Saturday Jul. 1, 2023
- Start: Stealth Spot (PCT 1768.2)
- End: Fish Lake – Hwy 140 (PCT 1774.2)
- Distance: 6 PCT miles + 1.8-mile trail to Fish Lake
The bee activity at our campsite finally seemed to simmer down when the sun went down last night. But the bees were replaced this morning by a ridiculous number of mosquitoes. There were so many of them that Poledork and I decided to eat our breakfast in our respective tents rather than sit outside and get devoured.
Despite this annoyance, the two of us were in great moods. Today is a town day! And it’s the end of this first section of the PCT through Oregon. All that was left was to hike the remaining 6 miles north to Highway 140, and then an easy 1.8-mile detour down a side trail to the Fish Lake Resort, where Keith would be waiting for us.
Back in 2020, when we were living out of an RV full-time, Keith and I spent about a week camping at Fish Lake Resort. So I was already pretty familiar with the place. It’s a full-service campground, with lake access, a small store and restaurant, hot showers, and laundry machines.
But Fish Lake Resort is also very hiker-friendly and welcomes PCT hikers, too. They hold resupply packages for hikers (for a $5 fee), offer a free camping area just outside the resort, allow hikers to use their amenities, and have a hiker box.
More Lava
Poledork and I did our best to pack up one last time without getting devoured by all the mosquitoes. Then it was back to the PCT as it wound its way through more lava fields as we hiked north toward Highway 140. Ahead of us, we could see the steep slopes of Mt. McLoughlin, southern Oregon’s most prominent volcano.
GoodBye for now
Just before we reached Highway 140, we met the much-anticipated sign announcing our turn for Fish Lake. It was time to say a temporary goodbye to the PCT and detour to our rendezvous point, where Keith would be waiting.
He’d made reservations to tent camp at Fish Lake for two nights (last night and tonight), so I hoped he wouldn’t be too upset about us changing our plans. Poledork and I were willing to camp at Fish Lake if he didn’t want to forfeit his camping reservation and drive home today. But we weren’t going to hike any farther north until the snow in the Sky Lakes Wilderness had 2-3 more weeks to melt out.
There was just too much snow on the trail, according to the comments in FarOut. And neither of us had the foresight to pack our microspikes in our resupply packages. You normally don’t need traction devices in southern Oregon once you hit July. But 2023 was anything but a normal snow year.
I’d gone down to Josephine County (near the California border) at the end of May to climb Grayback Mountain, and I’d been shocked that I needed my microspikes there. This year was one of the snowiest in recent memory. We were at 140% to 180% snowpack by late March. And while this is great news for the drought-stricken parts of the state, it doesn’t help the trail conditions any.
And so, this was the end of the line for us for now. We’d head back home, then return to Mt. McLoughlin and the Sky Lakes Wilderness later in the month, once trail conditions improved.
A surprise reunion!
The flat miles leading west to Fish Lake Resort flew by quickly. Before we knew it, Poledork and I were walking up to Keith’s campsite, and moderately surprised not to find him there. He must have gone down to the lake to fish while he waited for us.
He must have considered the possibility that we might show up early, though, because he left a note and a pile of quarters for the two of us so we could head over to the coin-operated showers before he returned. What a thoughtful guy!
Once we were cleaned up and Keith returned, the three of us headed over to the camp store and restaurant for lunch. Time for some real food that didn’t involve a fuel canister and boiling water.
I noticed several other familiar faces on the deck as we waited for our burgers and fries, and I sipped a cold beer. The Euro-bros were there, and a few other hikers were too. But there was one gal with strawberry blonde hair and a sunburned face who looked remarkably familiar to me.
I kept glancing over at her while we waited for our food, trying to place her face. She bore a striking resemblance to a hiker named Prov, whom I’d met while I was thru-hiking the Arizona Trail last year. We first met while camping in the Canelo Hills (on day 2) and then again outside Saguaro National Park (on day 7), but we lost track of each other after that. Was it possible that Prov was here at Fish Lake on the same day as me?
How wild of a coincidence would that be? It couldn’t possibly be true. Prov said she lived near Chicago. And while she was an avid section hiker, surely she couldn’t be on the exact same section of the PCT as me AND taking a break at Fish Lake for lunch right now. That would be too much of a fluke to happen in real life.
But the more I watched her talk with her lunch companion, the more I couldn’t shake my certainty that it was Prov. Eventually, I had to excuse myself and walk over to her table to satisfy my curiosity. As soon as we made eye contact, I asked her if she’d ever hiked the Arizona Trail. She said yes, so I followed up by asking if her trail name was Prov. She looked up at me in shocked surprise and confirmed that it was! How did I know that?
I reintroduced myself, and she suddenly remembered meeting me, too! What a small hiking community this is. The fact that fate put us in this same place a second time is just beyond words. I should probably go out and buy a lottery ticket now!
