[pct-l] Water crossings in Oregon

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

I recall one scary glacial melt stream coming off Mt. Jefferson.  
Should you slip, there was a steep gorge you could be washed into to  
your death. I went through Oregon in July, which was about a month  
before most of the thru-hikers go through. It was really cold. I mean  
REALLY cold. The deepest it went to was my crotch. I didn't feel I  
would slip to my death. (And I thanked god there was an opportunity  
to clean my crotch!) After I crossed I looked at the gorge I could  
have been washed into and shuddered, but while crossing I didn't feel  
I would be washed away. It was really cold though. That was the worst  
part.

There was another crossing north of Mt. Hood. I didn't see the sign  
saying I needed to cross a special hiker bridge. I had come through  
on the Ramona Falls alternate route and all the signs were pointing  
the other way. When I got to the crossing, it was another cold  
glacier melt stream but this time the bottom was soft with rolling  
rocks. I could not get a purchase for a safe crossing. There was no  
way across. I backtracked and saw the signs and found my way to the  
hiker bridge that was a bouncy skinny log perched way over the creek.  
Fun!

Basically, the creeks in Oregon and Washington either had bridges or  
were scary, cold glacier streams but none of them held any power to  
kill me in July or August, in my opinion.

Now, the creeks in the High Sierra in June were another matter! I did  
swim there. I did chicken out and come back later (2 years and a few  
months later.)

Diane (super creek weenie!)
On Jan 10, 2011, at 6:14 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> Subject: [pct-l]  Water crossings in Oregon
> To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
> Message-ID:
> 	<491C59E014AB2543B1B8BF4CE829E212767400 at amrbmail1.AMRB.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> I am looking for others' experience with water crossings on the PCT in
> Oregon.
> What kinds of difficulties or challenges, if any, are there?   To  
> me, at
> least, that probably means
> long or high log crossings, required swims/flotation, etc.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Doug Tow