Day 124: Crater Lake NP - ⛺ @ mile 1'847.9

Date: 09.08.2018 Miles hiked today: 25.6 miles / 41.19 km Total Mileage: Mile 1'847.9 I got up earlier than Duchess and Parmesan today, which was not particularly easy after the wine night last night! But while these two skip 5 miles and take an oldfashioned trolley which brings you from the Village up to Crater Lake, also skipping a 1'000 feet climb, I decided to hike it, as it is part of the PCT. This 5 miles where also quite hard. Don't jnow if it is because of my little hang over but for sure the uphill sections where steeper than usually in Oregon. At the top there is a little restaurant and a souvenir shop and I was graving for a hot coffee. But the place only opens at 9am, 45 minutes to wait. Also Apachi, Halter and Darko are here too, already a while before me. We wait and have fun when other tourists arrive and trying to open the still closed door to the store:) finally it opens its doors but the food is crapy and very expensive so I just get some coffee. While Duchess and Parmesan only arrive afyet 9am and take a seat too it's time to check out the lake and move on for me together with Apachi, Helther, Darko and Nathalie. Crater lake is one of the highlights of Oregon and I'm excited. The smoke is here but not too bad, I think we are lucky again! It indeed looks really geourgous and we keep on shooting pictures while walking along the beautiful rim trail around the lake. We take it easy and i do enjoy it a lot. The only thing bothering me a tiny little bit is that water is getting rare again. It's a dry year this year, with not much snow and no rain so far. Luckily there is a water cache in 10 miles and the next one in 20 miles, maintained by some trailangels. Again I wouldn't know how to do it without external support from these fantastic people! Also, as of today a new heat wave is supposed to come, after we could enjoy some nice cooler days after leaving Ashland. I could already feel the warmer weather yesterday but today it's again quite hot. But the hike is very gentle and any uphills are very .moderate and easy to handle. At the first water cache I filled up 3.5 liters as we plan to camp 0.4 miles before the second one. And while hiking we talk about one of our favourite subject - food! What we are missing, what is our favourite food and what we are going to eat once back home. Miles were flying by and shortly after 6pm we reached the camp spot. We are a big group of 10 people since Crater Lake NP and we are all enjoying the early camp stop, cooking dinner and chatting till it's time for bed. Tomorrow we plan to hike 30 miles due to water shortage. Rather get that sleep and recovery in tonight! 

Crater Lake trolley bus

Beautiful crater lake