Last week I wrote about the great time my husband and I had whitewater rafting on the Klamath River. Before we even got to the river, though, we enjoyed a beautiful drive along the steep, scenic and windy Green Springs Highway (Oregon Rte. 66). Starting near Ashland, it gains at least 2,000 feet in elevation, topping off at the summit at 4,551 feet before beginning a gradual descent into the Klamath Basin on the east side of the Cascade Range. Just after we crossed the summit, our driver pulled off at the Tub Springs Wayside. Here beneath towering pines and firs, a cold, clear spring bubbles up through a spigot, spilling into a series of basins before trickling off in a stream through the trees. In the early days of the highway, wooden tubs (hence, the name) were set in here so that travelers could enjoy a drink. Long before that, the Applegate Trail, a southern branch of the Oregon Trail, passed this very spot. A nearby interpretive sign described how Jesse Applegate established the trail in 1846 as a supposedly less dangerous option than the northerly route down the Columbia River to the Willamette Valley. One can still see the wagon ruts cut into a nearby hillside. We each took our turns scooping the cold, delicious water into our hands and drinking it down while chatting with a woman who was filling a trunkload of gallon glass jugs from the spigot. She explained that she lives in Ashland, at least a 30-minute drive away (on clear, dry roads), and drives up to the springs about once a month to get her drinking water. She said that “lots” of people from the area do so (though the municipal water supply is perfectly safe) because they don’t want to use the treated tap water and like the benefits of the natural minerals in the spring water. I was impressed with her commitment to collecting the water this way, especially when I considered what driving over that narrow, twisting, two-lane road in the ice and snow of winter must be like. She generously offered to send one of the jugs with us, but we declined — anticipating we would have more than enough water in our near future! That brief stop on an action-packed day reminds me to keep my eyes open to all the moments in the journey and to not just focus on the final destination. — Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor