July 18
Mileage 19
Mile 1829 to mile 1852.5.

I wake early but put my earplugs in and a shirt over my eyes and sleep in until 7. My god, that feels good. Everyone’s up already, I sit in the cafe and eat the remnants of their breakfasts. The shower is 75 cents for 4 minutes- the water runs out when there’s soap in my eyes, minty conditioner from the hiker box tingling my scalp. I fish around for more quarters and manage to rinse off. My shorts get a bath in the sink. Outside everyone’s care packages are going into the hiker box- I acquire caffeinated cliff shot blocks, mini snickers, and packets of tuna in olive oil. Score. Our sleeping bags have condensation so we dry them on the sidewalk. Jr. Sr. is in his underwear while the laundry spins and Notachance is drunk.

We make our way up to the rim village and sit in the cafe, charging everything and catching up on our blogs. We’ve got to go just 18 miles today to maintain the 30 mile/day average we’re shooting for through Oregon. The Oregon two-week challenge, it’s on. 30 miles a day, no zeros. Constant 33’s will buy us some half days. We’ll see how it goes.

Chance, Twinkle and I hike out around 2. Everyone else is already gone. No water for 27 miles but maybe there’s a cache in 18, where we plan to camp. We make our way around the rim, gaggles of tourists everywhere. We’re feeling slow, stopping all the time to photograph the lake that’s already been photographed a zillion thousand times. Crater lake exists, Crater lake exists! Tell the world! The water is a special color, though, and wizard island is cool. We think there should be a road winding around to the top of wizard island, a castle at the peak. Abandoned and haunted.

The trail leaves the rim and plods through flat boredom torture forest for the rest of the afternoon. We’ve fucked around so much we won’t get into camp until 9, so we go into cruiser gear. Notachance is singing, I’m thinking about my dog, Twinkle is somewhere up ahead, jogging. The mosquitoes get bad again. I keep checking our mileage- apparently I hike more than 3 mph now, so that’s cool.

We get into camp right at 9, a clearing in the forest all cluttered with sticks, everyone in their tents already, hiding from the bugs. It’s too late to eat a proper dinner but I do eat one of my exciting tuna packets. It’s warm enough to sleep half naked and I wrap my sleeping bag wrapped around me, the dark comes on in that deepwoods way, like a wool blanket in all the empty spaces saying hush, hush.

Photos on instagram.