Peaceful night among the ghosts of forest service people of the past. Today is day 4 of 5, a 10 mile trail ride and 10 mile road ride back upriver.

Dropped back down to river and found Apple Creek TH @ edge of past forest fire. Hung the shower from the rain gutter and headed out to brush against poison oak. And there is lots of it. It poaches the trail edge making it hard to avoid. Ran into a biker heading upstream pulling a BOB that he said was training for elk season. He offered & I accepted a dose of Technu rubbed on my exposed skin some 1 hour 20 mins after perhaps first exposure. The time is important as the text books say that the urishiol bonds to the protein in the skin w/in 45 mins and it can’t be deactivated: if you are going to get the poison, you are on your way. Trail traveled up & down per normal seeking routes over rock faces, sometimes right on river itself. The 10 miles was still a hump.

Hit road and rode back on old highway that is overgrown and parallels the river until it dumps back onto main road. Nice road ride back.

Before I left for ride I heard a buzzing sound of wings from inside the van. I figured a moth like insect. Instead it was a humming bird that wedged itself against the front windshield. I tenderly grabbed its tail to help out and feathers flew. Next i managed a wing hold and released it to its freedom. May it grow its feathers back.

Oregon’s wild flying critters. 2 years ago on my previous visit I was camped @ Big Camus. I was sitting @ my desk w/ the side door open w/o the netting. I looked upon chance to see a bat in full wing spread flying into the van. I ducked while it made 3 round trips inside searching for the opening.

BLM has shut down the Tioga section of the trail, the lower most portion for trail maintenance, I’m screwed for the last piece. Solution: re ride Dread & Terror. And that is where I am positioned tonight: back @ Lemola Lake where I stayed earlier. Parked van in shade this time hoping for coolness, not really so, still too hot inside.

Mt Thielson looms over far end of Lemola Lake. I climbed it, my first mountain 40 years ago today as it was declared a national holiday celebrating landing on the moon. I look @ it and think of climbing it again. Maybe, just maybe.

I would post pictures if I had faster internet speed.

Drove down to Glide looking for a grocery store, it was quite a ways down river from where I parked. On way back up river i saw a water recreater hitching a ride. I surmised that he paddled down river and his shuttle solution was to hitch hike back up stream to his car. And that he was. Dropped him off @ his rig.

Tried to hit Toketee RS before closing to share Dread & Terror ride but they were closed @ 4:45.

Road ride back was almost my terror.

Comfortable sleep last night; van cooled off and the mosqs were on the outside this night.

Slept till 7:00, rolled out of bed and turned to. Today is a big technical day. D & T is a 13 mile stretch down in Umpqua river canyon, once you drop in you are in until bail out @ 10 miles. I left @ 10:00.

D & T is temporarily closed because of flooding. I decided to make a go of it. Big drop in from Lemola lake to river. Water and weak mud abounded. Some places the trail was the run off. Great deep woods wet forest woods dirt trails, like Alpine but with more pedaling. Made the dreaded flooded section. At first there was some ankle deep mud, then some free flowing h20, mixed in were some chain saw cut out logs, then some mid skin deep h2o, all in about 150 yards if that far. Concern was based on no real knowledge.

Exited out @ Umpqua Hot Spring. Official bridge across river has been out for several years. FS can not sanction a make due bridge over a 3′ log that has about 20″ of rough sawn planking bolted into the log. I walked across w/o bike to learn of what to expect. A fall off the bridge might be a drowning, certainly loosing the bike. I liked what I felt and crawled over the root ball to get onto bridge. Made it and the hot springs parking lot. Popular place this spring. Just a hole in rock like a square tank maybe 4′ deep and 5′ square. I soaked in it one Thanksgiving trip. Today it was just too hot to add more heat to my overworked cooling system.

Rode to Toketee camp ground and searched for where I was dunked into the river last time I was here to chase away the heat stroke I was experiencing. Couldn’t find the hole, perhaps spring floods washed it out. Cold h2o saved my life as I was in convulsions and no muscle strength. I bonked returning to XG. I knew my skin was dry as in no perspiration but I attributed that to the high temp and low humidity. I iced myself but it didn’t seem to be working. I laid down on crushed gravel in shade of van and soon started to convulse. I was getting freaked. I called for help, at first rather timid. As the convulsions grew I cried louder. A couple  came to my rescue. The towel soaked in ice h2o wasn’t enough, still too hot. I asked to be taken to river. They drunk drug me into the knee deep cold h2o. Shorty I was convulsing from hypothermia. I was now too cold. But that was last trip.

Today I planned on refilling my hydration bladder @ same XG. No h2o in XG. OK, I will pick a stream and fill up. I rode back up river trail to hot springs to pick up gravel logging road to return to van. At hot spring I found a small free flowing dark woods babbling trickle and filled up.

The ride back was 10 miles of some shade, 87″ and a climb. I drank freely. I sensed that I wasn’t sweating profusely in spite of all h2o drunk. My pits were wet so i knew I was still sweating. What a slog. A car coming from the other direction actually stopped well before I met up and let me pass in dust free air. I thanked him as that was the first anybody did that for me. I walked several times to stretch my legs out. Last mile was downhill and I continued that downhill into the Lemola Lake resort to the boat launch. i shucked my helmet, gloves, pack, & glasses and walked in. Good & chilly sluffed the heat.

Rode back to van slowly. I opened the fridge for a beer and saw that the dreaded “F” was displayed meaning the fridge wasn’t working. Discovered that I ran out of propane because the stove wouldn’t light.  I packed up quickly and drove back to resort hoping they had propane to save a drive back to Diamond. Success. Full tank & back @ camp site.

Solar shower, rehydration, & rest. My legs are precramping. Randy, I ate maybe a teaspoon of mustard. How much should I eat?

Tomorrow it is down stream from Toketee. Bridges across the river will determine length of ride. Down lower poison ivy edges the trail. I will probaly ride highway 138 back up stream instead of pushing ST. But that is tomorrow.

Last night the mosq’s were torture. I checked the van ceiling to discover beaucoup mosqs. Hot night. Tried to pull sheet over my head for protection. I squashed several under the covers leaving some of my preciuos bodily fluid. Just awful. AM was cooler w/ fewer in circulation.

Drove to Diamond LAke USFS info booth to buy the forest’s rec map. I filled up the h2o tank & sloshed out the new soar shower and filled part way.

Drove to Lemola Lake and my start on the North Umpqua River Trail, abbreviated as NUT. Hot & clear. Mosqs not so bad @ approx 4000′. Rode 9 miles out & back to wilderness boundary. Mosqs too thick to linger anywhere so I rode almost non stop for 2 hours, 17.67 miles & 1448′ vert. Great small clear river up here @ source.

Found camping spot just below dam that creates Lemola Lake. Had a solar shower out in nthe breeze.

Tomorrow is Dread & Terror section. I listened to Tracy from Toketee tell me about h2o level on D & T that has closed the trail. Flow rate changes based upon electricity demand. Sometimes the flooded section has been ankle deep, others thigh deep. There is an exit b4 the flooded section. I plan on riding to flooded section & see if I can walk thru it. Tomorrow will be a ST downstream and a gravel logging road climb back to van.

Van gets pretty hot in sun and doesn’t like to shed that heat.