8/10/2023
Section: Milepost 1719.7 to 1709.3
Total Trail Miles: 1230 / 2650
Distance: 11.21 Miles
Moving Time: 04:27
Elevation Gain: 2861 ft
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We woke on day 86 in a bed for the first time in over 2 weeks. It was fabulous, though Amanda and I are both finding that our bodies have so adjusted to sleeping in a tent and on an air pad that we honestly don’t sleep that well in hotel rooms anymore. I think there is too much artificial light and road noise. After organizing our stuff we stalked down to the lobby for breakfast. We loaded up on some continental goodness and swiped some peanut butter packets and tea before heading back to the room where we caught up on some digital to-do’s (gotta keep the ‘gram updated on our activities 😂).
By the time we had finished all of our correspondence, the morning had passed by and we decided that, given an already delayed start, we might as well enjoy the endless cuisine options in Ashland. We headed down to the Green Leaf, near where we had had dinner the night before and, after getting a table and ordering, I ran down to the local second hand outdoor store to donate a few things to the hiker box and grab some batteries. By the time I came back, my meal had arrived and we tucked into some more phenomenal Ashland food.
After lunch, we caught another sketchy Uber out of Ashland down I-5 back to the trailhead where we had met the hiking family the day prior. The day was already heating up - a warning of things to come. We did our pre-hike stretches, donned our backpacks, gave each other a fist bump and started up the trail.
The route today heads almost entirely west and up from Siskiyou Summit on I-5 paralleling the Mt. Ashland Ski Resort access road and eventually progressing on the backside of the now very dry slopes. Towards the end of the day, the trail passes through beautiful open slopes in full bloom under the summer sun and ends at a forest service campground and wilderness shelter.
We climbed through forests of moderately sized trees, both sweating profusely despite consistent shade, while cars occasionally passed below us on the Mt. Ashland ski resort road. The trail passed by some nice looking lodges as it made its incessant climb ever upwards. The 5 hours passed by without much incident and we eventually popped out in some beautiful high meadows with small streams cascading through them. About a mile before our scheduled stop at the shelter we filled up our bladders and continued on.
I’m sad to say we blew right past the shelter before realizing it was below us, down the hill, at a campground. We backtracked about a quarter mile before descending to a small campground. We were greeted there by an older group excited to hear about our adventures on the trail and who gave us a bottle of red wine to celebrate. Shortly after we arrived at the shelter and started setting up a NOBO named Chewy (Sean) showed up and set up next to us. In his mid-twenties and from Canada, Chewy had braved the Sierra in a straight line and we compared our pictures of Forester pass. His were definitely more snowy…but far fewer sun cups to contend with. We had dinner together and while eating we discovered that we had both been at Oktoberfest in Munich on the same weekend. Doubtfully we ran into each other but it was still funny and we all agreed that it’s one of the greatest parties in Europe one can go to. Eventually we all said good night to the resident rat in the shelter and turned in for the night.
