Mile 1690 to 1716.

As we gazed at the night sky, just .2 miles over the border into Oregon, we saw two shooting stars. The Perseid Meteor Shower was going on, and we were lucky enough to be in an area with dark skies. We both made secret wishes and fell asleep with our gaze toward the heavens and the meteorites burning up in the atmosphere.

We roused ourselves a little later than usual and started our first full day in Oregon. It look much like Northern California, to no surprise, but the trees did seem a little taller and older to my eyes, almost prehistoric.

Not too long into the day, we came over a low ridge and saw a glaciated mountain on the horizon. Its crown sticking out above the clouds. A good sign for our first day in Oregon. Perhaps this state will have a little more eye candy than Northern California.

We bumped into an older trail runner who told us there was great trail magic up ahead. “Just about 4 miles up,” he said. We didn’t quite make it that far before lunch, and as we look our lunch break in the shade, he came by again. “I was wrong. It’s about two more miles up the trail,” he corrected himself. We finished our lunch and passed him for a third time. This time he was with his wife, who is a birder and had a large set of binoculars around her neck. I spoke with them about the birds in the area and then said, “since we’ve already met three times today, perhaps there will be a forth.”

When we finally made it up to the trail magic, it was a set of lawn chairs with two coolers of soda and candy bars. Bedazzled and I spoke to an English couple. The guy was southboundin the trail and his girlfriend had come out to hike Oregon with him. All of a sudden, the trail runner guy comes around the tree. “I forgot to takeout the trash,” he said. It had been his own little trail magic station the whole time.

After a short break, we continued on and met another hiker coming the opposite way. He hiked the trail last year and lives in Ashland. He gave us some fruit and huge backed cookies and offered us a ride into Ashland if we wanted it.

We continued on and a couple hours later, we were just a few miles from Ashland, where we are planning to take two zero days. The hiker we met earlier caught up to us and we thanked him for the offer, but said we would camp just outside of town and hitch in in the morning.

As the sun was going down, we started looking for a place to camp and as we did so, we found a cooler of soda and cheese cake near the side of the trail. As we are enjoying the cheese cake, we hear someone coming and it is none other then the hiker we met earlier carrying an arm full of soda to restock the cooler.

It was a good start to Oregon and the people seem super friendly here.