2026 PCT Day 16, 30 August 2026 (Sunday)
Overall PCT Day 132
"Crater Lake Day"
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Start Location: |
Mazama Village (Annie Spring Tr. Jct.), Mi. 1823.3 |
Destination: |
PCT Mi. 1849.5 |
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PCT Miles Day 132: |
21.3 |
Cum PCT Miles: |
2397.8 |
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Non-PCT Miles Day 132: |
3.5 |
Cum All Miles: |
2609.6 |
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PCT Miles Remaining: |
248.5 |
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Elevation Gain Day 132: |
2404 |
Cum Elevation Gain: |
413,459 |
It’s quite cold again this morning, it got down to near freezing last night. And it looks like there’s a pretty significant cooling trend for the next week with a high probability of rain in a few days. So, I may be adjusting my plans depending on how the forecast changes or stays the same.
Being in Mazama village is technically in Crater Lake National Park. However, it doesn’t really feel like it. The whole point of being in this park is just to see the actual Crater Lake. This morning I actually got to Crater Lake. No matter how many pictures you’ve seen of something, when you see it t in real life it’s never the same as what you envisioned.Crater Lake is definitely a neat place to see. I’m glad I got to see it by walking the PCT to get there. Taking the Rim Trail is a great way to see it from a lot of different perspectives. I will have to ponder, though, where it ranks in my list of favorite lakes on the PCT. It’s going to be hard to displace Lower Palisade Lake.
It’s interesting how I saw Mazama Vllage had power this morning, but the main lodge and visitor area did not. I had originally planned on spending more time in that area, but because they had no services, I decided to just get moving onto the Rim Trail.
My right ankle was not feeling great all day. I’m not sure why since yesterday was an easy day and today wasn’t extremely hard. At each break I’d give it a good massage and it would feel a little a little better for a little and then start feeling sore and tight again.
This morning‘s very cold temperatures transitioned into a very warm afternoon, but it didn’t quite get to the point where I would call it hot.
Because I have my right ankle giving me issues today, I was just trying to hike at a comfortable pace and not really push it too hard. So the very warm afternoon temperatures didn’t bother me too much. Even with the bothersome ankle, I’m still about 9 miles ahead of where I had planned to be.
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| Lollipop Moon |
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| First look at Crater Lake...finally |
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| PCT Hiker Trash at Crater Lake |
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| Crater Lake with Mount Thielsen in the background |
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| The Phantom Ship rock formation |
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| A different view of Crater Lake |
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| A better view of Wizard Island |
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| Wizard Island with a partial reflection in the water |
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| One more view of the lake and Wizard Island |
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| Nice view of Mount Thielsen |
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| I have now circumnavigated about half the lake on the Rim Trail |
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| Is that blue sky or blue lake |
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| Another neat view of the lake |
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| This is kind of a weird part of the trail in Oregon. There's a lot of trees that are green, but they're kind of sparse, and then there's a lot of dead, blown over trees, luckily so far not blocking the trail. There must've been a fire here at some point a while back. Otherwise, not sure what would've caused these conditions. I guess it be drought or maybe a bark beetle infestation or something like that. |
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