Day 50 : Maiden Peak Shelter

Start – Maiden Peak Shelter (1840 m)
Finish – Diamond Lake (1580 m)
Daily Distance – 13 km + hitch from Shelter Cove
Ascent – 170 m
Descent – 460 m

That was not how I imagined today would go.

Waking in the Maiden Peak Shelter and being able to turn on electric lights was a rare treat. The morning still began eating granola out of a ziplock bag, but at least not in the dark.

My plan for the day was to make an early start in order to reach Shelter Cove relatively early. The motivation was to: a) take opinion on the Emigrant fire raging south of here and whether to walk the official PCT route, take an alternative route, or to hitchhike around the section to bypass the fire. The decision was complicated by the wind direction frequently changing. For example, the mountain on the far side of the lake could be relatively clear one moment, but 20 minutes later would be totally obscured by smoke.

In the end, Deets had organised a ride with a trail angel who had a spare seat, which I made a snap decision to take. Walking through smoke is miserable, so spending a day or two in even thicker smoke didn’t appeal and moreover doesn’t seem healthy. The downside of the decision was that it limited my time in Shelter Cove to approximately 3 hours. Dreams of a leisurely shower disappeared in the rush to publish blogs, charge electronics, collect and repackage all of my food, and actually eat a decent meal (or marshmallows, dr pepper and a bag of crisps). Everything was more or less frantically squared away by the time our ride arrived. Joining me in the truck were Deetz, Two Phones and a new acquaintance, Deschautes (21, New York state), so named after dropping his phone in the river of the same name.

Due to the limited road access to rejoin the trail, this skip ended up shortening the trail by 75km, positioning us just north of the Crater Lake national park, and near to the Diamond Lake resort, where we decided to spend the late afternoon and overnight. This also allowed for hiking north east and rejoining the PCT a little higher up than our road skip had left us.

Tomorrow I will rejoin the PCT, with the following day seeing Deschautes and I attempt to summit the interesting looking, and trail adjacent, Mt Thielsen.

Unknown to me, today is labor day in the US, bringing problems and opportunity in equal measure. The Diamond Lake resort is in full holiday mood today with a bluegrass band playing, people drinking and dancing in the sun, and kids swimming in the lake. A far better place to spend an afternoon than the smoke clouded Shelter Cove. The issue? Because of the holiday weekend, all camping spots were full. Fortunately, one of the resort workers, Elaine, allowed us to camp outside of her RV as she enjoys the company and chatting with the diverse hiker trash who roll through. A fortuitous end to an enjoyable, but uncharacteristically chaotic day.