Day 110, 24.8 miles

I woke up this morning to a wet tent but stayed dry in my nice sleeping bag. When coming back to my tent from taking care of the morning deposit, I realized what a view of Jefferson I had!! I didn’t even know it was right there because there were so many dark clouds shrouding it last night. But the morning was cool and clear!

Wow!!

As Manza and I broke down camp, we saw Happy walking by. He had camped just a couple miles before. We decided to hike out together! We went through some burn areas and I soon came across this sign:

Hmm...

Russel Creek

Found it! Dead horse in the river :(

Luckily, there were other non-contaminated courses around, and we continued on towards Scout Lake and the Mt. Hood Wilderness. My dad had told me about Scout Lake and it sounded like something I absolutely HAD to go see! The lake is right off of the PCT, but it’s not listed as a point of interest on Guthooks, so many people go right by it. It’s the best view of Jefferson ever!!

Happy took this photo on his phone

Happy took this photo on my phone

Recreators with an inflatable paddle board and their pups!

It was such a great place to stop and swim! The water was COLD!!! My dad had told me to look for a nice natural cold spring nearby the lake, but we couldn’t find it. Sorry Dad! While we were there we met a ranger who told us about the horse in Russel Creek. Apparently it was a search and rescue horse that slipped and broke its leg and got stuck! :(

When the ranger was checking out permits, he noticed my last name and told me of another person with my last name!! His name is Duane Teehee and he’s a double-triple-crowner! His trail name is “Beacon” and I’m wondering if he’s related to my family somehow!

Related? Picture of a picture on the rangers phone.

After all that fun, we fiiiiinally (and very reluctantly) left the lake. I think we spent over 2 hours there!! We quickly started steeply uphill and headed towards the Mt. Hood Wilderness.

Leaving the lakes and Jefferson behind

Manza

Top of the ridge looking back at Jeffy

Mt. Hood!!!

At this high point on the ridge, we entered Mt. Hood Wilderness, something that I’ve been looking forward too for a long time! It was a little hazy but we could see Hood way in the distance! We headed down some steep and rocky terrain, and at one point I ran up a nice snowy patch just to glissade back down.

As we kept on, we passed Upper Lake, a lake that Claire and I and our good friends Iraq, Josh, and Allie all took a little backpacking trip a couple years ago! I didn’t stop there for the night since there was still a few hours of light, but it was neat to walk by there again! 

Upper Lake

We got down to Olallie Lake and right away went into the tiny store there to grab some beers. We went over to the dock to enjoy the cold brews and to take in the beautiful Mount Jefferson one last time! There, we met a hiker named Biscuit who had thru-hiked the trail in 2014!!

So pretty!!

Happy and Manza and I were still together as a group, and I let them in on a plan I had been working on for the next day. I won’t spoil it now but just know that tomorrow is going to be an EPIC day! We went less than a mile out of Olallie and found some cool spots to cowboy camp and hit the hay. Buckle your seatbelts for tomorrow!!

Thanks for reading!!