Day 111 - Wrangle Gap to Ashland

After finishing our hike early yesterday, we wanted to get to Ashland as soon as we can. So we got up at 5:00. It was still a bit dark, and chilly. But it wasn’t that bad.

We still had about 23 miles to do today, but we decided we will hike fast until we are done, so we didn’t make any long stops. We passed some of the people that passed us by last night. Our first short break was at a small spring, right by where Lighthouse and Mung were camping last night. They were just heading out for their day.

Later on, I finally got cell signal, and checked again the camera I ordered yesterday. I was a complete idiot, and ended up ordering a camera with standard delivery, which meant it will get to Ashland after I’d leave it. I sent a request to cancel the order. Luckily it was still being processed, and hadn’t shipped yet.

Hiking on, I caught up to Idan, Lighthouse, Mung and Tortuga at a very nice trail magic - two coolers full of cokes and sprites. That was very nice.

Further on, at another short stop, I got a confirmation email about my canceled order. Now I just had to place a new one, this time with a 1 day delivery. I did that at the next stop. Now the camera will get to Ashland on time.

The trail just went on and on, the day became hotter and hotter, and we could already see and hear the interstate. After a lot of down hill, with some crazy senseless climbs thrown in the middle, we finally got to highway 99, which parallels the interstate.

We hiked down the road (there were almost no cars on it), and reached the ramp up to the interstate, heading to Ashland.

It seemed like we’d be stuck there forever. It was very hot at 14:00, and not a lot of cars were coming around. At the end, it didn’t take that long for us to get a ride down to town. Just plain luck.

We got off near the post office, and got our packages there. We then waited for a bus to the motels area, while drinking nice milkshakes.

After we finally got to the Super 8 motel, we had to argue with the guy at the reception - we booked a room with a queen bed and a twin bed, from booking.com, for $75. But according to the guy at the front desk, they don’t have such rooms, and this price is for a single queen bed room. He insisted we should talk to booking.com to clear this up. I called the number he gave me, and their representative did acknowledge that their site lists two beds in the room. At first, she tried to convince me they can find a similar room at a similar price, in the area. But I told here it’s their site’s fault, and that we expect to get a two bed room, for the price we agreed upon with their site. She finally agreed we pay the difference for the bigger room, email them the receipt, and they will reimburse us for the difference. Phew. That’s a relief.

I didn’t do much for the rest of the day. Shower, laundry. Idan was running around, cleaning his quilt and backpack. I’ll do it on another day.

In the evening, we talked with Roi and Sarah about meeting them for dinner. The laundry wasn’t ready early enough, so we left late, and missed the bus down town. After talking with Lighthouse, we almost gave up on getting to town, but at the end he drove into town with a friend of his, and they have us a ride there and back. So that turned out nicely. We had a bit of trouble finding where they were waiting for us. But we got there at the end, and I are another veggie burger. It was home made, but small and pricey. It was a very nice evening.