With only 15 miles to get to town, I knew I could get there early. I woke up and started hiking just before the sunrise. After hearing cowbells in the woods for the last few days, I finally saw the cows. It’s hard to believe that grazing cows in the mountains is somehow cheaper than somewhere flat, but what do I know. You’ll find cow poop in the weirdest places.
After some unremarkable hiking, (and a couple of coolers stocked with pop 😍) I made it to Highway 99. It’s right next to the I-5 on ramp that will get you to Ashland. I didn’t go straight to Ashland. I went to Callahan’s Lodge, a big log cabiny building with a restaurant. The first beer is free for thru hikers and I ordered a monte cristo sandwich. With a full belly, I headed back to the road and caught a ride to Ashland. The guy who picked me up pointed out several marijuana farms in the area.
When I got to town, I met up with Splash. I hadn’t seen him since I got off trail. He arrived the day before but decided to zero and hike or with me the next day. We got a room at the best western and went out for a night on the town. We started with dinner at Caldera Brewing and ended up at an Irish pub. As we were about to leave and go back to the hotel, we saw our friend 2Pass. We ordered more drinks and eventually made our way to another bar to meet up with some more hikers.
It was karaoke night. The hiker trash brought the house down and I was surprised at how well some of them could sing. I took the first taxi I’ve taken in several years home and then we woke up to this…
That’s a pancake robot. Push a button, get a pancake. Pretty magical. The breakfast at our hotel was awesome. I don’t usually say that about free hotel breakfast, but this was really good. Lots of fresh fruit, pancakes, waffles, bacon, potatoes, you know, the whole spread.
After stuffing ourselves with all you can eat breakfast, we headed to the Shop ‘n’ Kart for some groceries. I was told this was the best grocery store on any long trail in North America. It was a mix of hippy organic groceries with normal stuff like fruit by the foot. It was weird and pretty cheap. Across the parking lot from the store was a Taco Bell. We headed over for lunch and packed up our resupply. Luckily, they didn’t seem to mind us unpacking and repacking all that food.
Once we got back on trail, we were near pilot rock. It’s too bad the picture isn’t clearer. It was an impressive mountain.
As we hiked, we could hear thunder in the distance. We had a few pockets of sprinkling rain, but not enough to get very wet. It was still probably the most rain I’ve seen on the PCT.
We arrived at camp around 8 pm and managed to miss any storms. I can hear thunder and see lightning off in the distance. Part of me wants it to rain and put out the fires at crater lake. Then other part of me realizes how terrible camping in the rain is.