My Grand COVID Cross-Country Adventure (GC3A) Part II
Quest for Clean Air
Road trip or B-rated apocalyptic movie escape scene?
Dorit and I (and Harvey the dog) hit the road around 9:30 AM with all the feels — excited by the prospect of clean air, anxious about the road conditions, and heavy-hearted. A million acres had already burned across California since the lightning storms over the weekend, and several fires were less than 15% contained. We wondered what the remainder of California’s fire season would bring and didn’t know when we would return home. We felt lucky to have had this plan to leave town before the fires hit. And we were aware of our privilege to leave, and how many Californians do not have that option.
The drive was sobering. Everything was caught in the haze. After several hours on the road, we still had not found blue sky. Several times we watched fire trucks or army convoys roll down the I-80. Near Vacaville, we could see the char track where the fire had jumped the highway on Thursday resulting in one of many evacuation orders across the state that had already impacted 100,000 residents. The sheer enormity of the fires became real the further we drove. Having spent much of my life working on climate change, I couldn’t help but think this was the future I had spent so much energy to trying to avert.
When we crossed the border into Oregon, we were surprised to find the air quality wasn’t any better. If anything, it was worse. We couldn’t believe the plume extended so far. We pulled into a gas station to reassess. Crater Lake, which had appeared unaffected the night before, now had an air quality index (AQI) of 149, just 2 points away from code red. We would not be camping there.
Ash-land, ironically
With my second GC3A destination now stricken from the itinerary, we needed a new plan. We briefly considered Portland, but I was supposed to meet Lesley in Bend the next day so that didn’t make much sense. We also considered heading directly to Bend but having seen the smoke move so far north overnight, we had little faith Bend would stay clear (spoiler: it didn’t).
Luckily, my friend Maria happen to be headed to Ashland, Oregon that day so it was on our radar. Because Ashland is just north of the border, I had low expectations. But when we checked the air map, it seemed to be just East of the plume. We adjusted course and headed East.
Ashland is a sweet little town with a strong hippie vibe home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Dorit, who grew up in Portland and had visited many times, was excited to visit. I had never heard of it, was still salty about missing Crater Lake, and just wanted a place to sleep. The smoke extended all through the mountains, but like magic, the cloud broke as we dipped into Ashland. It felt like a haven — cute streets lined with boutiques and coffee shops I would have loved to explore in non-pandemic times. We pulled up by a park and dropped a blanket on the grassy lawn near a picturesque pond. We sat breathing the fresh air and feeling the breeze.
Everything was so exceedingly pleasant, we temporarily forgot we had no where to sleep that night. Around 6:30pm, Dorit started researching Ashland campgrounds while I tried to figure out how to cancel my AirBNB in Bend for the next three nights and get somewhere out of the plume. Dorit found one campground just outside of town that accepted check-ins until 6pm. We decided to test our luck.
We rode right past the “CAMPGROUND FULL” sign and tried to seem extra pathetic when we explained to the campground attendant that we were fleeing the smoke. He took pity on us and gave us a tent site that had been closed to reservations. We didn’t know why and we didn’t care. The site had a less than ideal view of a row of RVs, but a creek flowed right behind us making peaceful trickling sounds and at night there were crickets. It was home for the night!
On Sunday, we met Maria, picked up iced coffees, and explored Lithia Park, known as Ashland’s Golden Gate Park. The park is 93 acres and is surprisingly impressive. After a lovely picnic, we packed up the car and headed out to the highway where I would meet Lesley in yet another Suburu Outback for the second leg of my trip!
This story is Part II in My Grand COVID Cross Country Adventure, for Part I click here. For Part III, click here.
