Day 6
Un-named Lake to Olallie Lake
Trail mile
2048 to 2053.5 5.5 miles
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| no name lake in the morning mile 2048 PCT |
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| My soggy sleeping bag at 6:15am |
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| Upper Lake |
I carried my
sleeping bag outside of my pack to try to dry it off. A few thru-hikers passed me but none of them
had seen Aimless.
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| Viewpoint |
When I
arrived I was very tired and could not think very clearly. The first thing I did was use the outhouse. Then I stumbled into the store and looked around
and then I stumbled back out without buying anything or picking up the box I
had waiting. I went outside and sat on
a picnic table and used the outhouse a bunch and yogied some Imodium from a
thru hiker. I tried to dry out my
sleeping bag. I asked everyone who
passed by if they had seen Aimless.
Then I went
back into the store and picked up my box and sorted through it. The box was filled with wonderful yummy
dehydrated dinners. The box had been
provided by Sonya Rodgers. Thanks
Sonya! After sorting through the box I went back into the store and bought a
beer. The beer nearly put me to sleep.
Later I bought batteries, snickers, a cup of coffee and some hand sanitizers. The store only had the red heet because it was all that they could get. It would have to do. I know that red heet will work, it just does not burn quite as hot and leaves some soot.
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| Ollalie Lake Resort |
I decided that I would hang around all day and wait for Aimless to arrive and then we could find a campsite somewhere nearby where we would take our first zero day. I asked everyone who passed through if they had seen her, but no one had seen her.
Finally at
about 2:30 two men told me that they had seen Aimless and she had a bandage
wrapped around her thigh. What? She had a sprained ankle, why would the bandage
be around her thigh? They said that she
had hurt her leg on the snowfields and was last seen at Breitenbush camp, she
said she could not make the hike and she was going to the road.
What hike was it that she could not make? Could she make it to Olallie and get out on the road there or was she getting out at Breitenbush? Well now I had sort of an answer about her location but what exactly was going on was not clear. I decided to stay at Olallie a bit longer and see if other hikers knew what was going on.
What hike was it that she could not make? Could she make it to Olallie and get out on the road there or was she getting out at Breitenbush? Well now I had sort of an answer about her location but what exactly was going on was not clear. I decided to stay at Olallie a bit longer and see if other hikers knew what was going on.
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| Just a few of the yummy dinners in the box that Sonya left for me |
Then
Bookworm arrived, she had left camp later than me and she had hiked much
slower. She had no new information about
Aimless but she offered to hike with me from Olallie to Timberline and she said
that she would hike ten miles a day. It
was a nice offer, but that was too slow for me, I needed to do 14 miles a day to
make my food last and I was desperate for a shower and my satellite messenger
was broken, I needed to make better time than that. I probably needed to get off the trail and sort out my satellite messenger, my intestinal troubles and more.
I kept asking
hikers if they had see Aimless then a woman named Amy told me she had and that
she was instructed to call Aimless' friend on her cell phone and have her come
pick her up at Breitenbush Camp because she got injured on the snow fields and could no longer hike. There was no cell phone signal, so Amy would make the call about three miles up the trail and after her break at Olallie.
Oh no! That road was really rough and Aimless friend
had limited mobility. I did not think
that was a good idea. But I told Amy to
tell the friend that I was going to hike back to Briteinbush to join
Aimless. Well Amy did not know I had
been hiking with Aimless so she asked who I was. But even after learning that I was hiking
with Aimless she still did not seem to want to talk to me. Maybe I had said or done something wrong, Amy seemed to be annoyed. Amy could not be convinced that the road was bad, she was sure that the road conditions were overstated.
Alternately, if you have a tank or a 4-wheel drive truck, you can drive here a slightly different way. Rather than turning off at FR4220, you can drive southeast on 224/46 for 48 miles until you reach an extremely well-marked sign for Olallie Lake at the junction with FR4690. Turn left onto FR4690 for 8 miles, then left onto FR4220 for approximately 11 miles, passing Olallie, Monon and Horseshoe Lakes until you reach Breitenbush Lake. The 2 mile section of road between Horseshoe and Breitenbush Lakes is among the worst sections of road in Oregon, and is not recommended for passenger car drivers with any consideration whatsoever for their vehicle. Seriously, it's really that bad. Consider yourself warned. http://www.portlandhikersfieldguide.org/wiki/Breitenbush_Trailhead
I went back
into the store and got some clarification about the road, the store clerk or
maybe the owner, said that the road from Ollalie to Breitenbush was really bad
but the road to Breitenbush from the pavement was not as bad. Okay so maybe Aimless friend could deal with
the road. I heard Amy mumble something
about dealing with friends of friends of friends as she came out of the store.
So I explained to Amy that I was hiking with Aimless, I had rode to the trail in her car and that my car was at her house so I was more that a friend of a friend of a friend. This seemed to make Amy even more upset, she said in an uncheerful tone of voice “I’m just trying to help” Then another hiker stepped up and thanked her for helping and then they both went and sat down. What had just happened? Why was I being treated like a stranger by the only person who had any real information on Aimless?
So I explained to Amy that I was hiking with Aimless, I had rode to the trail in her car and that my car was at her house so I was more that a friend of a friend of a friend. This seemed to make Amy even more upset, she said in an uncheerful tone of voice “I’m just trying to help” Then another hiker stepped up and thanked her for helping and then they both went and sat down. What had just happened? Why was I being treated like a stranger by the only person who had any real information on Aimless?
Bookworm was
off in her own little world, she came out of the store and told me that she had
bought me my entire resupply for the next leg and she kept offering me olives. I
was trying to figure out what to do, sure the olives tasted nice, but I was
trying to figure out what to do, I was not terribly interested in olives. I wanted to discuss my options, but she kept interrupting me and offering me olives.
I had to get away from the psychosis in front of the store, that was all that I knew for sure. I decided
that I needed to go back to Brietenbush.
Sure I could have just continued on up the trail but I was worried about
Aimless and I had not been in contact with my family for 3 days thanks to my satellite
messenger breaking and I really wanted to take a shower, oh and I needed an
entire box of Imodium. That was enough
reason for me to bail.
So I went in an asked the store clerks what was the shortest route back to Breitenbush camp and they showed me how the roads connected up. I decided that rather than hiking 7 miles back to Breitenbush Lake that I would try to hitchhike. I bought two snickers for the road and I began to head out.
So I went in an asked the store clerks what was the shortest route back to Breitenbush camp and they showed me how the roads connected up. I decided that rather than hiking 7 miles back to Breitenbush Lake that I would try to hitchhike. I bought two snickers for the road and I began to head out.
I saw a
couple reading the sign in the parking lot, they were not sure where they were
going so I told them about Aimless and that I needed a ride up to Brietenbush
Lake. They said they were sorry but they
could not help me. So I thanked them and
headed up to the road to try to hitch a ride.
According to my GPS the road was only 3.5 miles while the trail was 7
miles. So if I could not hitch a ride I
was going to walk up the road.
The first
car that came up the road was the same couple that I had just talked to. They said that they would help me and they
gave me a ride all the way back to Brietenbush Lake Camp where I met up with
Aimless. The road was the worst road I
have ever seen and I have seen a lot of dirt roads. In some places the road
was nothing but boulders sticking out 6-8 inches
where there should have been dirt. I really wish I had taken pictures of this road. I felt guilty for convincing Brian to drive me up such a road. Thank
you Brian and SO for the ride! I think I
would have been waiting a very long time to hitch a ride up that road.
Finally reunited with Aimless I was able to get the correct story. It turned
out that Aimless had hurt her leg, lost her pole and hit her face on a rock
while crossing Russell Creek at 9:30 the day before. After 20 mintues she gave up on looking for her pole and continued on. Eric found her pole in the water and put it on the bank. When Eric passed Aimless he told her that he had found her pole and put it on the near bank, so she went back for it.
Somehow she managed to limp all the way to Brietenbush Lake Camp before she stopped. It took her 12 hours of hiking to get there. She had injured her groin and she could not bend her knee so she had spent the night sleeping on the picnic table to avoid having to crawl in and out of her tent. I’m not sure why I had been told that she was in “good spirits”, maybe she was, but she was injured too and no one seemed to notice?
Somehow she managed to limp all the way to Brietenbush Lake Camp before she stopped. It took her 12 hours of hiking to get there. She had injured her groin and she could not bend her knee so she had spent the night sleeping on the picnic table to avoid having to crawl in and out of her tent. I’m not sure why I had been told that she was in “good spirits”, maybe she was, but she was injured too and no one seemed to notice?
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| Brietenbush Lake |
I spent the
night at the campground in the rain and wind with Aimless. I found a king bolete right next to my
tent. Brian came by to check on us in the morning and
he said he would take us out of there if Aimless' friend did not arrive by
afternoon. That day at about 1pm the
friend came to pick us up.
I taken back to my car in Saint Helens Aimless bought me a chicken quesadilla at Taco Time one the way back to Saint Helens and then she gave me a cup of coffee at her house and I drove home from there, leaving sometime just before dark. I could have stayed the night and showered and done my laundry, but I was eager to see my family.
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| One of three shelters on the lake |
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| King Bolete at Brietenbush Lake Camp |
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| View from my campsite at Brietenbush Lake |
The house
was a total disaster, the worse I have ever returned to after a hike, but I
went to bed and waited until morning to give my family grief about the state of
the house. In the morning I stepped on
my bathroom scale and learned that I had lost ten pounds.
I called Delorme the next day and they are sending me a new Inreach device, no questions asked. I hope the new one is more durable.
I called Delorme the next day and they are sending me a new Inreach device, no questions asked. I hope the new one is more durable.
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| packing up to go back to Saint Helens |
Day 1:
Day 2:http://mosswalks.blogspot.com/2014/08/back-to-pct-day-two-big-lake-to-koko.html
Day 3:
http://mosswalks.blogspot.com/2014/08/back-to-pct-day-3-koko-lake-to-shale.html
Day 4:
http://mosswalks.blogspot.com/2014/08/pct-2-day-4-shale-lake-to-jeff-creek.html
Day 5
http://mosswalks.blogspot.com/2014/08/back-to-pct-day-5-jeff-creek-to-un.html
Day 6:
http://mosswalks.blogspot.com/2014/08/back-to-pct-day-6-no-name-lake-to.html
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