Day 87.5: mile 1818.4 - 1820.5 (plus 11.3 alternate miles)
- Crater Lake
- Choppers and Bombers
It was a little over four miles to the Rim Village, where we would get our first view of the lake, top off our water bottles, and make our way through the mass of weekend tourists before starting the walk along Crater Lake's western rim. As I climbed those four miles, the smoke got thicker and the choppers got louder. Near the top a little bit of ash started falling on me. Let's hope the trail stays open...
Um, guys? I think the trail goes that direction...
Even though it was a bit of a climb, you can't really tell that you are approaching this massive crater. You are sort of walking along and then all of the sudden it's like "woah, there is this big freakin' hole in the ground". A big hole that happens to be filled with some of the bluest water you will ever see. And that is coming from someone who grew up near Tahoe.
It took me back how massive the lake was. It blew my mind to just sit there and think of the volume of mountain that had to have been blown away in order for this crater to form. Can you imagine the sound, and the earthquake that explosion had to make? Or what it would do to the surrounding, I don't know, hundred miles? There had to have been some terrified (and obliterated) animals and Native Americans when that mountain blew up. I wonder what those who were far enough away to survive, but close enough to feel/hear/see it, thought...
Wizard Island (the only pic I have without smoke)
Let's just pretend those are "clouds"
All I know is that I was pretty damn impressed. And I got to view it for several hours, and from several angles, while walking the rim. And those first few miles were sloooooow. Partly because I was gawking at the lake, and partly because I had 26 miles of water and three days of food on my back. It's ironic that some of the clearest, bluest water in the world is RIGHT THERE, but that it isn't close enough to collect (or can be legally collected, for that matter). At least the views were good.
Smoke be creepin' in...
A normally peaceful walk along the rim was accompanied by the thunder of choppers and the roar of airplanes dumping retardant on the flames just a few miles west. We lucked out, and the trail stayed open. The smoke made sure that we didn't get a perfect blue sky (unless you selectively pointed your camera), but the scenery was stunning nonetheless.
Such blue water. Such blue sky.
Unfortunately you can't camp on the rim (I hear rangers have been know to walk the trails with at night with heat sensors, handing out $500 fines to violators). So I said goodbye to the lake and descended a few miles to one of the few places you can camp in the park. The mosquitos are back in full force, but I'm not sure anything could put a damper on what was an incredible day.
A sign of things to come
Day 88: mile 1836.7 - 1863.4 (plus 0.4 alternate miles)
- "a wall of mosquitos"
- Mt. Thielsen Wilderness
After going to bed warm, I woke up surprisingly cold in the middle of the night. It was a scramble to put my down jacket and hoodie on while zipping up my sleeping bag, but once I did that I fell right back asleep. Cold nights are the easiest for me to sleep through. And they keep the bugs at bay in the morning!
Looking south towards Crater Lake. It's amazing how much fires lay down at night (it was only 10% contained at this point)
The lack of bugs didn't last long past sunrise however. For the last hundred miles the mosquitos have been hell. One of the guide books referred to "a wall of mosquitos" once you pass mile ~1770. Boy howdy... My bug net is pretty much guaranteed to be on in the morning and evening, my socks no longer come off when I stop for a snack/break, and I have a very specific procedure for getting into my tent while leaving the door open for as brief a time as possible (the next step in that procedure is to swat the bugs that inevitably sneak in). Occasionally you'll swat a mosquito and it will leave a big splotch of (your) blood behind, which it already sucked without your knowing. That has made the inside of my tent look like a damn war zone...
Diamond Lake
Somewhere while wading through the bugs we left Crater Lake National Park, and entered Mt. Thielsen Wilderness. Mt. Thielsen is a pretty imposing peak - just over 9,100' tall, and topped by sheer rocks. It even has a small glacier on its northern slope. There is a trail to the top that takes off from nearby Diamond Lake and intersects the PCT. Definitely something I'd like to come back and do.
Mt. Thielsen
We only got one water source in 27 miles today, but it was a good one, fed by springs and snowmelt from the north side of Mt. Thielsen. I ended up falling asleep in the shade of a nearby tree (for some reason there were NO bugs here) for a few hours.
I can tell I am getting a little worn down from a week, and a few hundred miles, without a rest day, so I'm planning to take a zero or a near-o at my next resupply point. By the time I got to camp and pitched my tent, I crawled in and passed out on the floor without undressing, inflating my sleeping pad, or pulling out my sleeping bag. I only properly made my bed several hours later when I woke up in the middle of the night. Yeah, I think I'm a little worn down.
So this means it's all downhill from here? That's how it works, right?
Day 89: mile 1863.4 - 1875.8 (plus 15.7 alternate miles)
- Vitamin I
- Highs and lows
After properly dressing myself and making my bed in the middle of the night, I fell back asleep. Hard. And I woke up achy as hell. Not just my feet, but everything had that lethargic, achy feeling you get when you are coming down with something. Great. It took me twice as long to break camp as it normally does, mainly because after everything I did I would lie back down and close my eyes, not wanting to move a muscle.
One of today's lakes
The trail wasn't going to walk itself, and it was six miles to the next water, so I eventually pulled myself on to the trail. I also gave in, and for the first time on this hike, took an Ibuprofen tablet. Ibuprofen is so commonly consumed out here that it is referred to as "Vitamin I". My thinking has been that if I need to rely on Vitamin I to get me through my days, I am doing something wrong (going too fast, packing too much weight, etc.). So I have tried to stay away from it. But I just need to get the 32 miles to Shelter Cove by sometime tomorrow, where I can resupply and take a zero/near-o. And I'll be partly powered by Vitamin I.
After a slow and painful first quarter mile, the joints and muscles started warming up, and after another fifteen minutes I felt great. The six miles to water flew. After topping off and snacking, it was another slow start before things got warmed up.
The mossy trees do look pretty neat
That ended up being the theme of the day. Once I got going, things felt great, but once I stopped and sat down it was soooo damn tough to get going again. I ended up taking another two-hour nap (in the shade by a lake) before doing the last ten miles to camp nonstop (not something I do very often).
I think part of the reason today sucked so badly was the terrain. It was flat, hot, and lined with trees that weren't big enough to cast much shade, but still big enough to block any views. We passed some awesome lakes (one of which I am camped thirty feet from right now) but the focus of today wasn't as much about the scenery as it was getting closer to Shelter Cove. Assuming I get out of bed at a reasonably time, I should be there tomorrow morning. Sweet.
Dinner with the bugs 🐝🐜🕷
View from the dinner table
Day 90.5: 4.9 alternate miles (to PCT mile 1904.1)
- Shelter Cove
I took another Ibuprofen tablet before bed, and oh man did it knock me out. I slept like a rock, and this morning felt muuuuch better. Maybe it was the Vitamin I, maybe it was the cool air and the pretty morning view, or maybe it was knowing that I only had five easy miles to Shelter Cove. Whatever it was, I felt like I was shot out of a cannon, and rolled into Shelter Cove after a quick five.
The view from the table looks pretty good in the morning, too
Fog on the lake
There isn't a restaurant here for breakfast, but a Peppermint Hot Cocoa was a good start. I'm still debating how much time to spend here. It will be somewhere between one hour and one day. The grass-covered edge of Odell Lake is looking pretty appealing right now though...
Shelter Cove
Mama duck taking the kids out for a swim