12-14 Jun: Our next destination was Ashland, Oregon, to see our friend Caroline, who dyes fabrics for costumes at the Shakespeare Festival. We camped at a very nice county park on Emigrant Lake, not far from downtown Ashland. We took a hike on the section of the Pacific Crest Trail that passes near the prominent landmark Pilot Rock, a volcanic plug created when lava solidified in a volcano’s vent and was later exposed by erosion. We continued east of Pilot Rock until the trail crossed over the crest of the ridge and offered a great view of Mount Shasta in northern California, the second highest volcano in the Cascades after Washington’s Mount Rainier (Shasta was hidden in the clouds when we drove north from Lassen two days before). Another snow-capped volcanic peak was prominent to our north, Mount McLaughlin.
Caroline had two treats in store for us in the evenings. One was tickets to Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor. The Shakespeare Festival is the largest employer in southern Oregon. They present plays in their three theaters most nights of the week during their long spring through fall season. The performance we saw was a real extravaganza, with some interesting modern accents to the costumes and music. The second treat was an invitation to see the dress rehearsal of the upcoming weekend show to be put on by her aerial silk troupe. Their athleticism while suspended from ropes, silk, or hoops was very impressive, and the whole performance including some intricate juggling numbers, was highly entertaining, much in the vein of Cirque de Soleil.