Tues. June 14     Miles today: not sure  (a couple)

Camp at Caswell State Park

Early morning light showed Caswell State Park to be as pretty as ever, but with a puzzle–they’ve put up wire fences around the campsites. Why??  But we had to go, so off we went, past the very tidy farms (many people in the Caswell area are of Dutch descent, and they are “into tidy”! ).  We sailed right through Sacramento, and headed north.  By the time we reached Red Bluff, we needed a break, so went walking in a highway rest area which had a sign saying that this was a “Blue Star Highway” to honor the men and women who have served in the armed forces.  I mention this because in case you’re reading this blog and you are in the army, navy, marines, or whatever, I want to take this opportunity to say a BIG “THANKYOU!”  We are the land of the free BECAUSE OF the brave!  We are very grateful for our freedom to do crazy things like hiking from Mexico to Canada!

Finally we crossed the Oregon border and turned off at the Mt. Ashland exit to go on a hunt–for the PCT!  And it took some hunting!  We found the place where the PCT comes down to the road, but then where did it go next?  We had no guidebook pages to tell us!  So we looked and looked and finally discovered that you have to turn and walk along the road for a whole half mile before the PCT heads back into the woods again.  I went into Callahan’s restaurant (near the PCT) and asked them if our observations were correct as to where the trail went, and they said, “Yes, and did you know we have a first-beer-is-free policy for thruhikers?”  We told them we’d take them up on that when we finish the trail! 

 Then it was on to Medford to return our rental car.  While filling its gas tank before turning it in, we spotted a couple walking by who looked like thru-hikers.  Sure enough, they were–James and Melissa.  They were getting off the trail to think things over.  They’d begun at Campo in late April, skipped up to Oregon to avoid the raging snowmelt in the Sierras, and ended up in endless snow and cold in Oregon.  Yes, that’s right–snow and cold in JUNE!  After spending three days hunkered in ther tent because of a snowstorm, and many previous days of endless cold and snow on the trail, they’d had enough.   “Where will you go?” we asked, and they chorused, “Someplace WARM!”  Well, it was very warm and sunny in Medford!

Bill waits for the bus to Ashland

We said goodbye to James and Melissa, turned in the car, went food shopping, loaded packs, and tried to hitch a ride back up the mountain to the PCT.  But we had absolutely no luck at all.  So we finally gave up and found a bus stop to go to Ashland.  A helpful teenager who was also going to Ashland told us what to do–ride to the central bus hub, then transfer to an Ashland bus.  This was a 14 mile ride, and the cost?  50 cents for Bill (a senior) and $1 for me!  At the hub, we only had a short wait for the Ashland bus, and when we told the driver we’d be trying to hitch a ride up to Mt. Ashland/Callahan’s, he promised to tell us where to get off.  So we rode the very full bus to near an Interstate 5 onramp, which the driver said was the closest he could get us to the PCT.

"It was meant to be" Brian

By now it was 5:30 pm, a bit late for hitch hiking, and for a long time, car after car went by and ignored us.  The sun began to go very low, and it was beginning to get cold, when a car turned on to the ramp, then pulled over.  Hooray!  It turned out to be a great guy named Brian, and he RECOGNIZED us because he’d been reading our journal online!  He was on his way to Redding, in northern California, to work on a property he owns, and his car was full of stuff.  “Don’t worry, I will make room for you guys,” Brian said.  “Obviously this was meant to be.”  It took a bit of shuffling and squeezing, but in the end, Bill was up front with Brian, and I shared the back seat with a toilet! 

Brian told us about his family–he loves his wife and kids–and took us first to Callahan’s to get water, then dropped us off at the PCT, saying, “Happy Trails!”  We promised to call him when we finished our hike, so maybe we could all celebrate at Callahan’s! 

Then Bill and I headed into the green, green, wildflowery Oregon woods and hiked a couple of miles, celebrating all the way.  “We’re on the trail again, we’re on the trail!”  Bill kept singing.  We stopped for a quick dinner, then went a bit farther and made camp.  And amazingly, there were no clouds of mosquitoes flying in formation and saying, “Welcome to Oregon!”    We are so excited and happy to be here, but we are glad that so far, the famous Oregon mosquitoes are NOT!

Waking up at 5:00 am has become such a habit that even in the motel, we were both wide awake.  That’s OK, because it gave us time to read the Bible for a good while until the “free breakfast” room was open, and at that point, we had fun eating everything in sight! Chris and Bethany, two of the “gang” came in, too, so we had a good time sharing trail tales.

After that, it was time to repack the packs, trek to the post office, then Bill went to the hardware store to get a part for his pack (one of his web-tightening turnbuckles was broken), while I went to find the bus stop for our trip to Bakersfield, where we’ll pick up a car to drive to Oregon.  Finding it was not easy–nobody seemed to know–but finally one older lady gave me good directions.  Then it turned out that the next bus to Bakersfield wasn’t for another 3 hours! 

Catching some zzzzz's in the shade by KMart

 Oh well, now we had time to eat some more, so we had lunch, then waited in the shade by KMart, since it was a very hot day, with no wind.  The only things moving were the cars in the street and the trains going by.  The windmills across the tracks were sitting still. 

  But the trains were fun–Tehachapi is an historic railroad town.  The engineering challenge of getting the railroad over Tehachapi Pass was huge, and succeeded with some really creative thinking.  

Finally the bus came, and it was only $2 for a 20 mile ride!  Wow! We pay a lot more than that for Golden Gate Transit buses back home!  The people on the bus were friendly, and fun to talk to.  One man reminisced about life in Tehachapi in the 1950’s, and I ended up talking to a fascinating lady who is a dance teacher, Pilates instructor, photographer, and homeschooling mom.  She said she got into Pilates (a special exercise program) when she had a Pilates instructor come to the dance school to teach a class.  In a very short time, the students’ flexiblity and “core strength” had improved so dramatically that she decided to try it for herself and ended up as a certified instructor.  She has four grown and almost-grown kids, all homeschooled and doing great.

In Bakersfield, we hopped off the bus and only had to go 4 blocks to Hertz for our rental car.  They didn’t have the small car we’d reserved, so we ended up with one that felt to us like driving a moose.  It took some getting used to!  And so we “hit the road” for Oregon!  It was a very exciting feeling, and I had a lot of inner questions about, “What will it be like in Oregon?  Will there be hordes of mosquitoes?  Will there be snow?”  But I figured, “Just enjoy the moment!  We are FIRST headed for Andersen’s!” 

Bill is glad to be at Andersen's!

 What is Andersen’s and what’s the big deal?  Well, Andersen’s makes split pea soup, and besides selling soup, they also have a restaurant, which is located along Interstate 5.  I was in college in Santa Barbara until just before Bill and I were married, and when he came to drive me home for our wedding, we stopped at Andersen’s restaurant (then on  Interstate 101) for some of the famous split pea soup! 

It's been a great almost-37 years!

 So Andersen’s has a lot of “sentimental value” to us.  It’s been almost 37 years ago since we were married, and Andersen’s is still a great place.    The soup turned out to be as good as ever, and we enjoyed a great Danish dinner before driving on till well past dark and camping at Caswell State Park, near Manteca, CA.–another one of our “favorite spots”!  We and our daughters spent many happy days there camping, rafting on the Stanislaus River, and just having fun!  The mosquitoes were out in droves though–we had to rig the net tent!   It was a pleasant, but weird feeling to be at Caswell again, knowing that REALLY we were just headed back for the PCT, as fast as we could get there!