Day 73 August 6, 2017

Daily mileage 30
Total mileage 1355
Hiked from 6:00 am to 7:00 pm

A day of long miles, wonderful trail magic, a bit of rain and my decision regarding the rest of the PCT.

I knew that if I was going to make it to Ashland today I was going to have to haul ass. 30 miles sat between my campsite and the trail town. So I slept in! Great start.

Once I was on the trail I could tell that my body was feeling much better than it was yesterday. I had two minor climbs today of 1800 and 1000 feet and they both felt like nothing at all. It helped that the weather was somewhat cool.

About 3 miles into my day I came to the California Oregon border. I have no idea why an arbitrary line in a map is so important to me, but it felt wonderful to finally finish California. That was one long walk.

Finally made it out of Cali!

You can see the trail ahead if you look closely

The green hills of Oregon look a whole lot like the green hills if Northern California!

Given that it was a fair Sunday and also that I would be passing near a few roads in the Siskiyou and Mt Ashland areas, it was somewhat inevitable that I would see dayhikers. Well yes I did.

One of the first dayhikers I saw was Allan from Medford. He very casually asked me if I would like a beer. Well yes, yes I would. So after a cold Bud and some conversation, I got back to the business of getting to town. But, a few miles up the trail a couple of mountain bikers and their friendly dog (Max, Allison and Charlie the dog) called me up to a parking area just above the trail and asked if I would like some food. Well yes, yes I would. So after a ham and Swiss on Croissant and a peach and some conversation, I got back to the business of getting to town. Then just another two miles up the trail, a trail angel had set up some lawn chairs in a shady spot and put out a couple of coolers full of soft drinks. So once again all forward progress halted while I sat in the shade and chatted to a Sobo section hiker who's name I have forgotten.

Trail magic.

After that, the only slowdowns I had were when dayhikers wanted to chat about my hike. But still, not a bad day for trail magic.

Then it was time to jet to the I5 and Ashland. Funny how the final five miles before a town always drag on. But these miles were spiced up by a very close lightening storm. Close enough that I did not use my poles for about an hour. No sense providing a metallic ground point during an electrical storm. It did spit a bit on me but nothing serious. Which is ironic in that it means that the only two times I got rain on my hike were the first day and the last day. But more one that later. (Ooh, the foreshadowing)

Once I got to within a mile or so of the freeway, there was a shortcut trail to a resort hotel called Callahans. It was a bit tricky to navigate, but soon enough I was sitting in a swanky dining room having not showered, shaved or washed my clothes in forever enjoying a wonderful meal and a couple of beers.

I really did not feel like hitching on the I5 on-ramp, so I called a cab to take me to the hotel in Ashland that my wonderful wife had booked for me. Turns out that I was booked on the ninth floor and the only elevator was out of order. Now why is it that I was capable of climbing a 4500 foot mountain just two days ago but I balked at 8 flights of stairs totaling probably 75 feet or so. So I negotiated a room on the sixth floor. I probably doomed some pensioner with two bad hips to that room on the ninth floor in doing so!

Now back to the rest of my hike. In short, there will be no rest of my hike this summer. Yeah, yeah I know, I have said this once before. But I do believe that leaving the trail in Ashland is the right decision. The problem ahead is fire closures. The interior of Oregon is burning up and there are currently four closures on the PCT. So what it feels like is that what we have left to hike is the gristle and bone shards while the rib eye and top sirloin is tucked away behind trail closures (I know, typical male analogy comparing the PCT to meat!)

But if I were to continue hiking this year, I would be forced by nature to miss Crater Lake, Tunnel Falls and most of the Mt Jefferson Wilderness. Those are some pretty iconic points to have to bypass.

So what I have decided is that 1355 miles that I have hiked this summer is enough. To put this in prospective, if you were to drive from Vancouver to Los Angeles on I5, you would still be about 70 miles short of what I hiked this summer. And the areas of the PCT that I can come back to in future summers are pretty spectacular. The Sierra, Oregon and Washington make a pretty good itinerary, particularly given that I can pick and chose the time of year to do them.

Also, the hiking has taken a toll on this old body. I suspect that when I get home, the bathroom scale will read on the 150's (it turned out I was right, I weighed in at 158, having started the trail in May at around 186) which is pretty light for me. And I am feeling worn out.

So, with absolutely no sadness, I am laying to rest my 2017 PCT hike once again.

Thanks for taking time out of your busy days to check out my musings. I will be embedding videos into each day over the next few weeks.