Up from the comfy bed of Callahan’s at 5:15am this morning. Last night we drove from Callahan’s to Ashland to pick up some breakfast foods-this morning I dined on an apple, a croissant and some almonds. Ed had a Subway breakfast sandwich. It took about an hour to get out the door as we go enjoyed breakfast, packed our gear and fiddled around.
The morning air at 6:15qm was cool as we walked up the highway, under the I-5 overpass and up the frontage road to the actual trail. It was nice to be able to talk to Ed and we jabbered as we hiked along. After a mile on the road we came to the trailhead and transitioned from one world to another.
It was brisk this morning and I hiked with a fleece on. The trail wandered up and down as we somewhat traversed along the ridge, heading mostly east or southeast with the occasional bend due south. The vegetation altered between heavily wooded to open meadows. Finally, the trail turned northeast.
Ed kept the pace slow, we averaged about 2+ mph, but we moved steadily with few breaks. About 12:30pm we hit the ten mile mark where running water and a tent site were reported. We found both but decided to hike another 2 miles to a water source with more water. We found the “pipe” spring as expected, flowing with plenty of water. We decided to camp here. All the campsites were in the trees between the trail and the spring. Below the spring was open, level meadow and a small pond. We noticed across the open field about 50 yards that the ground began to fall away, affording a big view down into Ashland 20 miles away and a couple thousand feet below. We walked across the meadow to investigate and found a wonderful place to camp, but realized we were on someone’s private property complete with stakes and ribbons outlining a new home. A quick check of the map showed a dirt road below the site only a 100’ or so. We decided To respect private property and walked back to the vicinity of the spring to camp. Ed filled his water bottles at the spring while I located a place to camp slightly off the path to the spring.
It was now 2:00pm. We spent the rest of the afternoon resting, reading, putting up the tent-generally doing nothing. We began dinner about 5:00pm. Ed is having Mountain House Beef Stroganoff, I’m having curry chicken, carrots and rice with dried cranberries, dried pineapple and walnuts as garnish. As it cooked I realized I had made way too much. I resolved to eat half of it tonight and save the second half for breakfast.
As my liter of hot food was slowly cooking I re-evaluated our tent placement and decided it was not the best. Down the slope about 30’ was a good looking spot . . . Except a snag had fallen into it, completely covering the site. A few minutes of grunting and the area was clear. We unstated the tent and hauled it down, sleeping bags and pads suspended inside. Ahhh. So much better. Nice pine needle duff outside the door and gentle uphill slope for our heads.
I climbed in and positioned my pack and gear artfully around my side of the tent entrance to facilitate access to everything. Ed did the same from the outside of the tent, then clambered in.
As it was only 6:30pm, I perused my movie choices. Ed said he was tired and going to sleep. I found “Valley Uprising”, a film on the history of climbing in Yosemite and hit play the movie started about 15 minutes on, describing the conflict between Warren Harding and Royal Robbins. Ed was laying with his eyes closed. I let the movie run about 5 minutes and Ed was hooked. “Let me see that.” I started the movie at the beginning and we spent the next hour and a half enjoying the film.
Now it was 8:30pm, 30 minutes past hiker midnight. A respectable time to go to sleep. And that we did.
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