Day 117

Lightning Springs campground on the Crater Lake Rim alternative trail to mile 1853, 25 miles

Cost: camped, free

We were up at 5:30am and excited to get back up to the rim to see the crater in the morning light. It was a freezing morning… The nights and mornings are definitely getting colder now, even though it’s the beginning of August.

My Yama Mountain Gear tent is third from the left

Before leaving the campsite we picked up water for the next 25 miles. Now I had 5 litres of water and 7 days of food, my pack hasn’t been this heavy for a very long time and my back was definitely feeling it.

We got to the rim at 7am. It was a beautiful morning.

   
   
It was another very smokey day and we could now see where they were burning.

As each day goes by now I’m getting hungrier and more tired. My breakfast is still never enough and my two energy bars a day (in addition to lunch and snacks) are being eaten by 9am!

We stopped at 11:30am for lunch and had a long 2.5 hour nap. It felt great!

We bumped into Ladiesman most of the day, passed a couple of small water caches and had a relatively easy hiking day.

We found a terrific campsite above Thielsen creek and I had set up my tent by 7pm, the earliest time in a long time! We had a stunning view of Mt Thielsen and listened to rocks fall down the mountain as we ate dinner. I camped with KC and ladies man.

My view for the night