Pacific Crest Trail: Smoke on the horizon

Hello lovely people! It’s been a hot minute since I last wrote. It’s hard to write when your in a rollercoaster, but it’s time to put the crazy ride of the past weeks into words. To give myself an extra push to write this I can only open my jar of Nutella once this post is finished. Let’s go!

North California blues

The last days I was thinking how to put walking trough a burn area into words. It’s hard to describe. Simply said; It was very rough. Miles of burnt forest made me feel so sad. No sounds and just walking through ash. Did you know trees can bleed? Add to this another injury. Again an inflamed tendon, this time in my knee. It was a rough stretch. The North Call blues hit me hard. Why am I doing this? And then? The half way mark! The only thing that wasn’t burnt in that area. It helped my morale only for a few days because I still have to do so many miles. Will I be able to finish? Seeing Mount Shasta, a physical therapist (thank you Blaze Physio!) and green magical nature again helped pushing the North Call blues away. The marble mountains! The Trinity Alps! The night before going into Etna I fell asleep with the sound of thunder.

Smoke on the horizon

I woke up with the smell of smoke in the air. This can’t be good? That thunderstorm caused the Mckinney fire I learned later that day when I arrived in Etna. While hiking I could see the smoke growing on the horizon, forming a huge cumulus cloud. The trail closed up all the way to Ashland. Lots of hikers got evacuated of trail and the little town of Etna was packed with hikers. Now what? For months we’ve been following a red line on the map going north. What do we do now?

From Etna to Ashland

We went to the brewery because no one can think on an empty stomach 😉 Within 10 minutes of being there I found a ride to Ashland from a lovely couple who went out of their way to help us. Thank you so much Sue & David! The ride to Ashland was crazy. It stormed and we drove trough thick smoke. Ashland itself was also covered in smoke, it even rained ash, an eerie sight. Because it was a Saturday and with all the hiker refugees coming into town it was impossible to find a motel. Miso and I sat at the side of the road trying to figure things out. Luckily there was a true angel that saved us from sleeping under a bridge. Caressa took us in her home and knew exactly what we needed. Thank you so much Caressa, you are a gem!

Now what?

It was time for all the hikers to ‘hike your own hike’. With so many fires in Oregon there isn’t really a perfect solution. Some hikers jumped to Washington and some went to the Oregon coast, to hike north from there. I wasn’t ready for such a drastic change, I barely got to say goodbye to California! After a double zero I decided to just try. When I looked at the webcam of crater lake it didn’t look so good but I kept in mind that everything changes all the time. On trail the smoke wasn’t that bad anymore. I’m in Oregon!

In Oregon!

It was so good to be back on trail. There are fire closures ahead and new fires are starting but for now I’m here! In the beautiful forest and I’ll take it day by day. And now? I have a jar of Nutella to finish! Stay tuned for my Oregon post.