When I woke up this morning, I noticed the girls-gone-hiking pair were setup near me. They must have rolled in late last night, which is pretty impressive mileage. Didn’t chat with them, just packed and left. Walking over a bunch of lava rock for a couple miles. This stuff is harsh, but anything is better than more green tunnel.

Dropped into a little meadow below the lava rocks, turned a corner, and found my buddy Gnocci with his kid in a perfect lounge spot next to the water. We chatted for a bit. Looks like they will be going to Timberline on the same route as me. Gnocci doesn’t seem to be in a big hurry. He seems to be enjoying time with his son.

Passed by another exclusion area at Scott’s lake. Not sure what this is all about. There must only be a few Oasis up here between the lava fields. Passed some other local hikers who were going on about the complexity of figuring out what permits they needed to hike through the limited use area, where they could camp, etc. I feel their pain. The Forest Service does not make this very easy.

I could see I was approaching the lava fields the Old Timer told me about. He said “Better hike that in the morning, because there is no shade and those black rocks hold the heat.” Well I timed it perfectly, hitting the fields at high-noon. Heh.

Check out this picture

If you zoom in on the mountain, you can see lava poo all over the mountain speckled with tree lined spots.  These are areas that have been broken down over the millineum to host a decent ecosystem. In the lava fields, the only thing living is a bunch of moss and the occasional sad little bush/tree. My hike through the lava fields took me down into a couple of forested areas similar to the pic above.

I took a bunch of pictures of the lava fields, but none really capture the scale. It was huge. There is something eerie about standing in a middle of this gigantic dead rocky wasteland with the wind blowing at 20 mph+. I suppose Mars might be a little like this.

Walking on this stuff is sketchy. The whole trail is composed of fist sized pumice just waiting to roll your ankle. Hiking poles are pretty much useless, so it 100% concentration trying to hop across the service without mistep. Falling in this stuff would be ugly. The stuff is so abrasive, I could not even find a comfortable place to sit down. It is like sitting on 60 grit sandpaper wrapped around every rock.

Finally left the lava rocks behind to re-enter yet another burned forest. Man half of the trail in Oregon seems to have been burned up over the last 5 to 7 years.

Last time I saw water was Scott’s lake, so I took the by-pass and hiked into the Big Lake Youth Camp to fill up. In years past, they have been a wonderful host for hikers. I believe they have a building setup specifically for hikers to stay in. Well this year is a different story. I don’t know if it is the Covid thing or something else. I was met over and over again by smiling, yet firm, camp counselors asking if I was a PCT hiker and, if so, I should go to the water spigot next to the horse corral. Get your water and get out. On my way out, two more counselors checked up on me. Ok, folks, I’m leaving.

I walked another couple miles to the last camp site before the highway and setup next to a small lake. Mosquitoes were bad here, but fortunately the wind was blowing pretty hard. Unfortunately, the wind is also blowing all these dead trees around. Spent a few hours worried about that in my tent then fell asleep.