At 6am I got a knock on the door from Dave. The game plan was to have some breakfast and get back to the office by 7am to start walking again. The family all had their Saturday morning activities to get to and Dave’s was the earliest with a 40 mile bike ride with a group of his down the road I’d be taking out of town, so I opted to head off with him.
Following the breakfast of pancakes, eggs, coffee, and bacon we loaded up and went in. Right on schedule I was back at the office parking lot strapping my pack back on and parted ways with Dave. The walk out was quite nice and tree lined. After six miles I sacked out in the shade and started in on a snack when Lisa came by on her bike and said hello. Further on down the road Dave passed me on his way back and gave warning of a crazy hawk down the road a bit. The hawk swooped a bit, cried and circled, but didn’t really bother me much. Then getting into the tiny town of Haines, 11 miles out of Baker, I ran into Lisa again on her way back and she too had been assaulted by the hawk.
Haines was a little stretch of old town as well and held a general store for me to eat in. I heated up some beef stew along with my coffee and hung out with a guy who decided I needed a bag of caramel hard candies so I tucked those in with my Clifs and oatmeal. Before leaving I got some toothpaste and fruit to eat along the way before North Powder.
It was another eight miles to North Powder so I decided to just do it straight with no break. It was a nice sunny walk as the heat turned back to 100 again but the road ran between two mountain ranges which gave me something to ogle at distracting my mind from the sweat pouring off me.
Distracted or not, though, I was still quite hungry and hot when I got into the truck stop in tiny North Powder. There I got some ice cream which I followed with apple pie and coffee all the while of course. Soon I was off again, though, and headed into the hills toward Union. As I left town, glancing behind me to the range west of my valley I could see a grey curtain lingering about the tops. I began wondering if it’d stay there or come after me.
I called Angie heading down the winding country road and talked until the reception grew too awful. By then I was over a hill beginning my pass through the eastern range and as I looked back that grey curtain had made its way toward my truck stop I’d just left. I quickened the pace a bit and vetoed a break to make some miles away from the incoming rain.
Quick turns to see the weather’s advance gave me glances of lightning as it arched the backdrop. Grey had begun circling ahead of me to the north as well and the wind was pointing those stormy clouds right at me. I crossed over a train bridge and began down past a pond when I decided it was time to don the gear. Drops were starting in lightly, but I kept remembering that hail storm that brutalized me in Wyoming and swore for that not to happen again.
A mile from suiting up the rain came in en force. My road came into a little valley and lightning began attacking the hills on either side of it. The rain went from speckled droplets to a sudden torrent that didn’t let up for about half an hour. My little yellow rubber rain cap dripped streams off on to the road as I warily kept an eye ahead of met trying to calm myself that I wouldn’t be struck down by the almighty at this stage of my walk.
It worked. Battered and blown by the winds and rain the lightning avoided me and the storm blew over. I came to the end of my valley and pitched up my tent six miles from Union. I read a bit before going to bed but was quite exhausted by the day.