Day 20 – Tollgate – The Trek

September 4 – Trail of the blue mountainsNe oregon

# of other BMT through those who gathered to date: 1

The northern fork

I didn’t have a great night of sleep. When I went to the river to drink water in the morning, the store apparently abandoned in the other site was gone. I guess that was the 11 PM car last night. The only explanation that occurred to me for all night activity is drugs. I couldn’t wait to get out of there and enter the desert.

The North Fork Umatilla River. Look at the misty sky.

I had noticed during the night that I couldn’t see any star, and when I woke up I discovered why. It was super misty today. But along the North Fork Umatilla river it was serene. A lot of vegetation and a new wrinkle for this trip: slugs. Great slugs. All the way. I really didn’t want to step on them, so I was dancing while walking, stepping on this way and that. Apart from that, it was great to walk through northern bifurcation. There were some good places to camp beyond, but nevertheless, I felt that I had made the right decision last night. Despite finishing in a drug field.

Entering the Nfur desert.

North Fork Umatilla River.

The path began in good condition and then worsened constantly while heading for northern bifurcation. And it still was hot despite the fact that the forecast was less heat today. At least the slugs disappeared as heat grew. When I climbed the cannon, the path became increasingly exposed. While changing the cannon, the path entered and came out of raffles that had good size trees. The raffles were pleasant because they were cooler, but the path was also covered with weeds. The open sections were pleasant because it was easier to walk but much hotter. And the exhibition in the pronounced slopes was high. Normally that would not bother me, but I think I was still a bit scared yesterday.

The halfway path between Nfur Wilderness paths. It was much better at each end, closer to the initial and finished paths.

Catherine

My plan was to meet Catherine in Tollgate for refueling and then walk for another 5 miles or so. I had not been so long, just a few days, but I had a long section after this before my next replenishment. When I finally left the Umatilla North Fork cannon, soaked with sweat, I decided that I would try to find a room with AC in Tollgate during the night. I needed a restart after Shimmiehorn and record heat. When I entered Tollgate Crossing, the woman behind the counter said: «Are you walking on the BMT?» Wow, another person who had heard of the path!

Catherine appeared shortly after I did it and we had a delicious hamburger in Tollgate Crossing. According to his advice, I called the outdoor store in La Grande, Blue Mountain OutfittersTo see if they had carbon fiber hiking posts. The owner was very helpful once I explained my situation. Unfortunately, they were not in stock until tomorrow. Fortunately, Catherine had brought some posts with her, including some she found at home that they had never been used. They had approximately twice the weight of my carbon fiber post, but one would work well for now.

Catherine also offered me to return to her with her and stay in her place and Shawn. Temptor, but I was going to be hot in the valley and really wanted to cool off. In addition, I was 45 minutes by car, which meant that tomorrow morning it would be a slow start.

Meanwhile, Tollgate Crossing’s good staff was checking to see if they could find a room for me. It turns out that the owner of Tollgate Crossing was the owner of Marco Big’s house on the other side of the road. Although it was a 5 bedroom house, I was willing to rent 1 bedroom at night, whenever I promised to use only 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom. What relief!

After walking along the n fk umatilla, I headed up and up, and the vegetation opened again.

Vegetable

Once I got what I needed from my refueling box within frame A (plus 1 hiking post), Catherine went home. I took a long shower and enjoyed air conditioning. Then he returned to Tollgate Crossing for a beer and some daily time. After they caught me in my newspapers, I sat at the dinner bar. Not long after, another hiker entered dinner, and surely it seemed that he was also doing the BMT. And it was! It was my first Bmter sighting.

His name was Veg and I was in the opposite direction. We change notes on the conditions and thoughts of the path on the BMT. I had seen another BMT through a trip in the same direction as me, not long after it started. She had told him that the path was much harder than he thought it would be. But presumably he succeeded since he would have been quite close to the end by then.

We didn’t have enough time to talk because he was starting to get dark and he wanted to go on the path a few miles to camp. I was still amazed to have seen someone else. Veg, if you see this, leave us how you did it. I saw that there was an Austin Junction forest fire that could have affected its route.

Elevation tracker

Day 20: 3,945 ‘

Total: 52,664 ‘

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