August 11th to August 24!
Wednesday, August 11
We shuttled both vehicles up from Shasta to the Mt. Ashland area. Our goal was to navigate forest roads to get as close to the California/Oregon border as possible. The one “developed” forest road was hair-raising–probably constituting one of the top three scary experiences on the trail (fire and exposed drop-offs being the other two). It took about 90 bumpy minutes to drive 11 miles! We got to within 3/10 of the border and decided not to start hiking–it was already dusk–but we did scamper down to the border sign:
Camping close to the trail meant that we got to meet Alex and ‘Muscles” as they went by, and Moonbeam and her partner (who we think we had met before).
Our campsite featured nifty chainsaw-created furniture:
Thursday, August 12th:
Hiked about 18 miles to the Mt. Ashland campground (past little springs, burn areas, and wide slanted meadows). Got directions from a happy, quirky man with shoulder length white hair–this being a common type of Ashland area human, as it turns out. He was trying to get a field mouse out of the engine area of his Prius. Met several folks in the campground, including a firefighter on R and R from the Dixie fire (his idea of ‘rest’ being to hike 50 miles or so on the PCT). High winds–we did a quick change of campsites after a big branch cracked off from a fir close to us.
Friday, August 13th:
About 18 miles again today. It turns out we knew the friendly couple with the adventurous five and seven year old daughters camped up the hill from us! Kate, Jeff, Hattie and Margaret! Kate used to work with me. It was difficult to tear away from our lovely chat, but eventually we headed downhill about 3 miles to the water faucet (and met the owner/gardener who has dedicated his faucet and picnic table area to hikers–what a generous gift), then a hot hike down to the interstate (I5) and finally up to Soda Springs wilderness. In the lovely dusk we met Crunchy–a 20 something who opted out of his software job to explore permaculture related careers (after hiking the PCT) and hadn’t showered since the Oregon/Washington border. He was hiking 34 miles or so a day. We camped at a little spring on a slanty, meadowed hill with many elderberry bushes and were carefully surprised to find that we were sharing the spring with small, resident skunk.
Saturday, August 14th:
Just 15 miles today. Got to Green Springs Summit where we had left our car, shuttled forward about 50 miles and started hiking again. Lots of hillside, golden meadows, and some smoke. The two reservoirs in the area–Hyatt and Howard Prairie–are merely puddles. Stopped at Ap-Ser-Ka-Ha campground (once a boy scout camp, now owned by Jackson County) run by ‘PCT Betty’ and her husband, Tom. We found them canning peach jelly in the big camp kitchen. They were somewhat taciturn but very kind–offering hot showers, towels, shampoo and soap–and home canned peaches (Betty worries that PCT hikers don’t eat enough fruit). We devoured half the peaches for dinner and half for breakfast. What lovely trail angel/fairy godparents! We stayed in a musty cabin with bunk beds for ten–a reminder of childhood summers at Episcopal Church music camp.
Sunday, August 15th:
18 miles again today. Got to the South Brown Mt. Shelter and competed with many bees for water from the spring pump (which apparently broke a few days later). Water is still an issue in this part of Oregon. Later in the early evening we met a couple very handily filling multiple quart containers with huckleberries. Our mileage had slowed down considerably while we grazed right around the same area. We traversed a few smaller lava fields (dotted with Ponderosas–reminders of home!) before camping at the last tent site available before the long lava traverse down to Hwy 140 and the Fish Lake area.
Monday, August 16th:
Hiked the 6 miles to Hwy 140, met a whole group of fun SOBOs coming up from Fish Lake, got to the truck, went and picked up the Subaru from Hwy 66, left the truck back at Hwy 140 again and drove up to Crater Lake (after a brief lunch at Annie’s Cafe). We’ve become more expert at these shuttle logistics! We started from the Pumice Flat Trailhead and hiked to the south border of Crater Lake National Park, where we had ended our Oregon PCT section hike the summer before.
We were doing this leg of the hike southward–for no particular reason, really, except that it placed us in a more logical position for meeting up with music friends at Crane Prairie reservoir at the end of the week. It was late afternoon, so we hiked just another 5 or so miles and had an anxious half hour in the dusk trying to locate a tent site that wasn’t situated among a dozen burnt, precarious snags. Heavy smoke added to the spooky atmosphere. We finally decided to cowboy camp (no tent) on a small rocky hill–cold, windy and damp–but no worries about being crushed by a snag in the middle of the night!
Tuesday, August 17th:
More hiking in the ten mile burn area south of Crater Lake. Climbed Goose Egg Mt. and Devils Peak. Temperatures were thankfully in the low 70’s–this area would be horrendous in the heat. More smoke. Because we were hiking south we got to reconnect with a number of NOBOs–namely Sock Monkey and Ranger Danger (a couple roughly our age–we met them long ago in Hiker Town, in SoCal), Alex and Muscles (we had met them at the Oregon border), and Laffy Taffy and Yard Sale–who we had met at Barker Pass, CA. Fun, reuniting conversations with everyone, and we hope we’ll run into them again up trail.
In addition to featuring our old NOBO friends, this section has been family themed–we’ve ran into one father/daughter pair, one father/son, and two brothers.
The ridge at the top of Devil’s Peak was gorgeous, and allowed us enough data to download a few library books (Chris) and catch up with texts (Cat). We suddenly realized it was getting dark and we still had 4 miles to hike (along shale, bumpy, ridges with steep drop offs, as it turned out). Our site was–thankfully–just on the edge of yet another burn. It was another 18-19 mile day.
Wednesday, August 19th:
We hiked from our sweet campsite in the green trees through burnt forest, high shale ridges and then up and down deeply forested rolling hills for many miles. We could see what we thought was Mt. Mcloughlin through the burn:
Stopped at Christy Springs–a mere trickle coming out of the hill–and that was our last water for about 11 miles (much of this southern Oregon section has required long water carries). We passed many junctions to tempting lakes but we were focused on completing 23 miles for the day–completing our Oregon section from last summer, getting to the truck (and our foam mattresses) for the night and most importantly, arriving in the vicinity of a huge breakfast at the Fish Lake cafe the following morning. We (well, me especially) are very tired of backpacking food. We got to the truck and I polished off the remainder of a bag of Lays potato chips (opting to skip one more dinner of ramen) and Chris courageously downed yet another Mountain House meal-in-a-bag.
Friday, August 20th:
Fish Lake! French toast! Scrambled eggs! Homemade berry coffee cake! We’re still hungry! We ate, ate, and ate again, sitting outside at a picnic table near the shallow reservoir. We met the two brothers again. “Bull” used to hike with his little dog on the top of his pack:
Then, it was off to gather up the Subaru and drive both vehicles up to Crane Prairie, where we were meeting our bluegrass friends for a socially distanced jam at the campground there. It was SO lovely to see everyone! Friend and bass player Suzanne had just finished a long section of the Oregon PCT and there were (and still are!) many stories to tell. She gave us all her leftover trail food (she did a lot more pre-hike food prep than we ever did!) and we are so grateful!
Saturday, August 21:
More music, more chatting around the propane fake ‘campfire’ at night and in the chilly morning sun, and more music, and more music.
Sunday, August 22:
We are in Bend! We’re sleeping in our own bed! We’re using a kettle to make tea in the morning! We’re sitting on the couch!
Monday, August 23:
Same, plus dinner with Matt and Freddy (and Dana!)
Tuesday, August 24:
Same, and getting ready to hit the trail in Washington tomorrow morning!
Three and Some Trees 