Journal entry: September 29, 1994 - in the high desert

I love the wind in the desert. It's strong outside on the Alvord now, and it makes my Fields Motel room cozy and a secure place to be with a great book, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which I bought for the trip and have wanted to read for years. I waited for the right time as the plot with its dynamics on love, infidelity, highly-developed characters with rich observations on life all suit me now. This gem by Milan Kundera: "Without realizing it, the individual composes his life according to the laws of beauty even in times of greatest distress."

My personal composition "according to the laws of beauty" today was a poignant farewell to the amazing couple from Los Angeles, Louise and Lloyd. I shook his hand strongly to help him fight his tears of departure from Frenchglen, as I found a Harney County soul friend whose first visit here changed his life as mine was forever altered three years ago. The Mountain loved them, I knew; they had that blessed look that only a few of us carry with us after the Steens has stirred us with its magical embrace: You are my angel; return to me. And so I went back up there today and found new wonders in fog, thick fast-moving clouds, a fresh chill warmed by occasional rays of sun. I saw a perfect mountain bluebird. I took in each memory as it came and gained strength, and I also gained strength from J's passionate kisses goodbye. I told him he didn't know what they meant to me. A lot, but not enough and I hope my needy response didn't indicate otherwise to him.

Tonight I drove the 25 miles one way to Denio Junction for dinner. I saw a rainbow over the desert, turned the car around to come back for my camera, then turned it around again because I knew I'd lost the photo op. So what, it's no biggie to miss one picture? Nope, I am sorry because it was a magnificent sight. I played a few slots, lost about $4 all told and drove back over the state border. Man, each way tugs at me and each side has formed me. 1)"Welcome to Nevada - the Silver State"  2)"Welcome to Harney County" (actually I think it just says "Entering Harney County," less yee-haw and more factual). 


I don't know if this makes sense, but coming into Nevada from Oregon I don't feel I come with a wealth of qualities to offer, except, of course, a deep environmentalism. But entering Oregon after touching base with Nevada I feel I offer up all of me, including my sad inner-child, my worldliness, my sin, my confessions, the lost me, the silent one, the sister of the desert, the laughing rowdy dancer, my anger justified, my desire unquenchable, my love inscrutable, my soul refreshed in solitude, the unbearable lightness of being borne and celebrated.

No wonder I feel healthiest and most whole when I dwell -- even for a short time -- close to the borderspace. When my eyes have a view of both Nevada and of this part of Oregon I think they see all there is for me, all I dream.

Photos by Lydia:

• windmill between Fields, OR and Denio, NV
• ancient petroglyph writing on rock near Malheur Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen
• Fields, Oregon (population 86) store/cafe/gas (tiny motel not shown)
• young black angus at play
• Historic Frenchglen Hotel (population in Frenchglen approx. 12)
• Steens Mountain summit 9773', Wildhorse Lake, Nevada's Pueblo Mountains in background
• Road between Fields, OR and Denio, NV
• Entering Nevada and Denio
• Rattlesnake
  
• View from Frenchglen of gentle-sloping west rim of Steens Mountain, with Keiger Gorge notch visible
  

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Bog Hot Springs

Where the video of Bog Hot played in posting preview mode, it inexplicably failed when I tried to publish this post. In place of the video, please click on the thumbnail above to view it, or on this link. Credit: Josh Laughtland, aka hotspringsguy, described his video: Located in the high mountain desert region of northern Nevada. 312 miles from Boise, Idaho. The video clip features a sunset soak, the hot springs at dawn and primitive campsite ...

In yesterday's Old Postcard Wednesday post featuring The Claremont Hotel in Berkeley, I ended with a comment about a different kind of spa, Bog Hot in northern Nevada. I've been thinking so wistfully ever since of my solitary desert vacations before Mike and I were married, and of the few we've taken together. In particular, today during my monthly massage, my mind floated back to various hot springs in the Oregon and Nevada high deserts. I rarely doze off during massages, but today I momentarily did just that.

I had a relaxing afternoon and when I returned home was pleased to discover this excellent video of Bog Hot Springs to extend my peaceful mood. I will under no circumstances allow my tranquility to be ruined by the fact that my clutter problem has prevented me from finding my photos of the day I soaked all alone in Bog Hot. When I find them I may post them as an addendum to this post.

The trip that included my day at Bog Hot I had stayed first at Frenchglen Hotel in Oregon touring Steens Mountain and then drove around the mountain to Fields, Oregon (population less than 20) where I stayed some nights at Fields Motel (composed of three units). Along with the motel there is a tiny cafe that makes wonderful milkshakes and a no-nonsense store that serves the ranching community. I'd explored the Alvord Desert and hot springs around it the day before and had risen pre-dawn to take photos of the Alvord at sunrise that day, so by afternoon I was tired and just hung around the store talking to one local old coot.

I'd heard about Bog Hot and asked him how to get there. It wasn't on any maps I had and I wanted to find it the next day. He wasn't exactly forthcoming with information, instead tested me to see if I was worthy of his providing directions. When he learned that I'd driven my car on the (then ungraded, unimproved) rocky, gutted loop road to the rim of Steens Mountain and had hiked down to Wildhorse Lake he started making little arrows on my map with his ballpoint pen. His arrows pointed the way from Fields Store to a generalized spot in the Nevada desert where Bog Hot Springs is hidden. There were no road signs or even simple markers for Bog Hot so it's a good thing I paid attention to his verbal instructions, which went like this:

(Pointing to the impressive rounded purple range to the right of Fields, toward the Oregon-Nevada border) See those mountains? Those are the Pueblos. You follow them as you drive the road about 60 miles. Keep watchin' 'til you see the Pueblos start to get smaller. They get smaller and smaller, then they just slope down to nothin' and become desert floor. Around that point you'll see a dirt road off to the right of the road. Turn there and drive out into the desert, around the back of the Pueblos, out into the antelope preserve. The road keeps getting wider out there about 2-5 miles until it isn't a road anymore, it's just desert. Now pay attention to anything that looks different from the sagebrush and dirt, maybe someone's car (didn't happen) or maybe some steam comin' out of the ground. You will see an open area where people have parked. You'll be there.


[Postscript dated September 29, 2008 I have published an update to this post that includes my photos of Bog Hot.]