Thursday 19th March

Very proud of our early start, we got on the 138 heading east towards Crater Lake, alongside the Umpqua river. Our first stop was to be the Umpqua hot springs. We turned off on the road towards them, but after about a mile we were stopped by a single lane bridge that was blocked with snow. We saw that there was a hiking trail towards the springs, and a handwritten sign by the trail saying that it takes one hour to get there. Scribbled in underneath was a note saying to take the road instead as it only took 45 minutes. So we set out on the snowed over road, hoping that we were going in the right direction. It felt very isolated out there, and we were hoping that the tracks in the snow were just made by someone’s dog. After walking for about half an hour, we got to the information point. To our dismay we discovered that the bridge over the river to the springs had been down for a few years. We presumed that there would be somewhere else to cross, but we couldn’t find anywhere feasible. So with tails between legs we started heading back, only to see someone else walking up the road in our direction. It was a guy called Michael who lived in the area and knew the springs well, he told us he would show us the place that you can cross. So we headed back with him, and he showed us a tree crossing the river that had boards bolted into it to make a platform to cross. Over we went and joined the trail that lead up to the springs, getting involved in some interesting discussions with Michael about the surrounding areas and the various Oregonian political stances.
The springs were absolutely wonderful, there were a few different ones with slightly varying temperatures, the average being about 104 degrees F. Very physically and mentally cleansing. We spent longer there than we should have done going by the schedule we were aiming for, but it was hard to leave. When we got back to the car we found that one of the tyres had some nasty gashes on the side, so we decided to get it checked out when we got to the place we would be staying. There were lots of waterfalls on this road but we realised we only had time to see one, so naturally we went for the biggest. Watson Falls at 272 feet, very impressive. There were good paths to get pretty close to the falls, so we were able to get some great photos.
Then we were back on the road to Crater Lake. We were well into the afternoon by now, but we knew that the roads up to the lake would be limited because of the snow, so we knew we wouldn’t need that much time up there anyway. There was a crazy ploughed road leading up to the lake, with massive snowdrifts either side. The lake was very beautiful, but there was so much snow everywhere that we were limited as to how much of it we could see. The lake is exclusively fed by rain and snow, and utterly isolated, a very special place. We lightened the mood of awe by playing around making imprints in the huge snowdrifts, then headed back down.
We headed southwest on the 62 to the town of Ashland for the night, the town had been recommended to us by a couple of people. It is famous for the Oregon Shakespeare festival (runs for nine months of the year!), and the town has a strangely English feel to it. We stayed in a Best Western Motel, a bit more expensive than some but the cheaper motels were right out of town. Went for food at The Black Sheep, a British-themed pub so we were not too happy about that! Good Norfolk fish pie though, and Guiness chocolate cake. We tried a porter from the nearby town of Medford which was pretty decent. There was a red British phone box in the corner of the pub which turned out to be from Sheffield! We went to another bar for one more drink after eating, they had a reggae/surf/ska band playing, with people of all ages dancing. We laughed in glee as a large middle aged guy fell into a mike stand, and then off to bed.