Trip 05, Day 01 (Day 40):
SATURDAY, MAY 17, 2008: HOT! HOT! HOT!
One of our worries with the last walk in August 2007 had been that we might run into too much heat in the Oregon desert at that time of year. While we had some warm weather, overall it was very pleasant and not a problem. However, this time I had a suspicion on Friday afternoon that things might be different when my Amtrak ride stopped in Vancouver, Washington, and the conductor was fanning himself and perspiring heavily after spending about 3 minutes on the platform. He said it was 97 degrees. I arrived in Albany a little before 9 p.m. and spent the night at Joe and Lisa’s house there – no covers required all night with all windows open. But then again, the night was not very long since we got up at 4 a.m. and hit the road just after 4:30. We made our now-traditional breakfast stop at McDonald's in Sisters at 7 a.m., having passed a significant amount of residual snow crossing Santiam Pass, then drove on east for another 3 ½ hours, stopping in Burns to fill the gas tank in Joe’s truck. Just after 11 a.m., we crossed into Mountain Time and moved our watches ahead one hour to afternoon. Minutes later, we were at our starting point in Kingsbury Gulch.
Joe walked 3 miles alone first, wishing he had carried water and arriving parched an hour later. I then walked downhill the first 3 miles through Kingsbury Gulch, which then became Cripple Gulch, where rim-rock-topped walls echoed birdsong in the long silences between passing vehicles. The sun was high and intense, and the temperature was somewhere around 85. A nice breeze down the gulch kept things from getting too dangerous, Then the road leveled off, the wind dropped, and the heat intensified. With the aid of a generous application of sunscreen and some sports drink and water, I was okay, although very aware that this had to be one of the warmest days, if not the warmest, we had ever done on our pedestrian pursuits. Joe then walked the last 2 miles, and I did the same when he was finished. About a mile from the end, I passed a few horses. When I came to the closest point, I noticed one horse lying on the ground, not moving. It was oddly still, and I saw no movement at all the entire time it was in my view, and I believed it must have been dead as I saw no sign of breathing or tail switching. The other horses had a look about them that was a little strange, and I anthropomorphized a sense of mourning into the scene.
The first day’s walk ended at milepost 187 on Highway 30.
Walk rating: 6.9
Money found: Day: $.00 Trip: $.00 Project: $14.02
Distance: Day: 5.1 miles Trip: 5.1 miles Project: 374.9 miles
Walking time: 1:38 Trip: 1:38 Project: 132:18
Starting point: 43.76713N, 118.20105W
Ending point: 43.76793N 118.11778W
Lowest elevation: 3005 feet. Highest elevation: 3634 feet (highest point of this trip).
Significance: First day of Trip 05. Possibly the hottest day we have faced.
It was a little more than 2 miles on down to Juntura (pronounced almost like "juncture,", jun-TU-ra, not with the h-sound), where we got a campsite for $11 a night. It did have electricity, which allowed us to hook up the computers, refrigerator, microwave, and any battery chargers. Juntura is a small oasis along a hot, dry road, far from any other town. It consists of the Oasis Café/motel/RV park and a few other scattered buildings nestled in the shade of some tall cottonwoods. We set up the tent and then followed shade as it moved. The temperature was well into the 90s by late afternoon.
We ate dinner at the Oasis Café, a genuine throwback to the 40s that could only exist today in a place like this. Even the customers all seemed like characters in a sitcom and seemed to know each other as regulars. I had the special: barbecue chicken breast. It looked like barbecued chicken, but the taste did not remotely resemble chicken or barbecue sauce. However, the salad was excellent. We had neglected to bring the Cribbage game, so we played Scrabble (on my iPod). Joe had never played the game, so this was just for practice. The mosquitoes drove us into the tent shortly after the sun went down.
