Day 30 – Snowballing into Crater Lake

Last night I woke up drenched in perspiration. Enclosing my entire body except my nose in a down quilt has consequences besides keeping mosquitoes at bay. Now I am gross with sweat. I puff the quilt up and down to bring cool air inside. The mosquitoes sense an advantage. My face, neck and hands ate protected with DEET, but the bugs will bite through my thin wool shirt when I expose my upper body. But, I have no choice. Furthermore, I am tired fighting these damn bugs. I pull the quilt down around my waist. Bite, if you must.

Having resigned myself the fate of being bitten, I relax and simply look at what is in front of me in the night. Before I fell asleep there had been two enormous trees towering over the foot of my bed. Now in the moonless night the trees look like two jagged holes in the sky. And inside them? Utter blackness. I am not surprised. This is what lies at the heart of everything. A void that consumes all – light, thought, creed and ideology. It is not to be feared for it is also the place where God dwells.

The trees know this and they accept it passively as they accept all things. They are monuments to a virtue that comes difficult to us – humility. This virtue is at the heart of our great religions. And on this night as I lay beneath these towering trees, I wonder where I fit in this mysterious world. Do I have the humility to accept my place? Do I have the wisdom to recognize it?

The trail ahead

I am driven out of camp at 5:25 by the relentless winged furies. The mosquitoes intensify near dawn and dusk, and they are simply all over me. However, I can outrun them. To make today more challenging, there is no reliable water until I reach my final destination – Mazama Village at Crater Lake. The path is equally up and down, but early on it traverses some pretty exposed burn areas. Upon reaching Crater Lake National Park, the path gets more lush as it moves through some pristine old growth forest. At the very end there is a nasty road walk into the Village And then, finally, an orange soda.

As usual, the morning is magical. The sun peaks through the trees, the cool air gauzy with moisture.

Unexpected meetings

Then, out of nowhere, a tall athletic young man goes loping by me as I inspect a trail-side camp. We barely have time to speak. He is in a hurry. I learn that there are others behind. They will be here soon. This really inspires me.

Others. Except for Terminator, who was more of a projectile, I have met no new hikers recently. And then, one the others arrives. His name is Levon. He is from Louisiana, and he had wanted to hike the Florida Trail last year, but did not because of Covid. His started in Old Station, like I did. He goes on ahead of me. I am impressed by his speed, too.

It is time for me to take a break. I need water and a snack. When I get back on trail I run upon these two.

One is Levon, the other is Tinker Bell, who started with her boyfriend in Chester on June 5. Her boyfriend was the tall man the flew by me earlier. We all complain about the mosquitoes. Tinker Bell says that she has over 80 bites on her legs alone. It is hard to tell because she is wearing tights. Levon mentions that there is a fourth hiker who had not left camp when he did. The fourth hikers name is Space Saver.

Burn

The burn in this area is bad making for some hot hiking. But there are some signs of life. The Pom-Pom flowers are back. And there is a strange new fungus.

At my next stop I filter some of the extra water I have been carrying. I try to drink regularly because I need to and because it reduces the weight I have carry. I left camp with over a gallon of water (8 lbs). There is an interesting mountain on the horizon. I wonder if the trail takes me there.

More new hikers!

I finally enter Crater Lake National Park.

I have plenty of water, I am eating well, and I am moving well too. And just when I think it cannot get any better, there are two more new hikers!

They are the Dirty Debbie’s – trail names they seem delightfully pleased with. On the left is Debbie Buns and on the right is Debbie Z. Their name comes from different types of Little Debbie snacks. They hiked the Southern part of the PCT last year, but quit when they had had enough. This year they are picking up where they left off (Ashland) and going all the way to Canada. I hope I get to see more of them. Their zany personalities are so much fun! I don’t have the heart to break their mood with news of immanent danger.

Crater Lake Mazama Village

The trail into Crater Lake is so beautiful. It is really like a city park in some ways. Debbie says it feels like you are walking down a hallway.

Mazama Village is an RV type campground below Crater Lake. It has a restaurant, a store, real bathrooms and a place for campers and RVs. It also has a free tent camping area for PCT hikers.

At the store, I pick up the resupply box I mailed from Ashland. It has food and some new special insoles I want to try. I raid the hiker box for more snack bars, which I have been enjoying more than I expected. All the hikers congregate around the electrical outlets to charge their electronics. I get an Orange Fanta! Later we all pile into the restaurant. I have a big cheeseburger, a bottomless soda cup and a very good Ninkasi IPA. The showers are not available, so it looks like I will have to go five more days without one. I had one six days of ago.

Tomorrow is Crater Lake. We will all walk the Rim Trail instead of the PCT, because we can look down on Crater Lake all day. Water is still a problem, but private citizens have started to leave water caches along the trail. I hope that is enough.

• July 1
• Starting mile: 1801
• Ending mile: 1821
• Daily PCT miles: 24
• Total PCT miles: 449
• Animals: 9 of the partying variety