Today’s Miles: 14
Total Trip Miles: 782/2660
I wake up this morning feeling excited. I’ll be walking the rim of Crater Lake today. The PCT doesn’t technically follow the Rim trail of Crater Lake, but seemingly every hiker takes the rim. If you don’t, you miss the view of the lake, and what’s the fun of that? My alarm starts beeping at 4:15 am for a sunrise walk of Crater Lake.
As I approach the rim, there are beautiful views of meadows and mountains. Some people call hiking the PCT section of Oregon a green flat tunnel but this section defies that. The sun begins to rise and a pink sky illuminates the magnificent lake. Signs everywhere say do not enter the caldera, the phenomenon that describes how Crater Lake was formed. 7,700 years ago the volcano Mount Mazama blew and collapsed, creating a giant crater in the ground (Crater Lake). The water that fills the the lake is snow melt and precipitation, as the lake has no stream outlets feeding it.
I finish the walk around the rim at 8 am and head for the Rim Village. This is where Crater Lake Lodge is located, which hosts the second opportunity for a breakfast buffet. The buffet is only available for purchase for hotel guests… but a few NOBO’s I camped with last night had stayed at the lodge and they gave me their lodge wristband. So breakfast buffet it is.
All goes without a hitch and 15 minutes later I’m sitting at a table with good hot coffee in front of me and a full plate of food. It’s really the best of everything this morning. I linger in the dining hall for nearly two hours, taking my time refilling my plate and cup over and over again.
Eventually I head back out, getting one last look at Crater Lake before taking a side trail that links back up with the official PCT. I’ll be stopping again in a few miles at Mazama Village to pick up a resupply. There’s free camping there and I was thinking about taking something of a nearo today, but I’m undecided.
I arrive at the Mazama Village, comprised of a general store, a restaurant, and a gift shop. I head directly to the store to pick up my resupply. The lady looks at one page in her binder and tells me she doesn’t see my name. “Are those all the names you have?” I ask, looking down at the sheet. She shakes her head no, flips back a few pages, and finds my name, meaning my box is here. My moment of dejection is only short lived and crisis is averted.
I bring my resupply, backpack, and a few fresh food items bought from the store to a shaded dirt area where a couple of other hikers are convened. “Want an apple?” a female hiker with a buzz cut asks me. Her name is Tea Time, and she introduces me to Radio and Dab, two males hikers who look to be in their early-to-mid twenties. “We are planning to hitch to the spot where you can swim in Crater Lake,” Tea Time tells me. “Want to come?”
I gather my stuff and I’m leaving Mazama Village as soon as I arrive. I have had no time to sort my resupply so I’m carrying my walking stick and resupply box in hand, with my currently very poorly packed pack on my back.”You got a lot of stuff,” Tea Time tells me.
Radio and Dab catch the first hitch as Tea Time and I leave our thumbs stuck out. After about 15 minutes, we catch a ride and get dropped off about 3 miles from the swim spot. We catch a second hitch to our destination, a spot called Shelter Cove around the rim. “It’s a one mile hike down to the lake,” the ranger explains to a crowd of people who are also hiking down to swim. “It’s the hiking back out that’s hard. You gain 800 feet in the course of one mile,” she tells the group. I wonder if they know what that means. I barely know what that means, just that it’s steep.
Tea Time, Radio, Dabs, and I all make the mile hike down to the swim spot. The day is clear and the water only seems to get bluer as we get closer and closer. We are there at last, and veer off to a cliff jumping spot that has maybe 30 people. It’s a long way down to the water from the top of the cliff and we watch people go to edge, some jumping and some not. Radio jumps, then Dabs, followed by Tea Time. I’ve finished my kombucha and salad I bought from the general store and finally there’s nothing left for me to do but jump also. After I jump, Radio tells us we made a 35 foot jump. I could believe it looking down from the top, but looking up from the water, it looks so much shorter.
We spend maybe two more hours making a few more jumps and hanging out in the frigid and beautiful blue water of Crater. The afternoon winds down, and with some type of non-verbal communication, the four of us grab our packs and start hiking back up. At the top, Tea Time half-heartedly sticks out her thumb and a truck immediately pulls over. “Where you guys going?” the man behind the wheel asks.
“Don’t really know, but I think the direction you’re headed,” Tea Time answers for the group. We jump in the bed of the truck and make it the Rim Village. Here, Radio departs to hike the Rim and resume his PCT hike. Dabs, Tea Time, and I catch our final hitch back to Mazama Village.
Back at Mazama Village, It’s nice to do nothing but eat, scroll through my phone a bit, and make some ideal conversation. The most movement I make is to order dinner from the restaurant and pitch my tent in the free camping area. I’ll be heading out first thing tomorrow morning, for a 102 mile section to Ashland. There’s suppose to be lots of little resorts you can stop at right off the trail in this section. Should be fun.
Wow! The pictures of Crater Lake are superb.