After last night I had hoped that my body had slowly adjusted to sleeping on trail. But this night was as most nights, light und disrupted. Also, my morning routine is still the same. I wake up at around 6:30 a.m. and it’s 8:30 a.m. when I start hiking.
Today has a couple of ups and downs in store but nothing major. It is pretty amazing how much the trail has changed since I have crossed the border to Oregon. I have the feeling that the slopes are less steep, the trail is a bit wider, better maintained and more even/level.
Around noon, I take a break in the shade at a spring and talk with other hikers. After 45 minutes, I continue hiking the little uphill section.
From the top I can see some cars parked in the distance and I want a Coke to badly that I am really hoping that there is trail magic again. Fueled by the thought of potential trail magic, I hike towards the cars. Only to find out that the trail makes a big curve a couple of feet below these cars and never reaches them.
I am a bit sad that my dream of a cold Coke didn’t come true. But that’s how it’s supposed to be, right? Trail magic is by definition there when you expect it the least. A little sad I hike along the trail for a few minutes.
But wait, what’s that under the trees there? Is that a cooler? With a new spring in my step I go to these trees and see that there is a second cooler too and they are labeled „FOR PCT LONG DISTANCE HIKERS ONLY“. I open them and they are filled more than half with soda cans. Coke, lemonade, root beer and more.
I take a can of Coke (yes!) and take another break in the shade of the trees. There is a small notebook in there to note your name and country as well as some trash bags for the cans by the coolers. While I am sitting in the shade, I am wondering how the trail angels carry these heavy boxes to the trail. While sitting in the shade, talking with other hikers, I realize that the road is actually less then 50ft/20m away from the coolers. An ideal place for some trail magic. While we sit there a woman hikes by and checks the content of the boxes. She explains that she and a couple of her friends are maintaining these cooler. Of course, we also thank her in person.
Refreshed from the Coke, I continue hiking, only to find the next trail magic within perhaps 20 minutes of the last cooler. This time it’s a mother and her son sitting on camping chairs in the shadow of a tree and offering sodas and oranges. They also had a big Pizza but I am too late for that. One of the „rules“ of hiking is to not turn away trail magic, so I sit down and have another soda while talking with the trail angels. I am taking the oranges with me as dessert after dinner.
Fueled by all these sodas and trail magic, I am reaching my initially planned tent site for tonight in the early afternoon. I am feeling well and so I decide to continue hiking for two more miles. This will also bring me two miles closer to town tomorrow.
As the next tent site is dry camping again, I fill up my bottles at the last water source before that site. This source is just a trickle of water because it isn’t one concentrated stream but more dispersed. To make it easier to fill my bottles I am „leaf engineering“ a little funnel, meaning that I collect a big leaf and place it in the trickle and with some stones I create a little concentrated flow. It’s still slow but better than before.
The British couple is already at the site. After having set up my tent and while eating, I am invited for a cup of British Tea. Who can say no to that in the wilderness? Over the cup of tea we talk and exchange our plans for what we want to do in Ashland.
At around 7:45 p.m. I go inside my tent. I am surprised that not many hiker have come by and that it is so windy, even though we are in a forrest. The deer aren’t shy at all and they approach my tent for perhaps 15ft/5m.
