Day 117: ⛺@ mile 1'708.2 - Ashland

Date: 02.08.2018 Miles hiked today: 10.5 miles / 16.89 km Total Mileage: Mile 1'718.7 Getting up this morning was easy as some other hikers got up much earlier than me and I could hear them packing up. Parmesan however doesn't feel like getting up this morning. He is still in bed by the time I leave. It's only 10.5 miles to Ashland and I've only heard very good things about this town, so im really looking forward to it. Also its mostly downhill which is nice, but I can still feel my knees from running into Seiad Valley three days ago. After a couple of miles an elderly women passes, hiking South, informing me that there is trail magic coming up! She is the trail Angel behind it. I'm curios now and I'm also hungry but I've got hardly any food left, so that trail magic comes at the right time. I hike and hike and hike but no trail magic. Where the hell is it? I thought I reach it within 5 or 10 minutes. I'm so looking forward to it that it seems like ages until I finally get there. Cheetah is there already. We open the boxes, there are 3 of them. The first one contains fresh fruit such as banana and cherries and apples and also some sodas. The second one contains cheese strings and yoghurt and the last one contains sodas and smoothie! Wow that's a deluxe breakfast! And we are also so lucky because the other hikers who got up earlier than us missed that trail magic. They were too early! We are the first ones to enjoy this fantastic trail magic. I have a banana, some cherries, a yoghurt and share a smoothie with cheetah. That's the healthiest food I've eaten for a while and I feel so good! Just when I'm finished also Duchess and Opa arrive too. It's not far anymore to Callaghans Lodge, from where we hope to get a hitch into town. Arriving at the street Duchess and me get a ride for the 1 mile strech straight away! I know it's only 1 mile and we could have easily walked it but we just tried and the first car pulled over. Also, any non pct mile is being avoided to hike :) at Callaghans Lodge we get a free beer. It's only 11am and I can feel that beer already. Finally also Parmesan arrives. And while he is getting his free beer I organise a hitch into Ashland. Actually Apachi sent me a text with a number I can call for a hitch. That wonderful women picks us up 30 minutes later and drives us to town. It turns out that this is her first offer of a ride, she hasn't really done any trail angeling before but is very interested in helping us hikers out. It's every time amazing again how friendly and nice the people here are, simply awesome! She doesn't only drive us into town, but also gives us a free guided tour around, showing us our hotel we prebooked yesterday, the laundromat, the supermarket, the post office and the town centre with all its restaurants and bars. This town looks awesome! There is a real centre here, something no other place we've been yet has had. And also part of the movie "Wild" was being produced here. She drops us off infront of the Indian restaurant we want to go to. Other hikers as Lullaby, Maoi (I haven't seem him for ages but it turns out that he skipped several miles in between), patient zero and more are here too. The reason being that so many hikers are here is that Indian food cannot often be found, it's much different from the normal food we get on trail and in towns and most importantly they have a lunch buffet for 12 USD all you can eat! Yep, that's us! We stuff ourselves with this yummie food, hardly being able to walk out of the restaurant afterwards. It's also a very hot day again. But something is different, there is no smoke here. Blue, clear sky, how amazing is that?! First we check out the post office. My mum has send me a new merino wool shirt. They are currently in America too and my shirt is totally wripped off. But as we mostly only pass very small and little towns, I didn't find any merino wool shirts yet. And I'm looking forward to My new shirt. The new shirt is salmon (like pink) and my pants are like raspberry. I'm now looking like a candy! Then we head back to our hotel, which sadly is quite far away from the town centre, more than 1 mile. But the room is very nice and has an air condition which is very mich appreciated. While Duchess and Parmesan shower I start to prewash my clothes in the sink. It's incredible how dirty they can get. And if I only wash them in the laundromat, they don't really get clean. The water is black only with my socks! It takes me about 2 hours to pre wash all my clothes. In between I have a shower too, taking my clothes with me :) just as we are ready to leave the hotel in order to wash our clothes in the laundromat (which us also a little bit away. It's annoying if the hotels don't offer laundromat, but that's how it is), Dirty Money arrives. She is sharing the hotel room with us tonight. I take her clothes with me too, so she can shower and relax a little. It doesn't matter if I wash her clothes too, as I have to go there anyways. washing clothes in a laundromat always takes a long time and is boring. For Dinner we are going to the town centre. We is Dirty Money and me. We will meet Sparkles there and also Florian aka Moses. Moses started the PCT together with me but I haven't seen him anymore after the third day hiking. How nice to meet him again! Parmesan and Duchess have decided to go to a pizza place closer to the hotel. Dirty money and I meet Sparkles, Moses and Christian, another Swiss guy I have not met yet in a brewery. After finishing our food we move on to another bar. Also Helter, Apachi, Darko, Anarkin and Jbo join us. We are getting Moscow mules and Maria is becoming a little tipsy:) as this bar closes soon later too we move on the to the next place for a roady. But what's that, this place is about to close too. The door man won't let us in. Please, we just quickly wanna see how the place looks like to come back tomorrow. Ok, he says and we are in, heading straight to the bar. The bar man is getting us drinks and as there is still music we go dancing. But after just one or two songs the DJ stops playing and the lights turn on. Ok we get it now, I guess it's time for bed! Dirty Money and me are walking back home to the hotel, water some plants on our way home:) and fall asleep in the middle of the night!