Hello Everyone,

Here I am at Camp 17, about 3-4 miles west of the little community of Alpine, also north of Monroe. I trekked 17.69 miles today and some of it was challenging.

I am in a very isolated and remote spot well off of the road in an area controlled by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The road is also controlled and maintained by the BLM and is actually well paved and with no strips down the middle and no traffic regulation signs.

I started my day fairly early this morning not wanting the congregation to show up before I could pack up. I was afraid if they did show up, especially the pastor,  I’d have to attend church to stay out of trouble.

I got to the little town of Monroe after about six miles and made it a point to have lunch at one of only two restaurants in town. I opted for a healthy salad but decided I could use the carbs and ordered a giant plate of homemade fries. I figure I would burn off those calories anyway, and lucky I did order them because I sure burned them up on the uphill today. The homemade food was very good, and I was the only customer and was served very well.

Monroe is a very small town with around 800 people, though there is not much there. It looks to be an old lumber town as there are still remnants of the industry throughout the town. I did find their high school mascot (dragon) very interesting as the old school has a large cupola with a dragon weather vain. It was real interesting looking.

The road to Monroe still had a narrow shoulder but once I got through Monroe and turned onto Alpine Road it was wider and the traffic nearly disappeared. The area to Alpine is very beautiful as it’s a mixture of rolling meadows and trees. The road was fairly level, with some slight uphills to Alpine. Alpine is basically one tavern, a few houses, and a fire station.

Once past Alpine the road became almost deserted as I only saw one or two cars every 15-20 minutes. The road was still fairly wide until a few miles where a sign was posted noting it was no longer county maintained. At this point it because a BLM road, still wide and well paved but without the strips.

At this point too it started uphill. Now a local, who won’t be named but who’s initials are NJ, told me that this road wasn’t steep. I understand when going over a mountain range that I should anticipate some tough going, but I can be lulled into expecting it to be easy by some local, when I know better. Well, the total elevation gain was about 2,300′ in the last four miles or so, 1,200′ in the last one and a half miles. Yes, it was steep!

I was struggling a bit, and luckily I wasn’t at a high elevation. I don’t think the temperature help as it hit 89 degrees and the humidity was around 70-80%. I was completely drenched as though I had taken a bath, and I was thinking of that local who said it wasn’t steep. Yeah, in a car!

I was ready to set up camp the many times I stopped to rest, but once I hit the top I kept going until I found this spot. It’s on a gated side road way off the road but there are so few cars I could have set up right on the road. I saw one or two cars every half hour or so and most were going very slow.

The trek and scenery here is beautiful, and with such a nice road and no cars, it’s ideal. If I could pick the perfect trekking road, thus would be it, well, without the steep hills. I have no cell service now and will send this anyway, and it will go out whenever there is service, which may not be for days.

I estimate that it may take another two or three days to hit the coast. I will try and update my blog tomorrow and send it out in the blind if I don’t have service. As always, please keep sending me your positive thoughts and prayers my way. Please excuse the typos, spelling, etc.

Best wishes,
Ted