We hiked an early 5 miles to Crater Lake Lodge for breakfast (worth it!) then hiked 6 miles along the crater rim trail. It was a bit smoky but we still got amazing views. Our concerns at this point about where the wildfires were were pretty constant. The lightening storms were expected to continue for days, including today. But we still decided to risk hiking the remaining miles to the actual closure (around 16 more). We made it 8 of those miles before 2 pm, then the clouds started to roll in. With 8 miles to go, we hike-sprinted the rest of the trail through dead trees as dry lightening and thunder cracked overhead. Luckily the trail was flat. By 4:30 pm, we were exhausted, scared, and happy to be alive as we arrived at the road where we planned to hitch with Breaking Bad, Mimosa and Ranger. Little did we know that trail magic and angels were going to be there waiting for us with beers and hot dogs!

The rest of our crew rolled in and we all hung around eating, drinking and being merry at the closure of the next section. Half of us decided to go in to Chemult (a tiny podunk lil town just outside of the next section we wanted to start at) and half decided to go into Bend (much further, likely forcing a bigger skip past hikeable trail).

We then got a hitch from one of the angels there who took us straight to Chemult for us to figure out what our next step is and see where wildfires are popping up.

Up until 6 am today we were planning to hike, but then looking at twitter and other news sources about the storms, we decided against it and to instead zero in Chemult. The abundant lightening and heat warnings were too extreme to overlook.

So we relaxed all day in our lovely hotel room (it was actually lovely) and hit up the Pilot gas station for breakfast. Sadly the only cafe was closed. We truly just hung out all day, then got dinner out at the only pub in town. The owner Brad actually made really great food!

Chemult was really okay. Not the “armpit of Oregon” as others may call it. I certainly wouldn’t want to spend eternity here though.

We hit trail today from Shelter Cove via a hitch from Pac-Man (hiked the PCT in 2014). It finally started to cool down, but the mosquitos didn’t. Lots of lakes today so we pushed 27 to get past them all. It was a nice chill grade, but nothing particularly special happened.

Unfortunately today we walked past our first wildfire. It was barely a quarter mile off trail which was very concerning, however we decided it was safe to walk past given its size (small), direction of growth (wind blowing it away from us), position (higher than us, and wildfires climb), and inability to grow (it was surrounded by rock fields and open planes). We think we made the right choice.

We also had friends spot another new fire many miles away south of us, that’s the other smoke plume. Overall, we’re not loving Oregon’s proclivity to burn.

We did get a little reprieve from the trail today though at Elk Resort where we decided to hike off trail to for burgers. A+ food and drinks!

Today was an unexpected marathon that felt like two distinct days: the perfect day full of views, a trail celeb sighting, tons of water, and forests. And then the miserable soul crushing day, traversing exposed volcanic rock that moves beneath our feet, for miles and miles.

Sitting here in the tent it’s hard to believe the morning was so perfect. Those lava fields tortured us when we were already tired and at a calorie deficit. That was easily my least favorite section of trail I’ve walked to date. So glad it’s over.

We met Quadzilla today though which was exciting! He’s well known for his built thighs, and is attempting a calendar year triple crown which is wild. All in all, we survived and it’s a town day tomorrow so on to thinking of happier things.