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The view in the Leslie Gulch tuff.<br />
FOR MILES, THE ONLY sound we heard<br />
was the swish of wild grasses in the breeze,<br />
nostrils filled with menthol-sweet sage<br />
brush, perfect blue cloudless sky above,<br />
and its reflection in the water below—way<br />
below. Looking out across the Owyhee<br />
River canyon to the towering red rock<br />
walls on its opposite shore, we could have<br />
been anywhere in the Southwest. Instead,<br />
my husband, Jason, and I were in a remote<br />
corner of southeastern Oregon, spending<br />
a weekend hiking a 27-mile loop on the<br />
Oregon Desert Trail. We began near its<br />
eastern terminus at Leslie Gulch, about 50<br />
miles from the Idaho border.<br />
Deciding to hike in spring, when the<br />
reservoir’s water level is at its highest,<br />
means following the canyon’s rim, mountain-goating<br />
along its rocky edges. In the<br />
fall, when the water levels are at their lowest,<br />
the trail is much different (and the<br />
route I’d recommend). You can hug the<br />
shoreline and wade or even raft down the<br />
river. That is both the beauty and challenge<br />
of the Oregon Desert Trail—that little red<br />
line on the map is more a suggestion.<br />
The ODT is a mix of pre-existing<br />
trails, old roads, ATV paths, cow paths<br />
and cross-country routes strung through<br />
Eastern Oregon’s high desert. Only about<br />
fifteen people have hiked the entire 750<br />
miles. Beginning near Bend, the W-shaped<br />
route winds along landscape ranging from<br />
endangered shrub steppe to the alpine forests<br />
of 9,000-foot Steens Mountain, past<br />
hot springs and pictographs, through canyonlands<br />
and cow pastures.<br />
It is the first long distance trail created<br />
and run by a conservation organization,<br />
according to Renee Patrick, Oregon<br />
Desert Trail coordinator for the Oregon<br />
Natural Desert Association, a nonprofit<br />
that works to protect and restore<br />
the state’s high desert. Patrick, who has<br />
logged more than 10,000 miles on nine<br />
different long trails, including the ODT,<br />
warns that the terrain is not for everyone.<br />
Most of the trail requires hikers to<br />
be comfortable with navigation,<br />
since there are no signs and some<br />
cross-country traversing.
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