Day 98 (27 August)

Miles 1773.5 to 1799.3. Forest camp to Awesome View Camp.

The alarm rings at 5am and we are actually determined to get up and start hiking. We want to reach Crater Lake soon and have a chance to reach it by tomorrow night if we pull two big days. Even though we first need to hike uphill we are pretty fast and only stop for a quick breakfast. In light rain. But oh well. It stops raining soon and doesn‘t start again all day. Then the sun comes out and we suddenly see everything that Oregon has to offer. Sure, there is a lot of forest here, but we get all kinds of different forests. Some are dense with tall trees and a lot of moss on the tree trunks, where you can hardly see the sky, some are rather „new“ with young trees, a lot of bushes and small plants, letting the sunshine right in. And today we are really in for a treat regarding views. After spending most of the day hiking uphill in the forest we finally reach the top and are rewarded with the most amazing views. But then it turns out we are not yet on top. The trail takes us through a burnt forest area and then up up up and the views don‘t stop. After what feels like an eternity we are finally on top (this really felt like a mountain pass in the Sierras!) and get to hike back down. After more than 26 miles we reach our designated camp spot which is already quite crowded, but there is a little spot left for us. This was one of our longest days yet, and while we feel tired we don‘t feel completely exhausted. We both agree that if that tentsite wasn‘t so pretty we would keep hiking. There is one lady in the tent right next to us who looks really familiar. She asks us which date we started at the Mexican border, and we tell her. It turns out that she finished her thruhike at the Mexican border on May 5, our start date, and we actually met on our first day at about mile 5. Small world!

We watch the sun set from inside the comfort of our sleeping bag and soon fall asleep. What an amazing day!