Day Two - 5 Mile Creek to Silver Creek Marsh
To get to camp in the National Forest and to get off the OC&E trail, which was now loose cinder 6 inches thick or more, we ended up five miles off the official route. So when I awoke at 4 to the sound of chainsaws and heavy logging equipment, I was hoping that they wouldn’t drop any trees around us. Or on us.The active logging site appeared to be almost a mile back. But it was late and we were tired, so maybe 1500 feet? We weren’t completely stealth camping, but it was still dark and our tents were all one-person tents. I rolled over and went back to sleep.
In the morning as we were packing up, a rancher drove by, saw us, and rolled down his window as he stopped. “Are you lost?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. Yes. Definitely yes.” I said all of that without a pause and he stopped his engine and got out. ‘I’m Roger,” he said. We each said hello and shook his hand. Roger walked us through on the map the best way to go forward without backtracking to get to our destination for tonight. He offered to have us throw our bikes in the back, but he was probably a couple of days early. We were still raring to go.
We said good-bye, he left, and soon we were also on our way.
Today’s ride was almost completely on gravel through rolling forested hills and valleys. It was a long grind and we finished up the 70 miles of gravel and thought perhaps we had misread about the “red sauce,” a soupy mix of pulverized volcanic rock that was supposed to make up 30 miles of the ride. It seemed like we blew through that pretty quickly and the red roads were no special concern.
Our final five miles were fast on pavement and mostly downhill to get to our campground. It was dry camp, but at least it had a pit toilet and a small stream, so that if we needed to filter water we could replenish.
There was only one other camper, a nice man in his late 50s, who gave James a gallon of water. The people we met were like that: helpful, kind, and generous.
He told us that our timing was good, as the route we’re going (and our campground for tomorrow night) was going to be inundated with off-road quads racing around the trails. I had forgotten that the coming weekend was Memorial Day. It was Tuesday today, and we’d be through the off-road section by Thursday morning.
I set up my camp by the stream and set up my chair, intending to use it for the first time as I enjoyed a glass of wine, but instead I was so drowsy and tired that I crawled into bed and fell asleep.
