Today's miles: 12
Total miles: 1738
We slept in, packed up, and left the hotel by 11:00 check out time. We were reluctant to leave the adorable town of Ashland, but it's always wise to get out of town and back on trail as soon as you can. Towns are tricky vortexes that suck you in and take your money and convince you that real life is so much more comfortable than trail life. Yet, for some reason, trail life tends to be the one that feels more natural once you get free of town again.
Treekiller, Sunshine and I went grocery shopping for our resupply and got picked up by Katie and Bryan at 2:00 to head back to the trail. Sunshine and Treekiller opted to stay at Callahan's a little longer tonight to recharge their phones and get a final meal, so Katie and I got on trail by ourselves. Sneaks, Mudd and Dingo had started hiking earlier this morning, and Wocka Wocka and Giddyup decided they wanted to take another zero in Ashland and said they would catch up to us in a few days.
Katie and I hiked twelve miles tonight. It was hot and muggy but the trail was relatively smooth so we made good time. We stopped around 7:00 near a lovely meadow and pond and met up with some of the hikers we had been leapfrogging with in the past few days: the Magic Schoolbus (Moonshine, Leaky and Sagi), Horny Toad, Sexy Legs, Lullaby, Hitch and Birddog. I had never met Lullaby before, but I quickly discovered how he got his trail name: he carried with him a Native American flute which he played every night before bed. The sound was hauntingly beautiful and it was a perfect way to end the evening, lulled to sleep by the music.
Day Eighty One
Today's miles: 0
Total miles: 1726
We took a great zero day in Ashland, OR today - though the town was so cute and quaint that many of us hikers wanted to take a "yearo" and just quit the trail and stay here until next summer.
We slept in until 8:00 and then hung out being lazy until early afternoon. We snacked on the things we had bought at the grocery store last night: donuts, oreos, chocolate milk, and the remaining dregs of a half gallon of melted ice cream (Sunshine's favorite). Oh, the hiker diet.
Treekiller, Sunshine and I walked to get pizza for lunch and then headed downtown to explore. We decided to catch a movie at the local theater, an indie film called "The Way Way Back", which was much better than anyone expected. When it let out, we walked to a nearby park and took our shoes off, ran barefoot through the flowers, soaked each other in the fountain, and lay in the soft grass looking up at the blue sky. It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.
We lazily explored shops for the rest of the afternoon and then walked back to our hotel, estimating that we had probably hiked five miles today around town and back, and so it couldn't technically be called a zero, even if those miles weren't on the PCT.
Vogue relocated to the hiker hostel tonight and Aloha went to pick up his wife Toots Magoots from the trail, (who had pulled a 42 mile day into Ashland!), so our room of six was down to four and we went to bed at a more reasonable hour tonight.
Day Eighty
Today's miles: 7
Total miles: 1726
We packed up and left camp at 8:00 this morning. My feet were still aching from yesterday's 29 mile slack pack, but we only had seven miles to go today to reach the town of Ashland, and it would be a much needed reprieve from trail. Though the trail was downhill, I was limping and tired the whole way and very excited to reach Callahan's Lodge, a very lovely resort right off the PCT. The owner was very kind and invited me inside and offered a place to put my pack and a spot for breakfast.
I joined Treekiller and Sunshine at a table and we ordered the hiker special - all you can eat pancakes and eggs. We were joined by Watson and a Southbounder named Vogue who gave us some great intel about all the places we had yet to visit in northern Oregon and Washington.
After eating we caught a ride into Ashland and were dropped off at the post office. Treekiller and Sunshine had packages to pick up, but I didn't, so I wandered around downtown, suddenly feeling a bit lost and alone. Not sure what to do, I headed toward the library with Vogue and ran into Sneaks and his friends Mudd and Dingo, who were trying to catch a hitch to their hotel down the road. I joined them and got my own room at the Rodeway Inn, where I took a much needed shower and changed into my town clothes. I texted Treekiller and Sunshine, offering to share the hotel room, and soon after Aloha, Vogue, and his friend Burrito Grande asked to share the hotel, as well. We piled everyone in the room, gathered up loads of laundry to do at the laundromat next door and went out for dinner.
Across the street was a bar with karaoke night, and since Aloha loved karaoke, it was quickly a gathering spot for the evening. Bryan, Katie, Watson, Sneaks, Mudd, Dingo, Vogue, Burrito Grande, Sunshine, Treekiller and I were all there, cheering for all the singers and especially for Aloha's perfect rendition of the Barenaked Ladies' One Week. Giddyup and Wocka Wocka were staying at a friend's house for the evening, but the rest of us were in the hotel in various rooms.
My hotel room, which started out housing only me, ended up with six people in it, Aloha and Sunshine on the floor. We had a hilarious evening after karaoke watching Remember the Titans on the Spike channel (The boys were all enthralled and slightly emotional about the movie, and I joked, "why is this on Spike?? Shouldn't it be on Lifetime?!" Treekiller snorted, "and this from the girl in the room!!") and the last half of Titanic in Spanish. (Is it sad I still remembered all the words, so it felt like I suddenly understood Spanish?)
We fell asleep at 1:00 am, way past hiker midnight.
Day Seventy Nine
Today's miles: 29
Total miles: 1719
We woke up this morning with wet tents from last night's rainstorm, so we stayed in camp until 8:00 trying to dry them out in the sun. It was a funny sight to see the tents of seven people draped over every available tree and shrub. While we waited we took a bunch of silly photos of ourselves posing in odd positions, what we liked to call the "band cover photos." Everyone was looking pensive and disinterested and even turned in the wrong direction, like Watson.
Left to right: Wocka Wocka, Honey Bunny, Bramble, Sunshine, Sneaks, Watson
When we had mostly dry gear, we packed up and hiked on. It was only nine miles to the Oregon border, and we were stoked about arriving. We had been waiting for this moment for 1700 miles! (Interesting fact: California as the crow flies is only 734 miles long, and yet the PCT traverses 1700 miles to get through the whole state!! Stupid switchbacks.)
It was a big moment to arrive at the border. There was a large group of hikers already there, celebrating and having the trail magic cookies and soda that Katie's boyfriend Bryan had brought to the occasion. It was a group I hadn't hiked with before, but we had been running into them for a few days lately. They called themselves the "Magic Schoolbus" and consisted of three younger hikers who all looked to be in their early twenties or late teens: Moonshine, Leaky and Sagitar. An older hiker named Birddog had been hiking with them lately, too, so we jokingly called him the "Ms. Frizzle" of the Magic Schoolbus gang.
Back row: Sneaks, Moonshine, Sagitar (behind), Giddyup, Watson
Middle row: Birddog, Honey Bunny, Leaky, Sunshine, Wocka Wocka (behind), Bramble
Front row: Treekiller
We stayed by the border for an hour, toasting with champagne and enjoying the realization that we were in Oregon! We were less than 1,000 miles from finishing the PCT! And since we had been hiking so many daily miles lately, that number didn't seem as daunting as it had four months ago.
As we prepared to pack up and hike on, Bryan proposed that he could slack pack us twenty miles to our next campsite. We agreed to this, since it would give us an impressive 29 mile day and it would be easier to accomplish with lighter packs. It was already 1:00 by that point, so we had less than six hours to do 20 miles, an impressive feat. We unloaded our sleeping bags, tents, extra clothes and other accessories into Bryan's car and then took off down the trail. Katie and Bryan drove ahead while we set off at a fast pace. I was last in line, as usual, behind Treekiller, but even I started at a 4.5 mph pace. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep it up since the terrain had a fair number of hills, so eventually I slowed to 3.5 mph. It felt to me like running a marathon, like we were just trying to get through a huge number of miles in as short a time as possible. We didn't take breaks, we didn't stop and joke together, we didn't fill our water, we just ran and ran and ran. As the hours went by I grew more exhausted by this trek, and I ultimately decided I didn't like slack packing very much. The best part of my day was when we stopped at each break and had fun together as friends, and today's hike cut out all of that.
Not only that, but the weather was growing very iffy. All day we were outrunning storms and trying to keep ahead of the rain and thunder. It never rained on us, but ominous clouds surrounded us on all sides.
By the time 8:00 rolled around, I was limping down the trail, hungry, tired and exhausted. But we had hiked 29.5 miles and beneath my exhaustion, I was proud of that. Hunger altered my mood, however, so I quickly set up my tent with everyone else and shoveled down my dinner in relative silence, trying to balance out my calorie-deprived body. I passed out shortly after, having barely enough energy to clean my pot and inflate my sleeping pad.
But we were in Oregon.
Finally.
And that was something.