After a bit of bushwhacking we arrived at mile 1820.5 which is the spot were we have walked exactly 1325 trail miles (town miles, detours, ways to springs, etc don’t count) – that is HALFWAY! Wow. Almost three month of hiking are behind us and we still have a way to go. That’s a great feeling! 😎🤘🏼
We thought about what we could do as a adequate picture… Halfway – half-view?
After another hour of trail finding and snow we arrived at the rim. We got our first view of Crater Lake. Epic! Definitely the single best view on the PCT so far… 😍
We treated ourselves with a breakfast at the Rim Cafe before we set off to walk half way around the caldera before leaving northbound again. No comments required:
We made it about half way on the Rim Trail before we escaped on the road for the rest – there was just too much snow left. And we didn’t want to glissade into the crater…
Last view before we said good bye to the crater. A must visit. I had high expectations on this spot and they were met. What a way to celebrate our half way point!
The rest is told quickly. Oregon is quite dry – at least on the PCT. We had somehow misinterpreted the water report and arrived at the end of the Rim trail (after about 10 miles) on 1l of water to realise that the next reliable water was 24 miles from here… 😳
Luckily there was still enough snow around and during the heat of the day the melt was so strong that the water ran out of the patches and did not disappear in the porous volcanic rock immediately. With a bit of German engineering we build a dam and were able to collect water. Almost 4l each for the rest of the day, night and next morning until water. That hurts with a heavy pack full of food…
The last four hours we literally just ran – the mosquitoes again were horrible. And guess what they were sold out of in the store at Crater Lake? Yes. Deet! 😝
Our dinner – which you can’t take in the safe tent due to the smell which could attrackt bear – therefore was a rain gear festival…
And a last highlight of the day – that’s what you get from sweat, bug spray, sunscreen and hiking:
Dear Florian and Kaylee, congrats on your half way, We are admiriring you,Inge and Thomas.