Six Horse Springs – Must Hike Must Eat

I’m at the moment sharing journal entries from my part mountain climbing of the Pacific Crest Path in Oregon.  For this part, you can begin right here: Snuffy’s 2015 Pacific Crest Path Journal : Carry on The Bugs.

Snuffy’s 2015 Pacific Crest Path Journal : Six Horse Springs 

June 25, 2015

Leaving Summit Lake after every ingesting greater than a liter of water and carrying 2 liters every, we headed off at 5am with a aim of creating it to no less than Six Horse Spring at present. As we headed up a simple grade to a ridge trying again at Summit Lake, we handed a number of extra via hikers. Bipolar, an older bearded gentleman who had lived in Oregon however resides within the Midwest now, was chatty and has a weblog, Bipolar Hikes PCT. We additionally met Boa, a younger man from California who had simply seen Crater Lake for the primary time (he mentioned he hadn’t even seen an image earlier than!).

The lakelet north of Windigo Go was there, however drying up quick. It additionally had a number of fish floaters and I used to be lacking the water abundance of Washington increasingly. We cameled up once more and continued on all the way down to the move. The street of Windigo Go (FR 60) is a pink filth street right here; I’m guessing it doesn’t see lots of journey.

We discovered a small group of parents sitting round on logs on the junction; part hikers, thrus and a traveler making recent salsa from a meals processer hooked as much as his Forerunner.   His title was Chris and he was passing via on a street journey, unintentionally offering path magic.

The water cache was empty and he was sharing water with the hikers there, we had been okay having crammed up on the lakelet. We sat and chatted for a short time, and I slyly handed turkey jerky to his canine (after asking permission, in fact). It was at this a part of the journey that each Elizabeth and I noticed we had utterly over packed on the meals. For me, I’m guessing no less than 5 kilos price. I used to be doing something I may to eat what I had and I noticed the proper alternative to shed a number of ounces to Chris’ canine companion.

After giving Chris some attention-grabbing locations to hit whereas in Oregon and Washington, we continued our journey south. We hoped to make it to Six Horse Springs by meal time, load up on water after which make a number of extra miles earlier than dry tenting. Earlier than the spring, we did make a lunch cease and napped for two hours within the shade, it’s simply too sizzling! I’m noticing a rash on the again of my legs within the areas that aren’t lined by my knee braces. It’s pink and sore. I feel it’s as a result of my pants hold the filth out for essentially the most half however the finer particles get via and into my pores and skin, irritating it. Not useful.

Additionally, the additional weight of our meals grew to become psychological weight as effectively, each of us obsessing about how we may have accomplished this to ourselves (SWOYC). Our plan had been to be all the way down to sooner or later’s price of meals by the point we needed to carry sufficient water to make the 27 mile stretch into Crater Lake. Now it seemed like we now have quite a lot of additional days’ price. I do know for me, that is the place I began dreaming of a rubbish can at HWY 138.

Arriving at Six Horse by 6pm, there was already a tent up within the spot closest to the aspect path all the way down to the spring. I noticed that the homeowners of the tent had been into stuff sacks, the contents of their packs organized inside like massive rabbit pellets. I waited a short time for Elizabeth to meet up with me, and we headed all the way down to replenish. We handed the younger couple developing the path, trying as if they’d simply stepped out of a REI catalog. They had been pleasant and tell us that the bugs had been out in drive down on the water. The younger man additionally confirmed that the primary water you come to is stagnant and you must proceed additional down the trail of the spring for recent flowing water (per the water reviews). What a delight it was to have chilly water with out worrying about what might need steeped in it.

We drank one other liter of water and crammed our bottles, then slugged it again up the path to our packs. We walked simply down the PCT to a different campsite and sat for a bit consuming dinner. I’m having fun with my home made crackers, prosciutto, cheese and Kalamata olives on this journey, in addition to the raspberry chia jam. And naturally, mustard. In the present day, the muscle that runs alongside the within of my leg by my knee has been tight and I’ve been making an attempt all types of stretching to alleviate it. It’s new to my mountain climbing, and I can see I’ll have to do a little analysis after I get dwelling. It might be as a result of I’m carrying knee braces constantly this yr and inflicting my legs to work in a different way. I do a number of stretches earlier than packing up.

Deciding that we nonetheless wished to tack on a number of extra miles, we took off down the path whereas there was nonetheless some daylight left. I may inform Elizabeth solely had a number of extra steps left in her, and I knew there was some flat terrain up forward. Nonetheless, she ran out of steam earlier than we may get there and we ended up tenting on the down slope of the path at a slight angle up towards some bushes. If you end up drained, you’ll be able to’t be too choosy. That ended our day and we made plans to make it to HWY 138 the following day earlier than slogging it as much as the rim of Crater Lake. Discussing how the warmth is simply draining us in the course of the day, we set our plan to be mountain climbing by 4am to make the most of the cooler temps within the morning.

Desirous about extra of my Oregon PCT adventures?  You’ll be able to learn up on the yr 2014 right here: Snuffy’s 2014 Pacific Crest Path Journal-Oregon Day 1.

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