20 miles of hiking • 4500' elevation gain • 1 night
In the first week of March, I had the pleasure of going to the Oregon high desert twice, visiting the John Day and Deschutes rivers. The first trip was a bikepack up the Deschutes from the confluence with the Columbia River. We biked up about 11 miles, and camped at the Fall Canyon campsite. Had a nice hike up Harris Canyon to the top of the rim. The camp had a resident Western screech owl. It was so cute and charming at first, but not at 3 am. Hiked 4 miles, 1000 feet.
A few days later I came back and stopped at the Deschutes again enroute to Cottonwood Canyon. I hiked upstream from the state park using the Blackberry and Riverview trails, 5.5 miles, 500 feet.
At Cottonwood, I did some hiking and biking, and was able to get into the Lower John Day Wilderness Study area via the Hardscrabble trail. Explored a section called the "Ruggles grade". It is so magnificent there! Stayed solo in a cabin for 2 nights, and did lots of art. Also had a wonderful morning encounter with a herd of 10 sheep. They were down low, right by the river trail. Usually, they are up high and barely discernible. This herd of females and youngsters allowed me to cautiously circle around them and take lots of pictures and videos. They were wary and kept an eye on me, but didn't bolt, and continued to browse. Two had tracking collars, and one had a broken horn! Very cool to observe them for a long time. Hiked 6 miles, 1500 ft eg
On the way home, I stopped at Catherine Creek and enjoyed a nice loop amongst the grass widows. 4.5 miles, 1500 ft
