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Location

Off Battle Creek Road in the forest south of Veneta.

Participants

Michael5000

Expedition

I once wrote a college research paper on the Territorial Highway, one of the first roads in Oregon, trying to address the question of whether transportation routes affect settlement patterns or settlement patterns affect transportation routes. "A little of both," was my not especially earth-shattering conclusion.

Interestingly, that old paper didn't even cross my mind as I drove south from Veneta on the Territorial Highway. I turned south on Battle Creek Road and immediately crossed a covered bridge -- very picturesque. The road was well paved for a few miles, then turned into a forest road and started very steeply uphill. As it turned out, I could have driven all the way to the hashpoint without too much trouble, but the road was just marginal enough that I decided to take advantage of a little turnout about 2 miles from the point.

My notion was that I could run to the site, but as I trudged down the steep ups and downs of the road, I quickly remembered something that had somehow slipped my mind: it had only been about 10 minutes since I finished eating lunch. So, the run turned out to be an unimpressive 1.15 miles, followed by walking the rest of the way to the hashpoint and back. It was in a clearing at the side of the road, and there was a little tree there.

The road had some nice views. Three separate passers-by were all friendly enough to offer assistance, clearly being puzzled why I was out here strolling down the road. After all, I was completely unarmed! Most folks out in the woods were there to play with their guns; I walked by some guys practicing with their pistols and there was quite a bit of BANG! BANG! BANG! from various horizons.

Back in the car, I returned to Territorial Highway and headed north towards 2022-02-27 44 -123