Pacific Crest Trail - Day 143 - Fish Lake

Start: Mile 1769.6
End: Mile 1783.4

These red lava rock carpet trails are wild.

This went on for 8+ miles! So, so much work. The center colored lava rock is apparently larger pieces sledgehammered and broken into smaller pieces of the colored unweathered rock.

crunch crunch crunch

Besides lava rock, the trail was also made of sticks….

… and traversed a fallen tree.

The transition point from lava rock carpet back to forest soil.

Dead Indian Memorial Highway? I don’t think that‘s coming across as intended, Oregon.

These lake resorts are interesting. The people we meet at these places all seem to have been coming to the same place for decades. I‘m pretty sure they all started as housing and infrastructure for the associated dams and water projects that created the “lakes” (reservoirs) and are now maintained by contract.

I’d be curious what those contracts look like, as these places were almost cert constructed with public money and are now operated at a profit.

We stopped into Fish Lake to supplement our food having lost a day to the heatwave, but didn’t find much of a selection and pressed on after grabbing a few Pop Tarts and some candy .

Blue raspberry flavor. All natural.

The carpet of the forest was Grouse Whortleberry. Definitely one of the best named plants found to date. If you don’t already have it, the Seek app by iNaturalist is awesome for identifying plants, fungi, insect, etc.

Dr. Suessesque

We pitched the tent in a tight campsite near a big field of thin leaved huckleberries and spent an hour or so eating and collecting them. These things are delicious. Oregon is awesome.