Final Days in Ashland

Yesterday we went in to Ashland to walk around and look at stuff. One of the things one must look at in Ashland is the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  It's a local repertory theater that produces eleven plays a year during their season.  This is the Elizabethan theater.  Note that it's open to the sky (and the rain).  Seats are resin and look hideously uncomfortable. Anyway, it's a massive set.

This is the green chair up on stage.  I don't know the significance of it.

The grounds of the OSF are lovely, with flowers in the beds.  The OSF brings in millions of dollars a year to the area.

Ashland has become a prosperous town, attracting tourists and retirees.  Retail on the main street reflects this fact.  There are no tacky tee shirt shops, there are upscale home decorating stores and clothing stores.  We did not see very many people in the stores, I'm not sure when they make their money.

This is the Ashland Springs Hotel, built in 1925.  It's been beautifully restored.

After downtown, we decided to drive up Mount Ashland to look for a forest road we saw when we hiked Grouse Gap.  It looked like it might be mountain bike-able.  It was up there.  We proceeded past the ski station on a dirt road.

We think we found the forest road, but decided that perhaps mountain biking at 6,500 feet might not be so much fun.

There is also a campground, way up there.  The road is so steep, you have to really want to get an RV up there.  It was an impressive drive up.  I'm glad we saw it.

Today we drove up to Green Springs Summit where the Pacific Crest Trail crosses the road.  It was spectacularly unimpressive hiking.  We hiked one side of the road, which moved in and out of trees and meadows. 

Upon returning to the truck, we decided we'd take the trail on the other side of the road.  It was slightly more interesting.  We got to see a reservoir and spillway.  Eventually that trail hit the top of the mountain and dropped precipitously downhill - we decided it was enough PCT for one day.

We drove up to Hyatt Lake to look at the campground and the lake.  Every single camp site had a sign on it saying "Available - one night only."  What's up with that?  Why can people only stay one night?  Does anyone understand the reservation system in forest service camp grounds?  Anyway, the lake is really low, the boat ramps are closed.  One wonders if they'll remove the boulders at the bottom when the water levels come back up.

The road up to the hike today is really steep.  There are many blind corners and double digit grades.  It's advertised as a bikeway.  Given the complete lack of shoulders and the grades, this doesn't look like a fun time to me.

Tomorrow we're up and out for Harrisburg.  We will begin a bout of preventative maintenance at Elite and Peterson Caterpillar.  I'm really not looking forward to the engine work, we have to unload the bedroom closet which is going to be a giant pain.