Trip 04, Day 03 (Day 30):
MONDAY, AUGUST 20, 2007: CATTLE COUNTRY
No rain disturbed our sleep, but running the heater in the tent was a good move. We got up a little earlier, had breakfast, and headed west from Burns.
Starting point: 43.56245 N, 119.88247 W – elevation 4548 feet
Ending point: 43.53864 N, 119.69904 W – elevation 4368 feet
We drove Joe’s truck today and parked at the beginning, halfway between mileposts 84 and 85. Joe ran 4 miles, and I drove up and met him there and drove back to the start. I started walking about 9:45 a.m.
About a quarter mile into the walk, the road descended from a small butte into an area that had had a fire sometime in the last year or two. It looked quite desolate with blackened skeletons of scrub brush surrounded by blackened volcanic gravel with no sign of new growth apparent over a wide area. The air was filled with the acrid odor of decaying, burned wood. This stretched for a mile or two before giving way to untouched valleys blanketed with blue-gray sagebrush as far as I could see.
The green swath of scrub extended into the distance ahead of me in a narrowing line next to the slate-colored highway. As I walked along, I would pick some tips off the foliage and crush it in my fingers to get a whiff of the essence. The sage produced a fairly intense aroma of camphor.
At 4 miles, I got into the waiting truck and drove to the day’s end, where Joe was just finishing. We drove back, and I continued walking the final 6.5 miles. It was the kind of walking that I will never remember distinctly, because the scenery really did not change much other than an encounter with some cattle who took more interest in me than I in them. And yet it was enjoyable, being “out there” in the vastness, watching my progress on the GPS, feeling that it is infinitely huge and unconquerable even as I conquer it.
Walk rating: 4.8 (due to unpleasant burned area)
Money found: Day: $.23 Trip: $0.23 Project: $12.69
Distance: Day: 10.5 miles Trip: 30.0 miles Project: 281.4 miles
Significance: None.
