August 9, 2024 - Day 84

It was a 22 mile walk into town from our campsite today. Whenever it’s a town day, Spoons is up and on the trail before the suns up. We won’t see him until town. Thoughts of beers and burgers fuel this man unlike any other motivation out here.

Smoke. And lots of it. We walked through a previously burned section of Crater Lake national park that showed signs of new growth all around us while the smoke of new fires in the distance filled the air. It was giving us head aches and sore throats. We’re all considering what to do as we head north closer to the fires. The previously burned sections still head vast amounts of beauty. Sculptural charred trunks of trees spotted the landscape and gave a glimpse into what was a lush forest some ten years ago.

After filling up our water at the one pond halfway to town, we navigated the gnarliest blow down sections of trees yet. There was no trail. Just broken limbs to show where previous hikers had walked. We were relieved to reenter a healthy forest and cooled off before making the final push to town.

We’re set up at the backpackers campground near Crater Lake. Tomorrow, we’ll check out the big volcano and consider what to do about this smoke.

Happy trails…