a slight change in plan

When I head out from The Dalles on Friday morning, I have several options. One is to lumber all the way to Biggs, a nearly 19-mile walk. I'm ruling that out because my right knee, which had merely been bothering me up to this point, has finally started to hurt and is cutting my speed down. Another option would be to walk even farther to Maryhill State Park, which lies across the river in Washington. This won't work for two reasons: the distance is too great (says my knee), and I'd once again find myself limping along Route 14, which I've concluded is too dangerous for my taste, given its narrow-to-nonexistent shoulders.

I'm contemplating two more realistic possibilities for Friday based on a drive I took with my gracious host in The Dalles, author Jay Ellis Ransom: (1) walk to Celilo and camp at the riverside park across the freeway from the Indian village, or (2) do some primitive camping at the decidedly more beautiful Deschutes River State Recreation Area, which has a campground that might require reservations (the Celilo spot doesn't).

Either of those latter two options would take care of my needs Friday night, and from either point it would be less than ten miles to the town of Biggs, where I might be able to motel it. Biggs might be a problem because of the timing, however: I'd be arriving there on a Saturday, and my experience has been that Fridays and Saturdays are the worst days for which to reserve hotels. My fallback plan, if Biggs is full up, is therefore to camp an extra night at either Celilo or Deschutes, and then to arrive in Biggs on Sunday, when finding an empty room ought to be a cinch.

The Columbia River Gorge Scenic Area officially ends around Mile 100, but as you can see in my recent pics, we're already moving into true desert. While I hate the desert heat, I appreciate the general lack of humidity, and on a day like yesterday (Wednesday), I also appreciate cloud cover. What a contrast Wednesday was with Tuesday, which was brutal.

Dr. Ransom told me that I'm about to run out of things to see, especially if I plan to keep following the Columbia River. Things are going to get barren. I told him that I'd convert my trudge into one long walking meditation.

A CSer texted me to ask when I'd be hitting Umatilla, which is where she is; at this point I'd place my arrival date at August 15 (Assumption Day!) at the earliest.

So them's the plans for the moment. Details and even strategies might change, so stay tuned.


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