Day 4: Crater Lake!

    Day 4: 22.5 miles

    We woke up to the sound of rain around 3:30am! This came as quite a surprise to us since it was super clear the night before. So clear in fact, we slept without the fly on our tent! Peter had hung our food/packs high up a tree and there was no quick way to solve our issue so we decided to pack up and start our 12 mile walk to Crater Lake.

Morning light!

    The rain led to a short lived thunder storm and we were greeted by a beautiful sunrise. Peter was having a hard time eating this morning and I think we were both excited to get to the amenities that existed at Crater Lake. I had read the comments in the Guthook PCT app about the amazing breakfast at the Crater Lake Lodge and so I hiked and fantasized. 

    We reached the road to Crater Lake and had about 3km to walk to get to the visitor Center. My right knee began to bother me as we walked down the road, right about where my ITBand inserts on my tibia. That was a bit worrisome. I stopped and stretched and focused on firing my glutes and luckily it didn't bother me again. At 9am we reached our destination and dropped our bags behind the general store. We were able to poach some wifi and were able to FaceTime our family for the first time! 

    

I was sad to learn that the lodge with the breakfast I was fantasizing about was a couple hour hike up the trail. The restaurant where we were had mixed reviews but it would have to do. The restaurant wouldn't open for another hour or so which was fine because we had some re-supply shopping to do! 

    We had planned to re-supply out of the general store and this would be our first winging it re-supply of the trip. I walked into the store and quickly realized that this would be an interesting shop. The store didn't really have the things that I was expecting to find and so I bought a drumstick ice cream cone and walked back outside and contemplated my food choices. Upon further review there was actually some pretty good stuff in there. One of the best things we bought were bagels and cream cheese. It was the only time we had that on trail but we talked about it often later in the trip. I also picked up a bunch of chocolate/granola bars, nuts, gummies, and chips. Trail food isn't glamorous but it sure is tasty! We re-packed our bags with all our new goodies and walked over for lunch at Annie's restaurant. I had a buffalo chicken wrap and Peter had a beyond meat burger and we both really enjoyed it! 

    We walked out of there with full bellies and began our hike up to the Rim of Crater Lake. This trail was steep and it was probably the hardest climb we had done in our 4 days of hiking. This just made it all that much sweeter once we got our first view of the lake! It is a thing of beauty! 

    Peter had mentioned that he thought the Rim trail would be pretty flat but it turned out to be quite the opposite. We were again in a stretch with very few water sources. We were starting to get tired and knew we would have to dry camp tonight. We didn't have enough water to make it all the way to the water cache tomorrow but luckily we came across a parking lot and found a nice couple who so generously gave us some water! 

Our dinner spot. A PCT hiker had made that and hung it in the tree. 

    Not long after we found an amazing flat spot just outside the park boundary and set up camp for the night. The clouds were starting to roll in and we got the tent up just as it started to rain. I love listening to the pitter patter of rain on the fly once I'm all cozy in my sleeping bag. This was a day to remember. 

Marathon and Pole Vault