August 21, 2008 Pacific Crest Trail

Destination: South Matthieu Lake, Three Sisters Wilderness
Miles: 27

Adrian: I slept like crap last night and that does not help the effort required today to do the miles we have to in order to get close enough to McKenzie Pass to be there at 9 a.m. for a ride from Lloyd Gust, a trail angel from the Bend, Oregon area. We made it happen, even after a late start. Our performance today gives me confidence we can do some big miles in the next few days. We shall see.

Kirsten: Just so everyone knows I choose to ignore the run-on sentence above. I'm not going to cramp his style.

We got a ridiculously late start this morning. We woke up late and slowly packed up our things. Once we reached the junction there was another delay. Rooster's mentor She-Ra, who thru-hiked the PCT in 2006, set up a shelter and loads of trail magic. Beer, wine, whiskey, candy, snacks, fresh fruit and orange juice filled bags and coolers. I had some hot tea and strawberries, oh and a cinnamon roll. Awesome! She-Ra, you seriously rock. She had to lug all of that stuff a mile or more uphill in the rain. She set up yesterday and camped there overnight. We learned that Yeti, Wrangler and B & G hung out at the makeshift shelter for a while before heading off into the rain.

We left She-Ra around 9 a.m. and hiked through cold rain for a couple of hours. As we finished crossing a windy open area our friends were heading towards us. Last night they made it to a shelter and discovered it loaded with technical gear. A team of U.S Geologists was using it as a base camp. The girls, Yeti and Wrangler were able to stay overnight. The following morning, meaning today, they decided to tag along and help the geologists. The geologist promised the sun would appear today, and he was right.


The sun started to burn off some of the clouds and we were able to eat lunch in a semi-dry space. The scenery the rest of the day filled with volcanic cones and the summits of all three Sisters.

The trail at the end of the day wove through piles of volcanic rubble and pieces of obsidian rock. We crested a hill and there in a neat row were the peaks of Mount Washing, Jefferson and Three-Fingered Jack.

The clouds are beginning to part and as the sky clears the temperature will likely drop to 35 degrees. I'm looking forward to this after weeks of warm nights.