After months of hiking through the desert, the Sierras, and
Yosemite, I have seen so many changes in the topography and have countless
memories of the people that I have met along the trail. The overload of beautiful vistas, mountain
ranges, and meadows has given me a glimpse of the wonder of God’s creation. We
are so blessed to have a country that is filled with so many natural resources.
I am humbled by the scope and breadth of the 1,900 miles that I have hiked. Finally, I made it to Oregon!!! California is
such a huge state that it occupies what seems like an endless part of the
trail. Once you get to Oregon, you have
your “trail legs” and each day you can just pump out the miles.
Oregon has been called the “green highway” among the hikers because
it flattens out in the beginning and you are free to walk as many miles as you
can. I have put in a lot of over 30+
mile days and have felt that they come easy.
I mentioned before that it is kind of like going on a long run. You get into a rhythm and take in the sights
and sounds around you.
Another thing that is said about Oregon is that their honorary state
“bird” should be the mosquito. Anything
that you don’t have covered they try to attack!
Every time you stop to rest or get a drink of water the thirsty insects
come in for the kill.
We got our first glimpse of the rainforests in the Pacific
Northwest. No trip to the Pacific Northwest is complete without enjoying the
hidden gems in Oregon and in Washington. The spectacular series of 100 ft
waterfalls and lush monstrous old-growth trees are only part of the serene
landscape. You can find beautiful flower laden paths and we will soon be coming
upon the many wild berry bushes along the trail. There is plentiful water and
it has been hotter than normal for this time of year.
Our first major stop in Oregon was at Callahan’s lodge where good
luck and misfortune both found me. The lodge offers thru hikers the chance to
pitch their tent on their beautiful backyard campground. The day was going so
well. We met a great couple from Medford
that was curious about our journey.
After spending time talking with them, they generously paid for our
meal. That was a wonderful treat. We got
the chance to take a long shower and wash all our clothes. We looked forward to
a peaceful night under the stars on the lush lawn at Callahan’s.
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| Lush lawns were at the park and also Callahan's. |
I went to retrieve my wall charger for my phone, external battery
and the satellite communications only to find that a thief had taken them.
Those are some of the most valuable things to a thru hiker because that is how
you communicate with your family. Without your communications, you also have
lost the ability to use your navigation tools on your phone. I couldn’t believe that a fellow hiker would
do that! The charger and external
battery were worth less than $100, but the value of them was beyond that. When you
are in the wilderness, you can’t just go out and replace a much-needed item. I was not happy that someone had taken them!
After settling in for the night, Alex (9-5) and I were awoken at
12am by a group of lodge guests shining a floodlight on us and pelting us with
a hailstorm of beer cans from the second story balcony. They hit Alex in the lower back and narrowly
missed hitting me in the head. They threw a whole 6pack at us. Alex
quickly returned the favor by yelling at the patron and throwing the beer cans
back up at them. We cautiously went back to sleep without another
incident. Thank goodness we had planned
a ZERO day so that we could get some much-needed rest before heading into Medford
and Ashland to try and find replacements for my stolen merchandise.
The next day went much better.
After downing a huge breakfast of eggs, sausage and unlimited pancakes,
we found the local REI store. Alex had to replace some broken gear and I found
an external battery. Liam was meeting us in Ashland. We were blessed with an instant hitch to get
in Medford. The town is familiar with thru hikers so we were happy they stopped
for us because with 1,900 miles under our belt I am sure we looked pretty suspicious.
We had similar luck getting to Ashland to meet up with Liam.
When we tried to get back to the trail we ran into problems in
Ashland trying to find a ride. We tried for about 2 hours with no luck. We ended up getting the number for a local adventure
guide service and we were on our way. In hindsight, it turned out to be divine
intervention. The driver and owner of the guide service was a colon cancer
survivor. He has been NED, no evidence
of disease, for 1 year. It was great to talk to him about the struggle that my
dad is going through. Finding some common ground, he decided to give us the
grand tour of Ashland and some history about the area. One of the more
interesting tibits of information was the history of the Oregonian Shakespeare
Theater.
According to our guide, the
theater started as a college project in 1935 and has grown to have an annual
festival and three theaters. Throughout the year they have both free and paid
performances. In the beginning they only
did Shakespearian productions, but as time has gone on they include both
classic and modern productions. The only time the theater has taken a break is
during World War II. After being in the woods, it would have been nice to step
back in time and experience MacBeth or Romeo and Juliet in an outdoor theater
surrounded by the sounds of the forest. Unfortunately, time nor schedule
permitted us to join the fun.
The guide also took us to a beautiful Lithia Park, a 93-acre vista
of emerald lawns, naturalistic plantings, and groves of all kinds of trees
selected for their hardiness and color. The park is listed on the national
historic register as it was founded in 1892 and has become a hub of
entertainment and culture to the southern part of Oregon.
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| Our guide and Alex |
We found our groove in the town of Ashland. We went from restaurant
to restaurant and wandered in the unique stores along the streets. Liam grew
concerned about his timeline and after a discussion with Alex and I, made the
decision to catch a ride the next day further up the trail to Cascade Locks. He
has a wedding to attend and won’t have time to finish the trail. He was going to have to miss part of Oregon
or part of Washington. After our experience with Ashland, he felt it best to
move forward to Washington. I hated that after almost three months of traveling
together our group would be splitting up before we reached the end of the
trail. Alex pointed out that we all started the journey alone so that is was
fitting that we may have to end it separately as well.
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Hanging out the last day together. I tried to get video of the herd
of deer that ran by but it didn't turn out. |
Naturally we decided to make the last night a memorable one and we
stayed up gazing at the stars, exploring the rest of Ashland and reflecting on
the good times we had together. We had
been through illness and injury, the desert, the highest peak in the lower 48
states and accomplished a lot. After seeing Liam off, 9-5 and I wandered into a
teashop and had some unbelievable Yerba mate tea from a gourd. The tea was awesome. I drank two pictures of it! After taking a nap
on Lithia parks’ lawn, we headed back out to the trail and our group that had
started shrank to two determined hikers.
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| Herbal tea in a gourd was a first for me. |
The miles came much easier and we jumped to over 30-35+ mile days
and moved much quicker due to the terrain. Alex and relaxed into a rhythm for and
the miles flew by.
As we approached Crater Lake, there were downed trees everywhere, a
sort of Treemageddon that we had to maneuver around. It made going a little
slower. Alex was meeting two friends at Crater so we pushed forward. We planned
to hike the entire Crater Rim, the two musician brothers Jack and Jack, fell
into stride with us and did much better than expected. We hiked 25 miles. Their
car allowed us to hit the top tourist spots of Crater and we drove the entire
rim trail. It seemed almost sacrilege to be riding instead of hiking after so
many miles hoofing everywhere.
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| This is Wizard Island in the Crater Lake area. Water is unbelievably blue. |
The next morning I woke up with a terrible migraine headache. I
started throwing up and had a nagging pain across my forehead. It felt as though my head would explode. As luck would have it, we were far away from
a medical clinic or drugstore. After dealing with it for a while, Jack and Jake
took me to Diamond Lake Resort where I booked a room to try and sleep. The rest
helped and I stumbled out of bed the next morning after a good breakfast and
headed back out to trail. Alex had come back to the lodge but was staying
behind with the promise to catch up with me later. I set out alone toward Elk Lake Resort. We had
been traveling fast enough to catch up with another hiker named Nightrider. You
may remember her from the South Lake Tahoe post. Nightrider started the same day I did from
Campo. She had been hiking solo for over
a month and was anxious to get back to hike with someone that she knew. She had
jumped ahead of us so it was good to hear from her. Our plan was to meet up outside of Sisters
Oregon and for her to hike with us the rest of the way. With over 800 miles to
go it will be nice to have companionship the entire trail.
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Looking forward to catching up with Nightrider.
This is from South Lake Tahoe. |
By the end of the next day, I still hadn’t see Alex. I ran into several southbound hikers and
asked if they had seen him but he was AWOL. The number of hikers we encountered
has decreased tremendously. I don’t know
if most of the hikers that were on our same pace have quit the trail or we got
too far behind, but I am not seeing other northbound thru hikers at this point.
The number of southbound hikers should remain steady for the next few days.
Communications has been difficult on this part of the trail. With that being said I am not sure if I will
run across Alex again. With the move
toward the Mt. Hood area, the weather took a steep dive and previously the
temperature that was around 90, had taken a nosedive and was a chilly 35. I had my family send my raingear a few stops
ahead of me so I am hoping for good weather until I get the gear I need for
hiking in the rain.
