Although the Narrator’s Journey South on Rt 97 Must Have Continued Well Into the Dark of Night, My Trip (and Photos) Continued Mid Next Day .
“Something about the car drivers too. … “(Cont.Next)
As you can see in the above photo, and consistent with the Narrator’s personality, there are good reasons why the Narrator neglects to mention Redmond, OR (Similar reasons apply to the previously unmentioned bustling town of Prineville, OR.)!! As mentioned in the 2nd photo previous, the Narrator’s “Crooked River route” (O'Neil Highway) is consistent with the Narrator’s desire to take the lesser traveled “by-ways”. Here, he chooses a scenic, low-traffic highway to go West from Prineville, OR, thus avoiding the faster more recently constructed Rt 126. For most travelers, this is the main road West. But having said this, why did he choose to take the O’Neil Road, if the road in above photo, through Redmond, to Crater Lake was evidently his chosen route? (For the following, look at your map.) Given the Narrator’s criterion, the obvious choice after would be to travel the even longer stretches of what must be “scenic by-ways” that utilize even lower traffic secondary roads that turn South off of Rt 126 soon after town of Powel Butt, OR. These roads shown as “small black lines” on both my RMcN Maps eventually angle over to Bend, OR, avoiding many miles of high trafficked main highways and the bustling detestable city of Redmond, OR. (Continues next.)
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Busy Four Lane Highway. View North Back Towards Redmond
“They look just like the gasoline attendant, staring straight ahead in some private trance of their own. I haven’t seen that since . . . since Sylvia noticed it the first day. They all look like they’re in a funeral procession. .. Once in a while one gives a quick glance and then looks away expressionlessly, as if minding his own business, as if embarrassed that we might have noticed he was looking at us. I see it now because we’ve been away from it for a long time. The driving is different too. The cars seem to be moving at a steady maximum speed for in-town driving, as though they want to get somewhere, as though what’s here right now is just something to get through. The drivers seem to be thinking about where they want to be rather than where they are. .. “(Cont.Next)
Entering Bend, OR. After having traveled the unpopulated, remote “back-country’ for most of the ZMM Routs and especially since Missoula MT, the intense traffic of Rt97, of the four lane undivided main highway South from Redmond, OR, is indeed a sudden slap in the face!! As I stood by this intense busy highway, I could feel real fear!! The fact that I had the sturdy guard rail between me and all that vicious traffic was no comfort. My heart was racing and I had the almost un-bearable panic urge "I've got to get out of here!! Here, no matter how long I waited, I could not get a vehicle-free photo of this road. So I had to settle for fewer than ordinary speeding of cars to get this photo. I tried to wait for a lull in the traffic to get this and the next two photos. As you can see, even the lulls had very, very, intense traffic!! If this traffic was bad for the Narrator 42 years ago, it is much, much, worse now!
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Busy Four Lane Highway. View South (Forward) Towards La Pine.
“I know what it is! We’ve arrived at the West Coast! We’re all strangers again! Folks, I just forgot the biggest gumption trap of all. The funeral procession! The one everybody’s in, this hyped-up, fuck-you, supermodern, ego style of life that thinks it owns this country. We’ve been out of it for so long I’d forgotten all about it.“(Cont.Next)
Entering Bend, OR. My Rand McNally Road Map (RMcN) marks as a “Scenic Route”Rt97 South of Redmond, OR all the way to the North entrance to Crater Lake National Park ,and beyond. Continuation previous topic = “Narrator's choice of "bad" route through Redmond OR:“ On the 2nd photo previous I pointed out that the Narrator's route South that took him along the insanely busy shown above. Because this highway did not meet his usual criterion, we make a Hypothesis:. Perhaps the Narrator’s original plan was to travel generally West from Prinville Junction thru the mountainous Three Sisters Wilderness Area of Central Oregon. He then could follow a combination of the various secondary roads to the Oregon Pacific Coast. Perhaps the fatigue and discouragement at Prineville Junction was so intense the Narrator abruptly decided to switch to the shorter less time consuming route to California coast we see in ZMM. More evidence for a hasty choice may be seen in the Narrator’s admission, later on (page 313) at the rundown but good food restaurant at Klamath Lake: “As we eat I see on the map we’ve taken a wrong turn way back and could have gotten to the ocean much quicker by another route.“. All the above fit a route, marked by black felt tip, on a USA map given to me by John Sutherland. Sutherland. He said the map had been Mr. Pirsig’s. Notes on the map, using the same black marker are written in Mr. Pirsig’s hand writing. This old map ,circa 1950, shows where Mr. Pirsig had marked a planned route West, through Northern Oregon, to the Pacific Coast and thence to San Francisco by way of the Pacific Ocean Coast.
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The Trucks Just Roar On By In the Crowded Stream of Traffic!
“We get into the stream of traffic going south and I can feel the hyped-up danger close in. I see in the mirror some bastard is tailgating me and won’t pass. I move it up to seventy-five and he still hangs in there. Ninety-five and we pull away from him. I don’t like this at all.“(Cont.Next)
Entering Bend, OR. About the traffic, I must agree with the Narrator, having been there! I especially remember my intense experience while standing by this highway and trying to take my eight photos for a panorama! Ever since way before Prineville, the Oregon landscape views include huge volcanic cones in all directions. Thirty miles to the West of this location, unmentioned by the Narrator, are several close together and beautiful snow covered cones called The Three Sisters. You will get to see them when I get my Panoramas Uploaded to this Photo Gallery.
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The Pine Tavern Is an Old and Venerable Oregon Institution.
“At Bend we stop and have supper in a modern restaurant in which people also come and go without looking at each other. The service is excellent but impersonal.“(Cont.Next)
Boutique Shopping Area, Division Street Bend, OR. This major street was once Rt 97 straight through this bustling town. There is now a four lane divided bypass highway to the East. Phil Rudy, of Bend, says the Pine Tavern is an age-old institution of this town. I’d wager that this location was a road house and tavern in the very earliest Pioneer Days of Oregon history!
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Scrubby Trees Are Result of Very Little Rain and Deep, Deep, Layers of Nutrient Poor Volcanic Dust.
“Farther south we find a forest of scrubby trees, …. “(Cont.Next)
Somewhere South of Bend, OR. The Narrator does not mention a huge volcanic cinder cone called Lava Butt that is very soon after Bend. This volcanic wonder is immediately to the West of the existing (and any prior versions of) Rt97. It dominates the local scenery for many a mile around. It might have cheered Chris up if they had stopped to see it or climb it. Such natural wonders (tourist attractions, other than the road scenery) are mostly ignored in ZMM. I say more about this at the turnoff to enter Crater Lake National Park.
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A Forest of Scrubby Trees Similar To Where the Narrator and Chris Camped.
“ …. [forest of scrubby trees,] subdivided into ridiculous little lots. Some developer’s scheme apparently.“(Cont.Next)
Somewhere North of, but close to, La Pine, OR. Where is the "housing development” with the ridiculous tiny lots? .. While traveling South towards La Pine, OR, I traveled slower than average and closely studied the landscape on both sides of Rt. 97, for any present-day evidence of this place. For many miles prior to La Pine, practically ALL of the land adjoining the highway is under the close control of the National Forest Service. No houses or businesses AT ALL! A place that qualifies as the Narrator’s 1968 camp site, was a semi populated area centered around a major side road along Oregon Rt. 97, less than 5 miles North of La Pine, OR. This side road, as I remember it, is the only road, dirt or paved, for quite a distance prior to La Pine. OR. I remember there were buildings on the East side of Rt97 in that immediate area. If there were any road (or drive) going East in this area, it is a minor road. In addition to other nearby private properties near that intersection, there is a fairly large mobile home park, on the NW corner where the side road intersected with Rt97. Judging from the general quality of the vegetation plus age of the mobile homes, this could well have been started in 1968, and had a very slow rate of people moving into these sites. As is normal for most other trailer villages, it was crowded side-by-side, Cheek by Jowl on small narrow lots! (Continued next)
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Although Balmy Now, It Will Cool Off With the Passing Hours.
“ …. At one of the lots far off the main highway we spread out our sleeping bags …. “(Cont.Next)
Somewhere North of, but close to, La Pine, OR. (Continued fm previous.) So it is safe to say that the above mentioned mobile home park had/has ridiculous tiny lots! I did not take a photograph at the time because I thought better candidates would be "On Down The Highway"! I was wrong, but by the time I realized this, it was too late to go back. Anyway, as I remember, the land visible from the highway, was fairly flat and, except for the private property, was covered with pine forest dense enough to block vision at a depth of 30 feet into the forest. This flatness seemed to extend for at least a mile in all directions. The surrounding mountains were not high enough at that intersection to be seen above the trees around that area. Can anyone help us with this? Having studied a Topozone map, I believe this is at the intersection of Rt97 with Burgess Road, 2.8 mi North of Lapine OR. You can also see on this map there is Huntington Road along a river just East of Rt97. This may have been Rt97 in 1968, since an elderly couple I talked to remember when a new Rt97 was put in. Considering that the Narrator may have traveled the older road, their Campsite may have been along it, perhaps near the intersection of Burgess Rd. Other Topozone maps shows more tract type roads another 1.4 mi North of Burgess Rd. There are other places further North, but not visible from the River Road or the (new?) Rt97. Detour in a new browser frame at: http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=10&n=4838406.00013335&e=621670.000003017&datum=nad83
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Very Fine Soft Dust That Sticks to Everything.
“ …. and discover that the pine needles just barely cover what must be many feet of soft spongy dust. I’ve never seen anything like it. We have to be careful not to kick up the needles or the dust flies up over everything. .. We spread out the tarps and put the sleeping bags on them. That seems to work. “(Cont.Next)
Somewhere North of, but close to, La Pine, OR. I found this dust several places in Oregon, exactly as described by the Narrator. The first place was at the Lava Lands Visitor Center just South of Bend, OR. The 2nd and 3rd places were at the Coral Springs Campground some 55 travel miles further South and the entrance to Crater Lake National Park, 29 miles further South. In this general area, widely spaced, short scrubby pines seemed to be an indicator of especially deep dust. In this same area, the gravel along the road, as seen in my photographs, was brick red volcanic cinders. I hypothesize that vehicles will bog down and get stuck easily in the soft spongy volcanic dust. Hence the necessity for the cinders, seemingly the only available substitute for gravel or hard packed earth. It is similarly possible that the volcanic cinders must likewise be used to make a stable road bed under the asphalt pavement.
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Sunset Illuminates the Flying Saucer Shaped Cloud.
“Chris and I talk for a while about where we are and where we are going. I look at the map in the twilight, and then look at it some more with the flashlight. We’ve covered 325 miles today. That’s a lot. Chris seems as completely tired as I am, and as ready as I am to fall asleep.(End Chapter. 26 & End Part III.)“
Somewhere North of, but close to, La Pine, OR.
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