Day 114

Piped spring and dirt road to Ashland - 22.4 miles

Total - 1720.2 miles

Caleb and I had our last camping morning together and everything was soaked from dew lol. Brutal way to start the day. I don’t want to speak for him but he has decided to leave trail after Vegas for many reason all of which are valid. We headed out today and talked about it some more after yesterday. Anyone especially him should be so proud of completing california. What an insane milestone. 1720 miles. We are in the top 1% of people easily. I was sad though this morning as I have walked pretty much every step with him from April 12th until now. He has made this experience so fun and memorable, pushing me outside my comfort zone and teaching me so many lessons including just to be confident in myself. He is and always will be my best friend out here. We are already planning how to stay in contact as that will be the hardest part after he leaves. It’s so easy to lose contact with people who have made such a difference in your life and I don’t want to lose that and I think he agrees. Anyways, we booked it together out of camp and it was a gorgeous last morning. So many wildflowers, truly making me so happy. We passed by so many day hikers as well as pct hikers which was very different from what we had been experiencing the past couple of weeks of seeing practically no one. We saw Slow and Steady and their crew. Slow is absolutely hilarious, he really knows how to wind people up in a good way. We stopped for some trail magic that was left in coolers and they caught up and he as telling us about how he tried to see if Switzerland is truly neutral or not wirh these Swiss hikers. Apparently they are not and he had them fighting over bread. It was fun to see people we have been leap frogging as well. There is this couple for the past week we have seen a ton and I can’t remember their names sadly but the guy is hilarious as well and super friendly like most pct hikers are. We also met this other couple who got stalked by a mountain lion. The woman was 300 feet ahead when the husband saw a cougar come into trail and slink towards her. He ran and made noise like a maniac to try and scare it away only for the cougar to turn on him. Eventually they got away but I had come up behind him while hiking and said goodmorning and scared the living shit outta him as he was on edge from this morning. After the trail magic we got another cold bev from another trail magic cooler. Oregon is already amazing lol. I then cruised ahead before getting to a water source and rocklicker catching up to us. He had said he was gonna get out of camp early but snoozed until 6:40 (after Caleb and I left). Then we finished off the Northern California map into Ashland. I called dad and caught up with him before we headed to the road to try and get a hitch. Didn’t even stick my thumb out and a trail angel pulled over asking if we needed a ride. Easiest hitch ever. He gave us a lil tour of the town which was so cute. I’ve never been to Ashland but it’s a cute lil town I will admit. He dropped us off at my moms friends/coworkers house who kindly and graciously allowed us to leave our stuff at while we head to Las Vegas for MARCS WEDDING!!!!!!! Rocklicker and Caleb went to go grab the rental car while I chilled at the house. We showered and did laundry which again, the guy so kindly offered. They also picked up Klara. Klara was kind to go to the store to pick up snacks as well as anti-fungal cream as I think I have a slight fungal infection on the corners of my mouth as that’s what dad said. It hurts. I can’t open my mouth wide to take big bites of bagels for lunch on trail so I want to get that under control as quickly as I can. It’s just cracked really badly. I’m being a lil dramatic. They also grabbed pizza which is always delightful. Then we hit the road. We crossed the pct multiple times and took roads that paralleled it which we could see from trail. Amazing how it only took one hour to get back to some of the places we were a week ago. Puts everything we are doing into perspective which is that we are absolutely insane for doing this shit. Shasta was like 10 days ago and it took us two hours to get there roughly. Rocklicker is also a very safe but aggressive driver which was unexpected. Felt completely safe in the car but the man likes to pass people. I shouldn’t say aggressive, maybe more impatient lol. We got to Reno in 4 hours, got Dairy Queen and then went to the motel. No one warned Klara that blizzards are huge and she got a medium. I am a mini girl personally. The motel was cute and it was very funky. Wish I took a pic but sadly I didn’t. My energy was very low as I was so tired from the 22 mile day. When ever I am in town after a long day I always forget that I hiked that same day. The recovery on trail is so quick that it’s easy to forget that you do a good amount of miles. Get in by 12 and I’m ready to go again by 6. We all hit the hay immediately. Ready for Vegas tomorrow!