Walking to Places I’ve only Driven to Before

Morning comes at Crater Lake National Park. We sleep in a bit, tired from our 95 mile push over 3 days. We pack up and head to the store to sort our package and enjoy a hot coffee, leftover pizza, and doughnuts for breakfast. Bidding farewell our fellow hiker trash, we start up the hill to actually see Crater Lake. Three years ago we were here on a trip and picked up two PCT hikers, drove them to the swimming hole and gave them a little trail magic. It’s nostalgic to return as PCT hikers ourselves. We’ve officially reached on foot the southernmost part of the trail that we’ve driven to.

The climb up to the rim is steep. We arrive up there and are a little overwhelmed by the heat and all of the tourists in big RVs. We slowly tread through the rim trail. Despite our hopes, we don’t get any trail magic ourselves.

It’s a hot day, and our late start doesn’t help the heat. Our PCT permit does not permit us to camp within the park. We have to make it to a water cache just outside of the park before we can rest. There are tons of hikers there also doing the same thing. Once again, we get into camp and crash.

Shelter Cove Shortcut

Before reaching Bend, we’re going to arrive at another small lakeside resort along the trail called Shelter Cove. We have a box of resupply waiting there as it’s the only option for topping up food between here and Bend. We leave the water cache in the morning and do close to 30 miles to another water cache. We walk past Mount Theilson and through the beautiful cruisey Oregon forests. I love the draping mosses that decorate the trees and blow in the breeze.

That afternoon as we’re finishing our descent, clambering over blowdown, smoke rolls in. It’s not bad but we know the fires are not far and smoke is starting to become a concern. We make it to our water cache as the sun sets, have a hurried dinner in the tent and crash asleep.

The next morning, we have a late start. We have discovered in the FarOut comments a shortcut! The detour is still on trail, but shaves about 8 miles off of our day to get to Shelter Cove. This comes in especially handy as the store and restaurant close at 6 PM. By skipping those 8 miles we will arrive in time to get a meal. We walk on horse paths and even get to see a group of equestrians out for a ride. It’s a nice treat. The alternate takes us along a lovely creek and we’re glad for the well maintained trail.

We arrive at Shelter Cove and find more hikers, some of whom we haven’t seen in 1000 miles. We have a joyous reunion and a big dinner. We get to shower and do laundry – an added treat of our arrival time. The shower is delightfully hot and makes up for the hurried one we had at the National Park. As for the laundry – it’s much needed as we haven’t done it since Ashland. After lots of laughs with our friends we share a cider and watch the sunset from the deck.

Magical Oregon Continues

The next day it’s back to flowy, pine needle covered, lake studded Oregon trail for us. As we pass one of the lakes there’s a sign for trail magic. It doesn’t take much to lure us off trail, and we head over. We’re treated to a feast; a hotdog, sausage wrapped in a pancake with maple syrup, a can of pop and some treats each. We dip in the lake and relax while we eat. On our way back to the trail another group who is set up to crew a race the next day offer us oranges. Oregon truly is magical.

Our last few miles of the day lead us through a burn zone. There are a lot of these in Oregon but this one is particularly sad. The fire burned hot and there’s not much left besides charred husks. However, we get our first views of Bachelor and the Three Sisters. It’s hard to believe we’ve walked all the way to a place we’ve driven so many times.

Bend Bound

We camp at a small pond and make plans to head to Bend to the next day. Our dear friend Celina is excited to pick us up. In the morning the miles are easy. The trail has been freshly cleared of blow down and we have plenty of other hikers to yap to.

Our hiker legs make quick work of 22 miles and it isn’t yet 2 PM when we reach the turn off for Elk Lake Resort. A side trail brings us to the resort where Celina finds us. She scoops us up and we drive towards Bend. She has tons of treats for us in the car and even stops at Dairy Queen and gets us blizzards. We get to the house and get to do laundry and shower. It is so nice to be in a home with our friends. Celina and her husband Drew bring us to get takeout from one of our favorite Bend restaurants. We sit by the river and eat our food together, listening to the Lindsey Sterling concert echoing along the banks while we share our trail stories.

 

Celina and Drew treat us like hiker royalty. They have air compression boots that we both use on our sore aching feet. We get to go float the river with them and then enjoy a home-cooked meal with their neighbors.

The next day we get to all the town chores we’ve neglected. We shop for food and plan all of our Washington resupplies. It feels sad. The trail is almost over. We of course still have weeks to go, but not many and it seems so sudden that we’ve planned out our last resupply.

 

We are sorely tempted to take a second zero in Bend. Celina and Drew’s hospitality is very difficult to leave. We all eat dinner together and Celina reluctantly drives us back to the resort that evening. Her and her dog Monk walk us out onto the trail before we bit her farewell and on to our final week in Oregon.