TRIP 06 DAY 08, Monday, May 25, 2009 – Memorial Day: Castle Rock Road
We slept in more now that the baseball schedule had completed and Joe had no game to come home to (via internet). Even so, we left the house shortly after 8 a.m. heavily fortified by Joanna’s baked oatmeal with blueberries and peaches and nuts.
We drove to the start point on Highway 20 (about 30 miles from Mountain Home), and Joe began walking. I parked ahead, snapping photos of the view while waiting: snowcapped mountains above a mirror lake (Camas Reservoir) surrounded by green grass and sagebrush.
When it was my turn to walk, I walked for over 5 miles on the highway, admiring the scenery again, but watchful of the increasing Memorial Day traffic whizzing by. It’s a curvy two-lane highway with a speed limit of 65 mph. After the car-shuttle at 3.8 miles, I was glad to reach the turnoff for Castle Rock Road on the left. This was another scenic shortcut that Dick had told us about. The distance savings was less significant than the fact that it took us out of the highway traffic and also provided some very unique and interesting scenery.
The dirt road first passed through a large pond with lots of swamp grass inhabited by many red-winged blackbirds. Then it climbed northward, winding up a slope dotted with oddly shaped granite outcroppings that increased in number and size as I got higher. Several large formations clustered in one area were the site of a family picnic, and another smaller gathering appeared a little further on. It was a very pretty and peaceful setting with Castle Rock Creek providing some shade and greenery. Note that at several places along here, I noticed the white stakes marking the original route of the Oregon Trail. These were labeled “Jeffrey-Goodale Cutoff.” Googling this, I learned that this cutoff was the more northern of two main routes, the southern route roughly following the Snake River. The Goodale Cutoff followed roughly the same route we had opted for this year and the next two years along Highway 20. More about this at: http://www.legendsofamerica.com/id-goodalescutoff.html
We shuttled the car from this point, and Joe than walked his last segment while I walked my second segment. More rock formations were seen on both sides of the road, but soon were replaced by high meadows – some mostly sagebrush, others green swales between low hills – as the road climbed higher and higher. I reached a high elevation of 5567 feet, over a mile high. The sun played tag with clouds all day, but the breeze and elevation kept it from getting uncomfortably hot. In fact, the sky provided its own entertainment all day, with puffy cumulus clouds exploding in slow motion and anvil clouds looking like they were about to cut loose with a downpour. With about a mile to go, it finally began raining on me fast and hard. In my backpack, I had a big, cover-all plastic “tent” that I had gotten at some point in Hawaii at the Polynesian Cultural Center and had stowed for just such an emergency during a walk. It fit the bill and kept me and my pack dry until I reached the car where the dirt of Castle Rock Road reaches the pavement of High Plains to Featherville Road.
Walk rating: 9.0
Money found: Day: $.15 (including a Canadian nickel counted at par) Trip: $1.55 Project: $15.98
Distance: Day: 10.6 miles Trip: 80.6 miles Project: 575.6 miles
Starting point: 43 18.836N 115 25.990W (elevation 5008 feet)
Ending point: 43 20.052N 115 15.336W (elevation 5504 feet)
Significance: First time over a mile high on the Oceanstew Project so far, on Castle Rock Road: 5567 feet, highest elevation so far on the project.
We drove 40 miles back to Mountain Home, stopping for cheap eats at Jack in the Box by the freeway.
We had another fine dinner with lots of fine conversation and more apple cake. If guests are like fish, we are surely starting to smell after 5 days….and yet…..the apple cake is so irresistible….
