It May Not Be Huckleberry Season Yet, but Huckleberry Lookout Did Not Disappoint

I can’t believe I’m already almost a month into my Oakridge Adventure! I’m getting settled in the shop and really enjoy the atmosphere and my 3-4 days a week schedule. One of the big decisions I made when moving here was to stay car-free. I sold Sassy Sally in October 2019 when I left for bikepacking New Zealand and Australia. Covid sent me home to Santa Barbara for over a year and since I was living with Jesse I was not motivated to purchase a car again, even though we ended up living for months without a car when his transmission died! When it came time to move to Oakridge, and I had to get myself, three bikes, plus my other belongings up here it was tempting to purchase a truck or van; I was looking quite seriously when I thought that I would not have a place to live and would be doing “van life” in the forest. After the opportunity to live in town with Kai opened up and I learned that as a shop employee I could use the bike shuttles, in addition to having so many trails right out my door, I decided that continuing my car-free life was an option. I was lucky to find a great deal on the cargo van and even luckier that Jesse wanted to come up with me, making a round trip rental an affordable and viable option.

This week I had four days in a row off work and it was time to get Sube and my bikepacking gear up and running; I was excited to explore new places on the map.  I spent a lot of time climbing, climbing, and climbing up forest logging roads that look like this (above). 

I hit intermittent snow around 4,500 feet and eventually gave in and parked my bike and walked rest of the way to this beautiful lake.  I had hit the sweet spot: cars couldn’t get in and the mosquitoes hadn’t hatched!

After spending a bit of time at the lake I hiked back to my bike, descended the road to the last junction, and climbed a bit more to the Huckleberry Lookout. I had carried a night’s worth of water with me because I was hoping it would feel like a good place to spend the night.  The views and the vibe exceeded expectations and even though there were many hours of summer light left in the day, I was home for the night. Beautiful snow covered mountains were visible in all directions.

In the morning I made quick work of breaking down camp and a long descent followed by crossing the Huckleberry Flats OHV area – my plan to cross early in the morning and limit the number of vehicles I encountered worked perfectly. By 9am I was pedaling along the North Fork of the Willamette River on the Aufderheide Scenic Byway.

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We are having a heat wave here (90sF in town) and I had a big climb to Blair Lake and wanted to finish it before the heat of the day. I climbed, and climbed some more. Punching through more snowbanks on the road indicated I was likely to have the campground to myself. I arrived around 1pm with no other people in the vicinity – yay, a private lakefront campsite for me! I enjoyed a quiet meditative afternoon and eventually two folks with fishing poles and pack rafts arrived, they had hiked in after the couldn’t drive any further. They were quiet and stayed on their side of the lake :).

It was so wonderful to sleep outside for the first time in over a month, especially with such spectacular scenery and with so much solitude! The next morning I was heading home. Following a fast descent down a different drainage onto Salmon Creek road which is a gentle downhill coast home I had one more trick up my sleeve. I had been eyeing the Warm Springs up a short trail not too far from home. I love truth in advertising! Indeed the springs were more warm than hot, but in the cool early morning air, surrounded by (somewhat) old growth forest it was a heavenly place to sit and rest, getting ready to come home and get back to chores.

I finished my soak in complete privacy, dried off, and was biking back down the trail when I saw a completely naked man walking up the trail, yet oblivious to my presence. I gave him a friendly hello, to which he replied in a friendly manner before suddenly remembering he was completely naked! He held his bag of clothes in front of himself and started apologizing in an embarrassed manner. Stammering that there hadn’t been any cars in the parking area so he thought he was alone. I told him no worries, all was well and to enjoy his soak! It was a fun note on which to end a most wonderful little adventure. I cruised back to town and was home before noon. It can be difficult for me to slow down and not keep pedaling when so much daylight is available, but I am so grateful I stayed in the two camps that I did and would not have changed a thing. Mind and heart restored.

Time to get back to work for a few days!