Re [pct-l] Oregon questions

[jgus at sunbow.org (Gustafson)]

I received an email today from two hiker friends who left Ashland last 
Thursday, that they wanted me to relay to Hellkat, who is leaving  
Ashland tomorrow, trying to catch up with them.  Thought it might be of 
interest to anyone planning to hike out of Ashland north in the next 
two or three weeks (I have shortened it considerably, so it's terser 
than the original):

> On Jun 5, 2005, at 8:15 AM, Preacher Jim  wrote: Let HellKat know-we 
> got to skylakes trail, about 20 miles past Lake of the Woods resort - 
> patches of snow to that point, about half snow half trail. Up sky 
> lakes trail, we were going to join pct again in 6 miles at snow lakes 
> trail. At 6000 ft and a mile or two from the junction at 6600 ft, it 
> became all snow, 3 ft deep avg. Hiked on to junction and beyond, 
> following foot prints, over 6800ft -- no sign of trail, the foot 
> prints disappeared. We saw we would only go higher for 20+ more miles 
> and lots of snow, so we backtracked, took Cherry Creek trail out and 
> hitched to Crater Lake - pct there is covered too - we got a ride back 
> down to below snow level (snow can be found anywhere above 5000ft) and 
> found a nice campground [I believe he is referring to Mazama Village 
> CG] where we stayed last night and tonight. we expect to leave 
> tomorrow (Monday), but we're getting a weather report later that will 
> determine. If we do head out, we will road walk Crater Lake rim 
> through its north enterance (which will open Tuesday) to get to 
> Diamond Lake, either Mon. nite or Tues. Our packages come there Tues. 
> - we'll be there awhile and find out how snow is further up. If snow 
> is ok than we hike pct, but elevation goes above 7000 past there, so 
> we may hitch around it 20- 30 miles - if we find trail keep going from 
> there - the problem really has been finding trail, and it is cold.   
> Oh, and as for water... it is everywhere. I mean everywhere, lots of 
> it. I guess what the locals are saying is that they have a normal rain 
> and snow fall this year, but it is two months late.

I plan to hike Ashland-Cascade Lakes, leaving on July 14 - a few days 
later than you, Mike, and boy I hope the snow is pretty darn gone!

Two Legs