You’d never believe what I’ve been through!

August 27, 2003

Apologies for not posting earlier, but I really had little reason to post. I’ll start towards the beginning, though.

The band that my friend Mike is in was pretty good, actually. My sister and I split some onion rings and had a couplr of beers, which thankfully have been added since the last time I was at the bar. Instead of Bud, Miller, and Coors, now the management has at least added Fat Tire Amber Ale and Widmer Drop Top Amber, two beers that I enjoy. I didn’t have to choose between them, though, since I just had one of each. I’m not sure if they were done when we left, but they were at least taking a break. We’d been there for about two hours, though, so we decided we could safely take off and not offend Mike. In any event, it was a fun evening.

Monday I went and saw Finding Nemo with my Mom (my second time, her first), and then I went over to my Dad’s house in the evening to spend the night. He had graciously asked if I wanted to drive over to Bend with him for a business meeting, and I told him I’d tag along. I didn’t have any particular reason for going, but I had turned him down to drive to other meetings this past summer for a variety of reasons, and since I wasn’t doing anything, I figured I could hang out with him on Tuesday. I decided that I’d do some more hiking while I was in Bend, since the last time I went over there my friend Heather and I did some, but it was took hot to do the amount I wanted to do. We pretty much only went about three miles, give or take, but I can do much more than that. I did some research Monday night about some neat trails to take, and I finally decided on an area to hike in that I’d never been to and had some neat places to explore.

Unfortunately, I didn’t fall asleep until nearly 3 AM on Tuesday morning, and I needed to be up at 6 AM to get ready to leave. I was pretty wiped all day yesterday, for obvious reasons. Highway 20 is closed close to Bend due to two massive forest fires burning over there, so we had to find an alternate route, so we took Highway 20 and then changed highways to take the McKenzie pass over the Cascades, a route I’ve only been on once when I was younger, so I’m told. It was certainly different than the other ways I’ve been out to Bend in the past. Very narrow, windy roads that go right through lava flows that are from within the last 1000 years. Pretty close to the Three Sisters, too. We came out of the mountains in Sisters, Oregon, and there was the base camp for the firefighters working against the largest wildfires in the country. Tents everywhere, fire trucks going up and down the road all the time, people milling everywhere; it was a mess. It was fairly hazy, too, but the fires were a good distance away. We could smell the smoke, of course, but other than that it just looked like a morning fog in the distance.

I dropped Dad off at the hotel where his meeting was taking place, and then after a quick lunch at Subway, I set out to find my trailhead. I had some trouble locating the turnoff from Highway 97, though, so I stopped and asked directions at the Lava River Tunnel that Heather and I walked the length of when the two of us were in Bend a month ago, and I got some general directions. I had finally decided on setting out from the Swamp Wells campground and hiking to the Boyd Ice Cave, a good 12 miles round trip, but finding the Swamp Wells campsite became a challenge. I had specific directions of what roads to tunr on, only there aren’t any marked roads back where I was. “Turn north on road 1810″ my directions said, but which one’s 1810? I knew I’d never find the campground, and I was losing time, so I just tried to find a trail. I finally saw a turnoff, pulled over and locked the car, and noticed I was standing next to a big hole in the ground with metal stairs leading down. A cave. No kidding! Had I parked at my destination, the Boyd Ice Cave? I went down the stairs and went a ways into the cave, but I couldn’t tell how far it went back and as I had no flashlight, I stayed clear. As I came up the stairs, I saw a trailhead, the Skeleton Cave trail. I remembered the name, and I decided that it would do. I wouldn’t mind seing Skeleton Cave, after all. Plus it was only 0.7 miles long, so that meant that Skeleton Cave wasn’t far away.

But I couldn’t find it anywhere along the trail. I intersected with another trailhead, one that I had planned on taking, the Coyote Loop trail, so I decided to just set off. It was beautiful out there yesterday. It was only in the mid 80’s but still sunny, so it wasn’t nearly as unbearable as it was when I went hiking in Bend last month. The trail was in pretty good condition, though since I was wearing shorts I was cautious that I didn’t rub up against too many bushes that were growing over the trail, as I had no desire to pick up a tick or three. Ug. Those things really gross me out. So I kept walking, and kept walking, assuming that the Coyote Loop trail would indeed loop around. After about two hours of hiking, I became concerned that the trail wasn’t going to loop. I had been walking pretty much in one direction and it hadn’t looped back around yet. If I turned around right then, I still wouldn’t be back at my car until 4:30, a half hour after I was supposed to pick my Dad up. I decided to chance it and keep going. By 3 PM, I was getting nervous. The trail still wasn’t looping, and it was headed in the complete opposite direction. My feet were starting to hurt, too, and I knew I had at least one blister. I finally said screw it, and I started taking dirt roads that lead off in the direction I needed to be going. Unfortunately, these were just roads made by people four-wheeling out in the wilderness, and I eventually found that many would just stop or loop back upon themself.

The only good thing I could find at this point was that I had one landmark that I could orient myself with, a big hill that I’d been able to see since I set out, for the most part. I could see it pretty clsoe by, but there wasn’t anything leading over to it except open country. So I set out off-trail over open country. I had swung around the back of the hill in my hiking, and so I decided to climb up the back and do two things. The first was that I needed a vantage point. I might be able to see my car off in the distance, though that was unlikely. The second goal was to find people. I wasn’t LOST lost, but I was lost. I could just go back to the trails and follow it back to the car, but that would take too long. What I really needed to do was bum a ride off some people up the road to where I’d parked. Th eback of the hill turned out to be a little harder climbing than it looked. There wasn’t a switchback trail, just a dirt road going straight up at an angle of 90 degrees, I kid you not. With gravel on it. It was the toughest climb I’ve had in a long time, and while I’d been breathing heavily most of the day while hiking, I had to stop and catch my breath three times it was so steep.

Well it turns out that the other side of the hill acts as a shooting range for people, and sure enough, I saw a family down below shooting with their kids. I gave them a wide berth as a came down, and I didn’t ask them for a ride since the parents were out shooting with their kids. I also saw a truck in the distance in the direction I needed to go, a truck of such an ugly green color that I knew it was a Forest Service truck. I made it over there and asked how far the Boyd Ice Cave was, and one of them told me it was less than a mile up the road infront of me. Saved! My legs were killing me too, now. “Just take your first left, you can’t miss it!” they said as I hiked off. Left? I don’t remember taking a left. This was definitely the road I came in on, and I remembered driving past the road where they told me to turn to get to the ice cave. I DEFINITELY hadn’t parked there, so where HAD I parked? It was past 4 PM by now, and I was getting worried. I had been in contact with my Dad, and he knew what was going on, so it’s not like he was waiting for me not knowing where I was, but that didn’t help the fact that I didn’t really know where the car was, and even if I did, I was still a couple miles away at least. I was slowing down, too. I’d been hiking for four straight hours at a quick pace the entire time, so I knew I’d gone at least 12 miles by then. The prospect of another two or more miles didn’t excite me. I suggested to my Dad that he get a ride from his last coworkers still there and come and pick me up so we could all be shuttled to the car, but I wasn’t sure exactly how far up the road I’d driven. He said he’d talk to his friends and get back to me. I took my second to last sip of water, ate a cereal bar I’d brought with me, and bared on. I promised myself that I’d flag down the next car that drove by, though I knew it was unlikely anyone would come through.

As luck would have it, I met a truck coming the opposite direction, and not only did they stop, but I didn’t even flag them down. They stopped of their own accord to see if I needed help. Thank goodness for small favors. I told them my situation, that my car was up the road a little way, but I wasn’t sure how far. They made room for me and we set out to find the car. I explained that I’d parked next to a cave that I thought was the Boyd Ice Cave, but turned out not to be it after all. I didn’t know WHERE I’d parked. “Wait a minute,” the man said, “a red truck?” They had been walking through the caves for the last few hours and had seen my car, but it was parked at Skeleton Cave, not the Boyd Ice Cave. Turns out that the Skeleton Cave trail I took led me AWAY from Skeleton Cave, not TO it.

They had a pretty good idea where the cave was since they were in the same boat I was and didn’t know their way around the unmarked roads too well, but we eventually found it. I thanked them profusely, changed shoes and set out to find my Dad who had made his way with his friends further down the road I came in on. Here’s the scary part, though: it was parked up a road I didn’t remember turning on. I *had* taken a left at some point, and if I didn’t have the time constraints to pick up my Dad and was out there by myself and just kept walking, I wouldn’t have found the car. I wouldn’t have taken the road up to Skeleton Cave. That’ll teach me to make notes about where I go.

I got out of there OK, thankfully, but not without being taught a few lessons. Lesson 1: make notes about how many turns you make and where. Lesson 2: get a more detailed map of trailheads before you leave. Lesson 3: wear two pairs of socks. I brought two pairs of socks–one wool, one cotton–specifically for the purpose of hiking, but I only wore the wool. After 12 miles, my feet had a couple of bad blisters on them, and today I’m finding it difficult to walk properly. My legs hurt, too, but I can accept that.

So I had my adventure. It was beautiful out there, and a great deal of fun, if not frustrating to a certain extent. I even saw lots of bones out there, althougyh I’m not sure what they came from. The first ones I found were about four or five vertebrae connected, just lying by the trail. I also came across a skeleton that was about 60% complete, but no skull to identify what kind of animal it was. Later I found more bones, including a fairly large jaw that I can only conclude came from some sort of deer. I figure on a trail called “Coyote Loop” there must be coyotes out there. I hoped that as I made my way across open country that I didn’t run into a den of them, or even worse, a rattlesnake that I know live out there. That would have made my day REALLY bad.

On our way out of Bend, we took Highway 97 and then Highway 26, the way Heather and I came out to Bend the last time. We briefly stopped at Smith Rock State Park where Heather and I went hiking, and my Dad took a few pictures since he’s never been there. The sun was shining around there, thankfully, even through the haze, and the view on the rocks was great. Around Madras where we picked up 26, it was so smoky that the sun was pretty much blotted out, and noen of the mountains were visible in the distance. We would crest a hill and not be able to see the next rise in the road a few miles in front of us, as visibility was down to maybe a mile. It was pretty bad, as that was the smoke from 45,000 acres of burning trees.

But on the bright side of everything, I slept very well last night. I went to bed at 11, got up at 10. I’m well-rested today, that’s for certain. I’ll have to lay off my feet for a few days and just do supplemental exercises without jogging, walking, or even using the exercise machine downstairs. Damn feet. Why can’t you be tougher?

Speaking of bright sides, I have a job interview next week. I got a call back from one of the state jobs I applied for, and so next Friday morning I’m going to drive down to Salem for my interview. Cross your fingers!

All right, I think I’m done for now, and I’ve covered about four days worth of stuff. I’m going to go play some games now, as I think I’ve earned it. Have a good day, all.

Thank goodness for big Band Aids.