Double zero in wonderful Ashland
A huge THANK YOU to Jeremiah, Isabella, Joan and Dan for letting us stay at your place. Pitched the Palace on your deck, ate at the picnic table, let us use your laundry, kitchen and bathroom. You let total strangers stay at your lovely place – brilliant!
Ashland was wonderful from the moment we arrived, well deserved pancakes at hiker-friendly Callahan’s, a lovely British Uber driver who took us into town, a really nice Co-op that had proper barista coffee, market along the stream and a gorgeous park to walk through.
Old Solomons – 1600kms
New Oboz – zero kms. Our first Zero day was spent going over to another town called Medford to visit the REI outfitters. I needed new shoes and putties, Anna needed new socks and shorts. This ended up taking hours, after which we Uber’d back to Ashland and resupplied thinking we would leave the next day. Home by 5pm, not feeling chilled, so we decided to have a proper day off the next day. And next……Oregon shows off absolutely gorgeous wilderness.
Halfway and still going strong
Technology, in particular the WiFi we’ve encountered recently has made it almost impossible to upload our blogs with pictures.
We’re halfway through Oregon, halfway through our PCT miles and also crossed over the 2000km mark a few days ago.
We’ll push out our updates when we get the chance. Oregon has been fantastic!
More of our adventures to come soon.
Oregon, 1000 Miles and still going!
Mt. Etna to Ashland, 118 Miles (190kms) in 8 days, including a half day coming into Seiad Valley (Grant twisted his ankle) and a half day coming out to the trailhead at Ashland. We’re certainly making more progress than had we stayed in the Sierras. Since our jump northward we’ve already done another 300 Miles and finally crossed our 1000 Mile mark. No regrets going north.
This area is absolutely gorgeous. Our first night back on the trail at Mt. Etna took us to an alpine lake where we swam (a bit chilly with snow around the lake edge) and camped. There were introduced Trout but also a large Salamander population – really cool!
Although further north we still encountered some snow on the trail but not enough to cause us any issues. We spent the day with views of Marble Mountain, a huge rock outcrop that took an age to go around. We camped again at another lake (Paradise Lake) at a lovely campsite, enjoyed dinner and a fire in the fire pit provided. A wild Deer took an interest and wandered around, probably used to being fed by other hikers.
The following day saw us crossing 200+ tree falls. The area had experienced a large wild fire and most of the tree falls were burnt logs that had finally fallen down. In addition to this, the fire had opened the canopy, let heaps more light in and allowed the undergrowth to overgrow the track in many places. It appeared that the trail volunteers hadn’t visited this section of the trail for quite a while. One kilometre from our destination, Grant badly twisted his ankle but managed to hobble to campsite – bugger!
Next morning saw us walk the 7 Miles to Seiad Valley, a tiny community with a Cafe providing hikers with huge meals. They didn’t disappoint. I had the Hobo/hiker breakfast – yummy! We bought some food and found a Trail Angel who let us camp for free on his property. Lovely place, beautiful trees, direct access to the river where we had two swims and a lift to a place for dinner in the evening. On our return he invited us for Smores by the open fire. Nice way to end the day.
Breakfast the following morning at the Cafe, a few last minute resupply items and we were off again. Grants ankle looked pretty bad but he wanted to soldier on. Luckily we could take a relatively gentle forestry road for the day to avoid the more difficult trail. A fantastic day following a nice gently climbing road next to a creek. Good views, time to look around instead of constantly watching your feet on the uneven trail. We arrived in good time at the intersection with the trail to find the weather had turned, windy and cold, so we decided to stop for the night and camp.
The topography of the landscape continues to change, with steep craggy mountains being replaced by older, more rolling hills. Lots of open meadows with wild flowers separated by pine forest. Lots of views all day. Still some snow across the trail but again not a problem for us. We ended up staying in an old Musterers hut by an open meadow – very rustic and a nice change. We sat on camping chairs around a lovely fire and chilled after dinner. Nice! Bit cold up here considering it is meant to be summer.
The Oregon border came and went. Obligatory photos and videos but no change to the environment. I don’t think nature knows about borders and that stuff is meant to be different when you cross them. Onward to a publicly accessible campsite where we camped before hiking down to the trailhead the following morning. The one thing for me about crossing the border was a sense of making progress especially on passing the 1000 Mile mark. Only 1640 Miles to go!
Dunsmuir to Etna
Crap sleep! Air conditioning and Jim’s snoring (4 shared the double room) kept me awake most of the night. Never mind. Used up all the valuable time in the motel until checkout time at 11am. Resupplied and went into town for lunch before Sandra gave us a lift back to the trail-head. Still beautiful weather, forecast for the next few days is very warm. Back on the trail by 2pm, we only did 10kms before finding a gorgeous campsite by a creek in the deep forest. Who walks past such an opportunity? Dinner, plenty of time for unwinding before hanging the bear bag and going to bed.
A 16km gentle climb followed next day taking us out into the open and past huge rock formations with fantastic views. The thick lush forest had given way to less dense pines. This meant less shade and hotter temps. The forecast had been for 104 degrees F (40 Celsius) and so it seemed as we climbed. We passed above gorgeous alpine lakes, we wondered why the trail avoided them, but the views of the surrounding area were lovely. Along the tops we walked until finally deciding to go a kilometer off trail to camp by another lake. Wow! Warm swim, lovely camping and wee fire to enjoy and keep the Mozzies away.
Most of the next day was spent sidling along ridges not really gaining or losing much altitude. The forest is definitely thinner with large meadows, lots of snow melt seasonal creeks and plenty of stunning views. We managed to do our 20 Miles again and camped by another creek. Nice sunny spot, an early enough finish to the day. We seem to be able to do our kilometers quick enough to finish walking before 6pm. Nice!
Strange, super cold overnight. Actually zipped up my sleeping bag. Breakfast and packed early, 15 Miles (24kms) to the trail head and our exit for resupply in Etna. The trail rushed by, an early lunch with coffee by a creek and so after we found ourselves at the main road. A lucky coincidence found us in a car 5 minutes after arriving and 30 minutes later we’re in Etna having lunch. May take a zero day tomorrow if possible…….let’s see what happens.
Back on the trail – Burney Falls to Dunsmuir
Up early and a treat to have a picnic table to sit at on the trail. What a beautiful place to have jumped to. No tent fly required, super warm, forest and rivers – no worries about access to water like in the Southern Californian desert. We left early and spent the entire day in beautiful mature forest, lots of green undergrowth likely an outcome of the huge snow and rains – not complaining though, very nice to walk under the canopy on a hot sunny day. Along with the warmer temps and wetter conditions are the little beasties. We’d sprayed the tent with some bug spray which seemed to keep them at bay.
Apart from beasties, this is an area we need to be more on the look out for ticks, some of which carry Limes Disease which apparently is pretty nasty. We met a hiker, who although wore long trousers got a tick anyway on his arm. Had to get it surgically removed and then was on antibiotics for a week. This four day stretch would include some snow again. We had a lovely morning on the 2nd day, 16kms by lunch time. Lost Grant who had carried on past an intersection with a forestry road which we would take as an alternative to the snow filled trail. The snow in places had 7 meter high snow banks – I don’t understand how this snow is staying with temps of 28 degrees Celsius in the shade. It was so hot in the sunshine and a battle to gain a footing in the slush – it all became a bit of a mission.
We’d eventually walk 33kms including the snow section. Had a lovely dinner at a spring slightly off trail, also a freezing cold bath before carrying on another couple of kilometers before camping. Super tired but pleasantly surprised we’re now quite capable of doing much longer days. The following day we eventually met up with Grant again. Walked together down to a large river where we had lunch. Grant got there first and saw a bear plodding down the road. Woohoo!
We climbed in the heat all afternoon through thick lush forest eventually having dinner at a creek then camping at 8pm. 40kms is a very long way, we seem to have gone from averaging 20kms per day to 20 Miles per day – 12kms a day further.
We spent the majority of the 4th and last day of this section walking through the forest gently down to a camping ground and out onto the intersection with the highway which would get us to Dunsmuir. Super hot and tired, it took us almost 2 hours to get a hitch just to a Service Station after walking 32kms. Beautiful forest again, but sitting at the side of the road for so long was a bit painful. From the Service Station (after ice cream and cold drinks) a lovely lady called Sandra took 5 smelly hikers into Dunsmuir where we eventually ended up staying at a motel. Shower, Pizza, bed. 82 Miles (131kms) in 4 days. Tired.
A PCT Roadie….Lone Pine to Redding
Never really thought about having a road trip on the PCT but that’s certainly what we had to do. We’d gotten a really good deal on a 2 day rental (thanks Grant) and picked it up on the Sunday afternoon from Ridgecrest (80kms away). Big flash planet hating thing it was but the only car available unless you wanted a huge SUV.
Goodbyes to Judy, we will miss her but will see her again….we left stuff there to make sure we would come back. Drove through Lake Tahoe as we had sent bounce boxes there to be collected with spare gear. We drove the rest of the day and camped at a cute riverside camp ground.
Strange to be in a car driving all day after only being in cars for short hitches coming and going from the trail. The following day we drove through a really cute town called Quincy and stopped at an organic store to get anti-mossie stuff. Drove up to Redding where we had arranged a trail angel to take us to the trail head. We resupplied at the local Walmart (traumatised again) and dropped the car at the airport.
Melissa, out trail angel was fantastic! Drove us to Burney Falls campground, around 160km round trip for her – and she also stored our excess gear at her place to pick up on the way back. What would we do without such generous people. Thanx Melissa!
Nice campsite, picnic table, Bear box, flat site, super hot and no need for our tent fly. Lots of Mossies here, sprayed the tent with anti bug stuff. Visited the actual Falls later in the evening which were quite impressive.
Excited to be back on trail the following day….
Camino PCT 