I got out of the 4 person maximum, Volkswagen Transporter (T4) van along with the 6 other people inside it. The sun was just commencing to color the Maroon Bells maroon. I struggled to put my 45 pound backpack on for about 10 minutes, finally to realize it wasn’t my backpack. After 20 minutes of pictures taken by all the helicopter parents, all of which were practically bawling their eyes out, my group and I were on our way up to Buckskin Pass via Crater Lake.

We marched our way up the trail, taking water breaks every two minutes or so. So far, it was a walk in the park for me. The often water breaks were a little difficult to handle, but it definitely wasn’t treacherous. We arrived at Crater Lake an hour later, 20 minutes behind schedule. We stopped for a group meeting where we went over the information of the day. I urinated behind a nice Blue Spruce tree. The sun was beginning to beat down on me like an iron fist. Luckily, I forgot to apply sunscreen.

My group began hiking once again. I’d say we were about 1/3 of the way to the top. The group that was hiking the same route and started the same time was already way in front of us. Eventually, we came to a stop to eat lunch because everyone else in my group was so frickin’ hungry. I bought a burrito from Big Wrap for lunch. It was good.
The next hour of hiking wasn’t the worst if you don’t account for the thousands of hikers that passed us. I felt as if we were going a decent, maintainable speed. I looked up to the top of the pass to see the other group standing there, eating lunch. How did they get up there so fast, while I thought we were going just the right pace?

I’ve always considered myself to be a fairly athletic person that could beat anyone to the top of a hill. For instance, on the practice day for 8th grade Outdoor Education, I was one of the first people to reach the top of Tiehack. I didn’t understand why my group and I were so slow. I mean, I was totally better than all of them. Clouds began to cover the sun.

We made your way to the base of the peak, and stopped to look up at the daunting work that was ahead of us. Another pee, water, snack break passed, and we were on our way to the top... for about 10 seconds. Then we stopped for yet another pee, water, and snack break. Man, were we tired, including myself. Once again, we started heading on up... until we stopped about 15 seconds later. The cycle repeated. We began to bet on how many steps we would take before another break. I won because I bet six. I struggled, much like everyone else, to bring one foot in front of the other. After an hour of work, equivalent to a tenth of a mile of hiking, we brought ourselves to the top of the snow capped pass. I laid down, ate some trail mix, and looked down at our campsite which was probably about a mile ahead of us.

Once everyone reached the top, we commenced heading down. Going down was much easier if you try to ignore the pains in your knees that throbbed with every step. The sun was just ducking behind the horizon when we reached camp. The other group had been there for about two hours. I set up my tent, ate some food, and fell right asleep.