Road Trip 2012: Thursday 10/11/12

0 miles on my truck, but a bunch on Cory's car.  Still camped at Cory's.

Cory and I made a road trip to Crater Lake National Park today

On the drive up, Cory pulled into an overlook of Diamond Lake.  While we were standing there, another vehicle pulled in.  Low and behold, it was the campers from Massachusetts that we had met four days ago at La Pine State Park.  What are the odds of that happening.  We all had a chuckle and visited for a bit.

Diamond Lake Overlook.

The weather was warm and sunny, and Crater Lake was stunning!!  Crater Lake was created about 7,700 years ago by a series of volcanic eruption that destroyed Mt. Mazama.  Lava flows and ash deposits create much of the surrounding landscape.  The resulting lake is listed as 1,943 feet deep, making it the second deepest lake in North America.  There are no inlets or outlets for the lake, making the water extremely clear and cold.

Pumice Desert with Mt. Thielsen in distance.

Cory on veranda of Crater Lake Lodge.

Taking a break.

We completely circled the rim on the Rim Drive Road.  There are so many stunning views, it's hard to pick out just a few.  We got back to Cory's house about 4:30.

Now, a "Blast from the Past" moment.  A couple days ago, out of the clear blue, I received an email from Keirnyn Ross, a former student of both myself and Kathy at Potsdam High School.  Keirnyn took Pre-calculus and Calculus from Kathy and AP Environmental Science from me.  He graduated in 2002, and went on to get a degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Vermont.  The last I knew, he was working in New York City.  As it turns out, Keirnyn is taking a leave of absence from his job, and is on a solo bicycle trip along the west coast, riding from the Canadian border to the Mexican border.  According to him, he saw something the other day that reminded him of Kathy and I, so he looked me up on the web, and read in my blog that I was traveling in Oregon very near to him. We ended up connecting in Roseburg.  He came to Cory's for dinner, and stayed overnight in the camper.  What a great time we had catching up.  Cory, Molly, Keirnyn and I stayed up well past midnight visiting.  Talk about timing.  It was shear luck that he thought of me, shear luck that he took the time to read the blog entry, and shear luck that we were even in the same part of the world.  Ya never know.  :-)

On Friday Cory, Molly and I are going to Mt. Shasta, California to meet my sister Karen and her partner, Bob.  They have rented a chalet and we're going to spend some time in Northern California.