I started packing away my stuff from inside my tent. I can look out of my tent at the sun beginning to shine on the hillside across from the lake. The mornings are getting cooler, and the sun is coming up just a little bit later.
We started our morning hike by immediately climbing a blow down, going under some small fields of Trail snow, and walk a ridgeline with Mount Jefferson, directly in front of us.
The trail is lined with these purple flowers. They’re called American Asters
One interesting thing I often see on trail is game footprints. They will sometimes follow the trail for miles. It seems that the deer, especially like to travel on the cleared path.
I love this picture of Mount Jefferson with the wispy clouds mid mountain
As we continue forward, we get another great view of Mount Jefferson. We are getting closer.
The trail leads into a beautiful mix of wildflowers along the side of the trail. They are vivid colors which contrast each other well
The trail crosses through this large boulder field. I’m sure it originated from the sharp peak above years ago.
Below me are a couple of gorgeous lakes sitting in the valley.
I stopped at Shale Lake for a second breakfast and water refill. Super peaceful. There are lots of yellow faced bumblebees gathering pollen from the flowers around me.
Across the valley sits an impressive, looking cliff face.
Unlike Washington, and Three Finger Jack, where we climbed hi and crossed mid slope past the peak, for Mount Jefferson, we dropped deep down into valleys and passed its western face low.
I stopped at Milk creek for a water refill. In front of me, I have an 8.3 mile uphill trek.
Washington Lily is this plant on the side of the Trail it’s absolutely beautiful. It seems to come in both pink and white.
The trail has entered another major burn scar. So far blowdowns have not been an issue in this section.
A beautiful pond amidst the burn with Mount Jefferson, standing tall behind it, covered in clouds.
I’ve come to a little stream lined with many flowers, one is a new species to me, the Common Cowparsnip
I arrived at this large glacier fed Creek. I had to hike up stream a little bit to find a way across, but was able to find some rocks to skip over. You can see the greyness of the water. It is caused from the glacier feeding the creek. As the glacier slides on the rock it grinds small particles that are deposited in the water.
White water creek is a nice green area within the Burns zone. I filled up my water and ate my lunch here.
This is also a branch of Whitewater creek. A nice foot bridge is provided across the creek.
As I turn around, and once again, see Mount Jefferson now behind me. It’s incredible. Think that just this morning I was on the completely opposite side.
Hiking up through this valley, I can look across and see water cascading down the side.
Looking back at Mount Jefferson, standing over the meadow I just crossed through.
I reached the saddle and I’m about to drop onto the Mount Hood side of the mountain. Looking One Direction I see Mount Jefferson looking the other way. I see Mount Hood, which we will go around next.
I reached our campsite located a quarter-mile off Trail at Breitenbush lake. The campground was burned over and last year’s fire, and has not yet been repaired, but we found a picnic table and a place to put our tents.
As the sun went down the mountain side on the other side of the lake was cast in a golden light.
Today’s PCT miles hiked 25.0
Total PCT Miles hiked to date 1500.1
PCT mile marker 2040.4
(Flipped over 542.8 miles)
