11 miles of hiking • 1250' elevation gain •
We took the East Crater TH (not on map) and cut in to the PCT in about 1/3 mile. My. Thielsen Wilderness is spectacular! There were almost no bugs and the temperature was in the 60's with just a few clouds rolling by every once in a while. We wanted to intersect the summit trail but it was just beyond our desired stop time. A sign near the TH said the trail would be 5 miles but I estimate the distance at about 6.5 miles? We met two very nice PCT through hikers at about 4.5 miles from the TH, Agasi and Snow Turtle! We stopped at a rock slide where the view of Diamond Lake and Mr. Thielsen were breathtaking. On the way back we met another through hiker, Damsel and her dog Ruby!
Back at the Mazama campground, at Crater Lake, we met another through hiker, Splinter, and had a nice 15 minute talk before leaving him with some of our left over dinner pizza.
Fantastic day!
Tomorrow looks like the alternate PCT route along the rim of Crater Lake.
