Section A is 28.1 miles long and runs from the border to Ashland along I-5. Section B is 53.5 miles and runs from Ashland to Fish Lake along Highway 140. August 13th - 17th
Day 99, 21.6 miles to Callahan's Lodge and a hitch into Medford.
As we departed camp we agreed to meet at the Ashland Hostel if we didn't link up throughout the days mileage. Sea Lion and I hiked together for a bit and were still stoked on the state line crossing that we almost hiked right passed the 1700 mile marker. I began to pull away and speed hike when I saw there was a cooler full of sodas a few miles ahead. The trail had gentle ups and downs, skirted some tiny peaks, and ran just beneath some ridgelines. I grabbed a Dr Pepper from the cooler and was happy to find there was cell service so I revisited the Airbnb thing as the crew arrived. There were few places in downtown Ashland that could fit eight of us so we booked a big house with a hot tub out in Medford. We all were enjoying lunch with our sodas and after an hour, Pickle Pacer said "Wait...why the hell are we sitting around here when we have a house to go to?" Excellent point. Midge, Moose, Twizzler, and I had to go to the Ashland PO so we hoped to hitch there this afternoon before traveling further down the road. We began hustling in high gear. Then we hit another trail magic and decided not to run seven miles downhill, hope to find an instant hitch, and still just *maybe* make it. I still hiked pretty fast to the bottom and Sea Lion, Midge and I took the side trail to Callahan's Lodge. We devoured some burgers and washed them down with a free hiker beer. Sea Lion and I then went to hitch at the I-5 on ramp and Angie stopped in a few minutes. She does trail maintenance and works at REI so she knew the drill. Also, she was heading to Medford so she dropped us off right in the driveway. We took showers, played a Golden Tee arcade machine in the house, chilled in the hot tub, and ordered pizzas for dinner. It was a great start to a relaxing Zero-Day.
Squirrel and I were confused that the trail went directly across someone's driveway.
Meet Blue, the resort doggo at Callahan's.
Day 100, zero-day in Medford.
We slept in and had a lazy morning while Moose went to the store to pick up supplies and cook up a huge breakfast. Around noon everyone split up to conquer their chores and for Pickle Pacer, Midge, and I that meant getting back to Ashland to go to the post office. We had no luck hitching on the walk to the bus stop, then had to transfer to another bus, and it wound up taking almost two hours. I picked up my new trekking pole tips from the PO and exchanged my Darn Tough socks at an outfitter. We planned to take an Uber back to cut down on the long travel time but the city of Ashland banned ride-sharing. So we had to ride the bus back and then did our food resupplies at the shopping center next to the bus stop. Sea Lion met us out, she was grabbing some last minute items for the feast that Squirrel was preparing. We also picked up beer for the 24/24/24 challenge taking place the next day. When we finally returned, Squirrel was running all over finishing dinner and it was delicious! Steaks, roasted veggies, salad, and real mashed potatoes...not the fake bagged powder we've been eating on trail. For dessert, Twizzler made tiramisu and Shark made cake. We all had food comas and went to bed early.
Day 101, the 24/24/24 challenge! 12.8 miles to camp.
Warning: The video below contains a little naughty language and A LOT of drunken shenanigans.
This challenge is to hike 24 miles within 24 hours and drink 24 beers. You have to carry your beers which is where it gets challenging because simply drinking one beer and hiking one mile every hour means two things;
1) you will be up for a full 24 hours
2) carrying 24 full beers is very HEAVY
So we had another big breakfast, tidied up the house, and made our way back to Callahan's. The Captain (benevolent friend featured from Donner Ski Ranch) was getting back on trail and met us there and agreed to shuttle us back to the trail. First we went off into the woods and did a power hour, which is taking a shot of beer every minute for an hour, to get eight beers out of the way. The official start time was 12:26pm. Then we drank some more at the trailhead. I was 14 deep when we started hiking around 3pm. I had six in my pack and carried four in my hand in a small paper bag. Moose, Midge, and I were the only ones doing a full 24, the rest of the group was content with having 12, and the gang soon split up. Different hiking pace and levels of drunkeness made it hard to stay as a single group but we met up at a couple check points along the way. We lost Moose for a bit and later learned that he just needed a nap after the only big climb on the route. We night hiked for a little and Midge and I enjoyed one last beer before camp. Tomorrow I had 6 beers and 11.2 miles to go by 12:26pm. Piece of cake.
Thanks Captain and Ilana for giving us drunkards a lift back to the trail.
Day 102, 23.8 miles to camp.
I enjoyed a breakfast beer as we all geared up to finish the challenge. We were happy to see that Moose caught up but he had lost his headlamp and did a few miles of night hiking in the dark. It was an easy downhill to start the day and along the way I realized I could fashion my boonie hat into a necklace koozie so I could drink while I hike and have both trekking poles deployed. We stopped at a road crossing for second breakfast and waited for the group to catch up. Then we stopped again at the Little Hyatt Reservoir Outlet to have one more beer before the final push to the finish line. Moose, Midge, and I each cracked open our 24th beer and drank it down with 21 minutes to spare. Then we called the Hyatt Lake Resort shuttle to come grab some hikers. We had lunch there and the rest of the gang showed up shortly after. Some went off to take a nap and some of us enjoyed another beer on the patio as we watched hummingbirds. Then one of the owners asked if we could help him move a hot tub and that he would pay us in pizza. Sounds good to me! Soon after, they dumped us back at the trailhead and we resumed the day. It was relatively flat before a nice downhill section where we planned to stop and snack at the bottom. When I emerged from the woods to a parking lot, a truck pulled up with three adults and the front and four kids crammed in the back. They asked if I knew where the lake was and I told them "sorry I do not I'm just following the PCT." The driver knew of the trail and told the kids that I had hiked this far from Mexico. One boy, about 8 years old, was flabbergasted and yelled "what the FU**?!?" the parents laughed at the outburst and I figured the kid was probably quite the troublemaker at school. They took off and Sea Lion and I sat down to enjoy our share of the pizza when a bear strolled across the road. My quick movement to grab my camera seemed to startle him so he ran into the woods before I could get a shot. From there we charged up hill about six miles to a spring and got there just before dark. The only available campsites were right next to a very squeaky gate to the fence that surrounded the spring to keep cows out. We hoped there would be no night hikers filling up on water because nobody could sleep through that screech. We lucked out and got a full night of sleep.
Wedelia.
Night Sky Petunia.
Day 103, 22.5 miles to camp near the Freye Lake Junction.
For some reason everybody had a late start. I can get neither confirm nor deny that the 24 challenge finally caught up to us. We were on the trail at 8:20. It was pretty chilly out so just I warmed up by hiking really fast four miles up the incline and down the other side. We soon passed an older couple with buckets who told us they were gathering huckleberries. We started picking our own that were on the trail and then we stopped at the South Brown Mountain Shelter for second brekkie. There was a hand pump which provided ice cold water. That is always a treat. From there it was a 10 mile carry which isn't bad when you're under tree cover most of the way. The trail had some short exposed runs over old lava fields. There were big porous black boulders that would have been a challenge to rock hop across but there was an excellently maintained and tightly packed trail winding through them. We got to Highway 140 to discover the creek was bone dry. None of the water reports reflected this so we either had to get a ride down to Fish Lake Resort, do another 12 miles to an on-trail spring, or take a long spur to an off-trail pond. We went with the first option, threw out our thumbs, and soon got a ride in a big old Suburban truck. We grabbed some extra snacks at the resort as well as a few gallons of water to leave at the creek for future hikers until the water report was updated. We then had dinner at the creek before tackling the 4.5 mile uphill while hiking in a line with some dance music pumping. We passed a few SOBOs who had a good laugh at the party train. At the top of the hill, Shark, Squirrel, Sea Lion, and I called it a day and set camp so we could eat before dark. The rest wanted to hike on about another hour to cut down their waterless morning hike. During dinner, I shared a discovery I made that morning about dinosaur egg oatmeal. In case you don't know, this oatmeal has little sugar dinosaurs encapsulated in more sugar that will dissolve when you add the hot water. However, hikers commonly cold soak food to save time on setting up the stove and using fuel. When I cold soaked my oatmeal that morning, the sugar eggs did not dissolve and I realized they needed to be incubated to hatch. We cracked up about this...maybe you had to be there.
