Author: Lon Cooper

Mount Thielsen is about 30 miles north of Crater Lake via the Pacific Crest Trail and this was our next challenge due to possible snow.

I had been watching satellite snow data and could see the Mount Thielsen area had late snow this year. I’ve noticed that satellite snow data, while mostly accurate, tends to underestimate the amount of snow or maybe it just doesn’t show smaller (1/4 or 1/2 mile) patches of snow that can remain on the ground for several weeks after the satellite images show all the snow gone.

Packing for our hike in the 100 degree heat of Medford, OR a few weeks ago, snow seemed unlikely and we didn’t pack any snow gear (ice axes, crampons, etc.).

So, off we go to the mountain. After all, the worst thing would be having to turn around if the snow was bad.

Mount Thielsen turned out to be a wonderful section of trail. We camped a few miles before snow started. The next morning we got a late start to let the sun soften any icy snow and off we went. There was quite a bit of snow, but it was mostly patchy. It probably covered 30-40% of the PCT from around miles 1849 – 1860. The north side of Mount Thielsen did have several large snow patches and a couple of them were steep around miles 1851.4, 1852.3 and 1853.6.

Thielsen Creek was still frozen over, but walking downhill about 300 yards we found water in a thawed spot in the snow.

Surprisingly, we had the mountain almost all to ourselves. A large group of hikers departed Crater Lake about the same time we did, but we only saw three other hikers that day. Our group of three felt it was the best day yet on the trail.

We have arrived in Mazama Village in Crater Lake National Park after hiking 102 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail from Ashland, OR. It’s been a wonderful hike so far, starting off relatively easily, but the past few days had some snowy surprises.

The first days were lovely hiking along gentle forested trails. We resupplied at the Fish Lake Resort on day four, after an interesting morning hiking through the Brown Mountain Lava Flow. It’s amazing how the trail builders managed to put a trail across the jumbled lava rocks.

From Fish Lake the PCT climbs past the eastern side of Mount McLoughlin to the Sky Lakes Wilderness. We resisted the urge to make the 2,000 foot hike to the summit.

Unfortunately, in the Sky Lakes Wilderness hundred of trees have blown down across the PCT. Most are not hard to step over or around, but it just makes the hiking a little more difficult. We also had a fun little glissade down the northeast side of snowy Devils Peak and a not so fun three or four final miles of snow covered trail just before Highway 62.

Today is a zero day in the Mazama campground as we are organizing the supplies we mailed to ourselves, cleaning up, and eating a couple of restaurant meals.

We are camping tonight next to Marc and Julie, full time RVers of RVLove.com fame, who we briefly met at an RV event earlier this year in Quartzite, AZ. Deb has faithfully followed their blog ever since. They graciously offered to share a campsite after a chance encounter outside of the Mazama camp store. It’s been fun getting to know them and compare notes about RV and hiking life.

We haven’t actually seen Crater Lake yet, that’s about five miles of hiking to the north, which we will do tomorrow.