You know you are going to have a fun hike when the day starts out by needing to block a major highway with your truck after putting your emergency flashers on. But no one else was doing what needed to be done, so I knew I had no choice. You see, I was driving east through the Gorge on Hwy 14 when I saw two young deer trying to cross the busy road. They had made it across the train tracks from getting drinks down by the Columbia River and now needed to get across the highway littered with logging trucks and other big rigs. They were sandwiched between those train tracks and the bustling highway and were absolutely terrified. I could see them making several attempts to run and then stop and go back. They were frantically pacing back and forth and every move of their bodies screamed terror. Their faces showed extreme panic. Even though they appeared to be about the same age, one of the does was trying to be the leader and get them across, but the other was too afraid. I knew I was only a moment away from watching this terrible game of chicken go terribly wrong as these ladies were going to make a move of panic and it would not end well. None of the big trucks were even slowing down. No one cared, or so it seemed. Well, I should say that Josie the wolf cared. She was trying to go through my windshield to help, but I don't think her way of helping would have been what the deer needed. So I did what I had to do by turning on my emergency flashers and blocked both lanes with my truck. I was going to get these ladies across to safety if I had to get out myself to guide them. I was not making friends with the humans that morning, but I am happy to say that those 2 deer got safely across the road to live to see another day. My trail truck has now earned himself a new boy-scout patch....Deer Crossing Guard.
As I continued driving toward Eastern Oregon for my hike, I was reminded of the verse from the book of Psalms where it talks about deer panting desperately for water the way our souls long for God. How true that is I thought. I was desperate for my day hiking with God just like those deer were willing to risk their lives for that cold Columbia River drink. I was thankful that He put me in the right place at the right time to help the deer and couldn't wait to see what would unfold in the day before us. I prayed as I drove onward.
Today was suppose to be a rainy soaker on the west side of the State and I couldn't bear to do a snow day with my current state of spring fever, so off to the east side we were going. There is a great canyon along the John Day River in eastern Oregon that was to be our destination. The John Day River is the longest undammed river in Oregon and has created a canyon down through deep basalt rocks from volcanic flows as much as 1600 feet deep in places! We had hiked the west side of the canyon several times, but never the east side. So it seemed like the perfect trail to explore. Since it was the first week in April I had pared down to only wearing a couple layers of clothing, but as soon as I hit the trailhead I knew it was still too much. The sun was already beating down on me and it was truly a shock to my system. After our long winter I felt like I couldn't even remember the last time I was this warm on a hike! So I stripped off my leggings and went down to just my thin spring hiking pants. Because I had no other choice, I pulled off my fleece hoodie to bare just my base layer tank top. I really wasn't mentally prepared to hike in a tank top after being in snow pants and coats just last week, but I didn't have any mid-weight layers with me and it was too warm for anything else. So I hit the trail feeling the vitamin D soaking into my shoulders. We were all smiling about the sunshine right about then.
There is something special about hiking in the desert. It feels so strange to me since 95 percent of our hikes are on mountains and in deep forests. This landscape of rolling hills, sagebrush and blue skies makes me feel as if we are on another planet. Even the girls seemed to be taken aback from the difference. Josie was initially pouting that we were not in snow and had instead seemed to have gone to her nightmare.....an arctic wolf in the desert! But then I let her get in the river and she was all smiles once again. She even got to looking at and enjoying the geology around us.
Mostly when we do desert hiking, it seems we are following jeep trails through the rugged terrain. The dusty paths are wide and easy to follow, so we can check out and just let our minds wonder as aimlessly as our feet. I love those kind of days. The miles click by almost unnoticed as we explore and smell the pungent sage, ever watchful for rattlesnakes. I am not going to lie, I almost always break off some branches of sage and stash them in my pack pockets. I love that scent and will put them in the glove box of my truck or on my nightstand near by bed so I can enjoy it for weeks to come.
Josie and I became very distracted by some new friends that seemed to be everywhere on this hike. There were butterflies all around us! They initially appeared black with cream colored edges, but when I finally got one to hold still for me, I realized that they were more of a reddish brown color with purple spots just before their creamy edges. They were beautiful and kept flying into our faces and circling all around us as we hiked. Josie kept trying to catch them in her mouth of course, and narrowly missed two of them. Nova, ever the Princess, wouldn't think about hurting a butterfly of course. But we surely all enjoyed their presence. I felt that they were celebrating the sunshine with us!
As we hiked and I felt the warmth from the sun soaking through my skin I felt completely renewed. It was like I could breathe again after a long period of darkness and despair. The sun just felt so amazing! I hadn't realized that I had been holding my breath all winter until just then. The lyrics to the Rolling Stone song "Paint it Black" came to me a lot on this hike. Now for the record, the best version I have ever heard of this song is the new one from the Zac Brown band. It will change your life, so you should listen to it! (The drive to the John Day Canyon is a long one and I might have listened to this song on my Cd player about 100 times in a row on the way). But that song hit how I was feeling in this moment so perfectly. All winter long hiking through blizzards and through death. There were no flowers, no color, no ferns, all deciduous plants dormant. Everything just seemed black. Now there is a beauty to winter like no other, I must admit, and I do love it for a time. But once I am done, I am done. I need my darkness to go. Like the song, for too long I had wanted to see the sun blotted out from the sky and I wanted everything to be black. I felt a darkness within and I had to turn my head until it passed. Oh what a perfect song! It is a song of despondency and the abandonment of hope. That is what winter hiking becomes for me. No hope left. But now, here in this sunshine beating down off the canyon walls onto my bare skin, I could feel the blackness escaping from my very pores. Just look at this beauty. You can even see the renewed hope in Nova's eyes. We will live to see another day just like those deer we assisted.
We had total freedom to do whatever we wanted. So we bushwhacked through fields of sage brush startling grouse up into the air as we moved. We studied the local geology and climbed the hills around us just for fun. I knew we were going to stay out here so we could enjoy sunset, so we just kept hiking and exploring. At some point, we came upon Josie, the Bone Collector's, dream.
We had to spend some quality time here of course. Once I was finally able to pull her away, I was proud of her that she only chose to carry one small vertebrae with us and not the entire spine. To be fair, the spine was pretty heavy.
But Josie's favorite thing that happened all day long was not swimming in the John Day River, looking at the unique landscape, or even finding these bones. Her favorite thing occurred as we were hiking fast and silent around a corner. She was a full six feet out ahead of Nova and I at the end of her line, and got to experience the full encounter first. We startled a silver grey coyote into such a panic that he jumped straight up in the air and flew up the hill to our south like the devil himself was on his tail. I couldn't help but laugh out loud. I mean, imagine what this poor coyote must have thought when a wolf more than twice his size walked around the corner upon him! I am sure he saw his entire life flash in front of him. The blur that he became running uphill from us only stopped once when he reached a ledge above to look back and see if he was being pursued. His perky ears pointed right down at us before he took off again happy to see that we were not giving chase. Josie, however, was not happy that we were not chasing him. Her entire priority in life had suddenly become to run him down. I had always wondered what she would do if we encountered coyotes close up on the trail and now I know she does not want to join them....she wants to attack them. I am left to wonder what she will do when we encounter wolves. Time will tell I suppose.
Once she realized that I was not going to let her give chase to the poor coyote, she started to sniff around where he had been standing. She picked something up in her mouth and I assumed it was his scat. She is obsessed with coyote poop on the trail, always picking it up and carrying it for miles. So I didn't think much of it, until we decided to sit down under a tree in a grassy place by a fresh spring. It was the perfect place to pull our dinner out and enjoy the last warm rays of sun for the day. As I unpacked my kit and was getting the dog bowls and thermos out, I heard a very loud crunching. This was a bone on bone crunching. "Josie, what do you have?" I asked. There was no response. I saw something round in her mouth. After some further investigation and observing soft brown fur, blood and bone, I realized that she had a rabbit head in her mouth. Ugh, she had stolen the remaining portion of that coyote's dinner, not his scat. Knowing that it is always finders keepers with Josie, I didn't even bother to try to wrestle it away from her. So while Nova and I sat in a quiet and civilized manner eating our stew, we listened to the wolf crunch down her rabbit head with great gusto. "I am not kissing you on the lips for a week!" I told her. After dinner we laid in the grass and enjoyed some solitude before getting ready for the hike out.
We hiked the same path back out and just could not reconcile how this trail didn't have people all over it. The only thing I could figure is that it was too far away from most cities. But the beauty here was surreal.
We did find one special place along the river as we worked our way back to the truck where I would easily have spent the night had I had my overnight gear with me. It was stunning. The lowering sun was hitting the cliff walls in such a way as to fill the canyon with a beautiful color. The dusty ground was still reverberating heat up towards us, the long grasses were gently blowing in the breeze around us, the sound of the lazy river slowly moving past us all had an intoxicating effect on my soul. I told the girls we needed to take some serious pictures here because it was so beautiful. But that is, of course, when Josie decided that she would rather goof off than be serious. So here she is pretending to eat her sister's head. Bless Nova's heart as she was trying so hard to stay focused!
Then Josie decided it would be more fun to roll backwards into the river than be serious after 15 miles of hiking.
I know, it is funny now. But at the time I was rather exasperated with the creature! I am pretty sure I threatened to leave her behind. So she finally relented and gave me one more picture on the hike out. I reminded myself that she is still basically a puppy and told her she was a good girl after all.
When we finally got back to the truck and I was putting my gear away and changing out of my hiking boots and clothes I discovered that both of my shoulders were burned! The first sun burn of 2023!! I almost shrieked with joy to the moon above us while standing there in the pool of light spilling out of my truck! I am not painting this red door black I thought. I want to leave it red!! Oh, how I want to embrace the red!!
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