Last night I packed up everything that wasn’t in the tent – I knew I had a good drive tomorrow to do.  Set my phone with an 8 am alarm and put it in airplane mode so that it battery drain would be as low as possible.  Woke up at 8, got up at 8:15 and took everything out of the tent and packed it away.  When taking it down I found that poles first then clips would work better… well, next time.  I was on the road at 9:15 with only a short pause to get the inverter to work and charge my phone.

One of the joys of driving west on Highway 89 is turning the corner and seeing Mt. Shasta there.  Just pow.  Shasta, this year was a bit bald.  Previous years there has been a snow cap in July when I went on the 4th, or even a trip on Labor Day weekend.  This time, very little snow.  The dry winter and hot summers are taking their tool.

I filled up at Weed, and had 38.5 mpg.  No, I’m not a car nut… but I do like efficient cars.  I can’t blame it this time for dropping down below 40 mpg, lots of ups and downs.  Then I headed north.  Normally I’ve turned right at Weed to go to the Klamath area and some scenic views of Shasta – not this time.  New road for me.

At about lunch time I saw a tourist information spot, so I stopped in just to make sure I knew where I was going.  I did, but for some reason the GPS refuses to drive on 214 – the road my destination is on.  I also asked to see if the falls were running… with experience of California waterfalls that dry up some times, I was told nope, these falls are not as strongly seasonal and the drought conditions in parts of California are not an issue in Oregon.

Odd bit I found out (not the “hard” way) – do not pump your own gas in Oregon.  For whatever reason, its on the order of a $3000 fine.  I do have the correct number of zeros there.  That fill up was 44.8 mpg. When I said I was going to do a long road trip people thought I was crazy with the high price of gas.  So far, I’ve put in about 18 gallons of gas (well, paid for 18 gallons of gas, haven’t pumped any in Oregon) – including the half tank (small tank) I had driving out of the bay on.  That is less than what a person commuting by car at 24 mpg uses in a week of going from San Francisco to San Jose… and gas up here is cheaper too.

Oregon itself has some spots that remind me of the midwest.  Some of the patches along I-5 reminded me of western Wisconsin, with slightly steeper valley walls.  It really struck me as I turned onto 214 to get to the park – it seemed very much like rural central Wisconsin… except instead of fields of corn and cows, it was Christmas trees. Oh, and occasionally turning a corner and seeing a snow capped mountain in the distance. Fields and fields of Christmas trees.  Everything within one field was the same age and perfectly groomed, perfectly conical.  Oh, there was the occasional horse farm, or sheep and goats… but it was trees in all the fields.  Out on the edges of the property, there would be old trees towering over the fields.  Hmm… Christmas trees are the veal of the timber industry?

I’ve pulled into the park and had the question of where I want to stay, and it gave me pause.  At Burney, tent sites are about $15 and cabins are about $70 – no question what to stay at for 3 nights.  At Silver Falls, tents are $15 and cabins are $35.  I know I’m going to go hiking tomorrow.  The trail of ten falls (south falls, lower south falls, lower north falls, double falls, drake falls, middle north falls, winter falls, twin falls, north falls, and upper north falls) is an 8.7 mile loop.  If I’m too tired a the end, I can cut off a bit over two miles and skip North Falls and Upper North falls… but still.  Would you rather sleep the night before and after on a mattress in a cabin? or on the ground? and hot showers?  And is that worth $40?  The banner picture was a giveaway… I’m typing this sitting on a chair in a room with working electricity.  There is a microwave if I had any food to cook that way (I’ll go with chili tonight, though still over a camp stove).

Not so roughing it tonight.  There is no cell service though, nor any wifi.  Oh well.  I can sit down and get photos together.

While I have food on my mind, I had some tuna last night.  While getting food at Safeway before I left I saw these packets of fish.  Single portion, precooked fish steaks.  I got three, a mesquite tuna (that I had last night), a smoked salmon, and a lemon and pepper something that I forgot (I think it is salmon).  A quick heat 1-2 minutes/side and eat.  They are delicious and very easy to do (even easier than the boil water and add to a bag and wait 10 minutes).  One of the challenges when going out camp cooking without refrigeration is meat that isn’t canned.  These work very well.

One thing that might be something to do… still thinking about it… instead of going directly from here to Olympic National Park, doing a “short” day up to Multnomah Falls (east of Portland) and then over to the coast and staying somewhere there… Tillamook Rock Lighthouse or Cannon Beach.

• N 44.87076
• W 122.65024
• Elevation 1360 feet
• Max Elevation 4470 feet
• Trip Odometer: 389 miles
• Odometer: 711 miles