I was very lucky to be able to stay at Callahan’s Lodge last night. Inferno Man had booked a room for himself, but they had given him a double queen at no extra charge. The room was huge, and all the other hikers were invited to stay, but these guys were dedicated to the trail and opted to night hike two miles to the next campsite instead. Seeing hikers like that was another reminder of just how far back I’d traveled after trail days, and how hard people were pushing to make it to Canada before the snow (harder than I can sustainably push, for sure)

For today, my plan was to head to Ashland to see if anyone was in town, take the bus to Medford in the afternoon, then try to get up to Mazama Village near Crater Lake. I visited the gear store in Ashland and replaced my sun hoodie, which had torn through the shoulder the other day. I saw in the logbook there that more southbounders than northbounders were passing through town. The NoBo bubble was here 2-3 weeks ago and had probably nearly reached Washington already, the ones who hadn’t skipped up from Trail Days at least.

I had lunch at Creekside Pizza, which was recommended to me by a local day hiker yesterday. A couple of slices of pizza and cold beer always feels like magic on a town day. I left from the pizza bar to catch the next bus to Medford, just 5 minutes away.

I was only at the bus stop for less than a minute when a car pulled up about 50 m up the road. Like some kind of fever dream, Cook jumped out, we were both as shocked as each other to meet here. He told me that he, his brother, Mango and Wow were all staying in an Air BnB in town with his family. They invited me to join for drinks this afternoon and the bus to Medford didn’t even have to stop.

Mango put me in touch with a local trail angel, Servpreet, who could drive me all the way to Crater Lake tomorrow. For tonight, we hung out, caught up, and shared stories from the trail since we’d last met up at Trail Days.

The following day, Servpreet drove me and 3 section hikers to Mazama Village. Servpreet is a truly fantastic TA, helping me to resupply in Medford, providing contacts further north, and helping me get up to date information about fires north of Crater Lake including alternate routes further from the smoke.

We got to Mazama Village in time to set up camp, finish a few beers, and hit the restaurant for dinner. I began to get the feeling that these section hikers might have a similar style to me, and I might be seeing them around on the trail a bit more.