Oregon paradise (kinda)

8/14: (6.6 miles hiked) I guess I shouldn't write posts about days before I actually finish hiking that day. The original plan was to hike halfway up the huge hill out of Seiad Valley, camp there, then continue the next day. Then I found out about a road that cuts off a couple miles of the PCT and might be a nicer grade. I started walking along that road and after about half a mile I got a hitch (just for the next mile). Then we picked up more hikers and transferred to another vehicle that took us half the road walk (about 6 miles). As soon as we got out of that truck, another truck came by and took us all the way up to the PCT! Boom! 15 difficult miles of the PCT eliminated! I camped with these other hikers I hitched with (there were surprisingly about 13 of us that all crammed into each truck).

8/15: (22 miles) Today was lots of uphill, then downhill, then uphill, etc. And bow hunting season started today so there's plenty of trucks full of camo-clad hunters on the myriad of dirt roads we're crossing. Today was another day of pushing myself to hike to the next break after every hour (even though the desire to stop seemed to come every 40 minutes). But the best part about today- OREGON! I crossed the Oregon border just after 7pm and camped 0.4 miles afterwards near a dirt road. And as a little celebratory present, a truck was driving by and offered us ice-cold mini Gatorades! We asked them if they were going into Ashland (shot in the dark, but worth a try) and they said no. But they mentioned plenty of hunters will be heading back to I-5 tomorrow (Sunday) after the first weekend of hunting.

8/16: (~15 miles hiked) After last night's "good news" of a possible ride into Ashland, we decided to break near every road we could. I was hiking with a guy named BeerBaron and a girl named Pumpkin. We would have to do 26+ miles otherwise to get to Ashland. We left camp at about 7:30am and got going. The first road we came to had a car but no people (we saw the people later but they weren't going to Ashland). Soon we came to a junction of 3 dirt roads or so. We waited there for about 20 minutes and....nothing. Then we hiked 5 miles nonstop to the next junction of roads (taking a road shortcut at one point, cutting off about a mile of the PCT). We waited here for nigh on an hour and....nothing. Well, not really "nothing". About 3 cars came by (all going the opposite way) but gave us grapes and a ginger ale! We decided to walk the road from here as it seemed about the same as the PCT but possibly less steep (and with the possibility of a hitch). After a couple hours there was finally a car going our way and he gave us a ride all the way into downtown Ashland! We got pizza right where he dropped us off and stayed at the Ashland Commons Hostel. Had some dinner with other hikers at the Standing Stone Brewery and it was a good time :) .