Adventure day 2 was a day of highs and lows. It started out at the bottom after a night of no sleep and brrrrr cold! At 8am my weather app said “feels like 24” and I said “no sh!t.”

Condensation was frozen on the inside of my windshield 🥶.

I was so thankful for my 12 volt electric blanket and I was awake anyway so I could just keep resetting it after the 45 minute shutoff. I started my day with a major bad attitude about the whole thing. I warmed up from the inside out with hot oatmeal and tea thanks to the miracle that is Jet Boil and headed over to Smith Rock SP.

The host told me about his favorite trail that nobody takes, and sure enough It was terrific and I had it to myself. I followed Canyon Trail along the river, directly across from the wildly popular River Trail, and I was the only person on my side.

But the return had this wee issue of no actual trail. Just follow the deer trails, he said, but deer go everywhere, randomly, so I’m eyeballing my Gaia GPS app as I zig and zag trying to stay pointed in the right direction. And, the gps was sucking my phone battery at an alarming rate so I had to really hustle my pace to make it back before my phone died.

After my hike, I decided to head further east into the high desert. It’s pretty empty territory and I’d already decided I was getting a motel room tonight for sleep and a hot shower, so I called ahead and found the last room in the wee town of Paisley. The drive down here is a scenic byway and beautiful in an unforgiving way. A deer tried to take me out, hiding in the sagebrush until I was alongside him then leaping in front of my car at the last minute, his eyes all wild like I was coming after him. The owner of this 4 room business also owns a home grown little hot springs “resort” and he allowed me to come over and soak in the natural hot springs. That was a perfect end to the day!