Miles hiked: 28.7.
Was woken in the early morning by the sound of some sort of canine off in the distance. And I woke right up because I'd heard from my parents then the Internet when in Seiad that there's a wolf somewhere in the Siskiyou Mountains, which I'm in the heart of now. Seeing a wild wolf is one of the highest things on my list, so the howling got me right out of sleep. But it turned out to be some coyotes yodeling away the dark hours.
I got up and packed and hiking about 10 minutes faster than normal, but I'm not really sure how. There was more ridge walking this morning, with deer grazing along the bald tops and cows with their clanging bells down below in the canyons. There was less smoke, and some high thin clouds kept the morning cool. Just before the final climb up to the state line, the trail passed through the beautiful Donomore Meadows, sloping down with creeks trickling and the tops of the grass glowing in sun now burning through the clouds. An old stockman's cabin built in the 1930's (there was a little sign in the door) stood watch over the meadows.
At the California-Oregon border there were a handful of other hikers filtering in and out and celebrating with high fives and jokes and maybe a beer packed up from Seiad and writing in the trail register. We all laughed at Stew Bean's tales of the Conch Republic (Key West, FL) and comparisons to the State of Jefferson. I didn't have any great epiphany at reaching the border, but California is certainly a big state with a lot of different really great places to check out.
The rest of the day continued along a ridge, heading back eastish now to recross I-5 near Ashland. The smoke continued to get thinner and by the afternoon it seemed like a pretty normal day; but down to the south I could see he big gray-brown wall I had walked out of. I talked to some firefighters who where hanging out up here because some more lightning is forecast for the next few days, and they said it would probably be smokey again up by Crater Lake. But for now I was really enjoying the clean air and long views and clear blue sky with a few scattered clouds.
There were quite a few other hikers all planning to stay just 5 or so miles of of Ashland, like me. But I felt like camping alone for no reason in particular so instead of going to the campsite marked on the map where I know at least some people were headed, I stepped off the trail into the forest and found a little flat patch and moved a couple sharp sticks and rolled out my bed and settled in for the evening as a nice wind rushed through the trees.
Birds:
Mountain Quail
Mountain Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Oregon Junco
American Robin
Northern Flicker
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Brown Creeper
Western Wood-pewee
Red-tailed Hawk
XX Swift
Pine Siskin
Turkey Vulture
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