Dirtbagging, a Means of Travel

I am not as bold as I used to be. Back when I was on the road in Pandette, I was more fearless about camping wherever in the middle of nothing. Maybe I'm just out of practice, a tentative, gray sort of mouse. I even paid for a campsite this time--what happened to me?

This year I have begun dirtbagging in my Corolla (named the Bluebot). Dirtbagging, by my definition, is sleeping in the back of my car on a foam mattress. I pick up a sandwich from a rural grocery store and some beer and just stare at rocks and/or rivers. Is there anything more peaceful than the sound of a lazy river? For me, no. After weeks in the city the quiet and the stars are deeply calming. The hum of insects. Dirtbagging is a form of reverting to the primitive, sleeping in your clothes, urinating in the open, and not bathing. I didn't even brush my teeth on this trip. Yeah...gross, but sometimes we need to be, to get away from all our city habits. To get away from the city period.

My Rand McNally road atlas is a battered, duck taped veteran. All the roads I have been on are highlighted. There aren't many unhighlighted roads in Oregon; after this trip I was able to paint five more bright yellow. The picture in this post is of Rieth Road, which runs west from Pendleton to a small town named Echo. In this part of the state there is some amazing geology so I am exploring more and more back roads in the northern region. I thought Rieth Road would have some noteworthy rock faces and I wasn't disappointed.

Eastern Oregon and Washington are high desert. I am guessing it will be too cold to dirtbag between mid October and May. When I dirtbagged in April, it was 28 degrees and the windows were frosted over when I woke up. Yeah, I learned from that one. But I still have a couple of months, two or three more trips, a few more roads to highlight.