Got up at the crack of dawn. Packed my stuff then riffled through the hiker box looking for some extras to take on the trail. Mike had dumped some spam single servings and kind bars that I grabbed. Also found some Knorr rice sides. With that, I took one last trip to the clean bathrom then headed out. Was on the access trail by 7ish.

 

So I was debating whether to hit the rim trail around crater lake or just follow the PCT route. After slapping some skeeters, I chose the PCT route. I had heard it was mostly burned and the views sucked, but at least I would be hiking without a swarm of bugs and tourists. Well it was certainly all burned up.

While hiking this section Alice, who is monitoring my InReach dot closely, starts sending me messages that I’m off the trail and should be going around the rim. I’m texting her back that this is the actual PCT and rim trail is an alternate. Of course texting by satellite is not the quickest and messages are overlapping. Finally I just stopped and carried on hiking. Don’t worry honey!

Found a nice spot for lunch at Copeland creek (1829). Ate some of my hiker box winnings while lounging in the bug-free shade. Only saw one group on the trail going south. The guy said they were looking for solitude. I pointed South and said he’d find plenty.

After that I reached the trailhead and parking lot at 1839. Trail Angels have stocked a nice water cache there. I refilled and sat down to take a break. Before long an SUV drives up and out hops 3 gals. Two older ladies who are sisters and their younger cousin. One from Alabama, other from New Mexico, and the cousin from Oregon somewhere. Anyway, they want to know about the trail I just hiked cuz they plan to hike it + crater rim in a loop. So after all that they ask me if I needed anything. I’m like “no, I’m fine” then they start listing off things “candy bars, soda, gatorade, cheetos….” Wait, CHEETOS???? One of them runs back and pulls out a huge bag of cheeto paws and hands it to me. Makes my day.

So, I’m sitting there munching my Cheetos when this nice, big RV shows up. The gal driving parks it and pops out all 7 months preggers. She tells me she is supporting her husband who is running the trail, trying to beat the record for the quickest supported thru-hike/run in under 50 days. He has been doing 50+ miles a day ! Her barfooted, shirtless son of 8-10 years old appears at some point while we are talking. He perches himself squating on the hood of the RV. He has hair down to his waste and it looks like his haircuts are designed to simply keep most of it out of his face. Real wild child. They are from Ashland. You meet the funniest folks out here.
Anyway, I hike another mile or so and setup at a huge flat spot and quickly fall asleep.