Mile 1806 to 1818

We wake pretty much alive, feeling confident the tree did not crush us. Today is a fairly easy 12 miles to highway 62, our exit to Mazama Village, where we have two packages waiting. One contains 4 days of food. The other a computer course loaded iPod Nano. According to Guthook’s app the restaurant has a hiker friendly all-you-can-eat buffet. We hike imagining what type of food it is. We road walk the last mile to the restaurant. They have a very serviceable all you can expel restroom, but no all-you-can-eat buffet. We will be back later for the a la carte options.

Crater Lake Here We Come!

At the general store we participate in a bizarre community theater production of “Are you kidding me?” It opens with me standing in line for my boxes, which I am required to sign for even though the person who gives them out is not around and I need to come back to this line later. I ask about backpacker camping and get sent to the lodging desk line. Eventually I am told I have been sent to the wrong line and need to stand in the campground kiosk line. After standing in the kiosk line I am told they do not take credit cards. I say no problem, and provide a $20 bill, which apparently is far too large for a $10 charge. I am sent back inside to stand in the store line for change. At this point I am tempted to shove my $20 in the change machine and drop $10 of quarters on his desk, but with Kevin here I am the better man and stand in the long line for proper change in $5 bills. I then go back to the kiosk to stand in that line again, followed by a new line at the store to inquire about the boxes I signed for ages ago, but still have not received. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but will say it involves a mantra and a lot of deep breathing.

After showers and laundry we sort food then search for outlets to recharge our devices. My external lithium battery appears to be failing. In Ashland I was not able to increase the charge, even when it was plugged in overnight. We are experiencing the same problem here. This is a serious problem. We are on a long stretch without stores and outlets. Blogging may be put on hold, since the phone is also our only maps and GPS.

For dinner we return to the formerly-a-buffet restaurant where there is a huge line of people waiting. Unless this place is actually serving ghosts, there appears to be a plethora of empty chairs and tables. The staff seem to see no connection between the standing people and the empty chairs. We eventually are seated and order salad and pizza. After being cooked, the pizza sits on the counter for ages. I am pretty sure this place is stuck in some Hotel California trap where you can’t serve yourself and the staff can’t serve you either.

We return to our campsite, fall asleep in our tents and dream of hiker friendly places.