Day 129 Early morning at the edge of Crater Lake

Day 129 Thielsen Ridge
23.87 miles
From Lightning Springs Camp (mile ~1828, elevation 6880)
Two Thielsen Ridge (mile 1855.4, student 7331)
Upload 3130
Descend 2657

I didn’t reach the edge before dawn. But the sun was still low enough to provide nice color, so I took some nice pictures of Crater Lake early in the morning. Most of the day it was still smoky.

I met a woman on the edge of Crater Lake who works for Garmin in Salem, Oregon. We talked a little about the Garmin UI (she’s in a different division). She likes working there. We also talked about the Lightning Springs backpacking site. He wanted to camp there but didn’t. He said people were discouraged from camping there to give priority to PCT hikers. Given the challenges I went through to camp there legally, I laughed before explaining it to him. I also told him there was plenty of room there last night.

Deer along the trail

Greene’s Golden Bush

It ended up being a great water haul today. At one point I noticed I had walked over 12 miles and still had 13 miles to the next stream. Fortunately it wasn’t too hot. My feet were uncomfortable today. I had a hot spot under the balls of my feet. I had to walk carefully to prevent it from getting worse.

I’m enjoying my backpack and pole chair while I eat lunch. After lunch I fell asleep for a while. I wanted to continue resting, but I got up and moved again. It helped me when I realized there was a water reservoir 5 miles away. Otherwise, the next water was at 13 m (reducing water transport from 25 m to 17 m).

People have started writing messages on old PCT signs that have been erased by time. I liked this one.

I camped on Thielsen Ridge and got great sunset photos with added redness from the smoke.

Mount Thielsen

Mount Thielsen from my camp

Sunset from my camp

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