PCT day 82 - mile 1809 to mile 1839 (Crater Lake)

Today the trail was going through the rim of the Crater Lake, definitely one of the highlights of the entire path, very beautiful and and unique terrain.

I hiked 12 miles remaining to Mazama a tourist resort just beneath Crater Lake fairly quickly and arrived there just before 10am. I didn't have luck catching a hitchhike, so had to walk two miles to the tourist resort which had a shop and a campsite. Unfortunately there was a power outage and everything was closed but apparently it wasnt far from getting fixed. Since I couldn't resupply or order any food I went to the campsite to check the hiker box which was surprisingly well stocked! I picked up a trail mix, few sachets of oatmeal, fancy peanut butter and half full gas canister. Result!

After that I went back to check if the shop was open and indeed it was, so I bought few extra snacks, something to munch on while in town, two postcards and I made my way towards the rim trail located few miles above the town. Here they still had no power, so I ended up seating outside the gift shop filling in the postcards. Once I have done that, I realized that there's no post boxes in the area, luckily ranger Mike who I happened to encounter, offered to drop them into one for me. He was the first ranger I met since Mexican border.

Gift shop reopened shortly after but they were not offering any food, so I bought two ice cream and decided to hike out. Everyone were walking an alternate route (blue blaze) today which was going directly next to the Crater Lake's rim - the official PCT route for whatever reason decided to run far away from it. Besides the great views alternate route also saved us few miles of walking.

The rim trail was full of snow (in fact the whole trail today was), up to the point where few miles of it were closed (which meant more road walking for us). The area is very popular with tourist, who would stop their cars in many carparks along the rim and savour this truly unique landscape.

The lake formed around 7400 years ago after a volcanic eruption caused an implosion of Mount Mazama, lava sealed the floor allowing rain and snow to accumulate in its basin. The island in the middle of Crater Lake is a cinder cone which formed during that period and it's called Wizard Island - a volcano inside a volcano.

With time saved I decided to have an easier day and set the camp earlier than usual. I hoped for a campsite with a view of the lake but it is only legal to camp in few designated spots along the rim and none of them seem to be close to the lake. Nonetheless it was amazing to be here.

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