PCT: Ashland Ski Road to Somewhere

Our afternoon:

We finished section P: Etna Summit to Castella and Interstate 5.  After  a 26 hour rest at the lovely Dunsmuir Lodge we are back on the trail near Ashland, Oregon heading south back to our vehicle at Etna Summit.   

If we accomplish this section we will have finished all 1692 miles of the PCT in California.   It’s been ten years, so far, that we’ve had this intimate relationship with this ribbon of trail and we love it.   Sometimes, I think a thru hike of this trail would be a super cool accomplishment , but today, walking through fields of flowers, I was very grateful to have walked it when the trail was at its best.   We’ve had Poppies in Mohave, swimming and fishing along the JMT, Hat Creek in May with cool temps and rock garden flowers, and now this lovely stretch of trail.  We definitely have the posh, easy kind of hike.

We also got some trail magic today. 

And made a new acquaintance.  Rainbow is from Bolivia and gave us lots of helpful information.  She’s another solo woman hiker.   They seem like the biggest  demographic we’ve seen this year.  

We also met a group called Field Trip.  They are a 4 teenage boys and one older lady.   We don’t know how they got together, but it looked like a den mother with her scouts.   They are all from New Hampshire and are having the time of their life.  

We are camped on the edge of a Douglas fir forest on an old skid road.  It looks like home to me.