Nov. 1: Crater Lake pt. 2

I got a decently early start, making it back to the rim trail and into Rim Village a little after 9am. Despite the early hour, there were several other people on the trail, especially after I passed Discovery Point, the last mile to the village. Presumably, they all wanted to see the lake and take pictures by morning light, same as me. It definitely looked very different than it had the previous afternoon. Also, everyone was probably up earlier across the board thanks to the extra hour of sleep the time change afforded.

Rim Village had a lot to offer in one little building: a bathroom with deep sinks to refill my water bag and outlets to charge my phone, as well as copious trash cans. But it didn’t have the one thing I was looking forward to. The cafe was closed for the season. No hot barbecue sandwich for me. So, with no reason to wait for the 11am cafe opening time, I hiked out at 10am.

I started descending Mazama again. Maybe a half hour later, I arrived at the PCT again. And who should I find there but Owl and Phoenix, eating a really early lunch. They had decided to camp directly on the crater rim to watch the full moon rise over the other side. Phoenix and I played leapfrog for the next hour when I stopped for a snack before climbing a big hill. Finally, I let her get ahead by dropping my pack and walking a mile down to Mazama Village to see if the restaurant there was open, or if I could at least steal a few more mAh from an outdoor outlet. That was a no on both counts. The restaurant was closed and powered, but the circuit for the outlets was switched off. I guess they saw me coming.

I ate my own cold lunch in the parking lot on the road where I had turned off, and by 1:30, I was ready to begin the real meat of my hike for the day and night.

After the spectacle of the lake, the next 17 miles were just more of the boring green tunnel that characterizes so much of Oregon. Plus, the shade of the trees kept the air very cold, colder as the night fell.

Sometime around 7, I blew past where Owl and Phoenix set up camp. In spite of refilling at the bathroom that morning, I wanted to camp at a water source. I had drank enough throughout the day that I would need to refill to make supper. Which I did because I had planned to camp where I did.

The campsite was most of a mile off trail once I got to the junction, including a nasty tree fall that offered no alternative but crawling under it, but the spring just a quarter mile beyond it was so incredible as to make the extra effort worth it. It was probably 10pm by the time I got to sleep that night.

Total distance: 27 miles

Trail progress: 23 miles