Big Lake to Bushcamp
23.5 miles
Mile 2018.5
In no rush to get on trail, I took my time, sleeping in until 6 before packing up. Outside my tent I found the lake blanked with a heavy fog, slowly dissipating as it reached the black sand beach. (I had some neat photos…but I lost them…more on that later.)
Spikes and I left the beach in search of coffee inside the PCT Center. We found a couple hikers hanging out inside, as well as a freshly brewed pot of joe. While enjoying my caffeinated beverage I took out my phone to knock out some chores when I realized all 4000+ of my photos were gone!
After multiple conversations with Apple support, I ended up resetting my phone and restoring from my most recent backup. This took FOREVER…but ultimately worked. I lost a handful of photos I’d taken that hadn’t had time to upload to iCloud, but I can live with that.
By the time we headed out we were well behind schedule thanks to my iPhone debacle, but since we had planned for a shorter day it wasn’t too big of a deal.
Leaving Big Lake Youth Camp, we crossed a highway before entering Mt Jefferson Wilderness.
We spent the next few hours climbing through a scorched forest. It’s too bad how much of Oregon has been burned. No doubt careless thru hikers had a hand in the damage.
From the top of our climb we had a panoramic view of the burned valley below.
Pushing on, the trail led us up and down until reaching Rockpile Lake where we topped off our water before banging out the last few miles to camp.
When we arrived at our campsite we had to throw up our tents and hop in to escape the aggressive mosquitos, which was a bummer. It’s much more enjoyable to unwind and eat dinner while lounging on a rock, rather than cramped inside a tent, but it’s better than getting eaten by skeeters.
Cheers!