We ended up doing a 4-day trip with our bailout option of hart’s pass.
Day 1: east bank Ross lake trail, it was in perfect condition with lots of ripe thimble berries.
Next day: lightning creek trail to Three Fools Creek trail to Castle Pass Trail. Three Fools had a few downed trees, all relatively easy to navigate. Lost the trail at little fish camp due to reality/map mismatch. To continue up the Castle Pass trail do not go into the camp at the major blowdown, instead take the left fork. No water available between little fish camp and halfway through the descent into big face basin. We lost the trail a few times on the ridge but were able to pick it up again easily. The trail down to big face camp was painfully overgrown with downed trees to climb over once you got back into the forest. We were literally bushwhacking through shoulder high thistle, devils club, etc. We both fell several times due to not being able to see the trail in the brush. Thankfully someone had been through within a few days of us, trampling brush and sporadically flagging the trail, otherwise we may not have made it to camp before dark. It was constant trail/route finding for several miles. Lots of bear scat on the trail and we saw a black bear in the morning across the valley who had zero interest in us!
Day 3: The climb out of big face basin was fine, overgrown but not as bad as the way in. Never lost the trail. Once we got on the ridge, there were lots of trees to climb over. We were pretty tired from the day before and the constant up and down of the ridge got old fast. But the views… A+. Finally reached the PCT, happy dance time! Saw lots of NOBO thruhikers finishing up and several SOBO thruhikers just starting. Camped at Woody Pass.
Day 4: PCT to Holman Pass. We had planned to trek back west to meet up with the Devil’s Dome/Jackita Ridge trails but only got about half a mile along the Devil’s Ridge trail before being thwarted. We had navigated at least 20 trees already and after crossing the creek found ourselves in a swamp with ~30 trees down. We could not find the trail and after about 30 minutes of looking decided to head back to the PCT for our bailout option of Harts Pass. What a beautiful section! Easily found a ride into Mazama and after a well-deserved ice cream, we traded our green trails map for a ride back to our car to a group of awesome women. PCT crew clearing trees at Holman Pass (heading north) and saw a PNTA crew heading in just as we finished.
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