In the safety and comfort of Ashland, it became clear our continuous footpath was a thing of the past. The fire behind us kept growing at an alarming pace and new fires were quickly gaining ground ahead, north from Crater Lake. The question that remained was what we were going to do about it. Three immediate choices presented themselves: hike on and hitch around the trail closures, but potentially walk in smoke for an extended period of time and have to deal with the hassle of getting on and off trail. Get off trail completely and hike the Oregon coast along the Oregon Coast Trail as an alternative. Or thirdly, skip southern Oregon and go on from Timberline Lodge, where there were no fires yet.
Different people had different plans and this would inevitably mean a more definitive breaking up of the people in our bubble. The first to take initiative was Andy. He had hitched to Ashland to go around the fire and had decided to go further to Timberline. All this time I was hoping he’d catch us and now I’d almost certainly not see him again on this trail. The goodbyes never get easier.
After some discussion, we made our decision as well. We were going to keep going until Crater Lake and assess the situation there. If the smoke forbade it, we would go to the coast and hike the Oregon Coast Trail. Hopefully, we could stay on the PCT though. I reached out to Drive Thru and Cookie, hoping they would join us. Don’t want to leave those two.
Due to everyone skipping to Ashland, the town was overrun by hikers, many of whom I knew. The best reunion was when I saw Chris, now with a bushy beard, step out of a car. We ran toward each other and hugged. His new name was Squirrel Daddy. This from when he found an injured baby squirrel on trail and carried it out in his hipbelt pocket until Deep Creek, where he dropped it off at an animal clinic. The squirrel died eventually, but what a great story! I can forgive him for not taking the Tortilla name now. With him were Jesse’s group (who caved and got the trail name Toothless, for losing a tooth biting a frozen M&M) and Disaster. It’s crazy how we only hiked with Squirrel Daddy for a couple of days, yet it felt like seeing a very old friend again.
Escaping the smoky sky, I went back to the hotel and forced myself to rest.