Day 137 Lava and Big Lake Youth Camp

14.5 miles
From Lava Lake Camp (mile 1984.1, elev 5300)
To Big Lake Youth Camp (mile 1996.6, elevation 4729)
Climbing 1972
Descend 2548

I returned the quarter mile from Lava Lake Camp to the PCT. From Mathieu Lakes to the Lava Lake intersection the day before, the PCT had been mostly smooth dirt. The 1.5 mile section of the PCT from the intersection to McKenzie Pass was anything but easy. He followed the lava flows all the way. The trail itself went up and over ridges of lava rock. The trail bed consisted of fist-sized rocks most of the way. So while it wasn’t very far, it was pretty slow. If someone was injured or exhausted and just needed to hike to the McKenzie Pass road, I would recommend detouring through Lava Lake Camp and then taking the dirt entrance road, which seemed much gentler than this trail.

But while the road was slow, it was also beautiful in an austere sense. The combination of all the gray lava rock, the sporadically growing trees, and the morning fog was one of the most unexpectedly beautiful things I had seen on the trail.

Trees growing in lava flows south of McKenzie Pass

Trees and lava flows south of McKenzie Pass

Vegetation in the lava flows south of McKenzie Pass with the Sisters in the background.

After McKenzie Pass, the road became smoother for a moment. It then crossed lava rocks again until it was almost past Mount Washington, about 11 miles on my day.

A close up example of some lava rocks.

Fog and lava rock that I had just walked through. Looking at the maps, I think the mountain in the background is Black Crater.

Looking back/south on the trail as it meanders through the lava rock. The Sisters are in the background.

Adversitree: the only thing visibly growing in the middle of all this lava rock.

Trail through lava rocks with Mount Washington in the background

Burned area between Belknap Crater and Mount Washington

I wasn’t expecting to see many people along this section of the trail, but I did have a couple encounters and conversations with some southbound hikers.

The first was with two young women who noticed my “Santa Clara Parks Volunteer” hat. One of them had grown up in Salinas and Santa Cruz and also attended San Jose State University. They had a couple of questions about McKenzie Pass that I tried to answer. As I was talking, I noticed the other woman was wearing a bright pink “Kings Dominion” hat, which is not too far from where I grew up. His grandmother sent it to him for safety so he could see her if he got hurt or lost.

The second was Christina (trail name: Dora, from Dora the Explorer). I asked him how much longer the lava rock continued. He said it didn’t last much longer. But he also said he considered it a “foot massage with every step.” That’s one way to put a positive spin on a difficult section of trail. We had fun talking, as we both seemed to approach adventures in a similar way: wanting to explore as we went rather than simply focusing on getting to our final destination.

I detoured off the PCT to visit Big Lake Youth Camp, where they sent me a resupply box. It rained steadily for the last few kilometers as I walked there. I put on all my rain gear and didn’t get too wet. Fortunately it wasn’t very cold.

youth camp

The summer season was over for camp, so there were no youth camp activities. But it was a nice place. They had several cabins for their campers and plenty of activities for them, including a couple of ski boats they used to take youngsters on boogie boards.

PCT building

For PCT hikers, they had an entire building for our use. Their main room in the A-frame building had chairs, a large table, a hiker box, and a full kitchen. Behind that room was another area with shelves for storing resupply boxes, a washer and dryer (plus borrowed clothes to wear while doing laundry), and two bathrooms with showers. While we were not allowed to stay overnight at the youth camp, we were able to use the facilities from 9am to 9pm. During the summer camping season, hikers can also eat in their dining hall. There was no charge for hikers to use any of this.

When I arrived there were about a half-dozen hikers, including Ellie, who had been at the campsite next to me at Lava Lake the night before. Most of the hikers left that afternoon. I worked on drying my gear after the rainy hike, hanging my tent from the rafters as did two other hikers.

Sleeping arrangements

There I met Firefly, who I discovered was going to start working in Silicon Valley after finishing the PCT. I planned to spend the night and wait for a couple of friends who had gone to the town of Sisters. One of the hikers who left had said that no one asked them to leave the PCT building the night before, so he slept on the floor. Although it stopped raining, given how wet everything was outside, we expected the same thing to happen that night.

But at 9 pm, the facilities manager showed up, so we packed up most of our things (the rest would be safe until we could return in the morning) and walked the quarter mile to a beach next to a cove on the lake. When we got there, Firefly realized that he had left his trekking poles in the now closed building. That reminded me that I had done the same thing. Since both of our tents were trekking pole tents, we cowboys camped on the beach. I was glad when I could see some stars in the sky, but we still ended up wet with fog in the morning.

This website contains affiliate links, which means The Trek may receive a percentage of any products or services you purchase using links in articles or advertisements. The buyer pays the same price they would otherwise pay, and their purchase helps support The Trek’s ongoing goal of bringing you quality backpacking information and advice. Thank you for your support!

For more information, visit the About page of this site.