Mount Ashland Summit

September 3
Drive 25 minutes out of town and you reach the base of the Mount Ashland Ski Area. Take out your hiking poles turn uphill and 1500 vertical feet higher you are at the summit with a view to die for!
Mt. Ashland Ski area is a throwback to the old ski times. Only 4 slow chair lifts, about 50% of the mountain advanced terrain and a base lodge that came out of the sixties. But the terrain and the surrounding mountains are a match for any of the shi-shi resorts. Here's the best part. Locals can buy a pass for as little as $300 for the season. So when the powder is fresh the locals race out of town to see who makes the first fresh tracks. Dream on Shel about doing that someday! And with a senior pass! Someday, maybe soon?

My days here are approaching and end, but next year there will be many other mountains to climb.

Who said there were bears in the woods!

September 2nd.

Winding down on the Ashland trip but I am intent to get in as much hiking as I can before returning to the desert.

Today's jaunt was a modest trip around the outskirts of Applegate Lake.

The drive there took about an hour but went fast as we drove through orchards of pears almost ready to pick, lots of vineyards and valleys surrounded by the Siskiyou Mountains. Arriving at the trailhead we were the only car in the small parking lot and were likely to be the only one there for the day. We hiked out about two hours around the outskirts of the lake. The whole loop around this large lake was 17 miles. Some up and down and a few treacherous narrow parts, but generally an easy trail. Lots of different trees, Sequoia, Ponderosa Pines, some old growth and very tall. There were also Manzanita and Madrone shedding their bark this time of year.

Totally uneventful trip till we are almost back at our car. On the trail we discover a newly deposited pile of bear scat (poop), fresh for sure and with lots of berries. not a good sign! Paula asks if this was there on our trip out. "No" I say but it is not very fresh (I am lying and she knows it.) So on we go and a few yards further i pick up a smell that could only be coming from a large animal. The last time I smelled something like this Johnny and i almost walked into a large moose. I do not want to panic Paula, but when she stops to take more pics, I tell her that's enough. She stops, which is not usually the case. Perhaps she also senses something like a bear in the area. Finally as we approach the car P decides to take ANOTHER PIC. I say rather forcefully , "We need to get into the car NOW!" Again she complies without an argument.

Finally safely in the car, I tell her I was sure there was a bear nearby. She thanks me for not panicking her on the trail, but i know she had the same sense as I but just did not want to believe it. If Merriwether Shel did not let on that the bear was near, then she was cool with that HA!

There are lots of bears in this part of Southern Oregon and with all the berries in abundance they probably have no need to bother humans for their trash etc., but i felt much better once the doors in our car were closed with us safely inside. Such a wimp I am. Davey Crockett would have sought the bear out, fought it with his bare hands and then skinned it!