I slept great on Alan and Erin’s couch and even had their dog Junior join me in the middle of the night. Erin had to go to work, so I took Alan out to breakfast at the Green Mountain Bakery. Mmmmm, a huge plate of bacon and cheese omlette, hash browns and toast later, I knew my stomach would be full for most of the day. I headed over to Safeway to resupply for the next few days to Paisley, and soon was ready to start my road walk out of town.

Hikertrash resupply

Now I had been able to string together a great route to get me to town, but the Warner Valley is wide enough that there would be a big chunk of road walking no matter how I decided to go. The orginal route passes about 8.5 miles north of town, and I could have just walked the highway, but didn’t want to do that, so pieced together some roads to get me back on Forest Service land in 13 miles…it would be another 15 or so to meet back up with the ODT at waypoint 103. All in all I think the alternate route is about 56 miles as opposed to 21 miles plus a 8.5 mile hitch into town for resupply. I just want to give people options, and I think Lakeview is an awesome stop. There is a hotspring hotel, Safeway, restaurants, stores, museums, a great library…just big enough to have options but small enough to be able to walk around easily. AND it’s the biggest trail town after Bend on the route.

I took a break at the Forest Service boundary, talked to Kirk on my phone, read a bit of a book Cam and Christine had given me, and finally got back on the road about 3:30. Since it is hunting season I expected to see people… especially since it was a Saturday, but the dirt roads were empty, and I had the forest all to myself.

I finally pulled over when my feet were starting to ache. I have the start of a blister on my left foot, the first of the trip! Pretty impressive for my feet.

Not sure how many miles back to the trail…I’m guessing 6-7. We’ll see!