We were up early in the dark forest, packing up by headlamp and thinking “second breakfast at Mazama buffet!” But we still had plenty of miles to do— a bit over 10.  The PCT wandered around a bit, and still had a lot of “ups”.  We met a NOBO who is doing the Oregon PCT.  He was a really nice guy, but he’s already having serious blister issues on his feet which are causing him a lot of pain.  The key to avoiding blisters (we have had NONE!) is to do your prehike training carrying WEIGHT.  That’s what toughens up your feet–not just doing miles. 

We stopped for a breakfast of granola plus other leftovers, and charged off through the forest, headed for that buffet at Mazama! At one point the trail had a reroute (marked by temporary signs).  The mosquitoes got worse and worse till I finally gave up and started hiking in my headnet.  Finally we were at the road, and before 10 am,we were at Mazama Village.  A whole bunch of thruhikers were hanging out by the store, including the famous Freebird, who said Billy Goat will not finish the PCT this year and the other 70 year old, Yeahbut, looks iffy.

So Bill may be the guy to set the record of first person over 69 years to finish in one hiking season! Wow!  We pigged at the buffet, did showers, laundry, etc, did the buffet again and around 3:30pm, headed for Crater Lake rim, on a very pretty but very uphill trail.  The mosquitoes were bad, and I continued to wear my headnet.  We met two nice Brit hikers who said they wished they’d brought headnets, too.  “We’re jealous,” they said.  And from talking to them, I have now learned the correct way to pronounce the word, “Mossies.”  It’s “mah-zees”, not “moss-ees.” 

However, black clouds were overhead, thunder was rumbling, and after a little while it began to rain. I put up my umbrella and kept hiking along. At the Rim, we took on full water loads for 26 miles of no water. Since the only water faucets available are in the restrooms, this was a tedious business.  I had to fill my drinking cup, then pour it into my platypus, over and over again.  Bill and I both also put on full raingear, since it was obvious that we were about to head into some “serious weather.”  Just as we took our first few steps back toward the trail,  a fierce hailstorm began.  Some of the hailstones were 1″ diameter.  Yikes!

We had to retreat quickly— into the bathroom!  From the bathroom door we watched as heavy hail and rain pummelled the road and parking lot.  Man, were we glad we weren’t out in one of the exposed areas along the trail!   When the hail stopped, off we went into pouring rain and howling, very cold wind.  I went over to the rim and tried to take a picture of the lake, but the camera could not “see” anything in the rain.  We started out to follow the trail, and I soon had to stow my umbrella–the wind up on the Rim was way too fierce.  Sometimes it was hard even to walk, and the trail soon became a running creek, because of the pouring rain. 

Finally I said, “I think we’d better walk the road–this is ridiculous,”  and even Bill agreed.  So we began walking in the storm, along the edge of the road.  Since the road is a bit below the Rim, the wind was less horrendous, and that made it easier.  Along came a ranger in his truck.  He offered us a ride to the trail down to Lightning Springs camp.  But we were determined to get in as many miles as we could, and that meant getting well past Lightning Springs, so we thanked the ranger, but turned down his offer.

The rain finally stopped, but the wind did not.  It was still very cold, and blowing very hard.  The amazing thing was that all this wild weather was ONLY on the northwest side of the lake, where we were.  All the rest was clear, and we could see blue sky and sunshine on the south end of the lake!  Over our heads were very black clouds that were still spitting lightning off in the distance.

By 7:45 pm, the sun was almost down, so we walked across the pumice fields  just short of the Rim Drive intersection, and located a place to camp in a grove of trees that were still dripping from the rain.  It was obvious that we were in for a COLD night–what a switch from the warm weather we’ve had for the last few days!  The sunset was very dramatic–it was sort of peeking out from UNDER the clouds to the west.  Today has been the wildest, fiercest weather we have seen yet on the trail this year, but we’ve come through OK. 

Walk with Aragorn to Minas Tirith: Reach the road to the Deeping Coomb & turn south to Helm’s Deep

Tags: Crater Lake Rim, hail, Mazama Village