Crater Lake overlook is about 800 feet higher in elevation than the PCT where the trail crosses Highway 62. It was windy, cold and exposed (note the spindrift):
The trail wasn't much better; parking at the PCT highway-crossing was cold but not as windy or exposed:
The snowshoeing was easy, but after walking 1/4 mile we had no confidence that we could find the trail over the course of 27 miles to the next pickup point (walking in the featureless, mostly flat forest made us feel like ants walking in a field of grass):
So we bailed and we're hoping that enough snow has melted three weeks from now that we can do this hike. We'll be watching the National Weather Service Report daily; we also learned that the most reliable web-cam on the Park Service site shows just about the same conditions as are on the trail two miles away (so we'll be watching that too).
Meanwhile the Oregon coast isn't so bad. We found a great little restaurant for lunch and tomorrow we'll cross back into California and check out Prairie Creek Redwoods State and Redwoods National Parks. Then we'll try for the Humboldt County highpoint on Wednesday (50/50 on us being able to get in on the approach road).
Now, back to our reading
