August 6th, 2022 by Jon
When we woke up this morning, it was 6:30. A glorious morning of sleeping in to reward us for a sort of town day! We got up and put on our party hats and birthday glasses because today was Missile’s birthday! We put them on when he went to the bathroom, and when he came back and saw us, he just laughed. We handed him a hat and glasses, and we all decided to hike all day today with them on. After a luxuriously long breakfast, we headed out. It took some more bushwhacking to get back to the trail, and once we did, it was a gentle descent to the highway. The sun streamed through the trees and cast patches of golden light across the forest floor, but otherwise it was still that lazy blue morning light. We walked through an old forest, and the trail was very curvy.
After about an hour and a half or so of hiking, and passing a few day hiking groups and people out for a trail run, we came to a small parking lot. There were some water containers there for those not headed into Mazama village, sitting in the shade of a tree to the side of the lot. We walked down the side of the road, then took a small forest road to cut down to the park highway so we could continue in from there. After about 20 minutes of road walking, we came to the parking lot in the village! We found our friends’ packs, set our stuff down, and went inside to get the package we had sent ahead to ourselves.
The store was nicely stocked with all of a hiker’s favorites. Getting our package was super easy, and we supplemented the meals we had sent ourselves with more snacks to provide us with lunch food for the next stretch. We were also able to get some cold drinks and Naked Juice, which we seem to crave whenever we get into town. There was supposed to be Wi-Fi there, but it was so slow it really didn’t work. We took our haul back out to the parking lot, and we all sat outside charging some things in the bathrooms and organizing resupply. Our entire group was there, although we don’t really hike together anymore, it’s still really nice to hang out in camp sometimes or in town. We cheered for Missile and embarrassed him anytime a stranger asked us whose birthday it was by pointing at him.
Once it hit 11:00, we headed over to the restaurant and got some lunch, charged more stuff, indulged in a $7 cookie that turned out to be some prepackaged thing they brought out in the package… and sat in a food stupor for a while trying to recover. Finally, around 12:00, we headed back out, made it to the highway just after the entrance booth, and started trying to hitch up to the Rim Village so we could hike the Rim alternate instead of the PCT. Per the name, it goes along the rim of Crater Lake, and most hikers choose to hike that instead of the PCT, which stays in the foothills. It’s more elevation gain and loss, but also about 4 miles shorter than the PCT section it replaces. Singsong and I have been looking forward to this section since we started planning the PCT.
We ended up getting a ride from the couple we saw running on the trail this morning, and they were so kind to us! It was Missile, Singsong, and I in this car as Tits, Stealth, and Biscuit got a ride in another one. Wilco and Rune took the trolley up to the top and ate up there before the alternate. Bouge is headed to Bend to spend some time with friends there. When we got to the top of the drive, we got out, thanked our driver, filled up on water, and then admired the view from the lookout over the lake. If you’ve never been to Crater Lake, you really need to go. It’s amazing. The water was so blue, there wasn’t even a hint of smoke in the air, and the water was so calm you could see the reflection of the cliffs on the water. The pictures don’t do it justice, but we did our best.
We started hiking and got lots of smiles and funny looks as we began the 9 miles of the Crater Lake alternate before we would reconnect with the PCT. As cool as it would be to camp on the rim, you have to get a separate permit from the park to do it, so we just had to hike the whole thing, which is fine since the section we are doing isn’t very long. The trail got as close as 1 foot to the edge of the rim, and at other places, as it went around a pile of rocks, much farther away. We had views of the lake about 90% of the time, sometimes off a cliff, sometimes through trees, and it was hard not to stop every 5 seconds to take another picture. We absolutely enjoyed this alternate, and if anyone out there is considering hiking in this area, go hike the rim trail; it’s excellent.
We stopped for a few breaks along the way to drink some cider we packed out in honor of Missile’s birthday and enjoyed sitting in the shade at one of the viewpoints, watching all of the tourists come and go. Today was very different from our usual, and it felt nice to mix things up a bit. After our break, we hiked away from the rim across the ledges that make up the actual rim and had great views of the surrounding mountains. We could see smoke from the Windigo Fire, which is still burning in the next section, so we have to skip it. The trail dropped down a few steeper parts as we got closer to reconnecting with the PCT.
We made camp right after the junction with the PCT, then backtracked with a few water bottles to fill up at a cache that local trail angels maintain in a nearby parking lot 0.1 miles away. They are seriously appreciated in this otherwise very dry section! We had enough water to go without, but when we took our break, Wilco texted us to say there was tons of water, so we knew it was coming. Tomorrow we plan to sleep in a bit and then hike the 8 miles and some change to the highway, where we plan to meet a trail angel at 11:30 who will take us up to Shelter Cove Resort so we can spend the rest of the day there resting up before hiking from Willamette Pass over 3ish days up to Santiam Pass and get into Bend from there.
