PCT Day 83

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PCT Day 83, 03 August 2022 (Wednesday)

“Not Moving Day”

Start Location:	Ashland	Destination:	Ashland
PCT Miles Day 83:	0	Cum PCT Miles:	1,501.2
Non-PCT Miles Day 83:	0	Cum All Miles:	1602.9
PCT Miles Remaining:	1,151.4
Elevation Gain Day 83:	0	Cum Elevation Gain:	256,619

I was hoping to get to Portland today.  My first choice to get there was to rent a car, however, there are no rental cars available in this area for at least the next couple of days.  Without a car, the only other reasonable option is to take a county bus from Ashland to Medford, and then a Greyhound bus from Medford to Portland.  However, the two Greyhound buses for today were sold out.

So, the soonest I could get out of Ashland on the bus is tomorrow--I realized too late that there is a small airport in Medford where I possibly could have caught a flight to Portland.  Some hikers are trying to hitch from Ashland all the way to Portland, but that is a very long hitch, and didn’t seem like a great way to get there.

Given that my plans have changed, I did do some resupply shopping today, and am all ready to go once I get to Cascade Locks.  Only one minor hitch.  Somewhere on the drive between Shasta and Ashland my back started getting sore.  It was actually very painful for most of yesterday, and I could barely even bend over without putting a hand on my knee for support.  This is not a good thing if you want to backpack 20+ miles a day.  However, today the back was feeling much better, but still far from perfect.  I’m hoping tomorrow it will feel even better.

After being on my feet 12 to 14 hours a day for almost 2 1/2 months, I think my body is not reacting well to all this sitting and laying around.  I am a little bit worried that sitting on a bus tomorrow for over six hours is not going to be great for my back.  So, we’ll just have to see how things feel when I get to Portland.

 

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PCT Day 82

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PCT Day 82, 02 August 2022 (Tuesday)

“Moving Day Part 1”

Start Location:	Mt. Shasta City	Destination:	Ashland, OR
PCT Miles Day 82:	0	Cum PCT Miles:	1,501.2
Non-PCT Miles Day 82:	0	Cum All Miles:	1602.9
PCT Miles Remaining:	1,151.4
Elevation Gain Day 82:	0	Cum Elevation Gain:	256,619

After getting more information on the various fires, the plan has changed.  Because of the fires near Crater Lake, it no longer makes sense to hike north to there from Ashland.  It seems there would be a high probability of getting stuck there, or having to hike back to Ashland.  There are limited transportation options from Crater Lake, and I would only have limited food left to hike back to Ashland.

I could try to get to somewhere further north of Crater Lake and start hiking from there, but it’s very difficult to get to the trail in central Oregon.  And there is already another pre-existing closure in central Oregon that is very hard to get around.  So, hiking north almost anywhere in Oregon at this time is a bit futile.

In my assessment, it seems like the best thing to do right now is to skip up to Washington, hike to the Canadian border, then reassess where to hike next based on current conditions and closures.  I was really hoping to finish the hike at the Canadian border, and it will be a bit anti-climactic to not do that, but it’s just not in the cards for that to happen.

Regardless of plans, the first step is leaving Mount Shasta, and going to Ashland Oregon still seems like a logical first step. I shared a ride to Ashland with a couple other hikers that I met on trail in the last week or so.  But from here, our plans are a little divergent for various reasons.

There are a lot of other PCT hikers here in Ashland, all trying to figure out where to go from here and how to get there.  My guess is that many will do what I am doing, go to Portland Oregon, and then to Cascade Locks Oregon, which is right on the border of Oregon and Washington.  Then hike north from there.  The negative to this plan is that it seems there will be another over-sized bubble of hikers heading into Washington.  But there are really no other good options right now.

 

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