Total Miles This Hike: 180.3
PCT Miles Covered: 1878.2
With the newly found cell service I had at this hiker/biker site from the night before, I decided to take my time getting out of camp and use it for all I could. I called home when I woke up and messaged my cousin again who I was hoping to meet back in Ashland. Unfortunately because of circumstances out of his control, he wasn’t going to be able to make it up to visit and travel with me to Bend. As a result I decided to take a couple hours while I had service and try to nail down accomodations and travel arrangements from Ashland to Bend now, so I kind of had a timeframe set in my head of where I needed to be when. Plus who knew when I would get service again and didn’t want everything to be booked or skyrocket in price if I waited till I got to Ashland
I looked into a rental car again, but for some reason the exact same car, for the same duration, on the same day of the week I booked it before was now almost $250 whereas it had been $115 three weeks prior. I decided to look at Greyhound and it was $54 from Medford to Bend going through Eugene. Only problem was it left Medford at 5:05AM. This meant I would have to be in Medford already the night before the bus ride. So I booked a hotel a mile from the bus station for the 26th. That gave me 9 days to hike 130 miles. Plenty of time but enough leeway in case something came up or I had to take extra time to roadwalk around the fire closure. Then I booked 3 nights (27th-29th) back at the Bend Hostel. Cheaper than a hotel, but I was hoping now that I knew they had a hiker hammock rate, when I get there I was gonna see if I could just pay for the hammock out back at $25/night instead. Then I would head back to Sisters and Santiam Pass on the 30th. 5 days behind my original itinerary. Might mess up finishing on my birthday, but you never know how many miles I might be able to make up.
By the time I got all of that done it was 11AM, and I headed out towards the Diamond Lake Trail back to the PCT. Just like the Howlock Trail yesterday this trail was not used much and very overgrown. Finally I arrived back at the PCT and another amazing Devilfish water cache. I never realized before coming back out here water would be such an issue in Oregon. I was basically hiking another 9 miles to another water cache inside Crater Lake National Park.
The one in the park technically shouldn’t be there but the rangers apparently look the other way. There was definitely smoke in the air all day today as one of those lightning strike fires must be in the area blowing smoke all over. I finally arrived at the PCT/Rim Trail junction where I decided to camp.
Tomorrow I will take the Rim Trail alternate (hopefully the last alternate for a while) up to the rim of Crater Lake and enjoy a day of magnificent views I have been looking forward to for 10 years now.
Keep on keeping on
Patch
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