PCT Section 1: OR/CA Border to Fish Lake Resort
Welcome to my blog! I’m hoping to share more of my experiences from the Pacific Crest Trail than I’ll be able to on Instagram, so follow along here to see images and hear stories that I might not be able to share on that platform. For those of you who don’t know, in the summer of 2022 I hiked 1,000 miles on the PCT through Oregon and Washington. This was my first long distance hike, and I brought my camera to document it all!
My journey started at the Oregon/California border, and from there I was hiking high ridgelines near the Mount Ashland Ski Resort. There were great views of the first major volcano I would see on this trip, Mount Shasta.
After 3 days of hiking from the start of Oregon, I arrived at Callahan’s Lodge, where I was able to get a ride into the town of Ashland. I stayed with a trail angel who goes by “Crossword”, where I was able to do laundry, take a shower, and get ready for the next stretch of trail. The next morning I got back on trail and picked up where I left off, hiking into the Siskiyou Range of mountains. This stretch of trail was very forested with more gradual elevation changes, and was generally dry without water.
Pablo Hiking towards Pilot Rock
Looking back on this section, what really stands out to me were the people. The names of the people I met and their stories will stay with me for a long time. I made my first friends on trail in this stretch, Pablo and Topper, who I would hike with for all of Southern Oregon.
A lizard that I found basking in the sun!
As you can see, a lot of this section was covered by forests. The trees were beautiful, and I found myself in awe of some of the giants that we came across. When we got an open view of the area, it was always a great surprise! The image below with the field of wildflowers was a great example of this, I was able to look back across the terrain we had hiked through over the previous two days.
The last stretch of trail in this section brought us to Fish Lake Resort, at the foot of Mount McLoughlin (later named McDaddy by Pablo). It was a fun spot to hang out and eat lots of food, and it’s where I took my first zero day on trail. A zero is a day where you take a break and don’t hike any miles on the trail. Before I finish this post, here’s one last forest image from this section!