TRIP 06 DAY 07, Sunday, May 24, 2009 (Day 59): Tollgate Hill and Bennett Creek
Joe wanted to get back in time to listen to a 1:00 p.m. Oregon State baseball game, so we were out the door by 7 a.m., and I started walking before 7:30 a.m. The 5000-foot elevation and a moderate headwind under threatening clouds forced me into my windbreaker as I walked from the junction of Immigrant Road and Highway 20 uphill to the northeast. In a few hundred yards I came to a historical marker for Tollgate. Here is what Gus Gustafson says about this: ”The road you are following (Immigrant Road) is the cut off to Tollgate. An enterprising family built a road up the hill and charged a toll for freight and travelers heading to the mining areas near Featherville.” On the map, Immigrant Road was also named Tollgate Road.
Memorial Day weekend traffic was fairly heavy, but not bad. I continued climbing until I crossed over a false summit and leveled off for a bit across Little Sage Hen Flat. To the right, Bennett Mountain rose to a forested crown with a few spots of snow still showing at the summit. Below the road ran Bennett Creek, another line of green, lush vegetation of startling beauty. As I continued higher and came over Dixie summit (5230 feet, the highest point so far since the Pacific Ocean), views to the left opened across a wide valley and up to the snow peaks of Idaho’s famous Sawtooth Range.
Joe picked me up just past the Dixie turnoff, then finished his last segment while I sat reading at the end point. I was finished by 11:10, and Joe finished an hour later. We made it back to Mountain Home in plenty of time for him to listen to the game.
Walk rating: 8.7
Money found: Day: $.45 Trip: $1.40 Project: $15.83
Distance: Day: 10.3 miles Trip: 70.0 miles Project: 565.0 miles
Starting point: 43 14.836N 115 35.145W (elevation 4604 feet)
Ending point: 43 18.836N 115 25.990W (elevation 5008 feet)
Significance: Highest point on the Oceanstew Project so far at Dixie Pass: 5230 feet.
Joanna and Dick had driven to church in Boise and made a day of it, not arriving home until about 6 p.m. But, of course, before they had left home, Dick had put together a pot roast with potatoes and carrots and left it cooking all day in a big crock pot. He had kindly left onions out of the mix for my benefit, which certainly came close to ruining the taste from their standpoint. But I thought it was fantastic. Joanna found some apple cake in the freezer, so all the men drove to Albertson’s and got some ice cream to go on it. Back home, we ate it and played “Joker,” a board game with holes and marbles that is very similar to “Sorry” or “Parcheesi” but is played with decks of playing cards instead of dice. Playing the partners version added considerably more strategy to the play, and the Dick/Joe team won easily the first game, but the Jo/Frank team came back to tie the series.
