Thurs 14/6 – 4484 steps PLUS about 36km cycle, equivalent of 53 flights of stairs
It was very cold in the morning. They had recently had snow in the area and there was a lot of snow still lying around.
We drove to lake and had breakfast at the village on the rim road. It was not exactly what we had in mind, but there was nowhere else to go. The fridge reminded us of the boys moaning about soggy hot dogs for school lunch. My “Nathan’s 100% pure beef dog” was not too bad and at least it was warm. David had a freshly made boiled egg and ham square croissant.
The lake is stunning, real high energy spot with the most incredible clear blue water.
Most of the rim road was still closed to motorists due to snow, which suited us. We drove to where the road was closed to cars and got out our bikes. Off I went, enthusiastically trying all the settings on my bike, whizzing ahead. After a while I realised that I had left David behind. I went back to find him with a “broken” bike. My heart sank. The whole reason for us to come here was for him to cycle.
We returned to the RV and he took out his trusty multi-tool, tightened a few nuts and we were back on track. The original plan was for me to cycle a short way and David to do the whole circle. However, my bike was so easy to ride and after a very long (glorious) downhill, the thought of turning around and going back was too daunting. Like those early pioneers it was upward and onward.
It was a wonderful cycle. There was no-one else around, apart from one or 2 other cyclists. David filled our water bottles from a little waterfall of melted snow. After about 3 hours of cycling, we were back on the road open to cars. David went ahead to complete the loop and fetch the RV, I slowly made my way to the visitors centre to wait for him. It was the only place he could have stopped and turned around. Without a real plan of where to meet, when I got to the visitors centre, I sat on a rock at the stop street, so he would not miss me. It was fine for the first hour, then the sun started setting and the mosquitos started waking up. I learnt to identify oncoming vehicles by the sound they made over the rumble strips approaching the stop street. Just before I got really miserable and just after the rangers had stopped to find out if I was OK, David came around the corner. It had taken him a good hour and a half to do the uphill back to the RV. He had not expected to cycle for 5 hours on 1 croissant. Glad I stopped when I did, even though my bike still had some battery power left.
We got home and I cooked pork sausages on my new griddle and bacon in new air fryer, which works like a dream, other than setting off the over sensitive smoke detector.
Chuckle of the day: USA idea of sausage and David: “Yay, tomorrow’s Friday. It’s weekend!”
What I learnt: Crater lake was formed when centuries of rain and melting snow filled a crater formed by a massive volcanic eruption 7700 years ago. It is the deepest lake in USA and holds nearly 5 trillion gallons of water. The volcano, Mazama, is sleeping but not extinct.
I can sit comfortably on a rock for about an hour.
Kim's journey 