Our sleep was patchy last night due to the cold and in the morning we found that the cloth hanging to dry was frozen stiff. As we walked we were crunching on a lattice of frozen mud. There were patches of snow, frozen hard and crunchy but nothing too slippery.

The views of mountains were again quite spectacular and hiking in the crisp morning air was pleasant. Late morning we started hiking on a rough path of volcanic rocks – slipping and sliding on pebbly lava rocks was hard work and it continued well into the afternoon.

We reached McKenzie Pass at lunchtime and walked a short way up a road to an observatory which was built out of the volcanic rocks. Basically it was a viewing point for the mountains with windows around all the walls, each window showing a different mountain. It was great for us as we had hiked on or around many of them.

Although the trail remained scenic, the afternoon dragged as we worked to complete the 26 miles to camp at a Christian youth camp which welcomes PCT hikers with food and showers. Fed and cleaned we are camped by a lake.

With only 6 miles left in the morning to get to the highway (which will be the end of our Oregon section) we can sleep in and won’t start hiking until 6:30.