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I had to go to Oregon to pick up an Ebay item. Mon, Feb 20, 2006 I'm in the town of John Day, Oregon, I picked up the eBay item the other day after spending a couple days driving up the California coast, I went hiking and camped the night before at Golden and Silver falls just east of Coos Bay where the ebay item was. The hikes to and the falls are beautifull, a must see for any one in the area, I then spent a couple hours winding my way out of the Elliot, Oregon state forest, on forest roads to the north, not the suggested route but definitely interesting. I was told it was well marked by a very helpfull Fed Ex employee the actually stopped his truck to see if I needed help, there is something that wouldn't happen in California. I was parked at an intersection reading the state map that doesn't even have some of the paved roads, so much for free maps, trying to guess where this paveds road might go, and trying to find Campbell mt. since the road was labeled 25 miles to campbell mt. road and if it goes 25 miles it has to go someplace close to where I wanted to go. Well labelled it wasn't but I guess adequate since I'm here to write this. I did go wrong at the end of the paved road, I misread a sign and ended up on a 10 mile dead end, a sign said road ends 1/2 mile, then there was a sign saying county maintenance stopped but the road went on, I went on still wonderring if I was going right, there were countinous mile markers so pree on, then I came ot the locked gate across the road, I could go no further. On the way back out I met a couple hunters, a father and son, I talked with them for about a half hour, they assured me the other branch of the road goes through but it would not be easy to follow. Basically it turned into forest service road 2000, every 1/4 mile or so I had a choice often they were labelled so I thought I knew what I was doing, but often they weren't, then it was an educated guess, which one is bigger, which one goes more the direction I want to, which one goes up or down, etc. It was helfull that ther were milage signs about every half mile with a red mark on the tree under it, that was an indication the maybe I was still going right, but I never really knew until I came out the other side. Then I just had to figure where it was that I came out. I then headed east, I had gotten a email the day before that said I needed to be home somewhat quickly so I was starting that way. I spent last night camping just south of a National Mounument, John Day Fossil Beds, Planning on finding out what that was about the next morning. I camped on a forest road, basically the terrain here is high dessert, mostly covered with thin grass, lots of sage brush, and cedar or juniper. Ahh, the smells of home. For the first time I had a camp fire, the frezzer bisquits in the ice chest, that the ice finally all melted yesterday had soaked through the cardboard tube and burst so they needed to be cooked soon. I had the last two Polish sausages and pan fried and stick wrapped frezzer bisquits. A good meal, I relaxed looking at the stars, perfectly clear and chilly. I came through some high passes to get here, the signs said, chains or traction tires needed, I had neither running, rather bald tires, but I did have 4 wheel drive and three spares, LOL. There were areas of 4 foot deep snow but the roads were just wet, daytime temps just above frezzing with nightime lows in the 20's. I haven't seen snow or anything even close to that since early in this trip, Christmas day in Connecticut. |
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