Life was meant for good friends and great adventures. It is especially sweet when good friends join you for those great adventures. For Memorial Day this year, a couple of our favorites joined us on the road for the long weekend. We met them at Shasta National Forest, in the very northern part of California, and began our weekend of revelry. We hiked from Castle Lake to Heart Lake, catching up on life and enjoying the beautiful views of Mt. Shasta.
It was a relatively short hike, but the weather was perfect and it was nice to see such a beautiful place with great friends. From Shasta, we had lunch at Yak’s in Dunsmuir, which has amazing burgers, and then we got on the road north towards Ashland, Oregon, our destination for the weekend.
We were unable to get reservations at Emigrant Lake, just outside of Ashland, which we had hoped for but were too late in making reservations. So we opted to head out to Howard Prairie Lake, where we camped out in a rather crowded but nice enough campsite right on the lake, with a lovely view of Mt. McLaughlin. It was about 40 minutes or so outside of Ashland. Of course when we have friends joining us, we make a campfire (which is, contrary to popular belief, not something that we do every night on the road). We enjoyed the campfire, delicious wine, and we grilled veggies and chicken for dinner. I cannot believe we had room for dinner after Yak’s, but there you have it.
Early the next morning we got on the road to Ashland for a day of white water rafting on the Rogue River! We went rafting with Indigo Creek Outfitters and they did a great job. Will, the owner of the company, was our guide, along with another guide for the other boat of people who were rafting with us that day. We arrived at the shop in downtown Ashland, enjoyed some coffee and fruit that they provided for us, and got our gear and the low-down for what our day would look like. And safety instructions, of course. We then all piled into a van and headed north from Ashland to the spot along the Rogue River where we would jump in the raft and get the day started.
What a fun day it was rafting on the Rogue – it was warm, so we didn’t need wetsuits, though don’t be fooled – that water is always cold! Donned in helmets and lifejackets, we grabbed our oars, piled in the boats and headed down the river. We did the half-day trip, so we rafted for a couple of hours and covered maybe 4 or 5 rapids, which weren’t too difficult but still great fun. Will, our guide, filled us in on the area, the Rogue River and other fun facts, and we had an awesome time chatting with the other two folks who joined us in our boat.
A highlight for me was when the guide from the other boat accidentally fell in the river on one of the bigger rapids – well actually was ejected into the river. Don’t worry, he was okay, so we could laugh about it – but my goodness the look on the face of the rafters in that boat when they turned around and realized their guide wasn’t in the boat anymore, pretty hilarious. That poor guide, he was put through the ringer a bit underwater, but seemed just fine.
After the rapids, we explored downtown Ashland a bit, grabbing lunch at the Standing Stone Brewing Company, and some delicious beers too of course. We wandered around the downtown area, popping in and out of shops, perusing the real estate listings to see if perchance we could buy a vacation home nearby, and enjoyed a tasty pick me up at Noble Coffee in the afternoon.
Appropriately re-caffeinated, we headed to the Dana Campbell Vineyards, which Will had recommended to us. It’s an absolutely gorgeous property just on the north side of Ashland, with rows and rows of beautiful vineyards overlooking the valley in which Ashland sits. Combine this lovely atmosphere with delicious wine tastings that are only $8 (completely unheard of to be that inexpensive in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys that we are used to), a beautiful sunny patio and bocce ball, and it was the perfect end to an amazing day in Ashland.
Then we decided to head back to the campground. Kevin cooked us a delicious spaghetti bolognese and I made us some sourdough bread to enjoy with dinner. We ate by the lake, with a gorgeous view, and then listened to Kevin and Ryan play guitar and serenade Agata and me. It was so lovely.
Monday morning, Memorial Day, found us back in Ashland for some more wandering. We enjoyed the beautiful weather outdoors at the Stone Ridge Coffee Shop/Growler Guys – a coffee bar combined with craft beer pub, what more could you ask for?! It’s an old gas station converted into a great little stop and we loved it. We walked about some more, covering a few of the streets that we hadn’t seen before and wandering by the creek in Ashland, and then we had to say goodbye to Kevin and Agata, sending them back to San Francisco while we were heading north. We loved Ashland, and can’t wait to come back sometime, rent a lovely home with a big porch, visit more wineries and see even more of this beautiful, peaceful area. Apparently Medford, just north of Ashland, has tons of craft breweries and food trucks – sounds great to me!
BY Jackie
LOCATION Mt. Shasta, California and Ashland, Oregon
