Day 2 Crater Lake Park to highway 138
5.5 miles
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| Our tent site in the morning |
We were up and hiking by about 6:30. I put my tent in my
mesh pocket so it could dry out a bit and I meant to put my tent poles inside
my pack body.
We had 5.5 miles to go to get to our next water cache at
highway 138. We had 3 liters of water to
drink. Sounds easy if you’re hiking
alone, but not so easy if you are hiking with a suddenly obstinate ten year old
child. We passed through very
interesting forest again, interesting me to me because it was so different to
my home forests. I saw Letharia Columbiana lichens, Bryoria was everywhere too. I saw
several of the same type of bolete that I could not readily identify.
I had explosive diarrhea all morning and was not feeling too good.
Thru-hikers had written stuff on every single diamond on the trail. Many of them had written their trail names on the markers. I found it interesting, but did not think it was a good thing.
I had explosive diarrhea all morning and was not feeling too good.
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| Bryoria, Letharia and Usnea Lichen Rainbow |
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| Letharia columbiana lichen |
Thru-hikers had written stuff on every single diamond on the trail. Many of them had written their trail names on the markers. I found it interesting, but did not think it was a good thing.
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| Every marker had writing on it |
My daughter lagged a little but not as much as she did on
the first day. I reached our water cache
at ten PM and then we crossed highway 138 and took a break. I had heard that there might be a water cache
about ¼ of a mile north on the trail and I hoped that was true. I had cached one gallon of water for us at
highway 138 but with the slow pace we were doing, I was worried that would not
be enough water for us to reach the first water on the trail 11 miles away at
Thieson Creek. We drank 6 liters of
water on our first day. Would a gallon
be enough to get us to Thieson Creek?
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| Our one gallon cache with the two empty 2 liter bottles are from our first water cache. |
We poked around the campground a bit looking for another
water cache and then for some reason just at that point in time I realized that
I had left the tent pole behind at our campsite.
We would have to go back for our tent pole, my tent cannot stand up to thunder storms without its one back pole. I knew that I could not drag my daughter 5.5 miles back to the tent and then 5.5 miles back to 138 and even if I could, we would not have enough water for the next day. So I devised a plan to hitch back to where the road parallels the trail, bushwhack one mile in to retrieve the tent pole and then hitch back to Mazama Village to get water and to get an extra days worth of food out of the hiker box there. Then we would hitch back to highway 138, spend the night there and restart our hike to Thieson Creek in the morning.
We would have to go back for our tent pole, my tent cannot stand up to thunder storms without its one back pole. I knew that I could not drag my daughter 5.5 miles back to the tent and then 5.5 miles back to 138 and even if I could, we would not have enough water for the next day. So I devised a plan to hitch back to where the road parallels the trail, bushwhack one mile in to retrieve the tent pole and then hitch back to Mazama Village to get water and to get an extra days worth of food out of the hiker box there. Then we would hitch back to highway 138, spend the night there and restart our hike to Thieson Creek in the morning.
We left the PCT and stood on highway 138 and stuck our
thumbs out, little did I know that we would never step back onto the PCT again. We got a ride almost instantly, a nice woman
in a Subaru who was happy to help PCT hikers.
She went out of her way and took us back into Crater Lake Park even
though she was headed south and she gave us water and took our empty water
bottles from the water we had cached.
She left us on the road one mile from the trail.
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| nice place to bushwhack! |
I was relieved to see that bushwhacking was going to be
easy, there was actually a meadow for the first half of my bushwhack! A one mile bushwhack in the Olympics can be
very difficult with slide alder and devils club and all manner of vegetation to
block the way, but the forest here was wide open. I drug my daughter about a quarter of a mile
from the road and plopped her down under a tree to wait for me while I retrieved
the tent pole.
She had been lagging and I wanted to get out of that meadow
before the full heat of the day was upon us. I left all of our gear with her and then set out alone with just the GPS in my hand.
I was easily able to go back into the forest, find the trail and find
our tent pole. On the way back out of
the forest I did not use my GPS and at 12:15 l came out exactly even with the tree
I had left my daughter under.
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| Right where I left it |
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| Right where I left her |
They happily agreed to give us a ride! They were from Colombia and I talked to them about my visit to Panama and asked them if Colombia really was as dangerous and our news makes it sound like. They said no, Colombia is safe as long as you don’t go to the wrong places and sometimes watching the news in the USA makes them scared of their own country, but they know that it is safe there.
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| Inside the car of the Colombains, Laura and Filipe who gave us a ride to Mazama. They are standing outside waiting for the road construction to end |
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| Dangerous road construction project! |
Back at Mazama Village we found plenty of food in the hiker
box and got to meet lots of through hikers.
It was so fun! They were so nice
to us, we were through hikers for a day.
Since we were in town we decided to go ahead and take showers and drink
Arizona tea. What a great experience it
was to meet some thru hikers. One
hiker named Mugs or Bugs let me take pictures of her maps and let me use her tablet to sent and email to my husband, another hiker gave
us quarters for a shower and wanted no dollars in return.
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| L-R Cree, Bugs/Mugs? and I forget at the Mazma Laundry Mat on August 5th thanks for the help! |
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| It's tent city as through hikers dry out their lightweight shelters at Mazama Village at Crater Lake National Park on August 5th. |
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| Through hikers dry out their tents at Mazama Village in Crater Lake National Park on August 5th |
At 4pm we filled up all our water bottles and bladders and
started trying to get a ride back to the trail.
Trying to get a ride was hell. Hitchhiking
is not allowed, everyone in the parking area was going to The Mazama Camp
ground, the rangers could not help us get a ride unless it was an emergency. It was so hot and the elevation was so high and I think we dropped our guard and did
not drink enough water.
We tried and tried to get a ride, we asked so many people for a ride. I was lost, could not figure out where the
road out was, we kept wandering in circles in the heat trying to get a ride. My mood getting worse and worse.
At this point I realized that I was not thinking straight and that the elevation was to blame. For four hours we wandered around lost and confused trying to get a ride. Finally a thru-hiker was able to point out to us where the road out was, she also told me where the thru-hikers were camping and invited us to join them if we could not get a ride.
At this point I realized that I was not thinking straight and that the elevation was to blame. For four hours we wandered around lost and confused trying to get a ride. Finally a thru-hiker was able to point out to us where the road out was, she also told me where the thru-hikers were camping and invited us to join them if we could not get a ride.
Once we found the road out I knew that everyone on that
road would be going north through the park, so we should be able to get a ride,
we walked just until we were out of sight of the ranger booth and we were even with
the Annie Smith Trail. My plan was to
try to hitchhike there until it got dark and if did not get a ride before dark
we would camp just off the trail.
It only took about ten minutes for us to get a ride once we
were standing in the right place. At about 8 pm a man driving a truck towing a
trailer stopped and asked us if we wanted to go to Diamond Lake. Diamond Lake sounded perfect, it would get us
to water and it would get us 4 miles up the trail to make up for the time we
had lost.
In the morning wee could hike up the Mount Thieson Trail along Thieson Creek and have water most of the way. What luck for us to get a ride to Diamond Lake!
Maybe that is why it took all day for us to get a ride; this bit of luck was just waiting for us. It turned out that the man was part of a couple; his wife was behind him also driving a truck but towing a boat. They had come all the way from Nevada in two pickup trucks. They were going to spend the week camping and fishing with their kids at Diamond Lake. They were both ex-truck drivers and I felt like I had a lot in common with them.
In the morning wee could hike up the Mount Thieson Trail along Thieson Creek and have water most of the way. What luck for us to get a ride to Diamond Lake!
Maybe that is why it took all day for us to get a ride; this bit of luck was just waiting for us. It turned out that the man was part of a couple; his wife was behind him also driving a truck but towing a boat. They had come all the way from Nevada in two pickup trucks. They were going to spend the week camping and fishing with their kids at Diamond Lake. They were both ex-truck drivers and I felt like I had a lot in common with them.
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| Finally a ride out of Mazama at 8pm the trailer in front was part of the convoy that took us out. |
It was a shame that they took us to the wrong side of the
lake, but since it was dark and we were in a strange place, I did not say
anything, I just stayed with them until they got us to the campground they were
staying at.
At the campground we stumbled out of their truck and found ourselves a camp spot for the night in the dark. We were exhausted, hot, tired and elevation sick. I did not pitch the tarp. I told my daughter that we could take a nero or a zero day in the morning to make up for the hard time we had getting out of Mazama.
The camp hosts agreed to let us pay in the morning since I did not have change and we had been dropped on in the dark and we had not been expecting to stay the night in a car campground.
I had a headache again tonight.
At the campground we stumbled out of their truck and found ourselves a camp spot for the night in the dark. We were exhausted, hot, tired and elevation sick. I did not pitch the tarp. I told my daughter that we could take a nero or a zero day in the morning to make up for the hard time we had getting out of Mazama.
The camp hosts agreed to let us pay in the morning since I did not have change and we had been dropped on in the dark and we had not been expecting to stay the night in a car campground.
I had a headache again tonight.
http://mosswalks.blogspot.com/2014/08/pct-day-one-rim-village.html
Day Two:
http://mosswalks.blogspot.com/2014/08/pct-day-2-crater-lake-park-to-highway.html
Day Three:
http://mosswalks.blogspot.com/2014/08/pct-day-3.html
Day four:
http://mosswalks.blogspot.com/2014/08/pct-day-4-diamond-lake-to-chemult.html
Day five:
http://mosswalks.blogspot.com/2014/08/day-5-going-nowhere-fast-chemult-to.html
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