SlowBro - Continental Divide Trail Journal - 2020
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Mark "SlowBro" Hurd
City: Eugene
State: OR
Country: USA
Begins: Aug 10, 2020
Direction: Northbound
Daily Summary
Date: Wed, Aug 12th, 2020
Trip Distance: 130.0
Journal Stats
Entry Visits: 84
Journal Visits: 5,170
Guestbook Views: 426
Guestbook Entrys: 7
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Pollocks 1853 Oregon Land Claim
Next Short Trip
About 2 weeks ago I finished my Eugene to Bend trip of 130 miles. This weekend I will take off on an 80 mile trip from Big Marsh Creek near Cresent Lake over Emigrate Pass and down along the Middle Fork of the Willamette to Oakridge and then on to finish at Butte Disappointment in Lowell, OR. This is the route that the Lost Wagon Train took over the Cascade in 1853. My wife's GGG-Grandparents and family were members of that wagon train. It is an incredible story of more than a thousand pioneers and around 250 wagons that left the Oregon Trail near what is now Vale, OR and took the untried Elliot Cutoff shortcut to the Willamette Valley. It very nearly turned into a death march, but through some incredible luck and true grit they undertook cutting their way through the forest over the Cascades in October. They were starving and nearly perished, but were rescued by the good people of the valley who were allerted to their plight. Check out the Wikipedia article on the Elliott Cutoff for more information.
Anyway, I have been doing research on the route they took. They crossed the eastern Oregon desert and got to the bend in the Deschutes River (Bend) and followed it south to Cresent Creek then to Big Marsh Creek up along Cresent Lake over Emigrant Pass and then down along the Middle Fork of the Willamette. I have decided to pick it up near the pass and walk down along the Middle Fork as an interesting 4 day 3 night trip. I had hoped walk it from Bend up the Deschutes, etc. but most of that is on private land and there are not any trails on the scant public land. I will start at the point they would have left Big Marsh Creek and take it from there as that is all on National Forest property.
At some point I would like to trace their jouney across the eastern Oregon desert. It is a couple of hundred mile through pretty harsh territory, so I will have to do some serious evaluation prior to any attempt.
I will post a daily account of my trip starting Saturday depending on internet availablity along the way.
