I got to the bus station to go from Portland to La Grand with plenty of time, had the bus not departed 15 minutes early. I would've been angry except it was midnight and the concept that a public bus service would leave 15 minutes before the scheduled time was so ridiculous that it made me laugh. I laughed slightly less when I realised it was true. Volumes could be written on how woeful the bus service is in the US but generally it seems to be that the service is only run as some kind of bizarre punishment to those who chose not to buy a car.
I met up with my old friend John and local Oregonian Pete and we headed into the wilderness on Saturday. Well, Saturday afternoon - we had to procrastinate a suitable amount in the morning, have breakfast, coffee, a bit more coffee, get some gear together, debate the relative merits of hiking into the hills versus sitting drinking beer and looking at them, eat enormous pizza and drink some beer, then hit the trail at 3pm. We still managed to arrive at Ice Lake, 12Km in and 1km up, before dark and caught a fish to to go with our Mac and Cheese. Pete fell asleep so John and I drank the two beers we carried in and ate the fish in his honour. The next day John and I climbed The Matterhorn while Pete scrambled up some creeks and went glissading on a snow drift. All around the lake were amazing wild flowers, birds, squirrel type creatures and we even saw goats up high on the mountain. We met back at Ice Lake and started hiking out just before 6pm, but not before Pete suggested we take an impromptu swim just before we split from the lake. It was random and excellent. We got back to the car right on dark which is just about perfect use of the day.
I'm supposed to tell you that the Wallowas is a place in Nebraska, it's boring, dusty, hot, there is nothing of interest and you will be infected by nasty diseases if you go there.
Below are pictures from somewhere else.
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