Day 2: The North Side of Crater Lake

Sunrise over Crater Lake.

The wind picked up during the night, but in hindsight, that shouldn’t have been a big surprise. The weather forecast predicted “Clear, with a low around 25. Breezy, with an east wind 16 to 23 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph.” I know that prediction with such precision because the ranger at the visitor center gave us their sheet with the week’s weather predictions and I saved it. =)

My campsite in the morning.

I figured Leora would probably be protected from the worst of it in the little gulch she set up camp in, but the small berms around my campsite seemed to do absolutely nothing to break the wind and I felt every gust blowing against my sleeping bag. I stayed warm, wrapped in my fleece and in my warm sleeping bag, but I could sense that I was reaching my limits. If the temperature dropped much more, I’d have been on the wrong side of uncomfortably cold. The temperature wasn’t the problem, though—it was the wind chill that was causing problems!

Sunrise at Crater Lake. Sorry you can’t hear me very well. Apparently, the wind was talking louder than I was! But I didn’t really have much to say anyhow. =)

I couldn’t see Leora’s tent down in the gully, but I could see the tree she was next to shaking violently with every wind gust and wondered how she was doing. She was worried about being too exposed and too cold, and I’d hate to be responsible for her having a miserable night in the woods.

The stars were absolutely beautiful, although a nearly full moon blotted out all but the brightest stars. They must have also blotted out the meteor shower that peaked overnight, because I didn’t see any shooting stars until just before sunrise when the moon was just about to set and the sun just about to rise.

For the frozen snow, I preferred to use MicroSpikes rather than my snowshoes. For those who are fascinated by my use of regular, cheap walking shoes through just about every type of terrain imaginable, I did “upgrade” to actual boots for this hike. Both to help keep my feet warm and dry, and because snow can really rip up regular shoes at a ferocious rate!

And when the sun did come up, I didn’t immediately rise with it. It was COLD outside of my sleeping bag! One good thing about being on an exposed location, however, was that some of the morning’s first sunlight washed over me which helped considerably. =)

I just loved the view of Mount Thielsen from Crater Lake!

Eventually I heard Leora stirring in her tent—she probably suffered the same problem I did. Not wanting to leave the protective warmth of the sleeping bag, but having to leave it in order to pee. =) She told me that she barely slept at all last night because of the wind—a miserable night all around for her. I felt a bit bad about this, but there wasn’t much I could do about that at that point.

We ate breakfast and headed off. This early in the morning, the snow was frozen solid, so we didn’t put our snowshoes on. We walked with the snowshoes on our packs. Actually, mine were in a bag that I carried separately around my neck and shoulders. I also carried MicroSpikes, however, and did put those on my feet. These were the same MicroSpikes I used in the High Sierras on my PCT thru-hike, and they’re absolutely wonderful when used on frozen snow. Leora didn’t use any special gear at all, though—just her normal hiking shoes.

Leora takes in the views of Crater Lake with Mount Scott in the background.

We walked like this for an hour or two before the snow started to soften and our feet started sinking in with each step, which point we stopped to put on our snowshoes. I quickly had to stop again to add some moleskin to the back of one of my feet where it was rubbing me raw. For a snowshoeing trip, I figured something a bit more sturdy and warm than my usual walking shoes would be in order, so I wore “hiking boots” that weren’t all that comfortable. Between it and my snowshoes, they were really ripping up the back of one of my feet.

A short while after that, I had to stop again and saw that the moleskin had completely shifted to be under my foot, so I used some athletic tape from Leora to tape the moleskin in place where it was needed which solved that problem for good. Or at least for the rest of the day. =)

I do a little first aid on the back of my foot.

As we turned around the north side of the lake, the snow levels fell considerably. These slopes faced southward, exposed to the sun, and increasingly large chunks of the Rim Road were fully exposed. At one point, for about a quarter of a mile, I even took off my snowshoes and just walked on the bare asphalt.

Holding Wizard Island in the palm of my hand….

I take a rest at a pullout built for cars. =)

Then we reached the parking area for the Cleetwood Cove Trail. It was obviously a parking lot—a huge, empty clearing filled with snow, unnaturally rectangular in shape, and bathrooms surrounded to nearly to tops of their doors in snow. Which meant that there was a trail down to the lake’s surface on the other side of the road…. That was not obvious at first—a trail is much smaller and less noticeable than a giant parking lot. =) But we found the trail quickly enough and decided to head down it. Although the parking lot was filled with several feet of snow, the south-facing Cleetwood Cove Trail was almost completely bare of it. We left our packs at the top of the trail—no reason to carry them all the way down the steep trail just to carry them all the way back up again! And there was obviously nobody around to steal the packs in any case—except pine martens and such.

Leora soaks in the views!

The Cleetwood Cove Trail was a mess. The fact that the winter had treated it quite harshly was plain to see—branches and twigs littered the trail like a tornado had blown through. A large tree had fallen across it, and signs of multiple rock slides of various sizes littered the trail. Leora and I cleared the trail of much of the smaller debris, but it was still going to need a lot more work before they opened the trail to summer visitors! The rock slides were a reminder that we probably shouldn’t hang around the steep, crumbling cliffs for very long!

Parking lot for the Cleetwood Cove Trail. That’s the restroom buried in snow!

At the bottom, we reached the waters of Crater Lake. We drank some of the water—how can you not? And we admired the deep blue waters of the lake, amazingly clear water. Without a single person around as far as the eye could see. It was wonderful, and only then did it occur to us that this would have been a wonderful place to camp. No snow on the ground, plenty of fresh water available that didn’t require the melting of snow, and well protected from the blustery winds found along the rim. There was even a composting toilet here which, I checked—the door for one of them was unlocked and stuffed with a giant roll of toilet paper. The proper way to dispose of human waste, the ranger at the visitor center told us, was simply just to bury it in the snow. (Used toilet paper, however, should be burned or carried out. That should not be buried in the snow!)

You can see the boat dock near the bottom center of this photo.

It might have been a bit early in the day to quit and set up camp, but wow—what a wonderful place to camp! Except in our thoughtless haste to lighten our loads, we both left our packs at the top of the rim. Shoot.

Tree on the trail! Tree on the trail!

Rockslide on the trail!

Retaining walls on the trail!

After taking a boat-load of photos, we eventually headed back up the trail again and reclaimed our possessions. We took a break at one of the benches near the top to snack and rest, then put on our snowshoes again and headed off in search of our second campsite.

If only we carried oars… maybe we could have paddled out on the lake! =) We think the one boat that’s on the ground was originally tied up like the other one but fell down during the winter at some point.

The boat dock.

Solar-powered composting toilets—LOVE IT! =)

Shadow games….

The beautiful waters of Crater Lake!

 
On a lark, I threw a rock into the water. I’ve never seen ripples flow out so far from their source before! They probably went out at least a quarter of a mile before I couldn’t see them rippling anymore….

The Rim Road, even when it was melted of snow, was quite a wreck—not unlike the Cleetwood Cove Trail. Dirt, rocks, and other debris littered the trail, and large cracks crisscrossed the road all over the place. The edges of the road also suffered badly from erosion. The snowplows might get through this section without much snow quickly, but there was still a lot of work left to do on the road before it was opened again for cars!

The Rim Road was in rough shape—even in the spots where the snow has already melted!

Yep, the Rim Road was a real mess…

I got tired of walking, so I started floating over Crater Lake instead. Oh, wait, I’m not supposed to talk about that. No, I sat down on a guard rail and stuck my feet out when I took this photo. Yeah, that’s what happened. =)

I take a nap on Crater Lake’s rim. =)

Leora stopped at viewpoint of Crater Lake, a pullout usually meant for cars, and suggested we camp there for the night. A small, stone wall that marked the edge of the pullout—so cars didn’t plunge into Crater Lake—provided a small wind break, although the wind wasn’t bad at all at this particular point to begin with. So that’s what we did, once again setting up camp right on the crater’s rim. We didn’t have to camp on the snow this time either! But we had plenty of snow surrounding the parking area to melt for water.

The predicted weather tonight wouldn’t be quite as harsh as predicted for the night before. My forecast read, “Clear, with a low around 29. East northeast wind 9 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.” Four degrees warmer with wind gusts 9 mph lower. I’d take that. *nodding* =)

Hamburger Helper for dinner tonight!

Camping at the roadside pullout. (My camp is on the right, Leora’s is the one on the left.)

Sunset over Crater Lake

Snowshoeing Crater Lake Without Snowshoes!

Leora and I woke up relatively late in the morning—no reason to rush off since she said that we couldn’t get our permits until 10:00 in the morning anyhow. But we arrived at the park’s visitor at around 9:30 in the morning and it turned out to already be open. Apparently, their hours had changed since Leora skied around Crater Lake the month before. But it also meant we didn’t have to wait for them to open either. =)

The front door of the visitor center was blocked by a giant pile of snow—I could barely see the top of the front door, but signs directed us around to the side of the building where it said there was a snow tunnel into the building. We went through the snow tunnel. (That’s a photo of the visitor center on the right.)

They issued us our permits and explained the backcountry rules we would have to follow. Bears, they told us, would not be a concern since they should all still be hibernating, but we should sleep with our food since there are smaller animals that are still active such as pine martens and I don’t remember what all else. =) I was also surprised that they allowed campfires pretty much anywhere as long as we used already downed wood. Given how cold it was supposed to be at night, I figured that might be useful. Of course, the thick layer of snow might make finding downed wood difficult! Obviously, wildfires weren’t a huge concern at this time of year, but I was still somewhat surprised that the park service even allowed campfires at all. Seemed like the type of thing that they would discourage.

They also showed up a map of the trail around Crater Lake and where the avalanche zones were along with bypasses for some of them. Not all of the avalanche zones had bypasses, though…. This wasn’t new for Leora, but it’s the first time I had a good look at where we should be most worried about avalanches!

The ranger took us outside to show where we should park the car—they wanted to make sure it stayed out of the way of snow plows if that became necessary.

Then we were off! Well, the ranger went off, back to the visitor center. Leora moved the car to where it would stay while we made our epic journey around the mountain. She also pulled out a couple of avalanche transceivers she had and gave me a quick tutorial on their use. We only planned to carry one shovel between the two of us, which she was planning to carry, but she told me if that she was caught in an avalanche that I could also dig her out with a snowshoe. Perhaps not an ideal shoveling instrument, but certainly better than nothing!

Then we packed up all of our gear. I sorted out most of my gear back at the campsite before we even arrived here so that didn’t take long. I carried my snowshoes across the parking lot until we reached the Raven Trail trailhead. Leora said we could take the one-and-a-half mile Raven Trail to the rim, or follow the plowed road three miles to the top. The fact that the Raven Trail was half the distance of the road walk had absolutely nothing to do with my preferring the Raven Trail—I just didn’t want to road walk! I came out here to snowshoe!

Stupid tourists….

We put on our snowshoes and took our first steps around the mountain. Almost immediately, we passed the first avalanche zone—a zone that even cars on the Rim Road were not immune from passing. We followed blue diamonds that marked the trail, zig-zagging our way up to the rim. Near the top, we lost track of the blue diamonds, but Leora didn’t care—she knew we were near the top and charged up the steepest route she could find to the rim. One four or five foot section of it was so steep, I had a lot of trouble getting up it and wound up digging shoe holds in the snow large enough to fit my snowshoes while seriously straining the muscles in my upper thighs. But eventually I made it to the top, exhausted, and got my first view of the deep blue waters of Crater Lake.

Following the blue diamonds on the Raven Trail to Rim Village.

We took off our snowshoes again by the lodge—we were back on the plowed road again, after having traveled barely a mile on the snow.

We stopped for a quick lunch break near the lodge, overlooking the lake, took loads of photos, then continued following the plowed road clockwise around Crater Lake. During the winter, the road is only plowed up to Rim Village—the Rim Road around the lake isn’t plowed for most of the year. However, they did recently start plowing the road to get it open in time for summer—it takes park personnel a couple of months to plow and open the Rim Road, so they start plowing in April. The ranger told us that so far, only the first three miles have been plowed, but even those still weren’t open to vehicular traffic.

Wizard Island, in Crater Lake, as seen from Rim Village.

So we walked through the “road closed” sign and continued our snowshoeing trip with the snowshoes on our backs. It was kind of neat walking through the plowed section—actually being able to see exactly how deep the snow was on areas along the road. Some sections appeared to just be a few feet deep, but other areas had us between two towering mountains of snow that were twenty feet high! And Crater Lake was absolutely magical, with Wizard Island covered in a blanket of snow.

The building on the left has restrooms at Rim Village, but they added these snow tunnel extensions to make sure people could still get to them through all the snow. =) Leora said when she was here last month, the snow completely covered the tops of these tunnels and they thought the doors were pit toilets not realizing that they opened to tunnels that actually led to real restrooms. =)

While the rim road was still closed to vehicular traffic, quite a few people made use of the snow-free road to walk and bicycle along the cleared section.

The Rim Road was closed to vehicular traffic, but they had already started plowing it to prepare it for the summer crowds.

Some of the information signs about the park were difficult to read because of the snow, such as this sign about Discovery Point.

There was one snow plow parked on the side of the road, unloved and unused.
So I figured out a way to make use of it—as a warning to others to
watch out for snow plows! =)

Leora shows just how deep the snow level was at places. This was taken in late April—AND it’s considered a “low snow” year!

A break in the snow!

And then we reached a parked car near a turn in the road and from behind the turn, we saw a rainbow of snow shooting into the air. I turned to Leora, “I can’t be 100% certain, but I think we’ve reached the snow plow and the end of our snow-free walk.”
Leora agreed, and suggested that it was probably safe for us to proceed at least as far as the truck. “They wouldn’t bury their own vehicle in snow!” That seemed sensible enough, and we stopped to rest at their truck.

I can’t be 100% certain, but I’m feeling pretty confident that there’s a snow plow around this corner!

The snow plow stands down for us to pass. Look at the chains on those tires!
That’s gotta be a real pain-in-the-you-know-what to chain up! Those tires are
probably five feet tall!

The guy running the snow plow stopped and appeared to be getting out of his machine—probably to talk to us, we assumed, although I was ready for a short break anyhow. Another guy was running a bulldozer ahead, who seemed to push snow from the top of the snow banks down a ramp to where the snow plow could get at it. A third guy ran another bulldozer even further ahead—I’m not entirely sure what he was doing, though. Perhaps his job was to actually find the trail under all that snow. Mark it and delineate its extents. We were located right on the side of a steep cliff and it would not be difficult at all to imagine one of those giant machines accidentally going over the side if they weren’t careful. I once read that they’ve built transceivers into the road so these crews could locate the trail under the snow each year. With modern GPS technology, perhaps those wouldn’t be needed anymore, but it still looked like a sketchy place for these people to be working.

The snow plow fellow told us that they had managed to clear 0.3 miles of the road the day before, and so far today had already cleared 0.2 miles. It was already well into the afternoon, and they hadn’t even cleared a quarter mile of road? This was not a fast process… but that shouldn’t have been a surprise. I knew it took them a good two or three months to get this road open. But I still found it surprising how slow going it really was for the crew.

The three guys running the heavy machinery stood down while we hiked by, climbing up the ramp they had built into the snow. When we reached the top of the ramp and walked into the fresh snow, we immediately started postholing a bit. It was just a few inches deep—not that big of deal, but there was a wonderful viewpoint just probably a tenth of a mile down the trail and I didn’t feel like putting on my snowshoes just to take them off and rest five minutes later. So I kept walking without them, but that only lasted a minute or two until I grew so frustrated walking through the snow I had to stop and put the snowshoes back on. Then we walked for another five or ten minutes to the wonderful viewpoint just at the Watchman Overlook where we stopped for an “official” rest break.

Leora heads up the snow ramp that the snow-clearing crews have created.

So far, we spent more time hiking without our snowshoes on than with our snowshoes on—although now that we were beyond the plowed roads, that should change soon!

We ate snacks, chatted, and admired the views. Eventually, we put the snowshoes back on and continued our journey. We followed the road—not that we could see the road most of the time, but you could “sense” where it went—generally following the contours of the land and through suspiciously clear cuts through otherwise dense trees. The Rim Road wasn’t marked like the Raven Trail was, but we had no trouble figuring out where it went. As the ranger at the visitor center told us, “Just keep Crater Lake on your right and you can’t go wrong.”

This restroom at Watchman Overlook wasn’t really accessible, but I suppose if you wanted a snow-free place to stop and rest, you could set up “camp” on top of it easily enough! =)

View from Watchman Overlook.

This is the same snow plow from the other side of the valley. I find it a little incredible that the snow plow itself is hidden behind the giant wall of snow! Although you can see one of the bulldozers at the top of the snow ramp.

I pose with Mount Thielsen in the background.

Leora follows the Rim Road around the Diamond Lake Overlook. (Not that you can actually see Diamond Lake in this photo, but it was visible off to the left.)

Shadow games I like to play. =)

Near the North Junction—where cars could enter the park from the north entrance during the summer months—we came out to another stunning view of Crater Lake. We also spotted two skiers ahead, but we never got so close to them as to actually talk with them. We didn’t know it then, but they would be the last human beings we’d see until we arrived back at the visitor center three days later.

At this point, it was getting pretty late in the afternoon, and I begged Leora to crash here for the night. “The views!” I said, waving around, “Look at these views!” She was skeptical of the location, thinking it was too exposed. Indeed, it was exposed, but “look at the views!” I exclaimed. =) She found a nook in the snow that she felt was acceptable to set up camp, but I took a more exposed position above the lake for the better views.

Closing in on the North Junction.

View of Wizard Island from the North Junction.

I also had another reason I wanted to camp in an exposed location—the Lyrid meteor shower would peak tonight. I wanted a better view of the meteor shower, although a nearly full moon would blot out all but the brightest shooting stars.

I was a bit nervous about camping here as well. There was absolutely no snow-free ground around these parts. None, zip, nada. I’d never actually camped ON snow before. Oh, I hiked through it. I grew absolutely sick of hiking through it during my PCT hike a few years earlier. But we always descended low enough to camp on bare ground at the end of the day. This time, I had to actually camp on snow, and I wasn’t really sure how that would work.

So the first thing I did was walk around where I wanted to camp, stamping down the snow. I figured hard-packed snow would probably be better for camping on than fluffy snow that I’d sink into during the night. So I walked around in circles packing the snow down as best I could. Then I borrowed the shovel Leora carried and built a small berm around it. The location was very exposed to the already strong winds blowing around, and I figured a small berm to break the wind wouldn’t be a bad idea. Then I threw down a groundsheet (a waterproof one, since I figured I’d probably melt snow under it during the night). And I blew up my Thermarest—something I’ve never carried on a backpacking trip before! Not only would it help insulate me from the snow, but it would help insulate the snow from me. I didn’t want to wake up in the middle of the night sinking into a deep snow hole that my body heat had created. =)

I cooked dinner on my soda can stove—Leora would have been more than happy to share her MSR Whisperlight stove with me, but I wanted to get some first-hand experience in how a soda can stove performs in such arctic conditions.

The biggest problem it suffered, which I kind of suspected would happen, was that the stove started sinking into the snow after I lit it! The stove does get hot when it’s lit, and by the time the fuel ran out, the top of the stove was nearly level with the snow level. I also threw in snow instead of water to cook my meal, and by the time the fuel burned out, the snow had merely melted. My food wasn’t warm or even hydrated at all.

I did carry a windscreen I made out of aluminum foil, but I didn’t really need it for wind. Leora and I built a “kitchen” in the snow, carving out a protected area from the snow near her tent. I wondered if putting that under the stove would help prevent it from sinking into the snow, so I tried that, putting the stove on top of my windscreen, filling the stove with fuel, and lighting it again. This time, the stove stayed above the snow—I was rather pleased that such a simple fix fixed that problem. And my dinner turned out just great. =)

So I wouldn’t have to melt so much snow for water, I tried to avoid using water whenever possible—which included when it was time to clean up my dinner mess. Usually I use water to clean my pot and spoon, but snow can be quite abrasive, so I filled my pot with snow that I swished around and did all of my cleanup with snow. Worked great! I felt like I was getting the hang of this snow-camping business. =)

Then we headed off to sleep…

Leora sets up camp in a small gully.

Dinner is in the oven! No, I didn’t use “yellow snow”—that yellow color is part of my dinner which I’ve mixed in with the snow.

My campsite for the night—with Mount Thielsen in the background.