Trip 04, Day 11 (Day 38):
TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2007: MALHEUR RIVER
This going to bed early had thrown off my internal clock. After spending several hours wide awake with the light of the full moon seeming like a spotlight on the tent (but missing the full lunar eclipse early in the morning), I slept well until my watch alarm went off at 5:45. Hot weather was predicted, so we tried to get an early start. However, driving the 30 miles to the start point took time, and after Joe’s initial run, I started walking at 8 a.m., a bit later than yesterday.
Starting point: 43.71383 N, 118.51164 W – elevation 4376 feet
Ending point: 43.78749 N, 118.32253 W – elevation 3571 feet
My walk began at the vista point described yesterday, and the view was even better backlit by the low-angle rays of the morning sun, bringing out the contours of the mesas and a dry streambed cut in a meandering pattern across the valley below. The downhill lasted for 3 miles, continuing the descent from yesterday’s high point at 4851 feet to the low point of the trip of less then 3500 feet before the road again began to climb the next set of mountain ridges. An alfalfa field had been carved out of the desert, watched over by a solid-looking farmhouse perched on a hill above the round, yellow, recently-cut bales that dotted the green sward. If you like solitude, consider becoming a farmer here.
Up another steep rise, the car was parked at 5 miles where I had spotted it 4.5 miles back as a twinkling star of reflected sunlight across the valley, easy to pick out since the rest of the view consisted of grass, sagebrush, and mountains. I drove ahead to the end and picked up Joe; then we drove back, and I continued my walk up into the mountains.
The view was once again desert, but now on mountainsides rather than rangelands. I passed another area that had been burned by wildfire, the black ash reaching up the entire north side of Bartlett Mountain. Once over this ridge, the road descended again past Drewsey Junction to another green valley of farmland. When I reached the car, I told Joe I wanted to walk one more mile (after having walked 11 miles already) to save 20 minutes in the morning on our last day. During this mile I crossed a bridge over the Malheur River which moved with imperceptible flow past a herd of cattle resting along its banks. After I did that, Joe then ran the same so that we ended up at Milepost 175. Our goal for the trip was Milepost 182, so that left us 7 miles for the last day.
Walk rating: 8.2
Money found: Day: $.05 Trip: $1.42 Project: $13.88
Distance: Day: 12.2 miles Trip: 111.4 miles Project: 362.8 miles
Significance: Passed the 100-mile mark for this trip. Hit lowest elevation of this trip at just above 3600 feet.
