Sunday 11/11

Veteran’s Day. Thanks all you vets who went to Vietnam so i could stay here and do my six in the Air National Guard! Got everything taken care of and on the road by 7:30. The road I’m taking is a slow and bumpy sob to begin with. It takes me a hour to go 18 miles to Agnes were NF23 comes in. Hmmm…. big warning sign about not attempting this road. Hmmm get the map out and see that i would have to backtrack to Gold Beach and go south to US199 if i don’t take this road. Sit there and think about it and decide to try NF23 and if it too bad just turn around and come back. (That’s always a good plan but it doesn’t always work that way) If it’s bad enough to make me turn around there usually isn’t anywhere to turn around. At least it’s paved (mostly).

It is 54 miles to Grant’s Pass. This could take awhile. The road goes to gravel after 7-8 miles. Hmmmm. I decide to see how far the gravel portion is and it turns out to be less then a mile and I’m back on a narrow paved (sort of) road. I’m getting a little nervous ‘cause i got a long ways to go. It’s one lane with turnouts and on a blind corner a car comes from the other way, not one car but THIRTEEN cars. WITW? It’s easier for me to backup a bit to a wide spot and let them go thru. I talk to the lead car and they are doing the shuttle for the Rogue River. And there are two more batches of 8 and six cars with raft trailers still coming my way. At least he reassures me that the road doesn’t get any worse then what I’ve seen. It’s that fear of the unknown that i don’t like. So i relax a little and keep my eye out for the next batch of shuttlers.

It was a long, have to pay attention, drive. But eventually it was over and i hit Grant’s Pass. Now it’s about 30 miles on interstate 5 to HWY140 and my adventure is over for the day. Hwy 140 is a hwy 93. Not many camping spots so i pull into a “picnic” area and decide to stay here. If they roust me there was a punky little rest stop 16 miles back. We’ll see. It’ll be cold, the little creek has ice on it.

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