Pacific Crest Trail - Day 157 - Mt. Jefferson

Start: Mile 2016.9
End: Mile 2039.6 - Backcountry Campsite

We camped next to an absolutely perfect rock skipping lake, which was also surrounded by wild blueberries.

🧐

I think I may have been on trail for too long.

The trail in Oregon changes by the minute. It’s almost always immaculately maintained and spectacular.

It‘s fire season and Kristin and I have had a lot of discussions about wildfires, burn scars, how devastating it is to see first hand and how futile it feels watching and walking through thousands upon thousands of acres of incredibly productive and beautiful ecosystems reduced to scorched charcoal. Forest acreage is sacrificed well before structures. Obviously trees don’t pay property taxes, and from that standpoint, spending all of our resources on fire suppression probably makes sense, but after walking through a couple thousand miles of wilderness, you realize it’s not just the trees that are burning, but a disruption of a beautiful balance of countless creatures, plants, fungi, birds, and microorganisms existing in an uninterrupted harmony for hundreds of years.

John Muir described the interactions in nature by noting that no species seems to get in the way of another. In other words, every organism thrives in a niche, likely with multiple positively symbiotic relationships among organisms from other disparate phylogenetic species, orders, and kingdoms.

I’m certainly not the first to note that humanity is interrupting the balance of nature at a rapidity and scale that will inevitably lead to a collapse of some sort, but walking through these forests and observing the ratio of scorched vs. healthy ecosystems makes it immediately apparent that whatever it is that we’re doing politically, socially, economically, and along any vector or measurement of “progress” or “productivity“ is killing our planet in front of our faces (or maybe not, since our eyes are all glued to wall mounted high-definition furniture).

What can one person do about it? Well, going outside and appreciating the nature around us is probably step one. Being a voice for the trees and creatures disregarded in favor of saving (and building!) second, third, fourth mountain homes is probably a decent step two. Being relentlessly agentic tackling multi-disciplinary problems at a scale that’s difficult to fathom is probably step three (through infinity) for me. I‘ve already attempted to leverage technological expertise to address ecological and environmental challenges at scale before realizing that those same challenges are political, social, economical, and behavioral. People are always the hardest part. I’ve changed my priorities and behavior massively over the past year and a half which gives me reason to be optimistic. Or as Camus said: “One has to imagine Sisyphus happy.”

Of all the photos I’ve posted, this is the one that falls shortest of meeting the grandiosity of the view.

This dragonfly stopped to check in while also enjoying the view. I wonder what Mt. Jefferson looks like through dragonfly eyes.

If you looked up alpine lake in a dictionary.

Not sure this one is worth celebrating.

We climbed a couple thousand feet through the exposure of a burn scar. Not the easiest mikes.

It is incredible to see how much material snow and glacier runoff moves from these mountains. Kristin is navigating our sketchiest water crossing since the Sierra. We acquired and have since lost our fearless sketchy tree crossing balance.

Glaciers!

Incredible to witness, but also difficult acknowledging that their existence is fleeting.

A creek of chocolate milk. I‘m pretty sure I heard the cries of Augustus Gloop scatter into the distance as we hiked away.

This is my official stance. Two words. No ambiguity.

We have started exactly zero fires on our trek through the PCT, including using a stove, which we aren’t carrying.

There is no individual punishment severe enough to recover the damage of a single small wildfire. America has a challenging relationship with preventative measures, even (especially) as they relate to personal health. Blah blah blah social contract, freedom, blah blah blah. All I know is that it’s as difficult to enjoy a weekend camping in a scorched wasteland whether you’re driving a Dodge Ram 3500 with sick-as-fuck-bro Punisher stickers or a Subaru Crosstrek with a Sanders 2016 bumper sticker.

We crested a climb out of Mt. Jefferson Park into a burn zone that we’ll traverse 10+ miles to Ollalie Lake and beyond tomorrow.