 |
| Cool trolly shuttles |
Day 8 started with excitement. We had heard bad reports of the trail ahead but we would push through and make it to Willamette pass! We took a free shuttle up to the rim of the lake and started hiking around the rim trail to its NW edge.
 |
| Here we go! |
 |
| Lake was pristine! |
 |
| Posing in my hiking getup. |
 |
| Wizard island and Llao rock |
The trail looked great looking from the south, but as we we passed around to the north of ridges, there were deep snow drifts. The rim trail eventually became pretty much impossible to hike. We could not see the trail at all and the slope was pretty dangerously steep in places. We resorted to road walking after that.
 |
| Snow! |
 |
| Goodbye, trail! |
 |
| I know it is illegal, but I want to climb Llao rock |
 |
| Amazing! |
 |
| Dorito, road walking... |
 |
| Wizard island from the west |
We stopped for pictures a few times. Drivers were pretty careful because there was still construction going on to repair the roads. In fact, the east side of the lake was still closed due to snow damage!
 |
| More road walking |
 |
| Mount Thielsen is on the right |
 |
| Obviously not hiking on that... |
 |
| Panorama looking back south |
 |
| There is a lot more snow looking southward |
 |
| Llao rock |
 |
| Goodbye, Crater Lake! |
The road was not bad but as we walked our feet got a lot warmer, leading to blisters for most of us. Even I almost got a blister! Upon reaching the NW edge of Crater Lake, the trail turns north toward Diamond lake and Mount Thielsen. We stuck to the road, hearing of "hundreds" of downed trees and "impassable" amounts of snow as the trail approached Mount Thielsen.
 |
| Thielsen, here we come! |
 |
| So close, yet so far! |
 |
| It is warm. |
At the boundary of Crater Lake National Park, we met a biker. He was a veteran who had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer in his brain. He was going for one last big trip while he could. What a wonderful example of taking life by the horns! We wished him luck and told him where the next stop might be with gas.
 |
| Dorito swinging the sign |
 |
| Been there, done that. |
 |
| Yaaay! |
After over 20 miles of road walking, we came to the southern end of Diamond lake. We walked into a mostly empty campground on the south shore. Here we set up camp and talked with our only neighbors. They were a bunch of college students doing an environmental study in the area. Dorito went over to their camp site for a chat and returned with a big grin on his face. He had talked our neighbors into giving us a ride to pick up pizza from a nearby resort! It was an amazing dinner!
 |
| Diamond lake, ahead. |
 |
| Our campsite. |
After a delicious greasy dinner, we all got a good night of sleep. We had walked about 23 miles, almost entirely on the road. We decided to stop at Diamond Lake resort and take a connecting trail back to the PCT north of Mount Thielsen. We would have our final snowy adventure tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment