Hello Everyone,

Well, I made to to Eugene, Oregon, and Camp 13. I trekked 24.03 miles today and it was a very good day.

I woke up this morning and looked out of the tent and saw the usual weather conditions, cloudy and overcast. On the positive side, it is nice to trek on cloudy and cool weather as long as it does not rain.

My goal for the day was to make it to Eugene, and my friend Nick’s house. It was the last day of the three day weekend and I figure that traffic would be heavy, and it was. In the short distance from my camp to the dam at the upper Lowell Reservoir I must have switch sides of the road 3-4 times. I generally walk against traffic 90% of the time, as your are suppose to and it’s safer, but walk against traffic if the shoulder is narrow or it’s a sharp blind curve.

Once I hit the turnoff for the back way to Eugene, which crosses the lower reservoir (lake), I wasn’t sure which way to go. It showed that it was actually one mile closer, yet you are never really sure with Google Maps whether it’s really a good way to go.

As I stood there I saw the covered bridge going across the lake to the community of Lowell and that made up my mind as the scene was beautiful.

I felt like I crossed into the Twilight Zone as I was crossing the lake and the bridge. The sun started coming out and the traffic almost completely stopped. Wow!

I walked through Lowell, population of around 1,200, and was awed by what a nice little town it was. It must be like Mayberry. The little school was beautiful and there were two little stores, one in the middle of a residential neighborhood and one on Main Street. I went to both and enjoyed talking to the woman owner of the first little one. The larger second one was one of those little town store that had everything, including a deli with lots of different home made food. That was lunch, and more.

I could have stayed in the park overlooking the lake all day long but knew I had at least seventeen miles to go today, as the local, Nick Jagels my friend, had told me. Remember me mention to take what locals estimate as times and distances with a grain of salt. Sure enough, those seventeen miles turned to over twenty-four! Those extra seven miles can easily equate to another three hours, or more.

Wow, the road was not only spectacular, but almost completely empty of cars. I never once saw a truck, and I think they must be prohibited from that road? The road follows the lake and then the Willamette River that comes out as tailwater.

It’s been thirteen days on this leg of the trek, and looking back every day was an adventure and I appreciate every day, but I didn’t realize how different a sunny day can make to your positive outlook. Maybe that’s why the prescription of antidepressants in Alaska increase in the winter and drop drastically in the Spring and Summer.

I found myself singing that stupid Carpenter’s song, “close to you.” You know the one that goes something like, why to do birds, etc., etc. see, I don’t even know the words yet I was singing part of it and humming the other. Guess that’s what a sunny Spring day does to you.

The vegetation also change as I got closer to Eugene and there were open fields and flowers everywhere. Poppies to, and I thought they were only native to the desert areas of California. More of that stupid Carpenter’s song. I do have to say that the flowers everywhere were beautiful.

Funny too that the people seemed so much different in this area from the ones on the east side of the Cascades, or the Willamette Pass. Maybe because it’s near a big city, and a progressive city at that.

There are some beautiful homes along the road and it seemed like everyone, and I mean everyone, was mowing their lawn. Must be because it was the first sunny day in a year. Just kidding! People were riding their John Deers, and closer in town, their push mowers.

It sure reminded me of my John Deer at home, but I don’t mow much except weeds as with the drought in California I haven’t watered the lawn in two years.

So, I was sing that song and waving to all the mower riders, who probably thought I was a nut, but I felt a weird bond. I guess just like the people that have a certain kind of car. Yeah, and I even waved to those people riding those rice burner Hondas.

The other thing that kind of surprised me was seeing men without their shirts on. Don’t they realize, in the morning anyway, that it’s in the low sixties. Oh, it’s sun shine in Oregon, I forget. I did see lots of kids playing along the banks of the river, and the sound of kids playing is one of the sweetest things to my ears. There’s that stupid song again!

Made it to the town of Springfield, which is abuts Eugene, and I have gone well over seventeen miles! Strolled through downtown, which was actually very nice as it looks very old but with lots of nice stores and restaurants.

I cross the bridge dividing the two towns and immediately noticed a big difference as Eugene is the richer and more progressive town, probably due in part to the university being there. The pride of the Oregon Ducks can be seen everywhere in the state, almost like my Green Bay Packers in Wisconsin, where Packer stuff is everywhere.

Just before I got to Nick’s Google gave me weird directions. As I’ve said, don’t always trust it. It had me go into a beautiful old residential area, and then up the biggest hill in days, and then back down that hill to his house. I was sweaty and huffing and puffing. Turns out it was an out of the way to go and another shorter level street would have been quicker.

I am at Camp 13 where I’ll hopefully stay a few days so I can pick up my supplies and items sent to me at the locale REI. I got to met part of Nick’s nice family and was made welcome here. His house was built in the twenties, as it appears most of the beautiful homes in the neighborhood area. It’s very near the university and therefore one of the more desirable neighborhoods.

Took a long hot tub bath to soak my shin splints and feet. The blister on the ball of my right foot looks and feels pretty bad as now it’s the size of a silver dollar. I’ll see what I can do about it and hopefully it won’t trouble me too much.

I will update my blog when I have a  chance, though it won’t be a trekking day.

Please keep sending me your positive thoughts and prayers my way. Please excuse the typos, spelling, etc.

Best wishes,
Ted