2011-07-17 43 -117

Location

In desert hills north of US-26, several miles east of Juntura, Oregon

Participants

Expedition

This was the first known attempt to hash the Vale graticule.

Google Maps will generally lead you astray in rural areas, and this was no exception. Using maps, imagery, and even street view, I managed to concoct a mental image of a well-traveled Pole Creek Road that would take one to the base of a gently rising slope where there would be rewarding views amidst the sagebrush. And I was right about the rewarding views and sagebrush.

Pole Creek Road, however, is a thin little dirt track, and even though I was looking for it I shot right by it on the first approach. Coming back to it, we were reluctant to drive more than a short ways down it, since the truck does not have four-wheel drive. No problem! We packed our water bottles against the heat of the afternoon, and started hiking down the track into country that was much steeper than I had imagined. We were soon out of sight of the highway, and continued climbing until we were a half mile from the hashpoint, as close as we could get.

So, we climbed. It was hot, the way was steep, and the ground was rocky, so it was slow and tiring going. It's not something you would want to do every day. But by continuing to trudge forward in the direction the GPS pointed, we gradually rose up into the sagebrush hills until it told us we were there. Fortunately, there was a breeze by this time, and a few clouds obligingly covered the sun so that we could have a short break. I took a ton of photos, and we started back down. It was very exciting to get back to the little road, even better to get back to the truck, and very nice indeed to get to a store where we could buy water and soda to rehydrate ourselves. It was 2 2/3 miles walking all told, but it felt much longer.

Expedition Success.