Day 11: La Pine State Park to Crater Lake National Park

Mileage for the day: 65 miles (I didn't count the return trip for the lost Keen sandal)
Total mileage for the trip: 797 miles

Well, today has been my latest day on the road yet. I didn't set my alarm because I just didn't feel like getting up at the crack of dawn. I was headed into Crater Lake today and knew that I had relatively few miles to get there before dark. I finally got out of my sleeping bag at 8:30 (which is kinda late for bike touring) and slowly got my things together. It was fairly chilly, and the sky was very overcast. What a difference a day (and a couple hundred miles) makes! Just a day ago I was burning up, dry as a bone, and as soon as I get back to the forest, here comes the cold and rain. I got underway but realized about 10 miles down the road that I had absentmindedly set my Keens on the back rack and that one had fallen off. I had to backtrack the whole way to find it, setting me back quite a bit.

The rain eventually came down, but I didn't really mind that so much. I can escape the rain with plenty of good raingear, so I put on my layers and just kept truckin'. The only thing is, when I opened my clothes bag to grab my waterproofs, I realized that I really needed to do some laundry.

I cruised through a couple of small towns before I came upon Crescent and its RV park with a laundromat right out front. I went in and got 5 bucks worth of quarters and proceeded to wash my things. Only one hitch, though... I'm wearing half of my things that need to be washed. Oh well, just slip behind the machines, take off everything while no one's around, and put on my rainpants and rainjacket. There, that should do it. I don't look odd with my raingear on (as it's rainy out) and no one would be the wiser. I sat down with my netbook (the RV park had wifi, w00t!) out of the cold and rain, and waited for my things to wash and dry.

Well, no sooner than I had done this, an older woman walked into the laundromat with two big baskets of clothes, sorts and puts them into the machines, and then starts reading a magazine. I looked all around for a restroom to go change in, but none was to be found. Great, now what do I do? I can't put my nice, warm, clean clothes on! Anyway, I won't tell you how I finally got re-dressed, but suffice to say, it was elaborate.

I headed on down the road and was excited to turn off of 97 towards Crater Lake. I really love changing over my maps when I get to certain points on a trip, and I pulled out the Sierra Cascades map and took a look at the profile. I was startled to find that I would be climbing like a maniac, full-stop, for the next 30+ miles, right up to the rim road at 6,000 or so feet. Not to mention also, the road up to the north entrance is absolutely, perfectly straight. You can just see that climb go on and on and on forever...

I chugged and chugged late into the afternoon, the sun getting low and the heavy cloud cover not making it any brighter. For at least an hour I could see a bright spot just over the top of the horizon and below the clouds, and I chased that carrot feverishly. Of course you know it's never good when you are racing the setting sun, you'll always lose.

I finally got inside the park gates, made my way in as far as I could go in the (now completely) dark, and when I spotted a nondescript building I pitched my tent behind it and passed out, the rain still drizzling down. Later, as it had during that day (I would find), the rain turned to snow...