The Cascade Canal: a Twelve Mile Eight Mile Hike

July 9, 2015

The day after our blistering twelve mile hike (pun intended) we drove us back to REI for new boots.

PCT on the Eastern Slope of Mt. McLoughlin

(All apologies to my friends at EMS. I do love EMS, their dedication to mountain life and their quality products, however...it's a long drive from here to try out their stuff and especially to get boot fittings). S.D. needed something bigger, and I needed something more supportive. After two hours of trying shoes and boots we left with each of us getting a new pair of hiking boots and ready to hit the trail again.

To break in the boots the plan was to hike a short eight mile loop. We'd leave the tent site, head back west to the PCT, where we had left off the previous day, continuing hiking south, turn east when we reached the intersection with the Mt. McLaughlin trail. Once we reached that trailhead, rather than take the road back north to the tent, we'd follow the Cascade Canal for the three miles back to Fourmile Lake and the tent.

According to Wikipedia the Cascade Canal "The Cascade Canal begins at Fourmile Lake, located 5,748 feet (1,752 m) above sea level.[4] It travels southeast, around a ridge named Rye Spur (sometimes known as Aye Spur). We'd seen the outlet at Fourmile Lake and knew it was close to our tent. We'd also seen the canal alongside the road to the tent site and, near the Mt. McLoughlin trailhead. We hadn't, however looked too closely at the map, nor had we read the Wikipedia entry about it curving around a ridge named Rye Spur. A detour that would add significant mileage to our planned hike.

The Cascade Canal

Up until the Cascade Canal leg of the hike, the plan was going well. We'd met and talked with four different thru hikers, some section hikers and two guys "out for the weekend". Oregonians really do have a great outdoor culture and everyone seems to get outdoors in some way or another. It's not hard to see why, Oregon is beautiful. On this hike alone we'd had several stunning views of Mt. McLoughlin, hiked along a glacial moraine, walked beneath towering pine trees and through wildflower meadows. And we were looking forward to the three miles along a clear running canal. And then half an hour into that section the trail turned southeast when it should have been going north. 15 minutes later it turned east which was slightly better. 30 minutes later we were still going east and thats when we noticed a large lake to the south and below us. From the outline we identified it as Lake of the Woods. A lake and a woods we should have been no where near.

The View We Shouldn't Have Been Seeing

A minute later we'd booted up google maps on the phone and it found us. North of Lake of the Woods, and waaaay south of Four Mile Lake. Further away then we'd been at the Mt. McLoughlin trailhead. By now we'd been hiking for over four hours and it looked like one way or another we'd be hiking for a few more. The question, or should I say the discussion, was about to continue or turn back. We could do the sure thing, turn around and hike back to the Mt. McLoughlin trailhead and hike the three miles up the road. Or we could trust that we were indeed hiking beside the canal that went back to Four Mile Lake and that it would do so sooner than the sure thing option. I mean how many canals are there running through the Oregon wilderness? And since we had been hiking up along the canal, with the water running down, and the total elevation gain between the trailhead and the lake about 1200ft how long could the canal possibly run? Four miles, five miles?

Turns out it was seven. Yup. Seven miles. Our eight mile hike turned into a twelve mile hike and by the time we wandered back into the tent site, our 'dogs' were tired, but blisterless. Our new boots were broken in.