Aug 28th - Leaving the Crater.

Another slack-pack day of recovery.  Hiked from Rim Road to highway 138.  Hiking a lot better now.  Finally feeling stronger and eating better.  We left some water at the empty water cache at highway 138 for other hikers and drove to Elk Lake.  After a few beers and appetizers at the bar we left a food drop and camped for the night.  We paid for a campsite at Elk Lake Resort and were told to take any open spot.  We  found a great lakeside spot, setup camp, built a great roaring fire and had an early birthday dinner with wine by the fire when the ranger showed up.  We were told that we were in the day use area of the state park and had to move and immediately started pouring water on our campfire.  Turns out we had paid for the Elk Lake private campground and had crossed over into the state park campground so we were not even in the right place.  Ended up moving in the dark and setting up a new site.  Oh well, just part of the adventure.

A forest of pregnant trees