July 29:Mt. Thielsen

We woke up to the howling wind that kept us shivering as we stood taking pictures, awed by the incredible sunrise over Crater Lake. We all ran around taking pictures for a bit, then marched off down the trail. We did what our friend, Flippy, calls a "Death March." Our little (or not so little) hiker group has grown from 8 to 10 now, and often there is anywhere from 2 to 8 of us all lined up, hiking together. A "death march," is when a bunch of us all hike in line and go for miles without taking a break. Normally Mark and I aren't into the death march thing; we like our breaks. But today there were just too many mosuitos to stop, and we quickly found ourselves 12 miles down the trail.

It was a cool day because from the crater rim we could look out and see Mt. Thielsen. It seemed so far away, but we ended up having lunch on the shoulder of the mountain at the trail junction for the summit trail. It's a crazy looking mountain to climb because the summit looks like it could literally only fit one person on it and, according to the guidebook, "has one of the steepest trails in existence." Well, we decided not to climb it today, but continued hiking until we reached the high point of Oregon/Washington at 7560 ft. From there it was a short descent to a great flat area where we set up camp: all 10 of us, sitting around, eating food, chatting it up...all wearing the ever-so-handy headnet. I'm thinking I should name it. Any suggestions?

Total Miles:1870.8
Miles Today:30.2
Camp 93:Eight Friends and a Trail Jct

------------------------------
Allow us to help those in need, sell back your spare PocketMail and make some extra pocket money.