Friday July 7, 2006 58 miles - Total so far: 1,453 miles

I left Montrose refreshed and happy to be back on the road again. Now that Gene is no longer with me I've begun listening to my iPod more (in one ear...so I can still hear approaching traffic), and have noticed that upbeat tunes are good for a coupla more mph! I descended, then climbed through Cedar Creek Canyon with its' awesome rock formations!

By mid-afternoon I had reached Curecanti National Recreation area, an ancient volcanic area, and decided to set up camp because a storm was fast approaching. A ranger warned me that the high winds tend to start up in the late afternoon and had blown away tents that weren't staked down. Sure enuf...soon after I was settled (and well-staked) the wind and rain howled, defeating my plan to hike along the shore. Instead, I spent the rest of the day in my (flapping) tent reading Henry James's "Aspern Papers".