Having recently visited some active volcanic mountains, it seemed appropriate to next visit Crater Lake National Park.  Native American oral history says that the lake was created about 7,700 years ago when the volcanic Mount Mazama erupted and then collapsed.  Fed only by rain and snow, it’s the deepest lake in the US, and perhaps the most pristine in the world, according to the National Parks Service.  Apparently it’s often under cloud, but it was a crystal clear day when I was there, and the water was a glistening sapphire blue.

The caldera, or crater, is between 5 and 6 miles in diameter, and 3,900 feet deep.  I saw one small boat making it’s way across the surface while I was there (look carefully in the picture below), so decided to check out the boat tour the next day.

Unfortunately, my time at Crater Lake was cut a bit short, and I didn’t get to do the boat trip, because of a small equipment failure.  I slept that night at a local trailhead, one of my most remote sleeping locations yet, and one without any phone coverage.  I woke up in the morning to find that two of my tires were quite flat, being at only about half pressure.  I couldn’t find any obvious reason for this, either punctures or cracked valve stems, but I had been hammering the gravel roads fairly hard for over a week, so maybe I had a small seal leak?  Still no idea, but since I only had one spare, and I was in a remote location, I decided that I’d better leave and get to someplace where I could get air.  I limped about 60 miles slowly to the nearest gas station with a compressor, and refilled the tires.

Strangely, they filled fine and have held pressure ever since, so I’m still not sure what caused the dual flats.  I think I’ll try to pick up a small compressor the next time I’m near an auto shop though.  So I didn’t get to spend as much time at Crater Lake as I would have liked, but it was lovely, and there seemed to be a lot of hiking trails as well as caves to explore, in addition to the boat trip, so I may be back.

I pushed on south into California, and at the city of Redding I reached the milestone of 10,000 miles (16,100 km) traveled so far on this trip!  I got a slice of cheesecake to celebrate!