Eugene weekly., May 10, 2012, Page 21, Image 21

EW’s Outdoors Issue 2012
A
Two miles in, the darkness came
and we strapped on headlamps
and continued...
Relaxing and
cooking crawdads
at Lower Rosary
Hot Days and
Cold Water
A long walk goes a long way
to Lower Rosary Lake
Words and Photos by Dante Zuñiga-West
dventures demand persistence,
and the best ones are worth
the sweat, mosquito bites and
boot-blisters that come along
with them. These are thoughts one tries to
keep in mind step-for-step when the weight
of a 50-pound pack and half a 60-pound
canoe hinders a three-mile hike through
thick Oregon wilderness as darkness
begins to set in.
On Highway 58, just .3 miles past
Willamette Pass, lies an entry point to the
Pacifi c Crest Trail. It’s a little hard to fi nd,
and one is best advised not to park at the
ODOT maintenance shed that fl anks the
trailhead, because you’ll be ticketed. If
you attempt to traverse this portion of the
PCT in early spring, you may do battle
with snow, but during the summer all you
need is bug spray and determination — and
a canoe, that is, if you want to camp out,
catch your meals and hide from the world
while fl oating on the crystal blue waters of
Lower Rosary Lake.
As we hiked our way up the twisty trail,
surrounded by Douglas fi rs and clouds of
bloodsucking insects, my partner reminded
me that this was a bad idea. She was right,
but that wouldn’t stop us because we are
both stubborn and in love with the outdoors
as well as each other.
There is no easy way to haul a canoe
three miles up a dirt trail after a full day
of work, unless you purchase a canoe cart,
which allows for two wheels and a buggy
to help shoulder the burden. This is a
luxury we were not afforded given that I
am cheap, and our trip was a last-minute
sort of thing, hastily planned in the interest
of escape.
The hike up, which should normally
take an hour or less, took about three,
compounded by a constant (slightly
painful) readjusting of our load. This was
less than pleasant to endure, as my partner
expressed to me, but these breaks in the
trek allowed for glimpses of a setting sun
and the quiet blue majesty of Odell Lake.
Two miles in, the darkness came and
we strapped on headlamps and continued
as the trail snaked northward toward the
three gorgeous bodies of water strung
across the mountains like the beads of a
rosary — hence, the namesake. When we
fi nally reached the edge of Lower Rosary
Lake, we pitched camp and fell asleep to
the sound of wind on the water. We awoke
to the splashing of fi sh snatching bugs for
breakfast, and a view that belongs on a
postcard you might send to someone who
hasn’t seen Oregon — maybe this wasn’t
such a bad idea after all.
Whether relaxing by the shore, jogging
along the trail or trout fi shing on the water,
you simply can’t deny the beauty and
peace of Lower Rosary in the summer. The
weather is nice and hot, and the water is icy
cold. We paddled across and made camp on
the north shore, then grabbed the rods and
started casting line. What we caught was
serious sunburn and some hard-fi ghting
rainbow trout.
“There are some nice fi sh in Lower
Rosary,” says ODFW fi sh biologist Jeff
Ziller. “And the crayfi sh are fair game,
too.”
Ziller says that, unlike Upper Rosary
Lake and Middle Rosary Lake, both of
which are stocked with rainbow trout,
Lower Rosary has seen success with the
natural breeding of native trout. You can
keep fi ve trout per day, permitted that you
have a fi shing license and some skill.
As for the crayfi sh, you have to be
sneaky, and it helps to have a long stick.
Some of those little suckers are pretty
aggressive — and they certainly don’t
enjoy being lunch — so expect to get
pinched at least once. Also, don’t do this
sort of thing without swimwear, because
after roasting in the sun, a dip in Lower
Rosary’s waters is a little slice of heaven
(no religious parody intended).
After two days of campfi re-cooked
trout, boiled crawdads, soreness, sunburn
and a mosquito kill-count of more than
240, the hardest part of our Rosary Lakes
adventure wasn’t getting there or living off
the local wildlife — it was leaving. A hard
day in the outdoors beats a tough one back
in the civilized world on any occasion,
even if it takes a while to hoof it.
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EUGENE WEEKLY MAY 10, 2012
21