Day 27: Hiking the Pueblo Mountains

June 7th

Donny and I were not in a hurry to leave Fields Station early this morning. We get breakfast, huge omelettes, and chat with the other travelers who stop in.

We hit the trail by noon, with 28 miles to Denio. 15 of these miles will be challenging xc hiking and bushwhacking though, so it won’t be a quick hike. For now, we walk a few miles of pavement.

Along the highway, a car stops and asks us if we need a beer. Well, sure! With no traffic in this area, he puts it in park in the middle of the paved highway, gets out and hands us each a beer. We chat for a few minutes, and learn he’s also doing some section hiking/biking on the ODT.

We enjoy our road beers along the hike to a dirt road, which will lead us up into the Pueblo Mountains. Now, it’s several miles of dirt road hiking along Sesena Creek.

We pass Roux Ranch, and get water from a little creek flowing from a spring. The mountains are becoming more scenic now. We follow a dirt road to a smaller 4×4 that takes us into the lower reaches of the Pueblos.

When the 4×4 road ends, the bushwhack begins. It’s thick here. We need to climb up about 1500ft now to gain the crest of the Pueblo Mountains.

The lower part of the climb was the worst. Once we climb out of the drainage, the vegetation thins, and the climb becomes easier. Not less steep, but at least, less thick.

There are several small saddles and ridges to climb over on the way up. I see a couple of arrowheads in the area. The views are getting better, overlooking the Alvord Desert and Alvord Lake in the distance, as well as the snow capped south Steens mountains.

We reach the crest of the Pueblo Mountains sometime around 7pm. There’s no trail, but there are occasional faint game trails along certain ridges. Good views.

The hiking is not too hard here, along the first section of the ridge. Then we reach a section of thick bushwhacking among boulders on a hillside. We push past the thick stuff and emerge back into open terrain. We join a game trail and we’re back to good hiking along the ridgeline again.

It’s getting late now and we’re looking for a campsite. We hike the east side of peak 7878 towards Cold Spring, and find a good-looking spot up high on a ridge. Excellent views, and out of the wind. I get 3 of my tent stakes in, but a large rock under the soil prevents me from getting my final stake in. In fact, while trying to pound the stake in, the head snaps off. Oh crap, I’m screwed! I don’t have an extra. But thankfully, Donny does. Whew. But I still can’t pound it in due to the same rock. So, I use rocks to weigh down the stake, which is only 1 inch into the soil. This works, but I can’t get the pitch of the tent too tight.

Great view from camp. Probably the best campsite view of my ODT thru hike so far. I go to bed feeling good tonight.

ODT Day 27 Map

Day 28: Pueblo Mountains Bushwhack, Resupply in Denio

June 8th

What began as a great campsite, turned out to be a long, awful night. The winds picked up, and my tent was flapping in the wind all night. Since I couldn’t pound in one of my tent stakes, and had to set rocks on it, I couldn’t put too much tension on the guy lines. The pitch was just too loose. I heard some sprinkles through the night. Even though I put my ear plugs in to mute the sound of the tent flapping in the wind, I hardly got 2 hours of sleep.

I woke to Donny’s voice at 5:30am, telling me he was going to hit the trail early. His tent was flapping in the wind too, making it impossible to sleep. I packed up then too, and started hiking by 6am.

The scenery was beautiful in this area of the Pueblo Mountains. Probably the most striking landscapes of the entire section. But, the bushwhacking would also start here, above Willow Creek Pockets and around peak 8060.

Next, the route traverses a steep slope covered with thick sagebrush. It’s a real pain, this bushwhack. I stop at a small saddle to eat breakfast, since I skipped it this morning. I was so tired of hearing the tent flapping, I just wanted to get moving.

After my break, I cross a small creek. Here, I see the only patch of snow along this section.

The bushwhacking continues throughout much of the day. Especially on 2hrs of sleep, this zaps the motivation out of me, and really reduces my enthusiasm for this section. It’s really thick, and I can’t help but wonder why the route doesn’t just stay on top of the ridgeline. Sure it’d be more climbing, but it looks pretty walkable from the map and would surely be less bushwhacking. At least up there, it’d get big views for my effort. If I were to hike the ODT again, I would seriously consider giving the crest above me a go in this section.

The best views of this section come before Ten Cent Meadows. After this, the route drops down into Van Horn Creek. There’s an old 4×4 track here for a short while, but this fades when it’s time to climb out of this valley and over a ridge. However, I do find some cool rocks here, so this keeps me busy. Desert Rose can be found in abundance here, which is a type of Gypsum (or Baryte) where the mineral forms like the petals of a rose.

The climb out of van horn creek is tough. Mostly because of the soft sand. On the other side of the ridge, more of the same. Now, the route climbs above a rock face that runs across the upper basin of the valley. The route contours along the top of this rock face to a saddle.

On top of the saddle, separating van horn basin from Denio basin, I see an opportunity to follow the ridgeline instead of dropping down into Denio Basin, per the official ODT route. Staying up on this ridge appears to be shorter, would have a better view, and would avoid a 500ft climb out of the basin that’s coming in a few miles. What’s the catch? Don’t know, but going to find out if there is one.

The ridge is pretty scenic, and had some really cool upheaval of rock along the crest. There is no bushwhacking here, just some small ups and downs.

Over a hill on the ridge, I see Donny. He didn’t take this ridge from the saddle, instead, he climbed up here from van horn basin. He had been way off track, and just hiking xc over ridges and drainages to get to this point.

We continue walking the ridge and reach a faint 4×4 road. We pass a 4×4 with a few guns strapped to the front. It doesn’t look like there’s anyone around, though. A mile later, we hear the 4×4 start, and approach our way. They guy driving it was surprised to see hikers here. He was out scouting for deer and chukar. We chatted for a few minutes, and he moved on.

We dropped down off the ridge, then climbed up another 300 ft again. The views are pretty good now along this ridgeline. We are only about 3 miles from Denio at this point, even though town doesn’t seem close. It still feels like we are “out there” a ways.

We begin the descent down an unnamed canyon along an old 4×4 road. There are some old mining cabins at the top of the canyon. There’s some furniture inside that’s been eaten by rodents and animals, and has deteriorated into a scene from a horror movie. I’ve never seen an abandoned cabin like this one.

Past the cabins, the road fades out. Not only that, the canyon gets extremely steep. I guess it’s a bushwhack from here on out. The sagebrush grows pretty thick here.

We skirt the hillside for a while before ultimately dropping down to the Creek Bed at the of the bottom of the canyon. It’s walkable, but also extremely thick. I see three snakes in one hour, but none of them are rattlers. With only one gaiter, I’m getting a ton of grass and debris in my shoe now.

Towards the bottom of the canyon, we see a game trail that stays high and skirts around the hillside is it exits the canyon. It seems like a pretty good path at first, but it faded out as we rounded the corner. Should have stayed at the bottom. Now, we bushwhack down a fairly steep hill to get to the bottom, and meet up with a dirt road leading to the highway, which takes us to Denio. Technically the section ends here, but we need to hike a couple miles into town for resupply. These are bonus miles, now.

It’s 3:00 pm now, and we have a mile and a quarter before reaching the post office in Denio, which closes at 3:30. I throw my thumb out at the first vehicle that passes by, and thankfully, he stops to give us a ride to the post office.

We pick up our resupply boxes from the post office just before close, and head next door to the Diamond Inn Bar to get some food. We are the only people inside without cowboy hats. We may have been the only ones without spurs, too. A bunch of good ol’ boys. The bartender asks us what we’ll have to drink. Donny orders a Coors Light, which is what I would have ordered if I wasn’t so dehydrated. I’ve only drank about 1.5L water all day. So I just asked for water, for now. You should have seen the look on everyone’s face in the bar. Mostly a bunch of laughs, and the bartender smirks and says, “water? Ain’t never heard that one before. You mean like in a glass?” I sighed. “Yeah. Just water”. Them cowboys had a good ‘ol laugh about it.

We ordered some burgers and eventually started talking to a younger kid named Dalton that was working there. He agreed to give us a ride down to Denio Junction, where the hotel is. This saves us a 3.5 mile walk.

We get a room at the hote,l and quickly make some friends inside the store/cafe that’s attached to it. The new owners had just bought the place, and had moved from Missouri a few months ago. Very nice people.

ODT Day 28 Map

Day 29: Zero Day in Denio

June 9th

Coming off a long day of bushwhacking on only 2 hours of sleep, I crashed hard last night. I can’t remember the last time I slept so good In a hotel.

I had a zero-day in Frenchglen, only because I arrived in town a day sooner than Donny had. Lakeview was Donny’s last zero day, so we took a day off here. The hotel was supposed to be booked for this evening, and we had actually planned to keep hiking since we had no other options for a room, but there was a cancellation and we were able to get a room for the night.

One great thing about staying here at the hotel, is that breakfast at the Cafe next door is included in the price of the room. So, a $10 breakfast for free (each), kind of sweetens the deal. Additionally, bottled water and Coke products in the convenience store, which is part of the cafe, are also included in the price of the room. Bottomless cokes!

Dalton picked us up mid-afternoon and took us back to the post office. We were able to mail a few things out, and then went back to the Diamond Inn bar. We ordered some pizzas and drank some beers. It was a different crowd in here today, the cowboy gang must have been out roping cattle today or something.

As we walked into the bar, another hiker walked in. His name was TJ, and he was section hiking the ODT. We had some beers with him, before he took off. We also ran into the guy on the four-wheeler we had met yesterday afternoon on our way into town.

I then asked Dalton to give us a ride back to the hotel, and he said he could in a few minutes. However, The guy we met on the four-wheeler yesterday, Greg, was sitting there at the bar next to me as I asked Dalton for the ride. He said he’d give us a ride right now, and so we took it. It’s amazing how these things work out when you’re a hiker, in a small town.

–> Continue reading Oregon Desert Trail Section 8: Denio to McDermitt (72 miles)

Back to Oregon Desert Trail Thru Hiking Guide & Journal index

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Day 24: Steens Mountains, High Water Alternate

June 4th

The weather was looking very nasty this morning. Dark clouds, high winds, and threatening to rain. Donny and I debated what to do. The rain stopped at 9, and was supposed to just be cloudy all day, until more rain comes around 7pm. Additionally, this lingering winter has held more snow in the Steens than anything else along this route. The temps have just reached the 70s last week, and the snow has been melting fast. This means high water crossings, some dangerous according to a recent report from another ODT hiker.

Heavy Teva had just left town 36 hours ago, and tells us he took a road up to the top, where there was snow, but nothing crazy. ONDA, who runs the ODT, also gave us some info on the route ahead, advising an alternate around Big Indian Creek and the water crossings there.

So, we have an alternate route lined up that will avoid the dangerous water crossings, still allow us to the high point. We’ll skip big Indian creek, unfortunately. We’ll hike the dirt road up to the top and rejoin the ODT route there before Steens Mountain summit.

The walk out of Frenchglen along our alternate is rather boring. It’s a long, flat looking plateau with sage and cows. The high country of the Steens is not visible at all from below. It’s a 5600ft climb to the top. Looking back across Blitzen Valley is really nice, though.

I make it to Fish Lake mid-afternoon. When Donny arrives, he takes a quick food break and we push on to Jackman campground, another 2 miles up the road. We pass a few small lakes, and “naughty girl meadow”. I’d love to know the story behind that name.

There’s more snow here at 7500′. Nothing really to walk through just yet, but it’s on the hillsides, especially the north facing slopes.

We reach Jackman campground around 5:30. It doesn’t make sense to go any higher tonight, as this appears to be the last spot along the route with trees until we go over the crest of the Steens and drop down the other side. We want the cover from the wind, and it’s supposed to rain all night. Plus, there are amenities here, like pit toilets, garbage cans (very surprised!), picnic tables and a water pump.

We set camp up by 6pm, very early by thru hiker standards. It’s raining by 8pm, so we are happy to have made the right call tonight.

ODT Day 24 Map

Day 25: Steens Mountain Summit, Wildhorse Canyon, Indian Canyon

June 5th

It literally rained all night. The wind was also whipping pretty hard, and blowing into my tent. Not only that, water was pooling up under my tent, and soaking through. Despite this, I was warm In my quilt, even though that had become damp. It was a fairly stressful night, between the wind and water.

The rain didn’t let up until 9:00 a.m. When I open my tent this morning, we were basically in the clouds. Much of my gear is wet, and my motivation level is low. Donny got a half hour head start on me, and I will try and play catch up this morning.

I continue walking the road uphill. It’s not long before I encounter my first patch of snow over the road. All the small creeks alongside the road are swollen with melt water.

Conditions rapidly deteriorate as I gain elevation. The stretches of snow become longer, and eventually, I begin to post hole. I see Donny’s footsteps, and they are full of water. I tried to take a different path, but it’s no use; my footsteps suffer the same fate. Here, I’m crossing a snow covered meadow, and it’s just filled with water. There is no avoiding it. My shoes are full of water now, and it’s icy cold.

In the distance ahead, I can see Donny. I assume he’s going to take a break, since it’s been a few hours now since we left, But he keeps going. I’m ready for a break though, so I try and take cover behind a rock. My tortillas are blowing away in the wind as I try and eat!

There are fast moving dark clouds everywhere on the horizon. Eventually, a few of them spit freezing rain at me. The road is near the edge of a huge cliff facing east, so I walk up to the edge. Wow! There’s a huge amount of snow just below the ridge line, and a massive. The winds are blowing 35 mph today, but up on this ridgeline, the gusts must be 60 mph. They catch me by surprise, and nearly blow me off my feet.

The road disappears under snow now. Out of frustration, I seek a route around it. This leads me to the top of a ridgeline. More amazing views, now overlooking the Alvord Desert.

Eventually I reach the Radio Tower at the top of Steens Mountain, 9,733 ft. This is the highest point along the Oregon Desert Trail. The wiew down over Wild Horse Canyon is awesome. There’s a massive amount of snow in the upper basin, and Wild Horse Lake is completely frozen over. That’s where I’m headed next.

I stop for a quick break behind some of the radio equipment and eat some food. Then I look for a route down. This is one of those scenarios where It looks imposing from the top, but once you peek over the edge and start working your way down, the route looks very manageable. A few hundred yards below the summit, I see Donny taking a break in the boulders, and catch up to him.

We skirt the snowfields and take a route down to Wildhorse lake. We stand at the shore of the frozen lake, and watch water gush from the outlet. So much water!

Several waterfalls exist downstream from the lake. The wind blows so hard that some of the waterfalls is flowing up, instead of down!

The canyon walls are deep, steep and rugged. Many spires line the top. It’s an outstanding glacial canyon that seems out of place for the rest of Oregon. And it really is, that’s what makes the Steens unique.

Lower in the canyon, the bushwhacking starts. It’s a few miles of horribly thick sagebrush across increasingly steep slopes. Yuk.

The route passes through some spires and hoodoos, and I find a chute up and over the ridge. Then I traverse a hillside leading up to a pass. A rock cairn marks the top. The wind is whipping here, I can barely stand.

I drop down into Indian Canyon on the other side of the pass. I filter some water from a small creek, and then stumble across an old 4×4 road. This is a pleasant surprise, the map shows the road much farther downhill, and I wasn’t expecting it here.

The hike through Indian Canyon is really nice. Every time I look behind me, I am more impressed by the view of the Steens. At times, I am reminded of Glacier National Park. And that’s not a bad thing at all!

The views over Alvord Desert are excellent as I descend the canyon. Many colorful wildflowers line the road. It’s getting late though, and I’m looking for a campsite. I shoot for a saddle, the last one before dropping down to the Alvord Desert. However, when I get there, I’m disappointed to learn there is nowhere to camp. So, I continue downhill.

It’s a steep road down, with nowhere to camp. Then I see a flat spot, and try to set up my tent. The high winds blow it over repeatedly as I set it up, and I am getting frustrated. So, I pack up my tent, and keep hiking downhill.

At the bottom of the hill, it’s full-on cow county. I find a subpar spot along a dirt road about 1/2 mile from the Alvord Hot Spring property, where it would cost $40/night to camp. No way!! I set up my tent by headlamp and finally call it a day. This was a long, difficult day.

ODT Day 25 Map

Day 26: Hiking the Alvord Desert

June 6th

The cows moan like zombies and wake me up early this morning. I’m hiking by 6:45, probably a good thing since I have 25 miles to Fields. The cafe closes at 3:30, so I gotta hurry if I want a hot meal today. There’s a burger and milkshake waiting for me, but I gotta move!

I walk through the Alvord Hot Springs complex, and reach pavement. Behind me, the Steens look majestic with the clouds hugging the high peaks. Beautiful.

I get water from Frog Spring along the edge of the Alvord Desert playa. I continue south and hit some dirt roads, which I follow for miles along some ranch property. The skies darken and spit rain briefly, at odds with the weather forecast. Typical.

I reach Alvord Lake and walk the playa. The idea of hiking these dried lake beds was always a bit fascinating to me, but I don’t always trust the route will work out. I stay near the edge, with the memory of my Hart Lake crossing fresh in my mind from about a week ago. The playa proves to be solid, and a great walk.

South of Alvord Lake, the enjoyment factor of the route deteriorates rapidly. No longer am I walking on flat, dried mud. Now, it’s looser and lumpier mud that’s softer, and covered with a white salty deposit. It’s similar to postholing through snow or walking through deep sand… slow, tedious and tiring.

In the middle of all this, I see a few wooden posts with red flags. Upon closer inspection, I see a film canister attached to the top. This is a mining claim marker. These posts are supposed to be on the four corners of a mining claim. Inside the film canister, there’s paperwork describing the mining claim belongs to Sierra Lithium LLC. This is a lithium deposit, presumably. But there is no mining going on here.

Continuing south, the route gets even worse. Now, there’s a lot of mud and water. It’s turning into a marsh. There are many braided channels and networks of water here, with no obvious way to go around them. It’s salty water and mud, which stings and irritates the skin. There are reeds knee-high, hiding more mud and salt brine. It’s an awful thing to walk through. And there is no reason for a human to be here, ever. I was truly dumbfounded that the ODT route purposely goes through here, when there are other options to avoid it… such as hiking across the Alvord Lake playa miles to the north. Too late for that.

With shoes full of nasty, foul smelling mud, I trudge through the remaining marsh lands. I stumbled out of the marsh and walk past a few pools of hot water. While I didn’t test the temperature, I could feel the heat from several feet away. I could only think how easy it would be to accidentally step into one of these while walking the route out of the marsh. Another reason I was shocked the ODT would go through this spot.

I reached a small dirt road and walked past borax lake, a “hot spring”. It’s a sizeable lake, and the water is just barely warm. However, it has 25x the safe level of arsenic for drinking or soaking. I didn’t know this at the time, and dipped my feet in the water with y shoes on to clean off all the horrible stinking mud. Not recommended, but I survived.

The slow hiking over the last few miles has threatened my ability to reach Fields before the cafe closes. Now, I have 6 miles to hike in 2 hours. No problem, but I’d like to get there 30 min before they close, just to be safe. So, I intermittently jog the rest of the way into town.

I make it to Fields at 3pm, plenty of time to get my burger and milkshake. It turns out, the grill is open to 4:15, not 3:30 as the ODT guide says. I wouldn’t have run those miles had I known this, which causes some sore feet and blisters on the tips of my toes. Especially after being wet and muddy!

I was planning on camping at Fields Station, which is free, but since I was covered in nasty, stinking mud, I got a room instead. Plus, I was feeling pretty wrecked, and was thankful to take a shower and the ability to clean my shoes and socks.

Donny made it to Fields at 9pm. I had ordered a burger and coke to-go for him, so he had this waiting for him when he arrived. What a pal, right?

ODT Day 26 Map

–> Continue reading Oregon Desert Trail Section 7: Fields to Denio (28 miles)

Back to Oregon Desert Trail Thru Hiking Guide & Journal index

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Day 18: Crossing Hart Lake

May 29th

I left the Hart Mountain Store at 4:30pm. The first couple miles are on paved roads. With Hart Mountain as the backdrop, this is one road walk that’s tough to complain about.

Hart Lake is just one lake In a chain of lakes running through Warner Valley called Warner Lakes. When I reached the lake, I could see it was not what I was expecting. I thought it would dry mud or sand, but instead it was full of green grass.

As I neared Hart Lake, I ran into a guy named Alan who I met earlier today outside the Hart Mountain Store. He was out doing some section hiking on the ODT, and had been on the other side of Hart Lake and now driving back into town. He said it looked like we could cut across the lake to shave off a few miles, instead of road walking around it on the official ODT route. And that’s what it looked like to me as well. Sold, I’ll give it a shot.

The first bit of walking across Hart Lake was easy. Again, the backdrop of hart mountain was awesome. I chose a notch In the ridgeline on the other side of the lake to help keep my course as I hiked across it.

Towards the middle of the lake, it was becoming increasingly muddy, then pools of water. If it weren’t for yesterday’s rainstorm, or if it was the middle of summer, this plan probably would have worked out flawlessly. However, I had to backtrack towards dry ground and take a different route. Any time savings I would have realized have probably been wiped out by now. This is a perfect example of how the shortcut turns into the long cut.

I didn’t have to go back across the lake, though. I just had to backtrack to dry ground, then change my trajectory to the east more, instead of south. This route still cuts off miles from the original route, but one can’t angle too far south. Aim more for the east shore, north of the peninsula.

It was after 7:30 now when I reached the road on the east side of Hart Lake. Here, I took some time to clean the mud off the bottom of my shoes, clean my insoles and knock the loose dirt out of my socks. You know, like I do 10x a day on the ODT.

I hiked another mile or so before finding a pretty decent campsite nestled in the trees. I’m not going to find anything better than this, and I’m running out of daylight. Set up my tent, crawled into my quilt, and called it a day.

ODT Day 18 Map

Day 19: Hiking Up to Hart Mountain

May 30th

I was hoping to have the sun hit my tent this morning, but that didn’t happen. When I opened my tent, clouds were obscuring Hart Mountain. Another cold, windy and cloudy day. Lucky me.

I was pretty annoyed this morning with the persistent crappy weather that has been plaguing this region. This put me in a bad mood all day. By the time I packed up my tent, I couldn’t feel my fingers. It’s almost June. This is dumb.

I continued walking the dirt road around the shoreline of Hart Lake. I passed a gravestone from the Civil War era. A soldier who had died from wounds. This was pretty unexpected the way out here, far away from the battlefields of the Civil War.

It’s going to be a long hike up into the mountains today. The route follows a very rudimentary U-Shape, taking me roughly 11 miles in one direction, only to turn around and hike 11 miles back the other way. This was mostly necessary to gain the ridgeline of Hart mountain. I say mostly necessary, because I plotted out another route that I could have taken to cut off at least 6 miles. Of course, this would require some climbing up steep slopes, xc. I’ll have to get my eyes on that option when I get to the junction, later.

I reach an old homestead with a spring. I left Plush yesterday around 4:30 p.m. with 2L of water. I drank maybe half a liter of that to this point. Looking back, I should have got water here. Instead, I stop for some food and move on.

Behind this homestead is my potential shortcut route, near riffle canyon. It looks pretty feasible, but I opt to stay on the official Oregon Desert Trail route.

I follow the base of the mountains towards Fisher Canyon. The sun is coming out more now, and for the first time in a few days, I’m actually warm enough to wear shorts. At least, when I’m moving, It’s warm enough.

An old Oregon wagon road from the 1860s leads up Fisher Canyon. The views over Warner Valley and the dried Crump Lake are pretty nice.

Climbing out of Fisher Canyon, there’s a small rocky ridge to the north. The ODT route continues to go all the way around this, but If I Just climb up about 250 ft over a half mile, I can cut off a mile and a half. It’s an easy cross-country walk that takes 10 minutes, saving probably a half hour or so. And the latter half of the shortcut is on old, faded 4×4 roads. This one’s a no-brainer.

The views over Warner Valley from here were my favorite of the day. I stopped here for lunch. However, every time I stop, It’s just so cold. I put my pant legs back on, and add a few layers again.

Next I cross a valley on the west side of Wool Lake. Dry, of course. They all are. Nice hiking here.

I go up over a small ridge and drop down into another valley. I hike across this, up over a small pass, and drop down to a big flat. Here, I see my first pronghorn of the hike in the grasslands below.

Walking through Big Flat, I come across an old homestead. This one is a little more extensive than the one I saw this morning. Besides the main house, there are a few barns and other structures. The house itself had a fireplace, with a wood mantle inside. However, It was pretty dilapidated. Not only the typical holes in the walls and roof, but It was home to many birds nests and even some cows, who had been crapping In the bedroom. Won’t be staying here tonight.

Next, I encountered Warner Creek. I wasn’t sure if I could cross it without getting my feet wet, so I decided to stop here and filter water first. That way, if I do get my feet wet, I won’t be standing around water afterward, I’ll be moving and warming them up.

I was able to cross the stream by hopping across some soggy patches of grass. Whew. Just sitting there filtering water, I was chilled to the bone. The weather forecast for today was 50° in Plush. Add another 1500 to 2,000 ft And that drops to 40°. Then add 15 to 20 mile an hour winds and the lack of sunshine due to the constant clouds, well, you do the math. Weather math. That’s cold! And I’m pretty tired of it.

A few miles up, I encountered Box Creek. I had to take my shoes off to cross this one. No way am I going to get my shoes wet, just an hour and a half before camp. I don’t want to put on cold wet shoes in the morning. Plus, my feet were still pretty tender from walking all day in the rain 2 days ago. Sometimes you gotta make smart decisions.

Next, I passed Guano Creek and Post Meadow. It’s almost 7pm now. My stomach Is feeling a little upset, and I’m not feeling like hiking much farther. I find a camp spot away from the road with a good view, but a little exposed to the wind. I’m pretty tired and ready for camp, so I settle for a lumpy spot. With 25 miles hiked today, I feel pretty good about my progress. Still, I didn’t catch up to Heavy Teva or Donny. There’s always tomorrow. And it better be warmer, damn it!

ODT Day 19 Map

Day 20: Hart Mountain Hot Springs

May 31st

When I poked my head out of the tent this morning, I was disappointed to see that the sky was still cloudy. It did feel a bit warmer, though. I even had condensation in my tent, which was surprising considering the fact that I was up high on a hill and exposed to the wind.

Started hiked at 8:15. It’s been nice not feeling rushed to start any earlier. On the CDT, every day I felt the pressure to cover miles. But not here. What’s the hurry? To get 30 instead of 25? Seriously, who cares.

Hiked up Guano Creek after breaking camp. It was surprising to see pit toilets along the road, even if they were 50 years old. They were missing the doors, and even the walls. A toilet with a view, nice.

Reached the top of the pass, having climbed about 700ft. The views now were pretty so-so. In fact, ever since climbing out of fisher canyon, it’s been just ok. It makes me wish the ODT was routed along the top of Hart Mountain, instead of along the base of it. Surely, the views from the top would be impressive!

I descend the pass and hike a few miles to hot springs campground. There are about 5 vehicles here. I head over to the Hot Springs, and see Donny in one of the pools. It’s not long before I drop my pack and join him. This pool was pretty warm at first, but quickly becomes just the right temperature.

Donnt and I discussed the events of the previous day and a half, since I had last seen him in the Hart Mountain Store in Plush. It turns out, he camped about a half a mile up the road from where I camped last night. Heavy Teva had made it here to the Hot Springs Campground last night, and had taken off early this morning.

After soaking in this pool, we moved over to the main pool. This one had a cement wall around it, among several other improvements; cement ground around the pool, ladder, wooden bench etc. It was too deep to sit in, but just right to stand up in. Probably not as warm as the first one we soaked in, but still very nice.

A cool water creek flowed just outside the walls to this hot spring. I filtered water here, set up my solar panels in the sun to charge electronics, cleaned my socks, shoes and pant legs as these were all covered with dirt and mud. I ate lunch as I waited for this stuff to dry. After eating his lunch, Donny hit the trail again sometime after 12:30. I ended up staying until 2:00, as my shoes took a long time to dry.

I was in a great mood as I walked away from the hot springs campground. I’m clean, the temperature was perfect, and it was mostly sunny for the first time in days. It was a dirt road walk, but because of the above, It didn’t matter. I just felt good.

I reached the Hart Mountain Visitor Center around 3:30, and filled up 6L of water here. It’s 40 miles to the next water source, at Miller Place.

After leaving the visitor center, a large dirt road leads to a smaller dirt road, which eventually leads to an even smaller one. For the first time along this hike, I’m seeing a ton of Jasper on the ground now.

I’m walking the base of Poker Jim Ridge now. I stop for a quick dinner break at 5:00, about 15 minutes after I start walking again, I see Donny In the distance. It looks like he has stopped for a break. I catch up, and sit with him for a minute. We discussed the logistics of when we’ll reach Frenchglen for resupply. From the Visitor Center, it’s 63 miles to Frenchglen. We will probably knock off another 10 miles this evening. The route ahead looks flat and easy, along dirt roads. It also looks fairly boring. We are both thinking big mile days are possible here. It’s Tuesday evening, I’m thinking late Thursday, or at the worst, get into town early Friday morning and nearo.

I go ahead of Donny, and the road quickly fades from here as I reach Rock Creek. It’s a pretty crappy bushwhack through Sage brush and a ton of larger boulders strewn about in the soft sand. I gave up on the road and just started hiking cross-country.

The route along Rock Creek was not any better. In fact, it was probably worse, but there was no road to follow. It’s going to be off-trail hiking either way. The soft sand was terrible. There were also many burned log stumps barely sticking out of the sand to trip over. Miserable.

After hiking xc 2.5 mi along Rock Creek, I reach a dirt road. However, this ODT route does not take this road. It continues cross-country for another 5 mi. At this point, I have no interest in doing that. It looks like the road on the map meets back up with the ODT route again, but will add about 2 miles. At this point, I would rather hike an extra 2 mi then do any more xc hiking through that deep sand obstacle course.

I followed a very old and faded dirt road, which was mostly sand. The sun had just gone down below the horizon, and I had not seen anything even close to resembling an acceptable campsite. Just sage and sand. But then, alongside the road, I saw an area clear of sage. It was very flat and level, but had many rocks sticking out of compacted mud. It was very solid, not loose sand like everything else. So, time to dig out all the rocks and made myself a pretty good campsite. Good thing too, it was after 8:30 now and there wasn’t much daylight left. The final fading rays of sun colored the cloudless sky a beautiful pink hue. Desert sunsets are always special.

ODT Day 20 Map

Day 21: 40-Mile Water Carry

June 1st

Woke up this morning and put shorts on right out of bed for the first time in a while on this hike. That’s what I like, waking up to shorts weather! I’m pretty sure I heard a wolf howling last night. I wouldn’t have believed they are in eastern Oregon, if it weren’t for the locals in Christmas Valley telling me they are here. And now to hear one for myself. That is cool.

This morning, I continued walking a very faded, but halfway decent 4×4 road. At the junction where I turn north, the road turned to shit. Figures, I’ll be on this one for 3.5 miles. It was all soft sand, and the road had pretty much faded away.

After meeting up with the official ODT route again, I was on another pretty crappy dirt road. There’s nothing but sagebrush around, It’s very flat and beyond a couple of distant landmarks. It was incredibly boring. It reminded me a lot of the great divide basin in Wyoming on the CDT, but with way shittier roads/route.

There was another road junction, where the road pretty much disappeared. Very frustrating to be looking at a road on the map, and then end up doing cross-country hiking when you get there. I was getting pretty frustrated with this section of the ODT. Everything after the Hart Mountain Visitor Center.

I went over a hill and saw Donny around noon. He was eating his mashed potatoes for lunch alongside the road. I sat down and joined him, and we swapped stories about how much we were hating this section. Endless sage, shitty deep sand xc hiking, no views of anything.

We hiked together for another 2 hours. I found a large obsidian Arrowhead in the road, or perhaps a knife; It was missing the tip and the base, so I couldn’t tell what it was for sure. It was about 5 in long though, a very good size.

We parted ways around 3:30. I wanted to knock down some miles today, so I put it in high gear. My goal is to reach Miller Place, the next water source and end of the 40-mile water carry. It’ll be close to a 30 mi day for me, by the time I reach it.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. I jammed out to some music, put my head down, and thought about anything other than my current situation. These are the stretches of long distance hiking that people gloss over when recalling their adventure. The less than glorious times, the awful times. At least here, I had a pretty decent road to walk now.

I reached a random stop sign at a road junction. It’s been over 30 miles of hiking since I was last on a road that deserved a sign of any kind, and these roads didn’t look like they warranted signage either. It’s probably another 27 miles to Frenchglen from here, and Frenchglen only had a population of 12. Indeed, this stop sign seemed out of place, useless and downright comical.

Not far after the stop sign, I missed a turn. I kept going straight through this nearly impossible to open gate, which I just crawled under. When I looked back, there were two wild horses behind the gate. I’m surprised I didn’t see them while crawling under the gate, they must have been close. This is when I realized I shouldn’t be here at all. I had to backtrack and go through the same gate again. At least it allowed me to get pretty close to the horses.

It was 6:00 pm now, and I had a 6-mile slog ahead of me to Miller Place. The clouds were building behind me, and looks like rain. I pass Mud Spring Reservoir, which has plenty of water, but is best suited for the cows that were standing in it. I’ll wait for Miller Place.

I reached the abandoned homestead at Miller Place and saw a large pond. There’s also a windmill, Which now appeared to be powered by an electric pump. There was plenty of good clean water here, and I could access it via spigot. The ODT water chart says that Miller Place is privately owned, by Rock Creek Ranch, and the owners have given permission to draw water here.

I walk up a small hill and leave the Ranch Property. Immediately on the other side of the fence, I see a good campsite. Clear and flat. I’m pretty tired, and this looks good enough to me.

I set up my tent and filtered water. While getting situated in the tent, I noticed a tick on my leg. This is the first tick I’ve had the ODT. It was just crawling on me, it was not burrowing yet. I treated all my clothes with permethrin before the hike, but I had none of these clothes on inside the tent. Unfortunately, I’ve been having issues with the zippers on the mosquito netting of one side of my tent vestibule, and I have not been able to close that side of the tent along this hike. That means bugs can just crawl right into my tent. I tried using the pliers on my Gerber dime multi-tool to clamp down on the zipper pulls, but the tiny little pliers don’t have enough force. All I can really do Is lay my permethrin-treated clothes alongside the tent on the outside, below the zippers for the mosquito netting, to hopefully prevent any ticks from crawling inside while I sleep. If I can get any sleep now.

Glad to be done with this day. A lot of effort expended with very little to show for it. At least I’ll be able to reach town tomorrow. I’m ready for a zero-day.

ODT Day 21 Map

Day 22: Resupply in Frenchglen

June 2nd

The cows were moaning like zombies just outside my tent after sunrise. Made it through the night with no ticks crawling inside my tent. Success.

I continued to hike a dirt road along some power lines. Mind-numbingly boring. It’ll be about 20 miles into town today. The faster I can hike this, the better.

I missed a turn-off for a cross-country segment, which resulted in more cross-country hiking to meet back up with the route. I had a couple of miles of deep sand and Sagebrush ahead of me. Furthermore, I was thinking it was going to be all dirt roads into Frenchglen today, So I was pretty annoyed with the xc. The cross-country segment was simply to avoid a private ranch. On the ODT, it seems like there’s always a ranch to walk around.

After hiking around the Ranch and meeting backup with another dirt road, I discovered a shortcut; follow the fence line east at waypoint 239, meet up with a road, follow this above Waterhole Canyon to waypoint 247. Looks to shave off about three and a half miles. Perfect.

There was a cow path along the fence line to follow, then I met up with a very solid dirt road. I walked this briefly before leaving it for a smaller dirt road. This road still was an easy walk, and it was becoming more scenic as well as I approached Frenchglen. My alternate route here stays high above Waterhole Canyon, which is fairly scenic on it’s own, but I think it would be worth hiking down in the canyon if I were to do it again. There looks to be a dirt road down there, roughly the same distance, and there looks to be a creek flowing though it.

I looked it down and saw a bull snake, or perhaps a gopher snake, slithering across the road. Non-poisonous, non-threatening. I took a moment to watch him slither through the purple flowers, sage and rocks. No, snakes don’t scare me.

The final 5 miles into town were increasingly scenic. Sagebrush gives way to grass, plains turn into rocky canyons and cliffs. Finally, over the last hill, the town of Frenchglen is in sight.

The views over Blitzen Valley and the Malhuer National Wildlife Refuge were really nice. Looking back at the cliffs that do down to the valley are equally impressive. The last few miles into Frenchglen were a really nice way to end this section, on a better note.

I hike into town, stop at the mercantile store forest for a cold drink, and to scope the food selection. Not too much, and no microwaveable foods or anything hot. Bummer.

Next, I stop at the Frenchglen Hotel and inquire about a room for the night. All booked, but the Drovers Inn had one room. $145 for the night, which is more than I want to spend. But they offer it to me for $120, and as whooped as I am, I take it.

I didn’t really want to spend $30 on pot roast dinner at the hotel, so I picked up some beers from the mercantile, as well as some junk food. A hiker trash dinner for sure. Got a hot shower, did sink laundry, and just relaxed. Ahhhh. Done with another section.

ODT Day 22 Map

Day 23: Zero Day in Frenchglen

June 3rd

Donny got into town early morning, as I finished breakfast at the hotel; Delicious pancakes, bacon and sausage!

There were no rooms available tonight at the Frenchglen Hotel or the Drovers Inn, so we got a ride from a couple from Portland over to the Steens Mountain Resort, where we had sent our resupply boxes. It’s a RV park with tent sites and cabins. We got a cabin for the night, which was a great call vs tent camping, since it will rain tonight/ tomorrow morning.

I borrowed a pair of pliers from the owners to crimp down the zipper pulls on my tent, since they were not closing. This worked, and I fixed all the zippers on the outer fly and the inner mosquito netting. Awesome, a fully functional tent once again. Well, for a little while.

I also borrowed a needle and thread to repair a strap on my backpack. One of the shoulder straps was repeatedly coming loose, and needing constant adjustment. The strap material was wearing down and becoming too thin for the slider to keep it in place. So, I pulled the lower part of the strap in place, folded it over on itself, and sewed it together to prevent it from sliding. The upper strap can still allow full adjustment of the shoulder strap. This worked well, another easy fix.

–> Continue reading Oregon Desert Trail Section 6: Frenchglen to Fields (63 miles)

Back to Oregon Desert Trail Thru Hiking Guide & Journal index

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