crater peak trail - crater lake np

date hiked: july 7, 2007
distance: 6.4 miles
highest elevation: 7265 feet
elevation gain: 765 feet
time: 2 hours 6 minutes

i have to give you a bit of a back story:

when we arrived in crater lake national park, we were given an 8-page newspaper with a variety of information about the park. being the freak that i am, i devoured it. i was announcing small facts to tyler about pine beetle outbreaks, park history, and forest fires. it was great. the center page of the paper had a list of hiking trails in the park in a table format, with facts about each hike. each hike was rated by ‘ranger karen’ with stars, the highest being five-stars. the paper didn’t actually say who ranger karen really was…and for some reason i found it all very amusing.

i decided to head out on the crater peak trail. according to ranger karen, it was worth three stars. not bad. but it was considered “off the beaten path”, according to the paper. and it was to the summit of a small volcano, which seemed very cool. of course, i was camping on the rim of a caldera (also very cool). since 6.4 miles qualifies as an actual hike, my resident anti-hiker tyler refused to join in on this adventure. with a test of our two-way radios, i was on my way.

the first 1/2 mile was amazing. the moon was shining at 10 am. the trail climbed a talus slope and had an awesome view of the canyon of sun creek. after that the trail entered a forest and things got ugly. no, really, it was ugly. it was the ugliest trail i have ever been on. there were dead trees everywhere. and the smell of dead animals. there was no one around (which seems to have become a theme). at some point in this adventure, i became convinced that there was a bear somewhere in the woods. i don’t know why. truth is, i love the outdoors…but do i really know anything? no…not much really. i do know a few things, though. i know that there were bear boxes in my campground. i know that on the way to crater lake a bear ran across the road. i also know that i read too many crazy books and watch too much discovery channel. all of this data came together in my feeble brain to form one conclusion, i needed to talk to the bear while i was hiking.

so, if you are all alone in the woods and decide to communicate loudly, what do you say? i believe that should be a poll. i first chose to imitate bear grylls, the host of man vs. wild (one of those discovery channel shows). i simply called “yo bear” repeatedly to announce my presence. however, bear grylls, did not look so bored when he was calling “yo bear” on television. maybe it would have worked better for me if I had a camera crew…or a bear. my second attempt at communication brings me back to ranger karen. for the remainder of my hike (once i got started, i was on a roll) i began to question, out loud, the validity of ranger karen’s three star rating for this hike. i admit, with slumped shoulders, that many expletives were a part of the discussion.

for future reference, if ranger karen says, “highlight: peaceful hike through forest, solitude” interpret it to mean, “no one ever hikes here because it’s really ugly and it smells bad and there might be a bear, but probably only if you watch too much discovery channel“.      

This entry was posted on July 19, 2007 at 4:37 pm and is filed under hikes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.