Outdoor Adventures with Ancient Brit
PCT 2002 - August 1st - 7th
Supply Break: Thursday 1st August – Wednesday 7th August
I spent all day shopping in Ashland and Medford. Ashland is famous for its
Shakespeare Theatre, which has a reputation second only to the Royal Shakespeare
Theatre at Stratford-on-Avon in England. I met “D-low” and another thru-hiker, Ivan,
in Ashland, before heading north to drop off supplies. I met “Jaybird” at Crater Lake
and “Got to Go Linda”, who had been moving fast, at Shelter Cove Resort.
Southern Oregon was covered in smoke from a series of fires, totalling over 400,000
acres. These were mostly started by lightning, but one in SE Oregon had been started by
an auxiliary fire-woman wanting work. If she had waited a few days she would have had
all the work she could manage, rather than ended up in jail. (The huge fire in Arizona
had also been started by an auxiliary fireman, who was short of cash and wanted
employment.)
In Oregon I was able to put supply caches fairly close together, mainly at stores, but
in Washington most of the caches were left hanging from trees at road crossing. In
Northern Washington I spent one day walking supplies 10 miles up the Suiattle Trail to
break up a section which otherwise would have needed about 10 days food. Doing 20
miles in 7 hours seemed easy without the heavy pack. There were some torrential
thunderstorms in Washington, but unfortunately they didn’t reach down to Southern
Oregon where rain was badly needed to quench the fires.
On the way back to Ashland I stopped off at the Breitenbush Hot Springs, arriving
in late afternoon and camping overnight. There were two concrete pools, which must
have been the remains of a commercial establishment and in need of some tidying up.
There was an exclusive hot spring complex just upstream for those with sufficient funds
for a bit of luxury. A young couple came down in the evening, but didn’t stay, and
someone must have visited after dark, because the seats in the pool had been moved
around, but I didn’t hear them at all.
The following day I got back to Ashland and had dinner with Meg, Frank and Ella,
all aged about 80. Meg had a network of friends from the days when she spent a lot of
time hiking in the mountains and was still involved in promoting conservation work in
the wilderness.
I spent all day shopping in Ashland and Medford. Ashland is famous for its
Shakespeare Theatre, which has a reputation second only to the Royal Shakespeare
Theatre at Stratford-on-Avon in England. I met “D-low” and another thru-hiker, Ivan,
in Ashland, before heading north to drop off supplies. I met “Jaybird” at Crater Lake
and “Got to Go Linda”, who had been moving fast, at Shelter Cove Resort.
Southern Oregon was covered in smoke from a series of fires, totalling over 400,000
acres. These were mostly started by lightning, but one in SE Oregon had been started by
an auxiliary fire-woman wanting work. If she had waited a few days she would have had
all the work she could manage, rather than ended up in jail. (The huge fire in Arizona
had also been started by an auxiliary fireman, who was short of cash and wanted
employment.)
In Oregon I was able to put supply caches fairly close together, mainly at stores, but
in Washington most of the caches were left hanging from trees at road crossing. In
Northern Washington I spent one day walking supplies 10 miles up the Suiattle Trail to
break up a section which otherwise would have needed about 10 days food. Doing 20
miles in 7 hours seemed easy without the heavy pack. There were some torrential
thunderstorms in Washington, but unfortunately they didn’t reach down to Southern
Oregon where rain was badly needed to quench the fires.
On the way back to Ashland I stopped off at the Breitenbush Hot Springs, arriving
in late afternoon and camping overnight. There were two concrete pools, which must
have been the remains of a commercial establishment and in need of some tidying up.
There was an exclusive hot spring complex just upstream for those with sufficient funds
for a bit of luxury. A young couple came down in the evening, but didn’t stay, and
someone must have visited after dark, because the seats in the pool had been moved
around, but I didn’t hear them at all.
The following day I got back to Ashland and had dinner with Meg, Frank and Ella,
all aged about 80. Meg had a network of friends from the days when she spent a lot of
time hiking in the mountains and was still involved in promoting conservation work in
the wilderness.
Breitenbush Hot Springs
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