Etna-Ashland

Day 50

1623- 1647 (24)

Today we met our first southbounder, Autumn Leaves! He was super friendly and excited to talk about what was down the road for him as well as what was down the road for us. The second half of the day had us walking through some unavoidable poison oak for a few hours with some scrubbing at water sources. And....I saw my first bear on trail!! It was just down at the bottom of a valley floor and was scurrying away as we came around a corner. We camped in a campground that was closed down but was at the beginning of a road walk into seiad valley. With no cars in sight, we set up our tents knowing we would be walking 6.4 miles on a dirt road the next day. A guy named Prince played music and sang while we all cooked dinner. 

Day 51 

1647-1668 (21)

We began our stroll down the road and were pleased to find blackberries along the way. The walk was much slower with the constant berry distraction but we made it to the highway and finally got a hitch with only about a mile left. The man who picked us off dropped is in front of seiad cafe so that we could eat some breakfast and milkshakes before the big climb out of seiad. A lady from Yreka stopped in the cafe and bought dinner for every PCT hiker there. With free food in our bellies we headed up the 5,500 foot elevation climb. Once on the ridge we enjoyed a beautiful ridge walk and then made our way down to a camp just off the road. A couple that we were camped with used to work for a oil corporation in the Middle East and they shared stories of their experiences 

Day 52

1668-1694 (25)

We made it to Oregon!! And then got trail magic!! The day was absolutely stunning and the hiker register was very entertaining to read. A guy that we were leap frogging with all day had little bottles of crown royal that he gave us a sip of and we all celebrated our crossing to Oregon. One guy, "goldy" left just before us and shouted "oh my god guys Oregon is the shit!" from about 5 steps across the border. The miles went pretty quickly into camp and we set up with a beautiful sunset over pilot rock. 

Day 53 

1694- callaghans (23) 

With sun having already risen and very little movement in camp, I closed my eyes again and did not make it on to trail until 6:30. We made our way along some ridge lines before our 10 o'clock break and then proceeded with a decent to the highway near Ashland, OR. About 4 miles before reaching the highway we ran into Coppertone, a trail angel we have been running into on backcountry roads. He always offers us root beer floats and today he greeted us with hugs as we have become pretty familiar. He has a few people that he generally waits for and then moves up trail and today he asked us our average miles and said that he would take us into account when he sets up camp down trail. We would both love to have camp with him one night and hear all about his mountaineering experiences. Around 4:30 we crossed the highway and walked into callaghans lodge where we retrieved our resupply and waited for Jason to pick us up. We enjoyed an evening of burritos and pie back in montague with family. 

Day 54 

1716-1739 (22.4)

We woke up this morning in our cozy beds and slowly got together our gear. Around 9:30 we were driven off to the trail for a late start. We made our 8 miles to water and took a few tests here and there before an 11 mile dry section. Once we reached the water source around 7:40 we called it a day and set up camp. We had made a full day out of a half day and we're feeling pretty accomplished yet our bodies were pretty upset with us. We are hoping the lack of elevation change we experienced today carries throughout our time in Oregon.