there was a trail angel at Hwy 23 who gave me a 13 mile ride into the town of Trout Lake where Lenora, Martha, and Matt picked me up. I had met Dave, the trail angel, a little earlier than Hwy 23 as he was out to take some pictures and visit the memorial site of a PCT hiker that was killed on the trail by a falling tree in 2019. He was simply standing a bridge with a hiking partner when a tree fell and hit him and killed him.

I tipped Gary for giving me a ride and then he had a couple hikers get into his truck for a ride back to the PCT and Hwy 23. Dave has helped about 250 hikers this year. The numbers are down he says as in a normal year he would have helped 1000 hikers by now.

Trout Lake is a PCT destination because it is a good resupply point, has a nice grocery store, and a cafe with shakes and cheeseburgers. I had 2 huckleberry shakes, a cheeseburger, 2 glasses of water, and 3 diet cokes.

It was glorious to see Lenora, Martha and Matt when they arrived. They had lunch/dinner at the cafe and then we started the long drive back to Oroville.