August 14

8/14

33 miles (1801 to pct alternate mile 11)

We had no intention of hiking our biggest day so far today. We hiked 17 miles into mazama village in crater lake national park. We beelined into the restaurant and ordered all of the things. A burger each, soda, milkshake, salad bar and a 16" pizza. After, we headed across the parking lot to a herd of hikers and got our resupply box. Here we learned many things:

1. The pct was closed due to a fire in the west side of the park. This didn't really matter as we planned on hiking the alternate, the rim trail, to see crater lake. 

2. You are not allowed to camp on the rim of the lake, the next camping is in 15 miles. 

3. A ranger said the trail might close tomorrow due to the fire so if we wanted to hike north we should leave now. 

4. The next water is in 27 miles. 

None of this was the best news. Lots of hikers were planning to hitch around. But crater lake! So we packed up and by the time we headed out it was 5. The trail along crater lake was beautiful. The sunset was amazing. Then it was dark and cold, we were tired and still had many miles to go. We made it to camp around 11:30, pooped but glad we pressed on. The trail did end up closing, we were happy to make it through. It's probably inevitable that we will have to miss some of the trail use to fire closures, but not yet!