Ashland: my own personal black hole.

Anyone ever heard of Ashland, OR? Well good for you if you have and you should've if you haven't. Ashland is this great town in Southern Oregon, home to the Shakespeare Festival, a beautiful river, many hippies, and a growing retirment community (damn Californians). I never realized it until this trip, but it also happens to be my own personal black hole.

What do I mean by this? Exactly what you'd expect: Ashland seems to have a wierd gravitational force that seems to attract me. Let me give some examples. When Hal and I were hitchhiking towards Crater Lake, we ended spending the night in Ashland with his (now our) friend Joe, who he'd met in Israel. Great guy, put us up after a long day of hitching and even fed us pancakes for breakfast, which I found surprisingly delicious after my Seiad Valley experience. We actually had to hitch out of our way to get to Ashland, as we were coming from Gratns Pass at the time.

Ok, not convinced? How about this: In my last two weeks hiking, I've been in Ashland 4 separate times: with Hal and Joe, with my parents, with some trail angels and then with just my dad. In that time, I've seen 3 plays and eaten at my favorite Ashland restaraunt, Wiley's World, 3 times. I've also discovered my new favorite pizza parlor and eaten there twice. I didn't even like plays before coming to Ashland, and now I can't see enough! I'm telling you, this place is like an addictive drug to me; I can't pull myself away.

Tomorrow will be a difficult day. Tomorrow I leave Ashland for a very long time to go hike the JMT (see next post for more on that exciting news). However, I have no doubt that I will be back through one more fix before I'm done.

-Bear Bait