Today was just like every other day, except…we slept in! It was a cold night and a heavy dew fell, leaving lots of damp gear inside and a wet tarp tent outside. Tabasco and I had agreed to sleep in until the sun hit our camping area to begin warming us. So I slept until 7:15 when we both began stirring. Rather than wait for the sun to dry out the gear, we packed up with the plan to spread gear out at lunch time. So we were on the trail at 7:45am, a full hour behind our normal start time.
The first 5 ½ miles were very kind to us with a general descent. We reached Donomore Creek, which, like its predecessors the last few miles, was polluted with cow patties all over the place. Nevertheless, I needed some water and filtered and chloroxed it before drinking. We next began a long ascent, which was interrupted about a mile and a half later, by a little celebration at the Oregon/California border. Woo hoo!!!! We’re out of Ka-li-for-nia! O/K., there’s still that little 412.1 mile section that keeps nagging at me, but for today, it’s still a celebration to enter Oregon. The mountains of Oregon looked beautiful and in many ways it felt like getting closer to home (Portland, that is, the home away from home).
We climbed up to the west ridge of Observation Peak, which is appropriately named, with great views back toward the rugged N. California mountain we just finished traversing, as well as Mt. Shasta, Mt. McLaughlin, and Oregon mountains and the valley toward Ashland and Medford. There were lots of clouds interspersed with bright blue sky and wild flowers dotted the bald mountain ridge as we walked on. Just off the ridge we stopped at Sheep Camp Spring, a piped spring, with very cold, crystal clear water flowing out of it. We spread out all our gear and ate lunch, wishing the sun wouldn’t go behind clouds as it was still in the 50’s and windy and cold when a cloud passed between us and the sun.
After our long lunch break we had 13 miles until next water, so we planned to cover those miles as our final destination for the evening. We had a nice 6 ½ miles of descent, except for a hidden steep climb that wasn’t mentioned in the data book. Near the bottom our peaceful quiet wilderness experience was jolted when someone started firing a high powered rifle, apparently target shooting, which made us uneasy for a couple miles until we got out of range of the sound echoing across the mountainside. The trail took us up another long ascent to an open crest, the second time we got above 7000 feet.
In the late afternoon shadows, the hiking was getting colder and we were happy when we finally dropped off the breezy ridge and began a descent to a road crossing. At the road crossing at Grouse Gap, a shelter (Grouse Shelter) was mentioned in the guidebook, a quarter mile down the road. We hiked to the shelter to get water for dinner and to check out the shelter for possible camping. Unlike AT shelters, which are set up for camping, this large stone shelter had a roof and two sides with the other two sides left open. A large picnic table and fireplace were under the shelter. We decided it would make a nice camp beside the shelter, but neither of us wanted to sleep on the concrete floor of the shelter itself.
A fellow on horseback stopped by as we were starting to cook and asked if we planned to camp here and we said yes. He had a group of kids on horseback and although we invited them to camp with us, they thankfully moved on (we are always down and in tents sleeping by 8:30pm, except for me, since I’m journaling). Then the sheriff dropped in on us and asked a few questions about our hike, most likely to see if we were legit; then he left. Finally a woman and her two children, who had been dayhiking, showed up to return to their car, parked near the shelter. She curiously came in the shelter while we were cooking and asked some trail and gear questions. We asked about the water source down the hill and she said it wasn’t very good. Then she offered us water from her car, which we gladly accepted and she brought us all the food she had in the car, too, which we also gladly accepted.
We had arrived at the shelter by 5:45pm, so we had a nice leisure time with dinner at the picnic table (they are such a luxury when we get to use one) and by 7pm were done with camp chores. With rapidly falling temperatures and very little winter gear, we both opted to get in our shelters for the evening. Since I began today’s journal, Bugaboo has rolled in, nearly at dark after a long day’s hike. As I lie here writing, he is quietly cooking his dinner on the picnic table and I believe Tabasco is already dreaming, several feet around the other side of the shelter. We are only 10 miles from Ashland, so we’ll probably sleep in again tomorrow morning to let the sun start warming us. We are both excited about the break from hiking long days without a zero mile day and we’re especially excited to see friends and family in Portland and Seattle, before resuming our hike in about a week. Today’s weather: partly cloudy
