Ashland was a day's hike from the border. We got an easy hitch into town around 7:30pm and immediately made our way to a local pizza shop where we each got a personal size pizza, split a large pan, an appetizer, and two pitchers of beer. Taking the advice of our hitch, we found an empty plot of land and cowboy camped. Little did we know, we had disturbed a deer's bedding. Their flees woke us first, but two deer also came up to us in the night thoroughly confused by our presence. In the morning, we all decided we need to make better decisions when it comes to our sleeping arrangements! We enjoyed a real cup of coffee at The Beanery and then Pat, Lisa, and Joan, three women who had backpacked in Europe in the 70s, graciously bought us breakfast at Morning Glory. By far our best breakfast on trail to date! Our zero was spent exploring local shops and the Caldera and Standing Stone Breweries with Rainmaker, Bad Seed, New Orleans, Chops, Rub-a-Dub, Steamer, and Cookie Monster. Our exploration ended up taking us two days and we revisted Shasta's DVD plans. John, a Trail Angel, squeezed us all in his SUV to get us back to trail in the morning. We moved through Oregon quickly, taking advantage of the relatively flat and soft terrain that enabled us to consistently push 30 mile days.
One morning on the way to Crater Lake, we awoke to the clouds rolling in. As we broke down camp, a roaring boom sent us falling to the ground in fear, crouched with hands overhead. Lightning had struck and blown up a tree only feet from where we had stood rolling up our tents. Shards of wood landed all around us and even flew a couple hundred feet to where Ex had been filling her water. We were lucky none hit us. The bolt sent up a cloud of smoke. Thankfully, a fire did not catch. As we looked around, we discovered chunks of tree taller than our bodies. A little uneasy about further lightning strikes, we decided to get off the mountain as quickly as possible.
When we made it to Mazama Village 5 days later, we enjoyed a hot meal at the resort's restaurant and stealth camped in the section of the park that is being repaved. We woke on the morning of the 26th to celebrate our 4 month trail anniversary with the beers that we were too exhausted to consume the night before. The clouds were ominous, so we hurried to get our laundry and resupply done. It turned out that our rush was pointless, as the sky opened up and showered us with a cold, windy rain. The resort's power even went out! We managed to make it to Crater Lake, 6 miles from Mazama Village, to huddle by the warm fireplace and, oh so reluctantly of course, further our celebration with an unexpected zero. We ended up splitting the resort's overflow room with 16 other hikers! Three of the group even went back downstairs to the classy fireplace to make smores for all of us! The next morning greeted us with a clear, bright blue sky that reflected in the lake. Crater Lake has a reputation for being one of the wonders of the world, but neither one of us could grasp and appreciate it's beauty until gazing into it's crystal clear water. It truly is a site to behold! Crater Lake rekindled Golden's excitement that he had felt in the High Sierras. Having little motivation to leave this magical place, we spent hours taking artistic and silly pictures and climbing out on rock ledges that overlooked the massive caldera lake with its volcanic Wizard Island emerging from the pristine blue-green water. Eventually, we reluctantly hiked out and camped with Badseed on the side of a hill.
The following morning, we awoke early with plans to pull a massive 35 mile day. We made plans to get water 4 miles from camp. In typical Ex fashion, however, she not only hiked off trail but climbed Mt Theilson thinking it was the PCT. The trail ended and she was terrified on all fours, rock crawling and screaming for Ryan to show her the trail. When nobody answered and nobody caught her, she was forced to accept the embarrassing fact that she was lost yet again. Phone dead and mapless, she hiked down the mountain and took a different side trail once more. When she finally found the PCT and fellow hikers, New Orleans burst into tears and held her in a hug that seemed to last hours. She and Chops had southbounded twice in search of her, refusing to believe that she had somehow slipped by everyone unnoticed. Meanwhile, during her five hour detour, Golden had sprinted four miles up trail and back looking for Ex. Upon reuniting, we decided to call it an early night and set up camp at the Oregon/Washington high point, only 7 miles from our previous night's campsite.
Because of that mishap, we were forced to make a mad dash to Elk Lake, where we had made plans to meet Ex's friend Jimmy Turner for the night. Our hitch into Elk Lake generously bought our first round of beers after declining our offer of compensation for the ride. Jimmy and his friend Boko were driving across the country from Ohio to Washington to take his brother his car. They drove hours out of the way to meet us with pizza, hang out, and drink with us around a makeshift campsite. Things may have gotten a little out of hand; after a fun night of thinking she was 19 again, Ex fell into our tent, collapsing it with Golden inside. She then managed to climb in and curl up in the fetal position in the corner of the tent. Saying that she didn't know how to get in her sleeping bag even though she had gotten in it every night for the last 4 months, Golden had to help her in. Needless to say, she had no recollection of any of this the following morning. We decided to zero.
It was only 30 miles from Elk Lake to Bend/Sisters. We decided to tackle the stretch in one day to meet some hiker friends at the breweries in Bend. Along the way, we caught Badseed and convinced her to do her first 30 mile day. Three Sisters Wilderness was incredible! The trail managed to capture the three volcanic siblings in all their beauty without even having to summit their peaks. The trail skirted their bases and snaked through the surrounding forests and stream-filled meadows. It climbed along Obsidian Creek where the glassy black stones, remnants from the Sister's volcanic past, peppered the terrain. Ex thought of her 'Bou crew all day long. We took a break at a glorious waterfall to cool off from the heat. Next, we made our way through several long lava fields. Although the sharp and rocky terrain hurt our feet, it was a cool experience to walk through such destructive history of the earth. We finally made it to the first highway into Bend, but it was too late to catch a hitch. We decided to camp at the trailhead beneath the open sky. The clarity of the stars was beyond compare. It made us miss the accessibility of cowboy camping the desert offered.
Instead of heading into Bend the following morning, we hiked on to the next highway to put in some miles before heading into town. Along the way, we hit our 2000th mile! It was amazing. We made a stop at Big Lake Youth Camp to pick up our resupply and make lunch, then pushed on. Rainmaker's parents gave us a ride into town, hosted us in their hotel room, then took us out on the town. Despite it being Labor Day weekend, the breweries did not stay open late. Lame. We did get to drink some local brews, listen to bad karaoke, play giant Jenga, and eat delicious fried food and Mac and Cheese. Our stomachs paid the price the next day, unable to process all the grease. Exagrance also managed to convince Bad Seed to wash her hair for the first time in three and a half months...success!
From Bend, we hiked to Timberline Lodge, the lodge featured in The Shining. On the way, we walked through our first cloud, checked out Little Crater Lake, and began the ascent up Mt Hood. The rain came unwelcomed; luckily, however, our Cousin's came to take us into Portland for an exciting zero!
While we had only planned on taking two zero days, we ended up leaving Oregon with 6 hiking-free days under our belt.
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