Twister!!! Mazama Village and Crater Lake, OR

    The photo of the day. It beats the Crater Lake photo (not yet posted). And, I'll have better ones soon of the lake. Look closely for the wind tunnel. 

8/3/13 Saturday
Crater Lake, OR
I got going and went on a side trail in error, but it had water and I was running low, so it worked out. It was shorter than the PCT, I think. I got back on PCT and saw some dust stirring about off in the distance. I thought it was just some tractor, or car, or something, but I noticed nothing was under it. I got a little closer and realized it was a little twister. I dropped my pack and sprinted towards it. I was gonna throw my hat in, then jump in. Well, it fizzled out in the trees before I could get there. That was the most exciting thing on the PCT so far. It was nuts! There was a wind tunnel going up to a cloud and it was full on making a mess out of sand. I got about 50 yards from it. I had dropped my pack off trail, so it took me about 30 mins to find it among the trees. Oh well. It was definitely worth it. I got to the Mazama Village and had a burger. Then, I headed to the hiker store for a good hiker box scrounging and to pick up my food box that I sent from Ashland. And beer. I got a ride up to the Crater Lake and sat around that restaurant for a sec. The Crater Lake is amazing. It's so blue and it goes down pretty far. An employee asked if I wanted to stay at the employee dorm, so I went for it. They were awesome. I got a shower, laundry, Internet, and beer. The Taiwanese that were there saw that I was hungry, and cooked me up an amazing meal. It was a very college like night in the employee dorm. I was kinda famous, also. Everyone had heard that there was a PCT hiker in the dorm, so I just started to go with it and went around and met a lot of funny and cool people. I was introducing myself by saying, "I'm the famous PCT hiker." The funny thing is that they were always saying, "Oh. I heard about you at work today." Then, a barrage of PCT questions. 'Twas a good night. 

Before Crater Lake

8-2
Before Crater Lake, OR
The morning miles were pretty cold so just walking was good to stay warm. Great morning hiking weather. I had my morning business meeting in the woods, and on the return, it took me some extra time to find my pack and the trail. It's easy to get confused out here in these Oregon woods. There are trees everywhere and no way of seeing anything but the trees directly around you. Well, it took me about 30 minutes to find my pack after the business deal was done. I wandered around off trail thinking that I had no idea where the trail was for about 15 mins, then hit the trail and didn't know which way to walk. So, I went to the right, turned around for about a half mile, turned around again, then did almost a full mile back to my pack. At least I didn't get caught just wandering around with tp saying, "I was just lookin' for the best spot." Oh boy. It was nice to get up on a ridge where I could see. Shasta is still monsterous towering over everything. Hadn't seen that for a while. 15ish to Crater Lake tomorrow, should be great. 

August 2013!!! (117 Days) Mile 1780.5 Fish Lake Resort, OR

             
           An old lava river covered in fog

August 1
Fish Lake Resort, OR
We got going into the fog this morning but all of us seemed to like it. Fog is perfect hiking weather. It got pretty thick at times, to where we could only see a few trees away. Also, the trees are even more dense than normal, so it was kinda spooky, scary movie spooky. We got to break and I made some of the best trail food yet. It was a burrito with cheese and Taco Bell sauce. It was soooo good. I had 3 good size burritos. My feet started cramping up around the end of the day, so I did about 15 minutes barefoot. It felt good. I didn't make it far, maybe a couple hundred yards, but it felt good. All the fog and rain did knock most of the smoke out of the air from the fire, which is nice. Great day. I like fog since I grew up with it. And we don't get much fog on the crest so it was a good change of pace to have thick fog. 

Shelter in Oregon

        The Shelter

July 31
I got up at about 9 today and didn't get out of camp till 10:30am. It was great. I slept in and it was perfect. Also, I was clean from the hot shower last night. I had my breakfast then decided I was still hungry, so I made 2 bean burritos that were delicious. In addition, I had 3 pouches of oatmeal and a builder bar, so I was ready to start the day. I ran into Eli and Gabby at the water and they said they just got going too. We did most of the day together and got about 20 or so miles in. It was a nice, easy day. It started to look cloudy and we got to our shelter, which was a legit hut. It started to drizzle and thunder off in the distance, so we decided that we might as well just sleep in the shelter. It was great because it did rain a bit and thunder. I slept great inside. There was an old school well that was pretty fun too. We had to pump it a few times to get it going. 

     More Oregonian Rolling Hills

Fog Smog in Southern Oregon

                          The fog smog blocking a good view of a cool looking rock. 

July 30
20 miles out of Ashland, OR
We got going and I quickly realized I couldn't do a 30 mile day and hold these guys pace so I fell back. I was feeling a lot better but I had a campground with hot showers in mind 20 miles away. Perfect. I got a few breaks, a good siesta, and took off a mile or so on a shortcut, thanks to Double It. It was a good day. The smoke was kinda a downer, but oh well. It's pretty thick and is definitely adding to the not feeling well. I call it fog-in-LA-smog. Fog smog. Also, it's making it so we can't see Shasta. I know it's out there, but the smoke is way too thick to see it. Well, the day ended with a hot shower, and I got to sit down during the shower! Now that's luxury. 

Ashland, Oregon

July 28 and 29
Ashland, OR
The zero day went well. I got everything accomplished that I needed to. I had some good Oregonian beer, some good food, and good rest. The morning of my way out of town it was pretty smoggy from a fire that's nearby. That, along with walking the hot streets while doing my resupply, made me not feel too great. So, it wasn't a pretty exit from Ashland for me, but it happened. I got on the trail and ate my sammich, drank lots of water, and didn't walk very far, maybe a mile. You can tell how smokey it is just by looking at a tree 50 yards away. I need to get out of it. 

      Smokey the Doug

PCT info and Daily Updates

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