Previously on Aussie Ninja goes to places and maybe or maybe not gets on top of some things...

We had hit the woo woo rocks of Sedona directly after this guy and was training for this dude. Previous training sessions where we never got to the top of things are Table Mountain, Kings Mountain and Dog Mountain.

Darn... that reminds me that I haven't actually done my Grand Canyon post yet.. oh my... Posts = Yet Another Thing I Have Not Got To The Top Of.

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Do we make it to the top of something? The answer may not surprise you.

Where were you?

The towns of Ashland and Medford in Oregon in the United States of the Americas.

What's in Ashland, Oregon?

Lots of people just sitting around randomly. Oh, and trees, hikes, art, hippies and retirees.

Why and How but mostly When or Who?

Over the weekend we drove five hours from Portland Oregon to Ashland Oregon to hang out with some friends driving up from San Francisco. Ashland is quite well known for huge network of hiking trails, mountain biking trails and equestrian trails. It’s also super artsy and popular with RV-ing snowbirds.

Honestly, I’ve never seen so many RVs, it made me completely second-guess my life-decisions and dream for RV lyfe. Can’t I be a motorised vagabond ninja? Pretty please with sprinkles on top?

Anywho, while our crazy friends were trying to run 25 miles through 3 feet of snow, my partner and I struck gold for sanity and did a normal super fun hike of great. The trail we picked had the super delightful name of Bandersnatch, which is easily takes the place of any verb, ever.

Being Easter weekend, Ashland was crazy packed, and car parks were rare purple item, that we eventually managed to collect using all our will power, tenacity, and not giving up after being tricked by a thousand tiny cars parked next to huge cars.

It was all worth it though, because as soon as we got to the starting-park, we were greeted by these quacky guys:

Also, how is this sign?

I can’t believe they tell us that there are many ways to enjoy these ducks without actually offering examples. This sign should have said:

“There are many ways to enjoy ducks without feeding them. For example; jousting, re-enacting Mighty Ducks 3, racing/race wars.”

At the very least it could have said :

“There are many ways to enjoy ducks without feeding them. For example: boringly looking at them and interacting with them in zero ways. It’s a blast for everyone!”

We couldn’t find any signs out of the starter park (Lithia Park]), so I suggested we just go up…

… then we realised we hadn’t turned the hiking app on…

…then we got lost…

After an hour, we found the pre-trail trail… which was really quite pleasant… and then eventually the actual trail. The Bandersnatch was awesome. It was super woody, and super steep, and had random art and I liked it!

It also had a baby squirrel (photo at the top), which we all agreed was the cutest thing ever... and by 'all' read: 'Literally everyone who passed by and scared it a little while I was trying to ninja a photo'.

We thought we got to the top, which would have been a miracle but not at all fitting to our series of Things We Did Not Get to the Top of… only to find it was just a pretend top, and we actually had another mile to go… which was cool, we could hack it…. Except we couldn’t.

Just like every other time, it was the weather that stopped us from getting to the top… the real top, not the pretend top, was out in the blazing sun…. the trees weren’t as dense and I was virtually sprinting from shade to shade.
It wasn’t a loop either, so the further you hiked, the further you had to come back… so with 0.7 miles to go, I called sun-overdose and we turned back. The down was so super mega quicker than the up (I know, obviously) and we caned it back to duck park in no time. The slog turned into a sprint, which was awesome for reasons of sun-OD.

The woodland was really different to what we were used to around the more northern parts of Oregon. Ashland feels a lot more Californian, and honestly, it felt very Australian. Very dry and hot.

Even though we didn’t make it to the top-top, it was still a great hike and we both really enjoyed and Ashland/Medford. I’d probably suggest not going at the hottest part of the day, but my lizard partner was actually totally comfortable (which is unusual because she’s cold all the time)… so courses for horses or similar.

Despite being super hot for a hikey dude, the weather was so pleasant... I've since flown into Wisconsin where I had to chip my car out from under a thick layer of ice... I'm literally typing this with a jacket and beanie on in my hotel.

Did any of the signs make you think?

What an oddly specific question to ask... but yes, this one:

I don't think I've ever read a sign before that says that people putting out fires to protect other people's houses have totally ruined everything AKA Fire is the Best AKA FireForevs! I know people ruin everything, but it's hard to comprehend just how very much people have ruined everything.

Has anything not ruined everything?

Yes, shoosh up to the top of the post and tell me that little guy has ruined everything.

Tell us the maths dagnammit!

Okay, we're not good at the math, we think we were hiking for about 3 hours... we definitely did 12 thousand steps which is about 6 kilometers I think.

Full View	Zoomed in View

Final Words on the Bandersnatch Trail in Ashland, Oregon.

Haha, Bandersnatch.
Also, it was good.

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Category	landscapephotography
Settings	ISO 100 300mm f/5.6 1/100sec
Camera	Canon 6D
Lens	Canon 75mm-300mm
Location	Bandersnatch Trail, Ashland, Oregon.

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Thanks so much for reading!
All the photos in this post were taken by me except obviously the AllHike app screen shots.

@steemitworldmap	Author	Post

steemaroo divider and ninja upgoats drawn by the incredible @ryivhnn