Aug 16th
Ashland(1726.6)-Near Hyatt Reservoir(1752.7)
Today’s Mileage: 26.1mi
This morning, my step uncle Barry was kind enough to get up early to drive me back to the trail. Along the way, we picked up Half Fast and Red Blaze in Ashland. Liz, Funyan, and Meow Meow got going a bit later and we will probably see them while we are at Crater Lake in a few days. It was great to get a break from hiking all day everyday and being at Barry and Debbie’s in Grants Pass was just the break I needed. I just wish I had more time there! Today, I spent the day snacking on the homemade chocolate chip cookies Debbie made me while listening to the new Adele cd that she gave me. Plus a mixed cd from SYTYCD performances. Such a great way to spend the afternoon! THANK YOU for everything Barry and Debbie!
As for today, I’m on a mission to get to Crater Lake as quick as possible. My friend Jennifer will be joining me there to hike the next 100mi with me. I’ve been looking forward to this all trip and it will be nice to have a part of home out here on the trail with me. It’s like the days before Christmas and it’s all I can focus on!
With that motivation, I’m hoping to do bigger days the next few days. Today was a good start to do 26mi coming out of town. Tomorrow might be another 30mi day if all goes okay. It’s fun to have Half Fast around because he requires little convincing to do big miles and that helps with my motivation. The trail today was very blah. A bit of rolling hills with lots of dry forested area. Just a couple views. It was a warm day, so being in the trees was nice. I struggled to find good pics today, but here are two.
We saw some day hikers and one set of PCT hikers coming southbound. It was Turtle, Magellan, and Sourdough. They had skipped most of the Sierra and are still northbound, but needed to southbound this short section today. I will probably see them up trail again in a week or two. It was fun to see them. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen other hikers I know other than the group I’m with. It will be fun to shuffle the deck a bit once I slow down with Jennifer. I’ll get to see some of the group behind me and get in the mix with them once Jennifer leaves. Change things up a bit. Let the adventure continue!
