Crater Lake National Park, Mazama Village Campground to North Crater Trailhead
We woke up freezing this morning. Share Bear's thermometer read 25 degrees...literally freezing. We quickly got our gear together and walked back to the general store. The sun was rising on the other side of the building so the picnic table was in the shade. The warmest place we found to eat breakfast was the laundry room, so we piled in there. Between the cold outside and the warmth of the laundry room we seemed to take our time getting ready to hike. We were all finally ready to go at 8:50 AM, at least one hour later than I planned.
Ready to hike with Brother Frier and Indra
We are slack packing today and Indra is joining us. We first met Indra north of Yosemite about 1.5 months back. She has been a day or so in front of us lately, but she had a few days where she wasn't feeling good so put in some shorter days, allowing us to catch up to her.
Today is an exciting day. We get to hike the 9.3 mile rim trail along Crater Lake. This trail is actually an alternate of the PCT and is 5.5 miles shorter than the PCT. It may be shorter, but it is a lot harder with more ups and downs than the actual PCT. Pretty much every PCT hiker takes this alternate because if you didn't then you would not see Crater Lake at all. Which means you would miss seeing this:
Today is an exciting day. We get to hike the 9.3 mile rim trail along Crater Lake. This trail is actually an alternate of the PCT and is 5.5 miles shorter than the PCT. It may be shorter, but it is a lot harder with more ups and downs than the actual PCT. Pretty much every PCT hiker takes this alternate because if you didn't then you would not see Crater Lake at all. Which means you would miss seeing this:
My first view of Crater Lake
How incredible is that?!? Well, here are some more photos of this amazing place:
Epic Crater Lake photo of Tim & I
Wizard Island within Crater Lake
Coming here I thought, as I assume many of you do, that the crater this lake is in was formed by a meteor. Well, it wasn't. This crater was once a huge volcano that erupted and fell inside itself and formed the crater. Wizard Island within the lake is actually a volcano.
Alternate PCT sign of the day
As you can imagine, we didn't make great time as we hiked along the lake. We kept stopping and staring and admiring and taking photos is the lake.
Amazing
Selfie while Brad takes a selfie
What an amazing blue
Incredible...I can't get enough
We made it to the Watchman Trailhead which at 7,671 is the highest point remaining for us for the rest of the PCT. I guess it is all downhill from here.
Watchman trailhead
Hiking along the rim of Crater Lake is definitely a highlight of the PCT.
Brad hiking the rim
One last view
After 6.3 miles of rim hiking the rim trail headed away from Crater Lake and back towards the actual PCT. About 0.5 miles later we saw Tim hiking towards us. 2 miles later we were at the trailhead where he parked.
The 4Runner & trailer waiting for us
At this point we had a decision to make whether to hike on the 8.8 miles to Highway 138 as originally planned or hike some of the way. If we can hike the entire distance Tim can meet us at the highway so we can slack pack. If we plan on stopping short we have to carry all our gear. Oh, by the way. It was almost 4:30 PM when we had to make this decision.
After a short discussion and looking at the climbing profile and seeing that in the 8.8 miles we climb only 261 feet and go down only 858 feet we were confident we could make it there before full dark. So we headed back out.
After a short discussion and looking at the climbing profile and seeing that in the 8.8 miles we climb only 261 feet and go down only 858 feet we were confident we could make it there before full dark. So we headed back out.
Back on the PCT
We took it as a challenge to get these 9 miles done as fast as we could. We figured we could easily hike 3 miles per hour given the terrain and slack packing. Meaning we should make it to Tim in 3 hours. In the first hour we covered 3.4 miles...amazing. Just over 2.5 hours later we made it to the highway, and 10 minutes later we made it to Tim.
Highway 138 crossing
PCT sign - old & new
Tim was quite surprised to see us so early. He figured we would be another hour or so. Woohoo...we are awesome. Brad and Indra showed up 10 minutes later. They had an awesome hike as well.
We all quickly ate dinner and got in our tent to get warm.
Tomorrow we start a 3 day stretch without Tim. He will be staying in an AirBnB south of Bend, as we continue dealing with these cold evenings and mornings. Good for him...after all the support he has provided the past week, he deserves it.
We all quickly ate dinner and got in our tent to get warm.
Tomorrow we start a 3 day stretch without Tim. He will be staying in an AirBnB south of Bend, as we continue dealing with these cold evenings and mornings. Good for him...after all the support he has provided the past week, he deserves it.
Inside our cold, dark home for the night
RSS Feed
