Pacific Crest Trail Hike: OR & WA Section C & D – Mile 1774 – 1848

Hello all! The Pacific Crest Trail taught me many lessons about how to stay agile and adaptable about your plans… or rather what you think your plans will be. A new fire popped up in this section just ahead of me and had I been 1 day ahead, I would have been fine. Despite these challenges, the immense beauty of Crater Lake National Park outweighed it all.

PCT OR & WA Section C & D Summary

Statistics:

Days: 4
Full hiking days: 3
Zeroes: 1
Neros: 0
Total Trail Miles Hiked: 72.5
Total Miles Hiked: 72.9
Trail Elevation Gain: 9715 ft
Trail Elevation Loss: 8782 ft

Highlights:

Crater Lake National Park! I cannot express how beautiful sunrise was. It was a day that I will remember for the rest of my life.
Shelter Cove Resort – an adult summer camp. Please take me back!
The trail angel community of Southern/Central Oregon amazed me with their kindness and organization.

Lowlights:

Fires continued to pop up around me leading to skipped miles and complicated logistics.
Mosquitoes please leave me alone.
Personal life continued to pull me mentally away from the trail.

PCT OR & WA Section C & D Detailed Version

Day 117: Mile 1774.4 – 1802.0

Trail Daily Miles: 27.3
Total Daily Miles: 28.1
Total Trail Mileage: 1802.0
Elevation Gain: 4039 ft
Elevation Loss: 2845 ft
Weather: Hot, Buggy
Overall Day Sentiment: Thirsty!

To be honest, I do not remember much of this day. I took notes every day of my hike, but there was nothing too much of note for this stretch. Some days are just days you had to get miles in!

This day did have long water carries unless you wanted to trudge far off the trail on overgrown herd paths to swampy ponds. This was actually the one and only day that I ran out of water by the time I got to camp.

A few other items of note on this day were crossing 1800 miles on the trail and calling my dearest friend Darline for her birthday because I had cell service on the side of a mountain. There was also a decent amount of snow on the last descent of the day as I headed into camp. It was sweltering out, but the snow remained. It was insult to injury because the slowly melting snow created a great habitat for breeding mosquitoes. This meant that while I was slipping in slushy snow, I was being attacked by bugs – but unable to move quickly because of footing.

My tent site for the night was near a small stream which was much appreciated after I had run out of water. Once in my tent, the bugs continued to swarm and buzzed outside the mesh.

Day 118: Mile 1802.0 – 1822.7

Trail Daily Miles: 22.7
Total Daily Miles: 21
Total Trail Mileage: 1822.7
Elevation Gain: 2656 ft
Elevation Loss: 2846 ft
Weather: Hot, Bugs
Overall Day Sentiment: …Another fire?

The mosquito symphony continued throughout the night and into the morning. This in combination with how hot and sticky everything was.. was not a very good motivator for getting going. I detest the mosquitoes so much that I donned my fully covered outfit (pants, long sleeve, headnet) despite the heat. If I am honest, it was a grumpy first 5 miles for me. Only after these 5 miles did I feel comfortable enough from the relentless bugs to take the 5 minutes to switch out of my fully protective gear into my much more temperature appropriate ensemble.

I sat down to change when a beautiful adolescent male mule deer joined me. I stayed at this break, taking my time putting on my layers of DEET in order to spend more time with him. It was these tiny moments that popped me out of whatever funk I was in and served as a reminder that what I am doing is special and should be appreciated. This is not me saying that it is all sunshine and cute animals, because at the same time I a miserably hot, covered in mosquito bites, and perpetually thirsty. But rather remembering that it is the tiny things that add up happiness.

After I switched my outfit, the trail became a bit more challenging. Just before entering Crater Lake National Park, this area had been burned badly in recent years from wildfires. This meant it was approximately 11 miles of tree blowdowns. It gave me flashbacks to the day that Bags and I had been counting blowdowns and lost count at more than 400. Though there were not that many in this section, some of them proved difficult to climb over and were on steep inclines. This was definitely a day that I needed to use many podcasts to keep my mind occupied because it was plain frustrating.

Eventually I crossed over into the official National Park boundary and suddenly – all the blowdowns were gone! Being able to just hike the trail rather than hoist myself up and over soot covered trunks was a true treat. The plan head into Mazama Village, where I had a package waiting for me, get some food, and camp for the night. There was a bit of a roadwalk into the actual village, but it was completely manageable. Upon arrival, I realized that the fires had once again moved everyone around and there were countless hikers. The park actually has a free camping area for PCT hikers and it was packed with over 30 hikers.

I continued with some chores of picking up my package, setting up my tent for the night, taking a quick shower, and setting up charging in the restaurant. This is where the hoard of hikers discover that the tiny plume of smoke I had seen the day before had turned into something serious. While we were all eating dinner that night, the PCTA officially closed the section north of Highway 138 near Mount Thielsen due to a fire, the aptly named Trail Fire. This was the topic of conversations for the rest of the night. There were some folks saying they were going to roadwalk around it, get a ride into the tiny forest road that dropped off right after the official closure, and the majority of people decided just to head to Shelter Cove Resort on Odell Lake. Heading to Shelter Cove Resort is eventually what Yeti and I decided to do after looking at the logistics of the other options.

But first, Crater Lake for sunrise.

Day 119: Mile 1822.7 – 1848.8

Trail Daily Miles: 22.5
Total Daily Miles: 23.8
Total Trail Mileage: 1848.8
Elevation Gain: 3020 ft
Elevation Loss: 3101 ft
Weather: Sun, Cold, Warm
Overall Day Sentiment: Perfect

This was one of my favorite days on the entire trail.

Despite the 2:45am wake up to hike the 5 miles to the top of the rim by sunrise (5:10am), I was filled with excitement. Crater Lake had been on my list of must-sees for too long and I had been holding out on seeing it until I could hike there (from Mexico!). As the PCT goes through Crater Lake National Park, it technically does not go on the popular rim trail. I had given up on my purist trail idea and doing the alternate rim hike was the obvious choice. The alternate trail from the PCT – and Mazama Village – was not graded for stock animals and presented very steep. So as Yeti and I were groggily bumbling in the dark to reach the rim in time, it was work.

We arrived at the top of the rim just after 5:00am and were surprised to see several other hikers there doing the same thing as us. Some were even celebrating with an early morning drink! In a turn of weather, it was freezing on the rim. So I pulled out my sleeping implements and began to watch the sun rise in a perfectly clear sky. I am rarely lost for words, but this was a moment in my life that needed no commentary. If you are ever lucky enough to find yourself at Crater Lake National Park, you MUST sit on the rim for sunrise. I even took a Timelapse video to capture it – but was disappointed to find that my camera focused on the ground, rather than the Crater.

I really wish I could put into words the impact this experience had on me, but it wouldn’t do it justice.

After the sun was fully up, Yeti and I continued along the rim hike and stumbled into several other hikers. It seems as though this is one of (if not THE) most popular alternate on the entire Pacific Crest Trail. I hiked the majority of the alternate and had some small road walks interspersed. The views along the rim were truly indescribable and throughout the hours and hours I hiked along it, I never got sick of looking at the lake. I stopped for an extra long lunch under a tree overlooking the lake. I watched tour boats go in and out of coves, watched birds of prey ride the thermals that the heat + water provided, and watched other thru-hikers hike by with mouths agape.

At this point, the trail soon rejoined the official PCT and it was a reminder of what was to come. North of Highway 138, there was a fire closure near Mount Thielsen that barred me from continuing on. The remaining 8 miles of the day were in and out of a burn zone and seemed to drag on. It could have been coming off of the high that was seeing Crater Lake in all of its glory or the fact we were facing yet another fire closure that would force hikers to skip northbound miles.

I decided to head into Chemault, OR for the night which was about halfway via the detour I needed to take to Shelter Cove Resort. The trail angels of this area were READY for the hikers because by the time I got to the road, there was a trail angel (Cody!) waiting. He had recruited neighbors and friends in the efforts as well because it could be a hard hitch. Several of us loaded into the back of his pickup truck and headed into Chemault. He had also helped us arrange a ride to Shelter Cover Resort in the morning, which was a huge relief as it is a decently long ride.

Though I didn’t have time to do laundry in town; a shower, dinner, and of course ice cream topped off the night.

Day 120: Mile 1907.6

Trail Daily Miles: 0
Total Daily Miles: 0
Total Trail Mileage: ???
Elevation Gain: 0 ft
Elevation Loss: 0 ft
Weather: Warm
Overall Day Sentiment: I miss summer camp.

I was awoken by the sound of someone unlocking my hotel room door and it was not the other hiker I was sharing a room with. A man with two coffees began to enter and when he saw me laying in bed, I responded by saying, “This is not your room” and he swiftly left. This would be an omen for the first half of my day. As mentioned in my last post, there were some things going on at home that were top of mind during this section and it continued to be true this day. The morning was spent connecting with loved ones at home and trying to sort out what to do next – from the middle of Oregon. Eventually I had the situation settled, but it left me with an uneasiness for the remainder of the day.

Yeti and I had arranged a ride at around noon with a new trail angel (read: just Cody’s neighbor who was helping!) to Shelter Cove Resort. Reminder that this was the next logical road crossing after Highway 138 and the Trail Fire closure. We arrived there midday and what an absolute delight! The resort was full of families camping and engaging in water activities as it is situated on Odell Lake. It was one of the most hiker friendly areas I had stumbled across and it made me wish I could take a zero here. After the cruddy hotel and unexpected guest entering my room – this really made me wish we had just come all the way here the night prior.

They had a wonderful camping and rest area free for PCT hikers. There were charging stations along with robust hiker boxes. Because we were once again being bounced around due to fires, many of us were overflowing with resupply and had too much for the next section. I had two boxes slated to arrive here, but they were not there. Unfortunately one of those boxes included my new pair of shoes that I desperately needed. Despite having the guaranteed arrival date confirmed, they still were not there. After much stress, I was able to find my soon to be discontinued shoes online and had them sent to Bend, OR – my next town stop. This would mean that my shoes would have over 500 miles on them when I was headed into the lava fields… great. My food resupply box also did not come and with me being gluten free, this posed a bit of an issue. But with everyone donating to the hiker boxes, I was able to fill in any gaps I had.

The remainder of the day was spent doing laundry at their facilities, eating ice cream with Yeti sitting on a dock on the lake, playing ping pong, and sitting around a campfire with other hikers. It felt like a true summer camp and I was thankful to be there.

xoxo

Leeann/Kanga