First and nearly last, day;

I finally got out of Oly a little after 4 in the afternoon - a great last day in town, even with all the bs, I had to deal with before I could go. Drew and I took my couch out to the bus stop across the street form my apt, and sat in the warm sun, bemused smiles of passing drivers, and left it holding a free sign.

By 6:30 I was in Portland, visited some old haunts, ran into an acquaintance form Oly that had moved to Ptown, planned on taking one last shot at finding a van, but decided I was pretty comfortable in the Insight, - that feeling would soon change. The plan, limited as it was, was to camp somewhere on the way to Breitenbush, had done some research, most were closed but a couple were open. I headed for Opal creek that Peter had told me about. A beautiful area that had finally been protected in the last decade. I noticed that the day parks on the way were all closed, and the road was getting a bit icy. When I finally got to my campground, it was closed, no idea why but it was, so I headed back down 25 miles to where I had turned off. At the turn off was a BLM station, so I pulled in their lot and tried to get a little sleep, I had been up since before 5 am, it was about 11, and I was beat. Trying to fit my big bod in that little car was brutal, I caught maybe an hours sleep, before heading closer to Breitenbush. About a mile past the turn off for Breitenbush, I found an open campground. the least inviting one I've ever seen, hard gravel, no grass, no privacy between sites, but it was open. As I started to figure out my site, the freezing rain began to fall, I imagined a cold, noisy night on hard ground, and decided to try the car again. I headed towards Breitenbush, and pulled off on a logging road, and got about an hour and half sleep, dreaming of bears tearing open my little car wafting the smells of it's load of food. By now my contorted body hurt all over, I was feeling nauseous with sleep deprivation, and it was 4 am. I headed for the hot springs. The freezing rain never let up. The road got more and more icy. My shoulders got more and more tense each time my car lost traction. Finally the last turn off to Breitenbush came, about 200 feet in my car was sliding more than it was driving - I pulled off and decided to hike the last couple of miles in. I stepped out of my car and realized why the insight wasn't getting any traction, rain on ice. Like going up a slanted ice rink. I could barely stand up, and couldn't walk on the stuff. gingerly I made my way to the side of the road, and started clomping my way through the accumulated ice and snow. It was slow going. Any time I thought I saw a trail off the road I would follow it, because they were much easier to walk on. They all dead ended. I kept on tromping up the hill. At one point near the end, their was no accumalation on the side, and edged dropped off down a steep incline. I had to inch along, at one point I started to slide towards the edge, and their was nothing I could do to stop. About an inch from the edge my momentum stopped. When I finally got to the land, the gate was locked, and it said closed, no trespassing without reservation. I had no reservation, but I was not turning around. I went over the gate, slipped by the security trailer, and I was in. The grounds were beautiful. Big Fir trees, interesting cabins, and lots of partly naked, very friendly men on their way to different springs saying hello, and 'how are you'... this post to be continued, I’ve got to go now