Towards an End: Day 110, With or Without You

Part 4, Oregon, Day 110

With or Without You

Miles: 27.13

Total Miles: 1836.4

The trail almost broke me today. I had a mental low point and it was hard to deal with. It actually started last night. The smoke from nearby fires was getting trapped in my tent, so I took my rain cover off. Minutes later it started to rain. I fell asleep in a wet, smoky tent.

I woke up at 4:30 am. It had been raining all night. I packed up early in the rain and dark, my throat sore from the smoke. There was so much smoke that it was hard to see. I walked in the dark as it rained water and ash on me at 5:45am.

The sky was grey and dark. I couldn't believe that the day I'd be at Crater Lake, the weather would be this foul. I was completely dejected. I held out hope that maybe the sky would clear, but the rain fell harder, and the wind blew stronger.

There was more smoke than the wildfire I walked through near Tahoe. All I could think was that I'd hiked 1800 miles to see Crater Lake and how horrible my luck is.

I was dirty, wet, and tired. The last 5 days have been a nightmare. This was a low point for me.

I did drink some water from this cache that someone left. I'm trying to hydrate more after getting sick from dehydration.

I got to Highway 92 and found this note:

I was surrounded by wildfires. It was hard to breath with all the smoke.

I walked down the road and cut across country to get to Mazama Village.

I picked up my resupply box at the store. I also checked the hiker boxes.

Us hikers exploded our packs on the picnic tables and organized our food.

I sent myself new socks. Pretty exciting shit.

I took a shower for 75 cents in the bathroom. It was awesome. I used some generic public bathroom soap and dried off with a sock. Epic 3 minute shower. Cliffhanger, Cookie Monster, and myself took off to hike towards the Crater Lake Rim at 11:30am.

This hike was straight uphill for 5 miles. It sucked so much.

I was happy to be done with the climb. I arrived at Rim Village at 1pm. It was raining.

I met Cookie Monster outside the lodge and we went in. It was a madhouse inside.

The gift shop was a sensory overload.

The food place was massively overpriced, so we ordered a bunch of hotdogs for cheap. I know...they look gross. they are gross, and whats with that mustard/ketchup ratio? I should apologize, but I cannot; it had to be done...

We checked out Crater Lake. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, cause of the smoke. still magnificent though, just truly special.

The lake is absolutely gorgeous; I'd hoped to see it in sunny weather.

I went to fill up 6 liters of water in the bathroom. There is no water for the next 30 miles. Here's some dirty hikers among the clean tourists:

At 2pm, I set out to hike the rim trail. The smoke and fog were getting thicker, and my pack with full resupply and 6 liters of water was at its heaviest weight ever.

The rim trail was very difficult with all this weight. The wind picked up and it started to storm.

Visibility started to get very low.

I kept thinking that if I'd been here 1 day earlier, I would have seen a crystal blue Crater Lake. This was still beautiful of course, in a different way.