Meandering on the Way — Sept 12 to 18, 2024

Thursday, September 12th

In the morning M loaded camping stuff into the truck, transforming it from a sensible vehicle into a low-rent off-road adventurer. That done, he said goodbye to E and drove off toward Nevada. At 11:00 E went for a garden tour at her friend B’s house, which was a very nice thing to do. After the tour, they sat on the covered patio and had tea and goodies. Right up E’s alley.

For dinner, in accordance with her vow not to cook anything while M was away, she got take-out from Tacovore. The meal consisted of a tempeh chorizo taco and one of their world-renowned margaritas, the latter of which she knew would last her for several days if she behaved herself. Then she got to work on the jigsaw puzzle that we had started a few days before when Cuz was here.

Friday, September 13th

After a night at the wrong motel in Lakeview–he’d gotten the Executive Inn¹ confused with the Interstate 8²–M left early the next morning and drove down into California to make his return to Surprise Valley. One of the little towns there is called Lake City. When M had been there last April, the 71 residents of Lake City could look out at a big, beautiful blue lake. In September the view was a little different.

(¹Few executives ever visit Lakeview and they’re unlikely to stay here when they do. ²The nearest interstate is 110 miles away.)

M’s next stop in Surprise Valley was Cedarville, a bustling urban center with more than 700 residents and the valley’s only gas station. M gassed up and headed east into Nevada.

M soon turned southeast at the junction and headed down in the direction of High Rock Canyon, his chief destination for this trip. Ten minutes later, a pickup truck came up from the other direction. It looked like some kind of modern camping rig–piloted by another lone desert traveller. It was the last car or person that M would see for the next 24 hours. In the two photos below you can get a notion of the scenery.

Fiinally, M reached the serious part of the expedition, the drive down High Rock Canyon. Hmm. As it turned out, this drive was not one of M’s greatest ideas. He had suspected that it would be a rough road, but OnX had rated it as just moderate, which sounded okay. More ominous was the Bureau of Land Management warning sign on the way in:

Somehow this message did not quite get through to M. This was mostly his own fault of course, but he complains that the warning is a little short on details. It doesn’t mention, for example, that there with be portions of the route that are so narrow that branches will scratch the paint on both sides of the car at the same time. Nor does it mention the place where the road ends at a small drop-off and then blithely continues three or four feet lower down. Driving over a cliff–even a short cliff–and just hoping for the best? How is that even a road? Still, the sign did use the word “extremely” and that should have been a clue.

It was a laborious and harrowing passage. Both M and his truck survived, but the latter suffered a nasty gash on the bottom of the passenger side door. That happened while M was descending a steep, narrow, boulder-strewn slope that bore only the faintest of connections to the word “road.” While traveling at the rate of roughly one and a half miles per hour, the truck suddenly slipped sideways a few inches. M heard a short scrape and felt a solid thunk. Oh well. Fate.

Once out of the canyon, M started looking for a place to make camp. This was a different kind of challenge. He was prepared for the lack of campgrounds. But there was the matter making sure to camp on BLM land rather than ranch land. And of course M was very particular about a place. It had to be off the ‘main road’ on which he was travelling and it had to be in the hills rather than out on the flats.

Back in Corvallis, E already knew where she was camping for the night, but she needed to figure out what to eat. She settled on more take-out: jobchae from Koriander.

M already knew what he was going to eat; he just had to find a suitable spot. Eventually he found an abandoned but still passable road leading up into a fold in the hills. Then he found a nice flat space to park. Once there, he had time to explore and walked a little farther up the draw. The road soon petered out as a road but continued as a trail.

It was a lovely night to be out. First, a fat moon lit up the landscape. Then, after the moon had set, the stars were awesome. M was camped inside an area that is said to be the darkest place in the continental U.S., with little or no night lighting for at least 70 miles in any direction.

Saturday, September 14th

Today, M made his way–not without difficulty–from deep in North Central Nevada to Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge way up there in Oregon. It was a lot of driving with only a few stops: one as he entered a Paiute reservation and stopped to take a photo of a sign, one to ask directions from a rancher after his OnX app had gone wonky, and one to buy seven gallons of very expensive gas at Denio junction. He spent the night at a place called Camp Hart. The original Camp Hart was created in 1936, the same year that the refuge was established. The first buildings were four temporary barracks to house the many CCC workers who would build the roads and other refuge infrastructure. The barracks are long gone and most of those young workers are probably gone too. But much of what they built still remains in various parts of the refuge. Camp Hart itself is today just a bare bones campground in a lovely spot at the base of Hart Mountain.

E also travelled north today, but only up to Salem for a party at K and J’s house. It was a great party–as usual at K and J’s–with marvelous Octoberfest costumes and decorations. E was excited to join a small team of party-goers in a grape harvesting activity. The hosts provided baskets, scissors, and a lush vine full of grapes. Rumor has it that they will soon attempt to make dolmas using the leftover grape leaves.

Sunday, September 15th

From Camp Hart, M returned to Corvallis via Plush, Lakeview, Sprague River, Chiloquin, and Oakridge.

E hosted a potluck gathering on the patio. It was the second annual in-person gathering of her Zoom yoga class. The food was delicious, the camaraderie delightful, and both were enhanced by the perfect sunny weather.

Monday, September 16th

M spent the day putting things away and cleaning up the truck. The good news is that a good rub with scratch remover took care of most of the scratches in the clear coat finish. Fie on the bad news.

Tuesday, September 17th

In the morning we did grocery shopping and then M did a little gardening while E continued her preparations for hosting her book club meeting. Among other things, this involved baking two different berry cobblers, one with gluten and one without. This month’s book was The Measure by Nikki Erlich. The members had fun talking about whether or not they would want to know exactly how long they were going to live.

Wednesday, September 18th

Packing and last minute chores before leaving tomorrow for Grand Teton National Park. On the way we’ll stop in Utah.