Trip 04, Day 12 (Day 39):
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2007: MOUNTAIN TIME!
It was get-away day, our last day of this trip. My alarm went off at 5:15, and Joe was already up, which was fortunate in that as I was putting on my jeans in the tent, I must have inadvertently set off his truck alarm (I had a set of his keys in my pocket). The horn began honking in that obnoxious way car alarms do, waking up the entire RV park and half of Burns. He got it turned off after four honks. I grabbed my backpack and water bottle, and we were on the road at 5:28 a.m. It was 42 miles to the start point. During the long, straight 20-mile stretch at the beginning, we watched Venus fade as the orange horizon grew and gradually overtook the night sky. I looked for the farm dogs, but could not see them and assumed they do not gloat in the dark.
Starting point: 43.78749 N, 118.32253 W – elevation 3571 feet
(Trip starting point: 43.65909 N, 120.21481 W)
Trip ending point: 43.76713 N, 118.20105 W – elevation 3643 feet
I walked first this time, starting up the climb at 6:15 as the first rays of the sun touched the tops of the Stinking Water Mountains behind me. Over the next 2.4 miles, the highway followed a 6% ascent up the side of the ridge that provided photographer’s views back across the valley. I made many picture stops as the curtain of shadow receded from the vista to my right. The nearly-full moon hung above the skyline, lending it an even more surreal element. At Drinkwater Pass, Joe was waiting. We drove back to the start, and Joe began there as I drove back to the pass and left the truck parked. Now I walked downhill into the sun, getting backlit views of the hills ahead. The slopes were increasingly green with forest, a welcome change after 100 miles of unrelenting desert.
At 5 miles, I left Harney County and entered Malheur County. At this point, I also left the Pacific Time Zone and entered Mountain Time Zone. The final 2 miles followed a dry (but green) creek bed down Kingsbury Gulch.
The walk ended at Milepost 182 on Highway 20. It was 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Joe was waiting with the truck, and we drove back so he could finish running down the hill to the finish point.
We were now 182 miles east of Bend, Oregon, 7 miles west of Juntura, a small town with no gas stations, but with an RV campground. Hopefully, by next trip, we will have figured out how to pronounce Juntura.
Walk rating: 9.4
Money found: Day: $.14 Trip: $1.56 Project: $14.02
Distance: Day: 7.0 miles Trip: 118.4 miles Project: 369.8 miles
Walking time: Trip: 38 hours 21 minutes (1 day, 14 hours, 21 minutes) Project: 130:40 (5 days, 10 hours, 40 minutes walking time)
Significance: Left Pacific Time Zone and entered Mountain Time Zone. Left Harney County and entered Malheur County. Last day of Trip 04.
We drove 50 miles back to Burns, cleaned up, broke camp, and headed our separate ways.
