Tale of the Night of the Full Moon

This is a story that is not a proud moment for us, but I’m going to relate it nevertheless.

Watchman Tower was built as a ranger station on a mountain, high above the caldera rim, and provides a complete view of Crater Lake. Often people hike up to the tower, especially on full moon nights, to see the moon rise over the opposite side of the lake, just above Wizard Island. On the night of the July full moon, we planned to park on the rim and walk the trail to Watchman Tower, and observe this event. The trail is 1.6 miles, ascending 420 feet (not quite as difficult as Cleetwood Trail).

We had our provisions: jackets, binoculars, camera, water bottle, wine bottle, pizza. At sunset, we parked on the rim, at the beginning of the trail, and began the hike up to the tower. The path was easy at first, and we commented how nice it would be to hike back down in the full moon light. Very soon, the trail began the steep switchbacks, on the west side of the mountain (opposite the moonrise), providing beautiful views of the sunset. About halfway, we came to a halt as we realized we did not have a flashlight in our provisions. Tom said, "No problem, the moon will light the path when we hike down the mountain." I commented that the steepest part of the path, which contained switchbacks and drop-offs was on the opposite side of the moonrise, and it would be midnight before it was moonlit. Tom said, “No problem, we’ll be just fine.” I considered going back to get the flashlight we always keep in the car, but Tom said it had been left at a rest stop during the drive up to Oregon.

We continued – the path grew narrower and steeper, and of course the higher we went, the sheerer the drop-offs next to the trail. Soon I said maybe we should turn around while there was still an inkling of daylight. “No problem,” Tom said, “We’ll make it just fine.” We met several people going down (while enough light remained to negotiate the trail fairly safely). Upon reaching the top we found three people there, so we thought surely they have a flashlight and we can return with them. But they were there to photograph the moon, and weren’t returning until hours later.

The fire tower was built decades ago with stones and logs, and windows in all four sides. The views are truly spectacular in all directions. It is “manned” during the day, and often the rangers provide the boat captains on Crater Lake with incoming weather information. But, I noted with dismay, it is locked at night. (I had thought, but not verbalized, that we might have to stay on the mountain until sunrise!) When we reached the tower, the sunset was waning, but still beautiful. We began to eat our pizza; and it began to get very dark. The moon had not yet appeared. After a short silence, Tom said, “I think we’re screwed.” I suggested we start back while there was still (barely) some light to see the drop-offs. Tom quickly replied,”Yeah, maybe we should.”

We did. After groping along, part-way down, we met up with two young men who had photographed the sunset, and were hoping to snap the moonrise – and they had a flashlight! They were brothers, from the Netherlands, here at Crater Lake for just one day. For the rest of the descent, we walked and talked with them. Their English was excellent, and we answered their questions about Texas, as they answered our questions about Europe. They were polite young men, and made no comments about our being on a steep mountainside in the dark with no flashlight.

We reached the base around 10 p.m. where the mother of our escorts waited. We thanked her for her sons who had lighted our return down the trail. At the base of the mountain we witnessed an incredibly brilliant moon rise over Crater Lake and Wizard Island, and cast luminescent shadows on the walls of the caldera cliffs.

A friend, who very recently visited me here, and whose name rhymes with “Whammy”, is a fellow Girl Scout, and will be chagrined to hear this tale of forgotten flashlights, but at least it ends well. At the base of the trail there was a lady from Canada, with her two teenagers, who had happened upon this spot after sunset, enroute to California. They planned to stay the night in their car (?!), see the lake in the morning, then continue on their way. It seems we were not the only unprepared people on the mountain that night – they had no food, and at 10p.m., many miles from any store, there was no place to obtain a meal; so of course we gave them our (cold) pizza that had only slightly been eaten due to our hasty departure from the mountaintop. The 14-year-old, who looked pretty hungry, said, “Oh, thank you, THANK YOU!” I thought he was going to hug us!

Our car, being well-provisioned with headlights, took us safely the 10 miles down the mountain to home.
Along the way, we saw two deer, bucks, who eyed us curiously, then loped down the slopes. Tom said, “Let’s do this again when the full moon comes in August.”

That night I put a flashlight in the car, and Tom put another one in his backpack.