Hello Everyone,

I am inside my tent at Camp 9, about 11 miles east of Oakridge, right next to Salt Creek. I can hear it roaring as it has been raining hard. It’s actually very soothing and will be great to sleep to.

I trekked 25.56 miles today, but think it’s more of a 26 mile marathon as I accidentally paused the walking program during part of the day. I didn’t intend to walk this far, but due to the rain ended up going longer.

After two nights at the motel I really felt rested and energized. I actually got up at five and hit the road by 7:30. It was great not having to break camp. One last hot shower to savior since these were the first after seven days without a bath.

I stopped at the little store to pick up some juice and ran into a group of bicyclists. They were curious about the Wheelie and what I was doing but they had an interesting story too. They were riding to raise money for the Salvation Army to raise awareness of the homeless. They had ridden from Colorado and were going to the coast. They actually had two pilot cars with overhead lights. What a good cause.

It never rained yesterday or the day before as forecast, but it did pour last night and stopped in the morning. I figured that I would start early today and stop before it was suppose to rain. The sun came out and I figured it would be a good day. I was also able to breakout the Goal Zero solar charger.

It hit the road and found a few ups and downs and for the most part it was fairly level. I crossed Willamette Pass with about a 1,200′ elevation gain in less than two miles. I remember the hotel owner saying it would be an easy walk as it was all downhill. I just remember not to take information from the friendly locals as gospel.

I encountered a road closer just over the pass. My day was going well and the closure just added to it by being the funniest and best thing that happened to me all day.

I walked past a long line of cars and the flagman waved me over. He told me he wasn’t sure what to do with me because I couldn’t walk through the tunnel against traffic. A tunnel, wow! He told to me to go after the last car and said everyone will just have to wait. I said ok, but how far is it? Oh, maybe a half mile? Wow, great, and I am sure there will be a lot of pissed off drivers sitting there waiting and then see me casually strolling through.

So there I go, at a slow pace, or even slower, while I look around and say hello to the workers. It only took me about ten or fifteen minutes and I felt like a little kid on a tunnel ride all by myself at Disneyland. Now that’s a trekking experience I’ll always remember.

Once I passed the tunnel the road start downhill, and rapidly. I always find it harder on the joints and feet going downhill and this was the first day that the plantar fasciitis really troubled me and I made it a point to slow down.

It started to drizzle about 1:30 and I was prepared and put on my gear and covered the Wheelie. It rained lightly for about an hour and then started pouring. At that point it was almost impossible to set up the tent without getting the inside soaked.

It never stopped raining but slowed a bit about five, when I found this spot. I decided to assembled the poles before I laid the tent down and also covered the tent with the fly before I staked it down and raised it. It helped but the tent still got a little wet. Even though I really like this tent, I need one that has a built-in fly that is setup as one piece.

It is raining hard now and I am hoping that today is the last of the 8-9 days of rain in the ten day forecast?

Hopefully I will be able to update my blog tomorrow if there is cell service. As always, please keep sending your positive thoughts and prayers going my way. Please excuse the typos, spelling, etc.

Best wishes, Ted