Tag: Ashland

Day 65: Ashland

Having not taken a zero (no hiking) day since I stopped by my parents’ house in Lake Tahoe a month before, I decided the small town of Ashland would be the perfect place to kick up my heels and relax. Located just 10 miles from the PCT, the city is perhaps most famous for hosting the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. For long-distance hikers, of course, one of the highlights of spending a day in town is the simple availability of hot food. A big breakfast at the Morning Glory Cafe preceded a visit to the all-you-can-eat Taj Indian buffet where I filled my bottomless hiker stomach with steaming samosas and tandoori chicken (washed down with multiple glasses of mango lassi). Completely stuffed, I strolled over to the park and lay down in the sunny grass for an afternoon nap.

On my way back to the hotel where I was splitting a room with Radek the skies suddenly opened up in a torrent of pouring rain. Having gotten used to walking through all kinds of weather, I enjoyed feeling the cool drops of water fall on my face. When the rain let up a bright double rainbow appeared over the city, guiding me toward the evening’s event. I was excited to see the showing of Macbeth at the Elizabethan-style theater downtown. Curtain wasn’t until 8pm, however, and I made the tragic mistake of ordering a glass of wine while waiting for the play to begin. Accustomed to going to sleep around 9pm each night, the wine and my body’s natural rhythm soon worked their magic and put me under for most of the show. The sharp noise of the audience giving a standing ovation stirred me awake as the actors bowed on stage. I may have missed the play but I certainly had a restful zero day.

Day 64: Wrangle Gap to Ashland

In the morning the smell of smoke had disappeared and a light rain fell on the distant hills. I trekked across easy rolling terrain to a high point where a trail angel had placed two coolers under a fir tree. One was full of beer, while the other was filled with assorted soft drinks and even a whole watermelon! Luckily one of the hikers already there had a large knife and I cut myself a refreshing slice of the cool fruit. I lingered for a long while, enjoying the rejuvenating company after several days hiking alone even more than the trail magic. I felt ready for a break back in civilization.

Signs of human habitation grew as I walked closer to the interstate. The trail wound downhill next to a paved road heading to the Mount Ashland Ski Area, and I followed a cross-country ski track to a picnic table outside a house where three other hikers had just started eating lunch. I joined them and met a thru-hiker named Janis Joplin, who said he was attempting a speed run of the 450-mile Oregon section of the PCT which involved crossing the entire state in only eight days. The idea appalled me, but true to his word Janis wolfed down his food and immediately set off running toward Washington.

The other two hikers (one of whom, Radek, I had asked to check my paranoid self for ticks weeks previously near the Feather River) and I quickly fell into a rhythm, turning onto a side trail leading across a railroad track and under Interstate 5 to Callahan’s Lodge where we hoped to hitch a ride into Ashland. The interior looked straight out of the 1930s, complete with lacquered bar and roaring fireplace. We were welcomed warmly despite our scruffy appearance, and enjoyed a beer on the house before packing into a trail angel’s sedan for the short drive into town.