Day 96 - Mazama

What a whirlwind.

We woke to swarms of mosquitos buzzing outside our tent doors just waiting to perform a non consensual blood drive. We packed up and scurried through the mosquitos in rain gear and head nets, since our deet ran out.

We started our 19 mile water carry day into “town” in the mosquito swarms. The mozzies eventually died down about 6 miles in as we entered a dry burn zone. At this point we started passing friends and discussing recent fires we heard about, both ahead and behind. The one ahead had grown since yesterday, and was still 0% contained. Overnight a lightening storm 100 miles south of us forced hundreds of hikers into emergency evacuations at 2 am. That’s our nightmare.

We got to Mazama (aka Crater Lake campground below the rim) and started researching our options and the fire ahead. It was still 2.5 miles away from the trail, and headed closed any section yet. Weather reports showed lightening storms for the next three days in this area and north of us.

The conditions are terrible, but nothing was diffinitively stopping our forward motion. We decided to make backup plans for evacuation routes should things go south, and to continue onward by foot.

At Mazama we also got new shoes, significantly helping out our morale.