Day 88

July 9, 2021 PCT mile 1773.8 - 1799.3 PCT miles 25.5

Easy hiking morning again. We met ‘G’ and Meltdown (chocolate, not temperament) at the first water source. Later in the day we met a father and son (?) from Oregon who are section hiking and clearing the trail as they hike. Son (Magnet, a talented photographer!) hiked the southern section and wants to thru-hike someday. Honestly, neither of us can imagine repeating the southern section of the PCT ever again. Impressed he is so committed to the ‘thru-hike’ concept. Father (Jigsaw) is an Optometrist from UC Berkeley who graduated two years earlier than Chris.

We saw Twig relaxing next to the trail and realized he was one of the hikers we met back at Callahan’s Lodge. After chatting with Twig, the Oregon PCT finally presented us with some climbing in exposed sunny and dry areas to the top of Devils Peak. We passed through a large burn area with downed trees across the trail. Trail was still fairly well maintained. We would have been beautiful views if not for the smoke from a new fire near Crater Lake. We are headed into the Crater Lake campground tomorrow and will find out more about this fire. Sadly, we learned from Guthook that the showers at the Crater Lake campground are closed. Chris is not happy about that news.

We camped on a ledge above a small creek with a lovely view. The last photo is at 9:00 PM - lots of daylight.