Maupin

Sorry it's been a while, the towns are thinning out, now.
Portland was great. I healed up, played some songs, explored a little bit of the city on a borrowed bike and played some Scrabble. The actual owner of the property is Debbie DeRose, who I met in the morning following my last post. I'm so glad she opened up the place to me, because it was a good spot to take a few days off.
I left Portland on Saturday morning, and decided not to go up to 14, in Washington, as was planned. I decided that I could cut off some miles by following 26 through Oregon, instead, and I was told by a few people that I really should see Mount Hood.
By noon I saw a digital bank sign that said it was ninety two degrees, and the pavement burned my feet up pretty well. I tried to take cover during the worst of the day, but I still had to put on the sandals for a while.
I stayed the night just before the town of Sandy, and in the morning I looked for a computer, but realized that it was Sunday, and so I had to push on. After Sandy the forests take over again, and by midday I was starting to climb up into the mountains of the Mt. Hood National Forest. I made twenty seven miles, on the day, and camped in the woods between the towns of Rhodendron and Government Camp.
The next day I started climbing, and kept climbing heavily, for the next six miles. Government camp, in the shadow of Mount Hood, was just getting it's thawing in. I guess the residents up here hadn't seen the north facing sides of their houses in a long time, and the roadside was running heavy with the melting snow.
Coming down the east side of the pass I met a man who is riding a bike from Vancouver (OR) to Chicago. "My kid was too busy to make a visit this year," he told me from the roadside, as I sat in the shade. "She said I'd just have to get on my bike and ride out there, so here I am."

This morning I woke up to rain, and on and off throughout the day that's what it's been. Drizzle. Downpour. Mist. Drizzle. Downpour. Etc. I walked another long day, taking 216 east to the town of Maupin. Later on I'm planning to head south and catch 26 again, but this is where I'm at, for now.
Unfortunately the feet aren't doing so well with the changing weather. Three days of radiating concrete, followed by a day of solid rain, haven't exactly been therapeudic. So I'm in the sandals, again, after getting a good ways barefoot. We'll see.
Last Saturday was graduation back in Canon City. The second time a class of mine has moved on without me. But I don't regret my decision. Not before and not now. I've never been headed down a straight road, or a well traveled one. I don't know where I'm going, exactly, but I know that the road I'm on is the right one.