Friday, June 22, 2018 – 16.90 miles

I reached Oregon today! During elementary school I liked playing the game ‘Oregon Trail’ on the classroom computer, but my character always died…

It was a day of meadows, some more interesting than others. Many to most were expanses of dry earth with one or two varieties of flowers blooming between the pebbles. The bees loved those meadows more than I and they were especially thick in one wide specimen with yellow flowers, cairns and views of Mt. Shasta.

At Donomore Cabin, a rickety old cabin with a cot, chairs, logbook and dodgy floor, clouds of butterflies replaced the bees. The California/Oregon border was less than a mile beyond the cabin and marked by signage and a logbook. Is there anything I can do in Oregon that I couldn’t do in California? Drive in a housecoat?

The forest became lusher on the Oregon side. The wind strengthened too and was brutal by the time I arrived at Sheep Camp Spring, where I was planning to camp. Poking around for awhile, I saw no notably sheltered spot, so I pitched my tent but decided not to cook to avoid wasting gas. Two other women showed up separately and both asked whether I would mind if they camped nearby. One totally disappeared, maybe moving on to look for a less windy area, while the other set up camp in a spot that I had investigated earlier. She returned to report to me where she was camping; she seemed very concerned with privacy and we kept to our own sites. Thankfully the wind died away at 9:30 PM.