Day 103-104

I finished up the long, dry section of Oregon hiking around Mt Thielsen to a creek, seeing some good views of Mt Bailey and Diamond Lake along the way.  I found a bit of snow along the north side of the mountain, but not as much as there was around Diamond Peak the next day.  I hiked up the side of Diamond Peak in the evening and camped near a large stream that was mostly covered in snow.  I was up near the treeline.  Most trees were fairly short or broken off due to frequent avalanches in the area.  Along the creek was a small rise that seems to survive the avalanches because the trees were much bigger.  It would have been a great camping spot if not for the mosquitos.  They were thick and ferocious, worse than anywhere else along the trail so far.  I made a fire, which I hardly ever take the time to do just so I could stand in the smoke to try and drive the mosquitos away.  It didn't work very well; DEET, smoke, sun and slapping couldn't drive them away, so I just went to bed with 100 of them buzzing around my head just outside the bug netting.

Crescent Lake

Day 102 - Crater Lake

After going the last mile up to the top of Crater Lake I found a water fountain, the last water along the trail for around 27 miles.  The trail goes around the rim of the crater between the road and the cliff.  It was a lot more up and down than I expected and combined with the excellent views the whole way, it was slow going.  I didn't see anyone else along the trail, just a bunch of cars driving between viewpoints.  I tried to not get in the way of people who didn't even want to get out of their cars and simply took pictures out their windows.  I managed to get through the viewpoints without any tourists stopping me for questions about where I was headed.  I don't mind talking to people about my hike, but it can get fairly repetitive with lots of people around, answering the same few questions everytime.  "Where are you hiking?  That's so far!  When did you start?  Alone!  What does your pack weigh?  What does your solar panel charge? How many bears have mauled you?"  I do kind of wish someone had asked where I was camping that night so I could point to Mt Thielsen off in the distance and say "Over on the side of that mountain way over there."

Beautiful weather + beautiful lake = beautiful pictures

There was a bit of snow on the north side of the rim. I also saw 6 deer on the hike around, Jon and I somehow managed to not see any during our 3 days together.

Mt Bailey, Diamond Lake, Diamond Peak, Mt Thielsen and way off in the distance, South Sister.

I made my way down the hill and across a huge, flat stretch to the highway where Jon had left the jug of water. I found it easily, hidden under a small tree off the side of the trail. Thanks to him, I didn't have to go all the way to the far side of Thielsen to get water for dinner, or go to bed thirsty. For how flat, dry and boring this area was, there were a ton of mosquitos. I have no idea why they choose to hang out among all these tall, thin pine trees, but it keeps hikers motivated and moving.

Day 99-101 - Sky Lakes

Friday morning Dad made us a big breakfast at Fish Lake.  We packed up and drove up the road a couple miles to the trailhead.  The area Jon and I will be hiking in is the Sky Lakes Wilderness.

The PCT stays along the ridges but there were plenty of side trails to lakes in the area. Jon and I took one to Island Lake, which had an island, but yielded no fish.

We continued on the side trail past Red Lake, fighting through low brush and fallen trees much of the way, until it looped back to the PCT. We took another trail down to Deer Lake where we camped for the night. Section hikers Rob and Barb walked by after a little while and camped nearby. Despite racking up over 18 miles of hiking, Jon still had the energy to walk around the lake and catch a few brook trout that evening after dinner.

On Saturday we climbed over a pass next to Devil's Peak. We had a good view of Mt McLoughlin behind us and the rim of Crater Lake in front and a very faint Mt Thielsen.

We took another side trail over to Cliff Lake and each caught a few fish. Again we found ourselves camped near Rob and Barb in a small patch of live trees in the edge of a large burned area. There was a spring a half-mile down the hill but we had enough for dinner and didn't go down that evening. The next morning I went down to get both of us water while Jon relaxed. We hiked out to where he left his car at a trailhead by early afternoon. We drove down to a restaurant at Mazama Village below Crater Lake for some pizza and fries. The next section from Crater Lake to Odell Lake starts out with a long dry section so Jon offered to drop a jug of water where the trail crosses the highway southeast of Diamond Lake. He headed home and I hiked a couple miles more, going partway up the climb to the Crater Lake rim.