Outdoor Adventures with Ancient Brit
PCT 2002 - August 24th
Day 123: Saturday 24th August
above Breitenbush Lake – Trooper Springs
The weather had cleared overnight and there was heavy dew in the morning. It was
only a couple of hours down to Ollalie Lake Resort in the morning where I had my next
supply bag. The resort was just a small store, with a campground and a few cabins
clustered around the end of Ollalie Lake and boats and canoes for hire. The main
feature was the magnificent view across the lake to Mount Jefferson. While drying my
tent and waterproofs at the picnic site, I met Sandy Lee. She had hiked the PCT last
year but missed this section, as the trail had been closed by fire. She was a devout
Christian and had every Sabbath Day (Saturday) off, so she was spending the day by
Ollalie Lake. She had most of her possessions out to dry after yesterday’s rain and
seemed surprised that I had kept most of mine dry. The European hikers on the trail
were more accustomed to bad weather and tended to carry better quality, but heavier,
waterproofs and tents than the Americans. “Cantaloupe” joined us at the picnic site and
also spread everything out to dry. He was an AT veteran, who got his name from the
melons he managed to eat at one stop, early on his AT hike.
I then went on to the smaller Head Lake, a few hundred yards from the resort
where there was a pontoon moored off the rocks. I imagine this had been put there to
allow easy launching of canoes on the lake, but it made an ideal platform for diving into
the lake.
The clouds were building up again by the time I stopped at Jude Lake for lunch; a
big tin of stew I had put into my supply bag. It looked as if there would be more storms
but they didn’t materialise during the afternoon. The walking today was easy, but
relatively uninteresting through viewless forest.
I camped at Trooper Springs, which was a small, very cold, but deep pool fed by
water from an underground stream. Already at the spring were Ken and Cindy. I had
first met them at Kennedy meadows, but when they got to Red’s Meadow, near
Mammoth Lakes, they had had to leave the trail because their home in Colorado was
threatened by a forest fire, which had been started by an, out of work, lady fire fighter.
By the time they were able to restart it was mid July and too late to continue
northwards because they were likely to be hitting the Northern Cascades of Washington
after the first heavy snows of autumn. They decided to go to the Canadian border and
hike south, hoping to get to Red’s Meadow before snow arrived in the Northern Sierras.
“Cantaloupe” popped down to the springs for water, but then continued on his way.
There was some light rain as it was getting dark, which drove us into our tents for an
early night.
Day 123: 19.0 miles 6.56 hours Camp: Trooper Springs
above Breitenbush Lake – Trooper Springs
The weather had cleared overnight and there was heavy dew in the morning. It was
only a couple of hours down to Ollalie Lake Resort in the morning where I had my next
supply bag. The resort was just a small store, with a campground and a few cabins
clustered around the end of Ollalie Lake and boats and canoes for hire. The main
feature was the magnificent view across the lake to Mount Jefferson. While drying my
tent and waterproofs at the picnic site, I met Sandy Lee. She had hiked the PCT last
year but missed this section, as the trail had been closed by fire. She was a devout
Christian and had every Sabbath Day (Saturday) off, so she was spending the day by
Ollalie Lake. She had most of her possessions out to dry after yesterday’s rain and
seemed surprised that I had kept most of mine dry. The European hikers on the trail
were more accustomed to bad weather and tended to carry better quality, but heavier,
waterproofs and tents than the Americans. “Cantaloupe” joined us at the picnic site and
also spread everything out to dry. He was an AT veteran, who got his name from the
melons he managed to eat at one stop, early on his AT hike.
I then went on to the smaller Head Lake, a few hundred yards from the resort
where there was a pontoon moored off the rocks. I imagine this had been put there to
allow easy launching of canoes on the lake, but it made an ideal platform for diving into
the lake.
The clouds were building up again by the time I stopped at Jude Lake for lunch; a
big tin of stew I had put into my supply bag. It looked as if there would be more storms
but they didn’t materialise during the afternoon. The walking today was easy, but
relatively uninteresting through viewless forest.
I camped at Trooper Springs, which was a small, very cold, but deep pool fed by
water from an underground stream. Already at the spring were Ken and Cindy. I had
first met them at Kennedy meadows, but when they got to Red’s Meadow, near
Mammoth Lakes, they had had to leave the trail because their home in Colorado was
threatened by a forest fire, which had been started by an, out of work, lady fire fighter.
By the time they were able to restart it was mid July and too late to continue
northwards because they were likely to be hitting the Northern Cascades of Washington
after the first heavy snows of autumn. They decided to go to the Canadian border and
hike south, hoping to get to Red’s Meadow before snow arrived in the Northern Sierras.
“Cantaloupe” popped down to the springs for water, but then continued on his way.
There was some light rain as it was getting dark, which drove us into our tents for an
early night.
Day 123: 19.0 miles 6.56 hours Camp: Trooper Springs
Mount Jefferson
Cantaloupe
Double Peaks
from Upper Lake
from Upper Lake
Mount Jefferson
from Ollalie Lake
from Ollalie Lake
Sandy Lee
Ancient Brit at Head Lake
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