Day 110, 9 miles, endpoint Ashland, OR (off the PCT)
The last nine miles today felt like they took forever. I was expecting a quick and easy descent, but in true PCT fashion, the trail had many sections of uphill mixed in with the downhill off Mt. Ashland.
We finally arrived at Highway 99 and began walking down the road towards I-5. We got lucky with our hitch; a car stopped for us on the highway before we even made it to I-5. A woman inside said she had just dropped some other hikers who were heading out and was more than happy to drive us to Ashland, about 12 miles north on I-5.
We got dropped off at our hotel, the Rodeway Inn, but made a detour to Taco Bell since the room wasn't ready. After eating approximately ten tacos, two quesadillas, two orders of potatoes, a Mexican pizza, and a few gallons of Wild Cherry Pepsi, we checked into the hotel and fell into a Taco Bell coma.
We split our room with Mongoose, a hiker from Minnesota and a real nice guy. For the first time this trip, we were at a town stop where we actually knew people: Josh's former mountain climbing guide, Scott, lives nearby, and a friend of Josh's from high school, Tony, was also in Ashland for work. The four of us, along with Scott's wife, met up at Caldera, a local brewery in downtown Ashland. We downed some good Oregon beers, ate food, and forgot that we were hiking the PCT for a night.
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| Trail views |
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| Rodeway |
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| Beers with friends |
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| Birthday cakes! All of this was finished by the 3 of us. |
Day 111, 0 miles, still in Ashland, OR
Josh's Mom Mary Pat made a road trip down to Ashland from Portland to meet us. Her car was packed with boxes of food and supplies we had either put together before we left, or ordered online once we were hiking and had shipped to her house. It took several trips to unload everything, and once it was in the hotel room, there wasn't anywhere to sit and barely anywhere to stand.
We planned on putting together our resupply for the entire rest of the trip. This meant that all of the food, toiltries, and supplies for Washington and Oregon would need to be organized and boxed up for shipping. It was a headache-inducing task.
It was sunny, warm, and a Friday afternoon in one of Oregon's hippiest-friendly towns, which made for great people watching. We went to Lithia Park, the "crown jewel" of Ashland, where dogs are not allowed (which was unfortunate since, coincidentally, we had a dog with us--Gussie, Mary Pat's cute dingo baby, made the trip down to Ashland as well). Knowing where we weren't wanted, we weaved our way past crop-topped girls with dreadlocks and guys in capri pants strumming ukeleles to window shop along the main street downtown. Ashland is the kind of town where hikers don't actually stand out. In fact, a PCT hiker might even look like a normal person compared to the loving vagabonds that call Ashland home for a few nights before moving on to the next town.
Later that night we caught the Green Show, a free 45 minute show that precedes the Shakespeare productions Ashland is famous for. Ashland has an outdoor Elizabeathen-syle theater modeled after the Globe, and the plays staged there are renowned internationally. People come from all over the world to see The Tempest or The Taming of the Shrew on this outdoor stage. But before the plays, on a grassy hillside next to the theater, the Green Show entertains the public for free with various random acts. Two summers ago Josh and I watched a deaf rapper perform. Tonight it was something equally strange: Hyperbole, a retelling of Shakespeare's plays through song, dance, and puppets.
We watched the mildly entertaining show, then went back to Caldera with several other hikers.
Tomorrow we will actually get to worl finalizing our boxes to ship out, while enjoying our last full rest day.
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| Ashland's Lithia water... gross, but it is supposed to give you superhuman strength. |
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| Switzerland, Germany, France, Minnesota, Washington D.C. |
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| Did we spend more time here than in the hotel room? |
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