Hippies, Shakespeare, and Crater Lake

My official destination for this roadtrip was Crater Lake National Park. However, it was drawn to my attention that I could swing by the town of Ashland, Oregon, which I had read about in outdoorsy magazines in the same articles as Asheville, NC. Ashland has a thriving dreaded nouveau-hippie scene, a 70+-year-old internationally-renowned 10-month-long Shakespeare festival that attracts middle-aged Brits, an active acoustic music scene, and enough cool old architecture being renovated to keep a moderate population of craftsman and builders employed (which I learned when I jumped into a conversation between a carpenter and and plumber talking about Pex, one morning sitting on the deck of a coffee shop, while a 20-something guy was talking with some regulars about his gig last night while playing around on his guitar), and is close to good hiking and some hot springs. An interesting place, needless to say.

Arrived at Crater Lake around 4p. I was intending to camp in the park only to find that the place starts to close up for the season around the end of September. On an employee's suggestion, I drive, past patches of early snow, along the northwest rim of the lake, to a camping area just outside the park. The first place I come to has a sign posted out front saying it is closing the next day, October 14. It is cold and dark, with patches of snow under the trees, and there are no hot showers, and I am cranky and not looking forward to another freezing night, and there are no towns big enough to have motels anywhere nearby. So I drive back down the road, take another fork, and wind up at a campsite that is not closing until the 15th. There is a site still lit up by the sun, and somehow this seems warmer, so I make a fire, make dinner, set up my tent, read a bit before bed, drink a wee dram of Macallans, and go to bed relatively contented, and sleep relatively warm.

Crater Lake is pretty much exactly as its name describes. There are not really any big long hiking trails, just a few ascents to lookouts, and paved trails. I suppose if one dedicated more time, there are some through-trails along other areas of the park, but I am here as a tourist. So I do two short hikes, and then drive the rim road. It is beautiful, in a stark sort of way.






But I met a cute and curious little guy. A pine marten.