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  1. #1
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    Default Coolest campsites

    Pct has plenty of amazing spots .. what was the coolest place you took a load off for the night?

    I can't remember anything south of sierra city. My first awesome one was Robber Meadow, off the pct on an old trail around mile 1555. Idyllic meadow, good water, and total solitude - you could hide out here and not see anyone for weeks, probably. Plenty of dried cow patties for fires.

    Mile 1640, Buckhorn spring, just a pretty spot with a good water source. Cool old gnarled tree. This campsite is high up, and the next day's hike down and up out of the seiad valley wasn't too fun, but the undercast in the morning was splendid, as was the black bear.


    Mile 2044 was the best campsite I had in Oregon, a good flat spot with tree shelter, water, and scenery of the unexpectedly sketchy, snowy sierra-like ridge we just came down from.

    I like camping up high, so in WA mile 2464 was my favorite because it's uniquely situated on top of a sharp peak. The Grizzly Peak tent site 25 miles on looked awesome, though it was occupied when I passed.

    What did I miss?
    Last edited by Linesman; 01-25-2015 at 17:45.

  2. #2
    PCT 2013, most of AT 2011, rest of AT 2014
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    Default

    The place I was most happy to be camping up high was after the climb out of Belden. I knew the climbing was finally over (after something like 13 miles), the air was high and dry rather than humid like it was down below, and there was a ridge with a hundred little tent or cowboying spots -- I did the latter of course -- looking straight north at Lassen Peak and Mt. Shasta.

    The best consecutive-night run I had was the Crater Lake Rim (illegal, actually patrolled by rangers, we just got lucky not getting caught) followed the next night by this view in front of Mt. Thielsen. It's at the juncture with the Thielsen trail and there's room for one or two cowboys or tents.
    IMAG1736.jpg

    If I could do it again, I would try to camp at the bivy site that Halfmile has listed on the way up Mt. Whitney, not long before the juncture with the Whitney Portal trail. I remember seeing it on my way up in the morning and making a mental note for next time, whenever next time is.

    Here's another one, from somewhere between Muir Trail Ranch and Reds Meadow.
    IMAG1428.jpg
    "Hahk your own hahk." - Ron Haven

    "The world is a book, of which those who do not travel read only a page." - St. Augustine

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  3. #3
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    Default

    crater Lake
    Attached Images Attached Images

  4. #4
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    Had no idea until seeing the post above that this was an illegal site. we just picked it because it was one of the few places for miles that were snow free. to make amends for my transgression here is map showing where camping is legal near crater lake. Note most folks hike along the rim instead of taking the official PCT route shown in green on the map. on halfmiles map he refers to the rim route as the hiker route and the official route as the stock route IIRC.

    http://cdn.pcta.org/wp-content/uploa...ns_for_PCT.pdf

  5. #5
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    I know that there are rules but I have to admit that when out in the woods tenting, I do not like the "rules" dictating where I can lay my head for the night. Practice LNT always.

  6. #6
    PCT 2013, most of AT 2011, rest of AT 2014
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Del Q View Post
    I know that there are rules but I have to admit that when out in the woods tenting, I do not like the "rules" dictating where I can lay my head for the night. Practice LNT always.
    When we camped (four of us) on the Crater Lake Rim, it was as low-impact as you can possibly be. Part of that was out of genuine concern for LNT, part out of concern for being caught. No fire, no eating where we camped, no cat-holes (there were pit toilets at one of the parking lots half a mile up the trail), all four of us cowboy camping on the 5-foot-wide trail tread, in after dark, out by sunrise. My conscience is totally clear. Despite all that, in retrospect I know we would have absolutely been cited and fined if a ranger had found us because Crater Lake NP is serious about enforcing their rules. I personally know another hiker who was busted camping alone in the trees by the Rim two nights later by a ranger with a heat sensor out on patrol at 1 a.m.
    "Hahk your own hahk." - Ron Haven

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  7. #7
    Garlic
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    Default

    I think there are few PCT hikers who don't stealth camp at the Crater Lake rim.

    South of the Sierra, I remember a fine site high on Fuller Ridge with the sun setting red in the LA smog and the headlights on I-10 about 7000' below. Pretty impressive, actually. Next day sure was a bugger, though.

    It was hard to find a bad site in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, North Cascades NP and Pasayten Wilderness. Especially with Canada so near.
    "Throw a loaf of bread and a pound of tea in an old sack and jump over the back fence." John Muir on expedition planning

  8. #8

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    I didn't camp on Crater Lake Rim; nor did anyone else I was hiking around at the time. We camped at the campground back at Mazama Village since everyone was more interested in the AYCE buffet there. Left after the AYCE breakfast, had an early lunch at the Rim Village and camped the next night past the park boundary. To be honest I don't get how the timing would work to camp along the rim unless you were dragging your feet or not obsessed with AYCE food (how can you be a thru-hiker though and not be?).

    One of my favorite campspot was the night before Kennedy Meadows. Not for the local scenery but for the night sky. The Milkyway emerged out of of one peak, crossed the sky like a rainbow to another peak on the other side of the flat bowl like spot I was camped in about 12 miles before KM. It was cool how it had rotated to another set of peaks when I got up a midnight to make a bathroom run. Another nice spot was on the southern boundary with Rainer NP with a view of snow capped Mt. Rainer at sunset with a bank of clouds making a nice red color. Or camping just below Mt. Adams. Pretty much most of Washington was amazing as was large parts of Oregon and the Sierra Nevada.

    This one was at sunrise while camped on Mt. Williamson (San Grabriel Mtns just after Wrightwood) looking at the LA basin filled in by fog.
    SilverMocassinTrail2014-22.jpg

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