[pct-l] Camping/Water north of Crater Lake

[Suzannah Swinehart]

That is correct - from a fellow section hiker's viewpoint at least, it is a long, hot, dry section. Water up at Lightning Springs, then you'll have to wait 'til the other side of Thielsen before you see anything wet again. You are at the "Oregon Desert" where Mazama's volcanic activity sent all the water deep under a layer of pumice and...stuff.

Bob is correct - it's still just picnic tables and an outhouse. We (wimps that we are) cached several gallons of water for ourselves at that campground - hid them well and prayed that they'd be there when we arrived, or else we'd have had to hitch back into the park. If you can cruise past there on your way to start your section hike, it's not a bad plan. 

The good news is that once you climb up to the ridge that meanders around the side of Thielsen, it's a pretty quick drop down to Thielsen Creek - which we decided may be one of our favorite new camping spots. The glacier fed creek was delicious, especially after all that "desert"!

-Chipmunk

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Message: 11
Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 01:43:08 -0700
From: "Bob Bankhead" <wandering_bob at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Camping/Water north of Crater Lake
To: "Will Rohrer" <wlrohrer at gmail.com>,	<pct-l at backcountry.net>
Message-ID: <46151EC53EBC4E88BD0B98D56EE1BE9F at BOB>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"
 
As I recall, no - there is no water there; just picnic tables. However, that was ten years ago.
 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Will Rohrer 
  To: pct-l at backcountry.net 
  Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 11:28 PM
  Subject: [pct-l] Camping/Water north of Crater Lake
 
 
  Hi everyone,
 
  I'm doing a section hike in Oregon this summer and was wondering about the
  area north of Crater Lake - I'm going to take the alternate route to go
  around the rim, but there does not seem to be much water north of the rim.
  Is there any water at the trailhead just northwest of the intersection with
  Highway 138?  Does anyone know this area particularly well, or have
  experience camping around here?  It's about 18 miles from the rim village to
  highway 138, so I'll want to camp around there give or take a few miles.  I
  also want to avoid going to Diamond Lake so I can scramble up Mt. Thielsen.
 
  Thanks in advance,
  Will

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