It was misty, but I got up early and started hiking. It started raining.
This fuzzy picture of this little buck with Crater Lake and Wizard Island in the background could have been a nice shot.
The sunrise over Crater Lake almost made the early departure worth it, but not quite.
My morale was slipping. The trail came close to a trailhead and I saw a guy getting in his car so I yogied a ride back to where I'd been the day before, out of the rain to the Crater Lake Lodge.
The combination of being cold, not getting many miles, and the forecast of more rain did not make for optimism. Theresa to the rescue.
Theresa drove up to Crater Lake, about three hours, allowed me to slack pack, and brought me some needed items and an effective morale boost. After slack packing for seven miles she had lunch for me. Then slack packing another eight miles led to going through gear and making needed adjustments. Then she was off to again take care of things at home. It's an understatement to say she is supportive of me on this goofy adventure. Wow, a six hour round trip today mostly just to provide encouragement.
Crater Lake is beautiful, but the clouds and fog made views less than what they could have been. Even so, it was beautiful.
It was so nice to see the blue truck at the road crossing leaving Crater Lake NP and entering the Winema NF. The bad news is this now meant no more slack packing.
With the problems I had with slow leaks in my air mattress, Pokemon let me use his Z-Rest after we finished our hike together to Etna Summit. It was my chance to compare. Conclusions. The pad has the advantage during breaks. In an instant it was something comfortable to sit on, or even lay on for an afternoon nap. For sleeping it wasn't as comfortable as the air mattress. I sleep on my side, and now have lost so much weight my bony hips reach to the ground. The caveat is the air mattress must be able to keep air in it.
Theresa to the rescue. She had just repaired the stripping around the windshield on our Honda. She had extra windshield repair goop. The windshield goop is now on the air mattress and it holds air fine now. Who would have guessed.
Thank you Pokemon for the use of your Z-Rest the last few weeks.
I was going to wait until I entered Washington to switch from my bivy sack to a tent, but the rain moved up the implementation date. Theresa brought the tent and I handed over the bivy sack. The night before, having to go to bed early due to the rain, and being in that enclosed space without sleeping, was the final straw. The bivy sack served me well, but with serious rain it just wasn't the answer.
The first night in the tent was like a night in the Hilton. Listening to the rain hitting the rain fly, and being comfortable inside, made the extra weight worth it. The air mattress that held air was a bonus.
August 14-Thursday-Mount Thielson
Mount Thielson and Thielson Creek.
It didn't clear up completely, but mist and clouds are better than hard rains. It seemed that many hikers held back in Crater Lake for the storm to clear so there wasn't much company on the trail. The hikers I did see were mostly southbounders, SOBO's. SOBO's generally start from the Canadian border at the end of June or first of July, so now we're meeting as we cross paths.
One SOBO related how most NOBO's he met met had to skip large portions of trail because of fires. They will have to flip flop, come back and do the missed part later, to complete their thru-hike this year. Many had skipped Castella to Ashland, and he'd met a few who had skipped from Old Station to Ashland. No wonder I'm now behind the pack.
He was surprised I had been able to go footstep to footstep all the way from Mexico. I have been lucky, just passing through as the Klamath fires started.
I continue to be lucky because the Three Sisters area was closed earlier due to fires, but opened up. No detour needed.
This was a 30 mile day.
There are mosquitoes in Oregon.
August 15-Friday-Shelter Cove, and a Nasty Blister
I went off trail to the small resort of Shelter Cove, on Odell Lake. They had what I needed: 1) Power to charge phone; 2) ice cream; 3) hot dogs (basically all the food they had, but good enough) and, most importantly;
4) moleskin for my blisters.
The scenery is nice, but much of it is a green tunnel. There are a lot of tees in Oregon. I was considering getting a solar powered backpack charger for my phone. They worked so well for folks in the desert and the sierras. My daughter Staci (Hotshot) convinced I shouldn't because I was entering Oregon. She was right, a solar charger would be useless here.
Conditions are perfect for getting high mileage days. The trail tread is in good shape, not rocky or with roots. The slopes aren't steep, and the inclines are relatively short, elevations aren't near as high as the California part of the trail, and under the trees (where most of the time is in this state) it remains cool and comfortable.
My third thirty-mile day, and the second thirty-mile day in a row.
August 16-Saturday-Hiking with a Catholic Priest----named Hotshot
Early in the day hiking I ran across this surprise gathering of folks. The trail was part of the Waldo 100K Run. These were support people from one of the stations. They had food (for the runners) ham radio operators, and plenty of energy.
The race ran along part of Charlton Lake. There was also Charlton Butte and Charlton Creek. I thought my friends Tom and Lois Charlton would like that. I'm still looking for Harris Lake, Harris Butte, and Harris Creek:)
This nice man came up and joined me as I was eating my lunch. His trail name is Hotshot. Another Hotshot!!! My daughter, Staci, also has the trail name Hotshot.
He got the name ten years ago when he thru-hiked the PCT. He came across a small forest fire and had it lined and basically out by the time two smokejumpers arrived. He was the original Hotshot.
I joked about how to differentiate between him and my daughter, he had the answer. He is sometimes called Father Hotshot because he's a Catholic Priest.
We hiked together for four or five hours and I got to know him. My blisters were hurting, and he seemed okay with me setting an exceptionally slow pace because of the discomfort. Quite an interesting man, with a degree in Physics. He's sixty years old, and has been in the Portland area for his pastoral career. He has a month off and his goal is to hike the Oregon portion of the PCT.
When he stopped for dinner he asked if I wanted to join him for mass since it was Saturday night, even though I'm not Catholic. He brought out all the sacramental cup, wafers, sacramental wine, the missels, and the cloth sash that he wears and other stuff. It was an impressive collection. How much did it add to his base weight?
He didn't want to do mass alone. I was torn, I wanted to watch the mass just because of the uniqueness of the situation, but I also really wanted to get in another thirty mile day.
The thirty mile day won out. I said goodbye to Father Hotshot and finished my hike. I was careful for that last bit of the hike. If something would have happened I knew it would have been because I hadn't stuck around for mass.
If he blesses his water, does he still have to filter it?
There are mosquitoes in Oregon. Father Hotshot called all the beautiful little ponds "mosquito breeding ground number ..." with a sneer as he walked by. I thought mosquitoes were the state bird of Oregon, but he told me it's really the western meadowlark.
I safely completed my third thirty-mile day in a row. Whew.
Finished here at mile 1949, near Horseshoe Lake.
