16 miles to go today until Ashland. A great motivation to fly. We left early again and caught more fantastic views of Mt. Shasta. Unbelievable that we had circled around it for three weeks now. From far away Incould hear bells. It reminded me on the sound if the bells on the neck of most cows in the Alps back home – and guess what. Two corners later here they were. Cows wearing bells and pretending to be Swiss cows 😉. Only a few minutes later a runner came along the trail and just said “Welcome on the Pacific Cow Trail”… 😂
On the way down we bumped into the locals Jeff, Cora and their dog Hans. Cora helped me identifying some of my flower shots, Jeff gave us some insights about Ashland, offered us to give us a ride vack to the trail when we needed one and Hans was just Hans 😉
Shortly before we hit the road we encountered a very busy woodpecker. I captured him while he was having a morning snack:
Ashland is the first and last town for most of the PCT in Oregon. But it is definitely the most beautiful one so far. Very authentic, no chain stores or restaurants and it just felt good. We ran around again like crazy chickens from store to store to organise a ton of things: fixing trekking poles, new tent stakes, fixed my shoes, sharpened my knife, planned miles and food packages, got packages from the post office, a haircut and what do I not remember more… At 7pm we had a joined dinner with Yoni & Sophia who told us that they were going to take a break in Portland to wait for the snow to melt. Glad we had the last dinner together – for now! Very sure we’ll see each ofher again on the trail. Dowhatmakegood! 🤘🏼
More chores the next day and at 4pm we were done with most things. Drew and Kayla will stay another night in town and then try to catch us or just wait for us to kick all the steps in the next 400 miles… 🤔😂
Jeff picked us up as promised and gave us a quick sightseeing tour before we went back on the trail. Thank you again!!!
We made sure we connected our steps again from where we got off the trail…
…and then went back on the…
Jeff also recommended to us a spot for the night. We just wanted to make it a few miles in so it matched perfect. At mile 1721 we found this epic campspot. At least on the same level if not even better than the one in the Trinity Alps!
