PCT Part 1 July 16 to 19 Fire!

Packed and ready to go!

July 16 and 17- Kelley's friend Tamara comes and picks us up to take us to Olallie Lake. She will spend the night camping with us and then we will begin hiking tomorrow morning. Tamara's dog, Star, is also in the car. A Chesapeake Bay, Golden Retriever mix, Star's favorite thing is to swim. She is an interesting dog, more vegetarian than any dog I've ever seen. Tamara has brought a large bag of carrots for Star to munch on and I marvel at her white teeth. She likes to chew on those rather than bones!

We stop at REI in Tualatin on the way and Kelley buys a Goal Zero solar charger so she can keep her phone charged so she can take pictures. We charge it on the dashboard as we drive. The final eight miles to Olallie Lake is a rough gravel road and we pass a dump truck off to the side of the road and a road grader slowly going up the road. We stop to ask the driver about the smoke we can see in the distance and he says he doesn't know anything about it. Later we find out the dump truck was run off the road by a small blue sports car traveling way too fast down the rough road, and the road grader had just pulled the truck out of the ditch. The blue car never even stopped.

Olallie Lake with Mt. Jefferson in the background

We arrive at Olallie Lake and ask at the store about where we could camp where the dog is allowed to swim. I know from the previous year that no swimming is allowed in the lake because it is their drinking water source. The friendly store clerk says that dogs are allowed to swim in the lake, just not humans. Humans wear deodorant and suntan lotion and perfume, but dogs don't, so they're allowed. I also ask about the possibility of fire since we saw billowing clouds of smoke in the air, but she is unconcerned. They'll be notified if the fire becomes a problem.

Kelley and I go up to the campground to get a camping site while Tamara supervises Star's swimming near the store and we find a great site with a wonderful view of Mt. Jefferson across the lake. We unpack and set up our gear. After unpacking we have a fabulous dinner of steak, instant potatoes and fresh salad. Kelley and Tamara break out a bottle of red wine as well. Friendly camp host Zach comes by and takes our money for camping and we sit at the table enjoying the views. I have a slight headache from the 5,000 foot elevation and so I only drink about two ounces of the wine, knowing that alcohol makes it harder to acclimatize to higher elevations. Coming from sea level, anything over 3,000 feet tends to affect me.

Kelley and I

Around 8:30 pm Zack comes back and announces that we have to evacuate because of the wildfire. We look at each other in dismay and begin to quickly pack up our belongings. I drive us back to the store and ask about Timothy Lake. The store clerk isn't sure, but thinks they are evacuating there, too. The fire is between Olallie Lake and Timothy Lake and off at a picnic table four PCT thru hikers are sitting. We go over and talk to them. One is named Whiskers. They tell us they hiked 12 miles up the trail towards Timothy Lake when they saw the fire going over the trail. At that point they turned around and hiked back to Olallie Lake. We wished we could give them a ride but we are packed tight with no extra room for even one person.

Since I am sober, I drive us down the narrow winding road in the twilight. The headlights are dim and I strain to see the road. There are no white lines on the black asphalt to warn where the shoulder starts and I know from the trip up that there are several parts on this road with steep drop offs. I quietly pray under my breath. Finally, finally we reach where the road connects with highway and stop at the first motel we see. It is 11:00 pm. The motel owner is from New Jersey and  chats up Kelley about bagels and pizza differences between the east and west coast. We tell her about the dog and she gives us an upstairs room where dogs are allowed.

We climb the stairs and enter the room (#13!) and it is blazing hot, at least 80 degrees, with no air conditioning. I turn the single box fan on and open the door to try to cool the room. The fan wants to bounce across the room so I corral it against a chair. Outside an old man smokes on the porch balcony.

I shut the door and collapse in bed. Kelley, Tamara and Star have the back bedroom. Around 5:30am I hear Star whining. She wants out but the fan is blocking her access to the door. Then I hear the unmistakable sound of a dog retching. I leap out of bed, scrambling to move the fan and open the door to get Star outside so she can vomit. It is too late, but I open the door and shoo her out and then realize I'm standing outside on the balcony in nothing but my underwear and a t-shirt. Yelping, I frantically call Star. She's finished vomiting on the door mat and I have visions of myself running through the parking lot in my underwear chasing her. Luckily, she comes back into the room. Kelley jumps out of bed at all the commotion and realizes when she steps in a puddle of vomit that Star has also thrown up in their bedroom. The steak scraps from the previous night have upset the dog's stomach.

Kelley and I clean up the vomit. Tamara, who has a rare form of cancer and had chemo earlier in the week is still in bed, exhausted. I actually don't mind cleaning up the room. I've had lots of experience cleaning up my own dog's puke, so it doesn't phase me. Kelley and I turn on the news to try to get information about the fires but although the fire is mentioned, there isn't anything more than we already know. We go down the store and get some coffee. It is Douey Egberts, my favorite kind! The morning is starting to improve.

Next we head to the ranger station. They also have not received word about anything, in fact, they haven't even been notified about the evacuation of Olallie Lake. We update them on what we know and they make a phone call to try to find out if Timothy Lake is closed. We've decided to skip up to Timothy Lake to avoid the fire, but want to make sure it is open. To their knowledge, it is.

After a delicious breakfast at a local restaurant we head back to Portland. All the maps for the Timothy Lake section are in our re-supply that my brother, Donald, was going to bring us when he met us at Timothy Lake, so we swing by his house to get them. I make a final call and confirm that yes, Timothy Lake has not been evacuated, so we drive up to the lake. The campground sign says "full", but we decide to ask, anyways. The camp host says, yes, they're full but then asks if we just need one night. We assure her we only need one night since we have reservations for the next two nights under my cousin Steve's name. There is one site available, right across from the camp host! We set up camp and Tamara cooks us an amazing dinner of clams and linguini.

Thursday night camp site at Timothy Lake

July 18 and 19 - We get up late and hang around camp, waiting to move from spot #4 into our reserved spot of #21. Cousin Steve reserved two campsites a week earlier, one for him and us, and one for my brother, Donald. Steve is only coming for Saturday night but had to do a two night reservation since it was a weekend. That turns out to be a blessing for us, since we need it Friday as well as Saturday. We decide to stay at Timothy Lake for the weekend and hike out on Sunday so we can spend time with our relatives, so Kelley and I have Tamara drop us off at Little Crater Lake and we hike back to Timothy Lake on the Pacific Crest Trail, knocking off a five mile section of the trail. We had planned to have a 14 mile day on Sunday, but since Sunday would now be our first day of the hike, we shorten the mileage by slack packing (hiking without our backpacks) this section.

Kelley, Tamara and Star. We moved our tent on top of the car to our next camp site.

Slack packing at Little Crater Lake

View of Timothy Lake as we hiked

Kelley on the bridge over the Oak Fork Creek

When we return to camp Tamara tells us that on the way back from dropping us off that she'd passed a forest service fire rig that had crashed off the road and that there is a new fire between Timothy Lake and Little Crater Lake. We must have missed the crash by mere minutes!

Around 6:30pm Donald and his family arrive and check in to their campsite, which is right by the lake. They've been forced to detour down a dusty dirt road because of the fire and the truck crash. We cook s'mores around their campfire and chat.

At 10:00pm Tamara, Kelley and I return to our campsite and we sit at the table talking and giggling in the dark. The stars are out and Kelley and I walk down to the lake dock and lay on the dock looking up at the starry night. The Milky Way is visible and I pick out the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, the North Star, the Dragon and Cassiopeia. Kelley marvels at the stars with her new clear 20/20 vision. She had cataracts removed from both eyes in the past month and a whole new world has opened up to her. When we walk back to our campsite we can see twinkles of light dancing in the tree tops. I can't figure out what it is, and then we realize one of our neighbors has a disco ball rotating and music jamming. Fortunately they eventually quiet down about an hour after quiet time begins.

Helicopters scoop water from Timothy Lake to fight the fires

The next day we hang around the lake, enjoying the sun and watching helicopters scoop water from the lake to try to put out the forest fires. Tamara packs up and goes back to Portland and Steve arrives in the early afternoon. He really wants to hike with us but struggles with plantar fasciitis in his feet. He has brought his old 1970s aluminum frame backpack that he used when he hiked part of the PCT in 1979 with the Boy Scouts, and pictures from that hike. Adam (Kelley's husband) and Laurie (Kelley's sister)  drive up. They can only stay an hour because they've also had to detour and have been led astray by Google maps and Siri. We all sit around and talk at Donald's camp fire and Steve cooks us hamburgers. Delicious! We drive up to Little Crater Lake since Donald's boys have never seen it.

Little Crater Lake

The wrecked forest service truck

Little Crater Lake is a natural artesian spring. Only about 50 feet across, the water has clear visibility down to the 40 foot bottom. A frigid 34 degrees, the water is an amazing blue. My nephew Zack stands knee deep in it to cool his sunburn and his legs go numb after 15 seconds. On the drive back we pass the scene of the forest service rig crash and we can also see the flames of the fire on the far ridge. A man is directing traffic past the crash scene. The truck has not even been towed away yet and we speculate on the investigation. We discuss how long they will have to leave it and hope the driver is okay. We heard she was life flighted out. Back at camp, Donald helps his daughter Grace organize her backpack. She is joining us for the first two days and this is her first backpacking trip. Steve volunteers to drive the three of us to the trail head in the morning.

The smoke from the fire fills the air

We can see the flames through the trees