Thru-Hiking Oregon on the PCT: Section 3 - Crater Lake
Being ready for plans to change, and making trail friends!
Welcome back! This is going to be a fun read (I hope). Today’s focus is on being ready for plans to change, which can make some of your best trail memories. We’ll also touch on making trail friends, and why your through hiking friends, are friends for life.
After Ashland and the Sky Lakes wilderness section comes one of my favorite parts of the Oregon section of the PCT, Crater Lake! Heading into Crater Lake National Park was also my first run-in with a fire closure, which I had known about for a week or so before and had communicated when I had service with my home team (Hanna Copper), which was so incredibly helpful! One thing I will say about fire closures is, you can’t plan too far ahead, mother nature loves to laugh at your plans. That being said, let’s make some trail lemonade! Up until this area I had only made casual encounters with some other through hikers and camped alone most nights, however with the upcoming fire closure, that was about to change.
Since I had decent cell service and someone back home talking to the forest service and mapping a re-route for me (most hikers didn’t have that), I was talking to as many other hikers as I could, trying to relay the useful info I had on how best to get around the fire closure that was directly south of Crater Lake, and directly in our way NOBO. So, a group begins to form around me, and my route-finding abilities. It was rather funny to see just how lost some of the hikers were once we weren’t on the actual PCT and their GPS apps and maps didn’t have the data. Had it not been for Hanna, I would have been in the same boat. This was the only time in the 400+ miles I hiked where relying completely on my phone for navigation was less than ideal. I won’t get into the details, but it involved taking a side trail to a trailhead, then some dirt roads and a small river crossing to more dirt roads then out to the highway and hitchhiking into Crater Lake National Park. A total of nine hikers were “rescued” because of the info I had. This group that was brought together ended up having some amazing people in it, some I would spend the rest of my section hike with!
As far as being prepared for changes in your plans, there are three things that I feel are really helpful. First, just knowing that if your hike is long enough it is bound to happen and being mentally prepared for it. There were hikers I met who got really bummed out about having to leave the PCT and looked at the closure as a loss, while other hikers understood that fires happen and looked at the closure as an opportunity to see other parts of the trail and go on a little adventure. I was in the adventure thinking group and had a blast leading my new friends to safety. Second, as I said earlier, having someone back home (or anywhere really) that is willing to help you logistically when you need it is great.
I had Verizon which seemed to have the best service on the section of trail I was on, while others had good luck with AT&T. T-Mobile service was nonexistent on trail. Whichever you choose as your network on trail, just do your best to make plans when you have service and rely on your fellow hikers when you don’t. A saying that came up constantly while I was on trail is “The trail teaches, and the trail provides” and it truly does, in that order. The final piece to being as prepared as possible for plans to change is paper maps. The few hikers who had them became very popular anytime there was some sort of fire closure. I stand by my earlier statement that for the PCT you don’t need them, but in the interest of writing this as a guide for everyone, I will concede that having paper maps will give some hikers piece of mind knowing they have a backup. Just please, like any form of navigation (including the apps I mentioned in a previous post) know how to read and understand them before you leave on your hike. The middle of a forest fire is not the time to learn how to read your maps.
Now onto the fun stuff, making trail friends! After my group was all settled in at Crater Lake, they had decided my trail name would be Pathfinder, a name I graciously accepted. From that day on I never camped alone, and my trail experience was unimaginably better. Not that hiking alone was bad, it’s just not my style. It is completely up to you whether you want to hike alone or make friends. Almost everyone on trail is nice and they have great stories of their own to tell. You will be surprised with just how much you will share with people on trail. You’ll just start telling these random people, who you have only known for a short time, your whole life story, including things you may have only shared with your closest friends. It’s an amazing thing, and one of my favorite parts about through hiking. You could day hike, or do short trips out to these same places and see the same beautiful areas as a through hiker, but you will have a distinctly different experience, simply because of the human connections and bonds you make while on a through hike. “It’s the people that make the trail” a mantra that both governs and comforts all through hikers, and one that rings true for everyone out there.
If you want to make friends, there are a few suggestions I can make. First being, if you don’t want to camp alone, plan ahead with your apps or paper maps to camp at established campsites that are listed with room for multiple tents, or the few PCT shelters along the trail. Other hikers who like to camp with people will also seek these areas out, and those who like to camp alone will avoid them. Also get to these group sites before dark, a quiet zipped up tent is a good sign someone’s done being social for the night. One more area that’s a wonderful place to make friends is in hiker towns. These small towns or lake resorts near the trail are always filled with hikers getting ready for the next section. So, share a hitch or buy a six pack and enjoy it with your fellow hikers, it won’t take long at all for you to find your trail family.
Pro tip!
When hiking in hot sections, sweat dripping down your face can be a real annoyance. To combat this, hats and bandanas can be a huge help, but it’s hard to wipe the sweat from your face, especially with trekking poles in your hands. So, take an extra bandana and tie an overhand knot in one end of it, then feed the rest of it through a loop on the shoulder strap of your pack, and just let it hang there. The knot will act as a stopper, so there is no need to actually tie it to your pack. Now you have a convenient rag to wipe your face with and when you want to remove it just grab the knot and pull it back through, it’s easy as that!
After Ashland and the Sky Lakes wilderness section comes one of my favorite parts of the Oregon section of the PCT, Crater Lake! Heading into Crater Lake National Park was also my first run-in with a fire closure, which I had known about for a week or so before and had communicated when I had service with my home team (Hanna Copper), which was so incredibly helpful! One thing I will say about fire closures is, you can’t plan too far ahead, mother nature loves to laugh at your plans. That being said, let’s make some trail lemonade! Up until this area I had only made casual encounters with some other through hikers and camped alone most nights, however with the upcoming fire closure, that was about to change.
Since I had decent cell service and someone back home talking to the forest service and mapping a re-route for me (most hikers didn’t have that), I was talking to as many other hikers as I could, trying to relay the useful info I had on how best to get around the fire closure that was directly south of Crater Lake, and directly in our way NOBO. So, a group begins to form around me, and my route-finding abilities. It was rather funny to see just how lost some of the hikers were once we weren’t on the actual PCT and their GPS apps and maps didn’t have the data. Had it not been for Hanna, I would have been in the same boat. This was the only time in the 400+ miles I hiked where relying completely on my phone for navigation was less than ideal. I won’t get into the details, but it involved taking a side trail to a trailhead, then some dirt roads and a small river crossing to more dirt roads then out to the highway and hitchhiking into Crater Lake National Park. A total of nine hikers were “rescued” because of the info I had. This group that was brought together ended up having some amazing people in it, some I would spend the rest of my section hike with!
As far as being prepared for changes in your plans, there are three things that I feel are really helpful. First, just knowing that if your hike is long enough it is bound to happen and being mentally prepared for it. There were hikers I met who got really bummed out about having to leave the PCT and looked at the closure as a loss, while other hikers understood that fires happen and looked at the closure as an opportunity to see other parts of the trail and go on a little adventure. I was in the adventure thinking group and had a blast leading my new friends to safety. Second, as I said earlier, having someone back home (or anywhere really) that is willing to help you logistically when you need it is great.
I had Verizon which seemed to have the best service on the section of trail I was on, while others had good luck with AT&T. T-Mobile service was nonexistent on trail. Whichever you choose as your network on trail, just do your best to make plans when you have service and rely on your fellow hikers when you don’t. A saying that came up constantly while I was on trail is “The trail teaches, and the trail provides” and it truly does, in that order. The final piece to being as prepared as possible for plans to change is paper maps. The few hikers who had them became very popular anytime there was some sort of fire closure. I stand by my earlier statement that for the PCT you don’t need them, but in the interest of writing this as a guide for everyone, I will concede that having paper maps will give some hikers piece of mind knowing they have a backup. Just please, like any form of navigation (including the apps I mentioned in a previous post) know how to read and understand them before you leave on your hike. The middle of a forest fire is not the time to learn how to read your maps.
Now onto the fun stuff, making trail friends! After my group was all settled in at Crater Lake, they had decided my trail name would be Pathfinder, a name I graciously accepted. From that day on I never camped alone, and my trail experience was unimaginably better. Not that hiking alone was bad, it’s just not my style. It is completely up to you whether you want to hike alone or make friends. Almost everyone on trail is nice and they have great stories of their own to tell. You will be surprised with just how much you will share with people on trail. You’ll just start telling these random people, who you have only known for a short time, your whole life story, including things you may have only shared with your closest friends. It’s an amazing thing, and one of my favorite parts about through hiking. You could day hike, or do short trips out to these same places and see the same beautiful areas as a through hiker, but you will have a distinctly different experience, simply because of the human connections and bonds you make while on a through hike. “It’s the people that make the trail” a mantra that both governs and comforts all through hikers, and one that rings true for everyone out there.
If you want to make friends, there are a few suggestions I can make. First being, if you don’t want to camp alone, plan ahead with your apps or paper maps to camp at established campsites that are listed with room for multiple tents, or the few PCT shelters along the trail. Other hikers who like to camp with people will also seek these areas out, and those who like to camp alone will avoid them. Also get to these group sites before dark, a quiet zipped up tent is a good sign someone’s done being social for the night. One more area that’s a wonderful place to make friends is in hiker towns. These small towns or lake resorts near the trail are always filled with hikers getting ready for the next section. So, share a hitch or buy a six pack and enjoy it with your fellow hikers, it won’t take long at all for you to find your trail family.
Pro tip!
When hiking in hot sections, sweat dripping down your face can be a real annoyance. To combat this, hats and bandanas can be a huge help, but it’s hard to wipe the sweat from your face, especially with trekking poles in your hands. So, take an extra bandana and tie an overhand knot in one end of it, then feed the rest of it through a loop on the shoulder strap of your pack, and just let it hang there. The knot will act as a stopper, so there is no need to actually tie it to your pack. Now you have a convenient rag to wipe your face with and when you want to remove it just grab the knot and pull it back through, it’s easy as that!