Temperatures in the morning are now in the upper 30s. Locals are expecting the first snow before the end of the month. After dropping Tom at the operations center, I drove to the rim to hike Garfield Peak. Since I’d heard that Cleetwood Trail was the most difficult I did not expect this to be too hard. But it was. Beautiful, but long and steep. Seeing a hiker at the start of the trail, I thought I’d ask about the trail; as I approached, I saw it was just a white-bark pine sculture! Later I saw another “sculpture” that looked remarkably like an eagle.

The Garfield Peak Trail begins near the Crater Lake Lodge. The narrow, rocky path took an hour to negotiate. Of couse gasping hikers are rewarded with views that one can never grow tired of. And at the top two red-tailed hawks were seen riding thermals.

The hike down was rocky and slippery - it took more than an hour to descend. I would rate this trail equivalent to Cleetwood (the trail Tom climbs up at the end of every workday!)



Here is a photo of Rim Village from half-way up the trail to Garfield Peak (employee dorm, C. L. Lodge, gift shop above right):

Today was the annual “Rim Run”, a marathon that circumnavigates the lake. Even through binoculars on the mountaintop, I never saw the runners; the rim road is nestled in the woods, and on the backsides of the mountains. Although there are numerous scenic turn-outs, one rarely sees traffic driving around the lake. The park service has done a very good job keeping Crater Lake as natural as possible.

I would like to take some climbing hikes to other peaks in the area, with Tom. But after climbing up out of the caldera every evening after work, he is not all that eager to hike up mountains on his day-off! There’s still time, though. By the way,Tom had quite an adventure on the lake that I’ll describe in the next post.