DAY 11 - Dayville, OR - 208 miles so far

Hey gang - without much fanfare, we've passed a milestone: 200 miles from home. Washington is 200 miles closer.

And, I'm indulging myself a little. It's just two of us walkers right now (a third joins us next week), and today is our last day with Matthew: our driver for the start of our trek. A personal emergency is taking Matthew back to Eugene. I will miss his poetic soul, his incredible music playlists, his depth of spirit. What a privilege to spend nearly two weeks in pilgrimage with him.

And life just keeps doing its life-y thing.

So: today, we did a thru-hiking trick: rather than relocate to Dayville (where our accommodations were a ho-hum RV park), instead we walked to Dayville, then got ferried back to Pat and Jalet's soul-nourishing refuge in Mitchell: the Spoke'n Hostel. I'm sitting with a pint of cider, waiting for my cheeseburger and fries... and contemplating a true zero day here in Mitchell tomorrow. Wednesday Bob and I will get ferried to Dayville, and press on to Mt. Vernon.

The other day, my dharma brother & brother from another mother - Kip Yushin ... shared with me the main teaching of any pilgrimage: You can't bend the road to you. Instead: the road will bend you. And that's the whole point. The bumps in the road ARE the road.

Dayville, Oregon. The kiosk that sold smoothies was CLOSED. These two fossils right here were devastated.

Matthew, our driver for these past two weeks - at Scott Lake managing to survive the onslaught of thirsty mosquitoes.

After the road, the reward!