And so the Adventure Begins

And it began early! Up at 4:30am, drive to Albuquerque, park, shuttle to airport, check-in, fly to Denver, change planes, fly to Portland, pick-up rental car, head west.
The flight to Oregon was pretty uneventful, but I have to say that I hate, hate, hate flying. Not that I am worried about crashing or a hijacking or a terrorist attack - it is all the bullshit that you have to go through. I feel like a fricking criminal in my own country. Take off shoes, open computers, bags checked - I hate the way the government has us all living in fear just so they can have more control. Anyway, I am off my soap box - we made it to Portland safely and that is all that matters.

We left Portland in our rental car and headed west on US26. Our first stop was in Buxton (or very near there) at L.L. "Stub" Stewart State Park. Our goal was to complete a five mile hike and get five letterboxes. We started on the Boomscooter Trail then turned onto the Banks-Vernonia State Trail. From here we hiked to Hollie's Point of View then to the Hares Canyon Trail. We took a sort detour then back to the Hares Canyon Trail. Up to this point it was a pretty easy walk with a few small inclines but nothing major. But from this point on it was all uphill. Thankfully it was gradual but we still felt it by the end. We found four of five boxes. The four we found were a series placed by Calli-K called Locomotion, One Way or Another. The fifth box (the one we didn't find) eluded us because we weren't sure what trail to go on or where to start - we did try to look for landmarks in a couple of places but we never saw any. Our fault for not researching enough to find out what trail we were suppose to start on. We really enjoyed the hike, especially after spending the entire morning on an airplane.

We left the park and continued west on US26 until we reached the Sunset Rest Area. We pulled in here and took a short walk to find Steam Donkey - quick and easy. Our next stop was Camp 18. We tried looking for the first box (Bunyan and Babe) and were unsuccessful. I am pretty sure we were in the right place but there was no box. The last found date noted was in August but we weren't able to find it. So we looked for the next box - Camp 18. We found this one easily and stamped in. I noticed in this logbook that this box had been found a few time in September. So that made me think that the other box was missing because one of the people who found Camp 18 in September would have probably found the other box as well. We tried to have dinner at the Camp 18 Restaurant but they were closed. We were finished letterboxing for the day so we decided to head to Astoria. We stopped along the way for a quick dinner and then made our way to the hotel. We are now checked in and very tired. I will continue to report on the trip as we go - stay tuned.