Today’s Miles: 29
Total Trip Miles: 764/2660
I begin hiking this morning with a liter of water (33 oz) on my back. It’s 12 miles to the next water source and I plan to hike fast to get there. I also have just barely enough food to my next resupply at Crater Lake. Not a lot of margin for error today.
In the morning, I pass by the highest point in OR and WA via PCT at 7,560 feet. It’s hard to believe that the highest point of these two states comes in Oregon and not one of the dramatic peaks of the North Cascades in Washington. The highest point of the whole PCT is in the Sierras at Forester Pass which sits at 13,153 feet, nearly double my current elevation. So it’s all uphill from here…..
Today is a non-smoky day and I’m treated with a backdrop of Mt. Thielsen. It’s jagged and volcanic in contrast to the blue sky that surrounds it. I stop at Thielsen River, a rare running water source, for breakfast and a break.
Leaving Thielsen River, I run into a female hiker who tells me she is trying to do a 50 mile day, just to see if she can. As the conversation continues, she tells me a very sweet older couple is doing trailmagic about 10 miles ahead. They are surprising their grandson who is hiking, and because they don’t know exactly when he is going to come out, they’ve been doing trail magic in the meantime waiting for him.
I’m not too set or hopeful on meeting them but sure enough, 10 miles and 4 hours later, I come out on a highway and there they are. They are very sweet and I get a tour of the van they have converted from traveling. I am fed two hot dogs with ketchup squished between 2 pieces of bread, and healthy amounts of trail mix and chips. And also a beer. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve all of this over the past week.
As I depart, I swear that if I come across their grandson, Sam, not to give away that they are waiting for him. “He’s blonde, skinny as a twig, and is only 18,” I’m told. “Also, he’s carrying very large amounts of candy in his pack.”
I don’t see Sam as evening rolls in but I do enter Crater Lake National Park. I’ll be walking the rim tomorrow, and John and I stopped at the historic site on our drive up to the border. I camp on the edge of the rim trail in a backpacking camp. There are a fair amount of other people at the camp, maybe 10 other hikers. Some are section hikers, some hiking NOBO. It’s fun camping with other people and for the first time in a while, I don’t enter my tent until it’s pitch black outside.
Great photo of Mt. Thielsen