Miles today: 24.9

Trail miles sum: 1138.6

Trail location: 1820.9

Elevation: 6177

Spinning on the turntable: Johnny Cash: At Fulsome Prison

My view from my campsite this morning was amazing, but a little dark. I’ve noticed in the past week or two that I need to use my headlamp when I wake up in the morning to sort my vitamins and eat my breakfast. (Winter is coming…)

Today the mosquitoes were waiting for me outside the tent, buzzing happily in anticipation of the morning buffet I would offer. I’m guessing that there were 25 of the little blood suckers hovering around me when it was time to urinate. I danced, wiggled, and shooed them away from my delicate bits while I did my business. I Deeted up and got to work.

Right after I left camp, it was straight back onto rocky trail. Curses. Hard on my feet, hard on the trekking poles and hard on the morale.

I killed the bold mosquito that landed on my wrist and then left him as a warning to his friends. It didn’t help so I moved onto plan B, putting the hat net back on.

The hopeless look in my eyes is exactly that! Having hiked in Oregon during mosquito season I know that there is no remedy to the mosquitoes. Just bear up, don’t whine too much, and keep moving.

Other hikers were brutalized today and ended up with 50+ bites. I’m guessing I may have collected 10 bites, so I’m counting myself quite lucky.

I spent several hours hiking through another forest fire area. No shade and no water.

This ended up being a 20 mile water carry day. The seasonal creeks have dried up in this stretch of trail. I drank heavily the first four or five miles and then filled up my water bottles at the last water source. After filling up the bottles I worked to stay hydrated but not to chug the water during the rest of the day.

It’s nice to see the forest fire recovery with some greenery. Looks like the fire was a few years ago based on the new growth of trees.  I also saw this toad hiding among the sticks.

It was good to enter Crater Lake. The forest service was kind enough to post a notice for thru-hikers that we should back country camp (only) and leave the established sites for the other park guests.

Noelle and I hadn’t talked about it but will most likely take a zero tomorrow and explore the park. I’ve never been here before and I’m anxious to look around. It’s rumored to be quite spectacular.

Noelle hiked out to meet me and we hiked back to the van together late in the afternoon. There were no vacancies at the park for camping or RV sites.

The park does allow thru-hikers to share a site each night. It’s quite nice of them actually! I wasn’t feeling particularly sociable so we drove out of the National park and back onto State forest property. Once on State forest land we (and you!) can camp anywhere. We parked in a snow park parking lot. I laughed at how many other cars and tents appeared in the parking lot during the evening, perhaps ten in total.

Cheapskates unite!