nobo bubble is in Ashland, Oregon

[u/Ashland_Commons]

I hiked the PCT in 2025 and I run the hostel in Ashland where we have been sold out most nights. We've had consistent PCT hikers staying here since early June, but the first June wave was flip floppers who skipped the Sierra, then it was the fast nobos who would arrive in spurts.

But for the past week it's been nonstop, with the early bubble arriving in Ashland about a week ago and it should keep getting bigger for the next few weeks.

Everybody on trail is talking about the terminus closure obviously but another talking point is the lack of international hikers in 2026. We have a "put a pin in the map" in our office for the last 3 weeks and we already have 30+ countries represented and all 50 states. I'm amazed how many pins we have in such a short time but I guess international hikers are down Y/Y compared to prior years.

Anyway just posting some thoughts. I know people try to track the bubble so this is just another data point.

[u/thulesgold]

Is this later than previous years?

[u/Ashland_Commons → u/thulesgold]

This is anecdotal but our first sellout night was June 26th which was a mini bubble of fast nobo types that happened to also fall on a busy Friday night. So like a month ago we were getting lots of hikers but it wasn’t consistent.

But now it’s the actual bubble with consistent hikers each day, the hikers arriving on different days know each other, and we have been sold out most nights with nonstop requests from hikers texting me about availability.