We drove southeast out of Arco under a spectacular pink sunrise behind the black silhouette of mountains. As we drove out onto the plain, the mountains receded and the sun broke the flat horizon to the northeast. After Joe’s initial run, I began walking southeast on Highway 20-26 with Big Southern Butte slightly behind my right side and the smaller Twin Buttes almost straight ahead. At 2 miles, I reached the junction where Highway 26 split off and pointed more southeast toward Blackfoot and Pocatello. I stayed left onto Highway 20 east toward Idaho Falls. This also marked our departure from following the Oregon Trail, as the Goodale’s Cutoff branch of the trail came up from the Snake River from the Blackfoot area toward what is now Arco.
Off to my left out in the desert I could see the distant buildings of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) complex, and I passed a couple of entrance roads leading to security gates. I wondered what I looked like, walking for hours alongside this nuclear facility carrying a camera with a telephoto lens. Thus, I was not completely surprised when two INL security vehicles passed me. The second one stopped, and the driver, dressed in military camouflage and wearing trooper sunglasses, walked back toward me, talking on a walkie-talkie as he did (to the first security vehicle, I presume). He asked me about what I was doing here, and if I had taken any pictures of the facilities. At this point, I did my best to apply one of the basic tenets of my personal philosophy, which is: If you are innocent, don’t act like you’re guilty. I told him exactly what I was doing and that I had taken a couple of pictures, including a shot of the white buildings I pointed to in the distance, as well as explaining to him our walking project. I learned from Joe later that the other vehicle was also questioning him at about the same time. I showed the man my picture, and he didn’t seem too worried about it, but said there were certain facilities they would rather I did not photograph, although he of course did not tell me which ones. As Joe analyzed the situation later, they probably took one look at me and figured that if I were a terrorist, they did not have anything to worry about. So he let me proceed without any real harassment.
The view did not change much here, other than the perspective on Twin Buttes, until I finished the walk directly north of East Butte, and also the presence of a dust storm just north of the highway that never quite blew in my direction.
I finished the walk for this trip at Milepost 274 on Highway 20. Having gotten confused earlier by changes in milepost numberings when Highway 93 joined, and again later when it separated, and now having them change again when Highway 26 split off, we suddenly realized that we were back on the original Highway 20 numbering; our specific goal for the trip had been 125 miles, and having started at Milepost 149, we now ended at Milepost 274, right on our goal.
Walk rating: 3.5
Money found: Day: $.00 Trip: $.87 Project: $16.87
Distance: Day: 12.3 miles Trip: 125.5 miles Project: 722.7 miles
Starting point: 43 30.568N 112 55.690W (elevation 4981 feet)
Ending Point: 43 32.062N 112 41.495W (elevation 5297 feet)
Significance: Departed from Oregon Trail Route. Interrogated briefly as a potential terrorist suspect. Left Butte County and entered Bingham County. Completed Trip 7.
Back in Arco, we let the office know we would not be staying the night and thanked them for the good service. I took a quick shower, and we drove into town and filled the tank and picked me up a sandwich for lunch. We left just after 2 p.m., drove for 8 hours, and got to Burns, Oregon, after dark. We dry-camped again at the Old Mill Casino parking lot.
How far east have we walked? The meridian line north would pass close to Calgary, Red Deer, and Edmonton, Alberta, and Fort Smith, Northwest Territories. Going south, the line passes the west side of Phoenix, Arizona and misses most of Mexico, crossing the southern part of Baja California and then Pacific Ocean all the way to Antarctica.
Our tentative plan for 2011 is to fly, not drive, to Idaho Falls, rent a car, and stay in motels. Our end point for this trip was 35 miles west of Idaho Falls, so we would probably spend most or all of our first week staying in town as we walk through this area. We are looking at late April/early May as one timeframe, which could be pretty cool weather-wise, low 60s for highs, but should be a good time for greenery and snowcapped peaks. By the end of the two weeks, we should have crossed into Wyoming, ending up at or near Jackson, Wyoming. We will still see a lot of desert, but the last week of this walk will be mostly in the Rockies.
