Well I’m back out in the wilderness, Mt. Jefferson to be exact. We left PCT days this morning and Faceplant and I did the long drive down to Sisters and beyond. I dropped some water at McKenzie Pass and Santiam. I dropped a food box at Big Lake. I don’t know where the day went even though we left early. I started hiking from the burned out Woodpecker trail at 4:00pm. I finished up dinner at the spring by 7pm and arrived here at Shale Lake by 8pm.

The mosquitoes were all over me within two minutes! I expected there to be less water up here. Shale Lake is full and there’s still some water in Mud Hole Lake. The air also feels fairly moist.  I

just heard a rather frantic winged commotion in the trees behind me.  Whatever it was, it was big, and loud, and in a hurry.  I was going to say what a difference from the beginning of the hike up the burned out ridge in almost 80 degree temps. Thought I was gonna die. Luckily, once I made it to the ridge top and the trail dips over to the south side, all the trees were still alive.

The fire only crept along the ground on that side and there wasn’t enough fuel to get the trees going. The route north on the PCT looked pretty bad though. South of Woodpecker it was off and on burned, but nothing after Milk Creek.