Crater Lake

A map, a compass... and a key fob? How we "misplaced" the trail and found our way back. First of all Do Not Attempt this 'trail' if you have not route finding skills! My friend Liz had hiked this trail many times to fish at the lake, but had not been up there is several years. She warned me it was a 'goat trail and a bushwack.' This starts at the end of the Elizabeth lake road with 2 target shot beer cans and a fire pit. She knew where she was going so we started bushwhacking thru the brush on remnants of a trail. I took a compass bearing about 20' away towards the truck(this proves significant). We bushwhacked up to the lake following flagging tape, broken brush and bits of trail. The lake is beautiful and there were lots of flowers I hadn't seen before. We walked, bushwhacked, and waded around the lake. Liz assured me the trail is a lot easier to see going down (fameous last words!) At some point we missed the turn N and found ourselves in a gully of devils club and slimy rocks. We were "off trail". We took a bearing to find the direction of the truck. We hit a stream, got out the map and found out we were too far S and down, took another bearing to find NW and truck and worked our way up. After an hour of this Liz got out the key fob... a faint beep! Now we followed key fob until we saw beer can target glimmer. YAY! After changing into dry clothes we were ready to go BUT she couldn't find the ignition key Oh no a 10 mile road walk! We did find they key, however. Couldn't even stop at Zekes traffic was too bad. Sorry about the long trip report, but I think there are some good lessons here. There are reasons for the 10 E's and we are not some SAR case and the subject of snarky comments on hiker websites!