Day 112
Start: Devil’s Peak
Finish: Grouse Hill Camp
Daily Mileage: 34
PCT Mile: 1839.9
We had no mosquitoes last night, but they made up for it in the morning when they were out in force. We quickly packed up camp and got on the move to escape them, and they were soon in our dust.
We had 20 miles to town, and those stretches of trail always seem to drag on the longest for me. The trail was super easy with only a few small hills, and we did make good time, but the promise of food always makes progress seem slower.
We entered our first big burn area in Oregon. It seemed relatively recent, and there were frequent blowdowns on the trail. Many of the hikers were complaining about them, but they don’t really slow us much, and it can break up the monotony sometimes. Not that I want blowdowns on the trail, but they are typically not as bad as purported to me.
We met a national park trail crew on our way, and they were clearing the few remaining obstacles with hand tools. All the work including on the biggest trees appeared to be done with large cross-cut saws which I thought was interesting. Even all of the older work was with the same hand saws. I wonder why. I’ve definitely seen chainsaw trail maintenance in national parks.
We flew right down the newly cleared trail and soon reached the trail that would take us to the Mazama Village Campground where we had packages waiting and we planned to spend the night.
We got our food resupply boxes and headed to the restaurant for a bite to eat, so we would have room in a few hours for a second meal. With that in mind, I got a lighter Mediterranean dish. Hikers took over a corner of the restaurant to charge and eat, with some of the regulars that have been hiking around us: Jolly, Colin, Gang Signs, Bear Cage, Beefcake, etc. A great gathering, and the restaurant didn’t mind at all.
After we were done eating, Honeybun looked at me and said, “I’m already getting bored, do you want to hike the rim now instead of tomorrow?” It was another 14 miles of trail and it was 3pm, but I agreed. So we did a quick audible and packed up our gear and were headed back to the trail around 3:30. We knew it would be a late night, but we could make it work.
There was a climb up to the rim of Crater Lake that wasn’t too challenging though some hikers were complaining about it being steep. We soon arrived at the rim and beheld Crater Lake for the first time. I knew the lake was big, but it turned out to be way more expansive than I had imagined, stretching many miles across. It is astounding to think of the forces required to create a caldera of this immense size, and what it would have looked like while erupting. And you can only see a portion of the crater. It is the deepest lake in America at over 2,000 feet, so it is probably way more impressive than we can even see.
We started to follow the rim around on the Rim Trail which hugged the rim for mostly continuous views. I definitely took many pictures as the view scape slowly changed as we circled the lake. We had the trail mostly to ourselves, with people only present in the immediate vicinity of the parking areas from the road that also parallels the rim. We definitely got the better views and experience.
We finished up with the rim as the sun was setting behind us, and headed down to the first area we were allowed to camp. No perching right on the rim, though no one would likely have seen us.
A great sunset of which we have seen few on this trip. We are typically in our tents before it sets, resting up to prepare for the next day with the short summer nights. Great color from the clouds overhead.
It was dark by the time we got to the campsite, and there were a few tents set up. We didn’t want to disturb them, so we left them in peace and hiked another tenth until we found some flat enough spots to pitch our tents on.
We had a complete change in plans today, but the day worked out fantastically with great views over Crater Lake and the sun behind us instead of shining at us when the views would have been more muted. We once again set the mark for longest miles of the trip at 34 which is pretty impressive considering we also resupplied and sat in a restaurant for a couple hours.