Western USA 2003
Blue Mountains to near the town of Half.com
35 Degrees with the sun up I think in the 20s last night but stayed warm with the white sleeping bag which is amazing. It is hand-made by a lady in Pennsylvania to be ultra-light using fancy materials it is so thin and light hard to imagine it stays that warm. 4 raw eggs, nuts and water for breakfast. Climbed down out of the mountains through the town of Granite and followed a beautiful narrow valley farm road. Stopped at a roadside campground and washed face and brushed teeth in mountain stream, probably not entirely clean water but feels great and crystal clear.
--Phillips Lake, OR
Pass a restored authentic working steam locomotive at Sumter Valley Railroad Restoration then Phillips Lake which is drawn so low it looks humorous at the boat ramp (have a great picture but lost). Into historic Baker City and stop at Geiser Grand Hotel which in the late 19th C was the best hotel between Salt Lake City and Portland and the cultural center of this part of the world at one time the largest city in Oregon. After a seven million restoration of the hotel in 1994 it feels like a western movie inside but also realize luxury then is sadly lacking compared to today. Sat at the bar and had a steak and salad while watching sports on TV. A big Oregon bicycle race event today in town lots of men and women in speedos racing around.
--Geiser Grand Hotel, Baker City, OR
Eastward to the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. Big museum, the best Oregon Trail center in the country it is very modern and well done. Bought lots of gifts here for the family. Continued eastward and took a dirt road to a ghost town of Sparta where a few buildings have been restored using the old granite structures very beautiful and well done. Tried to summit Sparta Butte nearby but the forest roads where too difficult. On the way out passed an antique vehicle driven by a couple from town and had a great talk with them I would love to meet them again someday they restored one of the nicer houses in Sparta.
Then into the town of Halfway to buy groceries at a small country store that was flooded with teenage girls on a bus tour, all of them buying tons of candy. The town recently changed its name to Half.Com, it is basically a last stop before heading into the Hells Canyon area and has a frontier spirit to it on the edge of wilderness like an expedition base camp. This is the only town to change its name to "dot com" and honestly.. why?
XM Radio is playing a BBC adaption of American Werewolf In London and it went on for hours and I was getting more and more drawn into it and feeling spooky. Meanwhile I head into the Whitman National Forest looking for a campsite which is fairly rugged and remote along forest roads and the play has me spooked and just after sunset I round a corner and see a black bear! It is munching on a berry bush and for a brief instant we both freeze then I start to back up and the bear takes off at a pace that far exceeds what one might expect for a creature of that size straight up a steep slope into the bushes and gone. It is too late to keep driving in the dark so I make camp nearby and eat a cold dinner for fear of stirring up the air with temptations for the bear.
Posted by stbalbach at September 13, 2003 12:57 AM