My partner and I got it Old Station in personal best time. Pulling our first 30+ day and feeling ready to night hike the waterless section. We had been smelling fire for a while but didn't think much of it. We pull in Old Station, eat some food, and while hanging out we see a big plume down the road. With no service and no internet we were forced to rely on people's word. Some thing which is hard to trust because we meet so many people in towns that over react. People who wouldn't camp in the wilderness because the bears will eat them...
From talking around we collected that Hwy 89 had just been closed because of two fires. A fellow hiker had a bit of service and downloaded the incident report. From that and an area map we figured the fires were on either side of the trail, one was moving toward the trail. Instead of night hiking we stayed over in a room that lost electricity to figure out what we could do. The next day, the trail closed and Pilsbury and her friend gave us a ride into Redding.
What is a girl to do. A lot of people were skipping up to Ashland and hiking from there. That seemed like cheating some how. I couldn't wrap my head around just all of the sudden being in Oregon without walking there. I was looking at the options. There are fires around Etna and Seiad Valley, Ashland, Fish Lake. I didn't want to have to hitch around fires every couple days just to walk the trail that was open. Some people just went ahead and walked closed sections and took the chance of fire spreading. Me, I have asthma. The last thing I need is to have more trouble breathing so walking through smoke didn't seem enjoyable. Then again I didn't want to skip that much trail.
I came up with a plan to walk the Coastal Trail from the same latitude as Old Station to the same latitude as Crater Lake and then getting back on trail at Crater Lake.
So here I am. It's odd walking on sand and not trail, or road, sometimes we walk a highway, or staying in motels/official campgrounds but at least I'm moving north. It's been a nice change in a lot of ways, demotivating in others. It's hard to not look at the beach as a vacation. To walk big miles on sand and not loose focus on the goal of Canada.
I've had injuries and an Uncle pass away, fires and thunderstorms and I'm still moving north, but the coast is the only place where I have had the idea of quiting cross my mind in a serious way.
I think because it reminded me of all the fun an adventure can bring, or life before 20-35 miles a day became the goal. The rocks make me miss rock climbing. I miss being in shape and I miss feeling young; my knees make me move like an old person whenever I stop waking.
I'm not saying that I am quiting, I'm getting into Oregon today after all, but I'm being honest about how hard this is mentally. I've been lucky so far. I haven't had many doubts, I haven't broken down and cried, I've felt pretty good, so this is just a little hurdle in the journey.
