We hiked up to, and then around the Crater Lake Rim today. Starting from Mazama Village, we got to the top of the rim around 11:30 am, with enough time for a couple of beers at the lodge. We walked around the Crater Lake Rim trail to the far side of the lake before descending back to the PCT and finding camp. Today’s mileage was 14.9 miles, 23.9 km

I woke up early this morning and picked up a coffee from the restaurant at Mazama Village on my way out of camp. While I was waiting, the three section hikers joined me. Amazingly, they insisted on paying for my breakfast; one of the three, Catch Up, had done the PCT back in 2010 and told me that I needed the money more, after 4 months on trail, I couldn’t argue.

The trail from Mazama Village started out flat, but soon began climbing up the side of Crater Lake Rim. I climbed steadily for a couple of hours, and just as I reached the top, Catch Up met me, true to his name.

The other two were just behind, and they all had a very hard time convincing me to go to the lodge for a lunchtime pint. We got to the lodge and scored prime seating, looking right out over the lake. The others got the first round, but as soon as there was mention of staying for another, I had to insist on getting the second round.

We all walked around the Crater Lake Rim trail, enjoying the views over the water as we made our way around the lake. When we reached the northern side, huge pyro-cumulus clouds were rising up ahead. The Emigrant Fire was growing and had spread to 5 miles from the PCT, a closure threatened the trail just 0.1 miles west of the trail. It felt strange to walk towards a wildfire, but we knew an alternate route further east which was unlikely to be strongly affected.

We arrived at camp just before sunset, and it seemed very dry out so I set up a cowboy camp. One of the section hikers announced that he was carrying a pair of six-packs, and he wanted help lightening his pack. For the first time, I gave another hiker their trail name; Brewmaster. We just needed to come up with a name for the third and we would have a whole gang going on.