Category: Oregon

East Lake in the Newberry Caldera

I was really excited about finally getting to Waldo Lake this year but it wasn’t to be. Mo and I were there in 2004 and the lake has called to me since then. Oregon was catching up with California this weekend and lightning strikes caused fires in the Cascades that closed almost every highway crossing the mountains last weekend, including our route to Waldo Lake.

When Mo and I left Rocky Point on Thursday morning, we already knew that HWY 58 was closed so we decided to go up to the Newberry Caldera just east of LaPine.
The area is a fascinating view into recent geologic events on the east side of the Cascades with two lovely lakes and some nice campgrounds. Here is the link to the Cascades Volcano Observatory USGS website for the Newberry Caldera.
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Newberry/Locale/framework.html

This change in plans worked just fine for Mo’s brother Roger and his wife Nancy, who planned to visit us for some kayaking and campfire time, since they live on the east side of the mountains anyway. Didn’t work so well for my daughter Deb from Portland who had planned to meet us Saturday night at Waldo. Ah well, maybe next time.

When we first left Rocky Point, the smoke was visible over the mountains, covering what we knew to be the Crater Lake caldera rim and billowing high and white like big cumulus clouds very much too close to home for comfort. By the time we reached East Lake, however, the skies were clear and lovely. The campground is first come first serve, and there are about 7 sites right on the water. Lucky for us, number 14 at the end of the front row had been recently vacated so we managed to get on the water even though the other sites were full. Site 14 is what they call a “premium” site and with our Golden Age Pass was only $7 per night, (half the regular 14. fee).

This particular site was actually used as a full hookup site for the camp host during the season, and we still had fresh water piped right to the site, although the power connections were locked up. We also actually had a solid asphalt pad. Not bad for a forest service campground in the mountains! Once camp was ready, I took off for a twilight glide across the lake. The water was reflective, glassy, and totally still except for the jumping trout. I have never experienced this kind of jumping fish all around me. I actually thought that I would eventually get some fish in my boat, and had more than a few jump into the air within arm’s distance. Amazing. Later we learned that the fishermen were having good luck that night with 16 inch trout jumping onto hooks using super bait. The next day wasn’t quite so good for the fishermen, but we still watched nice sized eating trout being caught both from boats and from chairs along the shore.

Friday morning I went for another paddle while Mo waited for her brother to show up and when they arrived, we sent them off with the kayaks while we watched the dogs. It was Nancy’s first time in a kayak, and like most people, she discovered that it wasn’t the least bit intimidating. Our boats are really stable and have a nice wide cockpit, which still doesn’t let anyone look particularly graceful trying to get in and out, but once you are in, it’s a piece of cake!

The weather cooperated, and after a nice ride, we all settled in for some hiking along the beach collecting pumice cobbles, and then a campfire and a planked salmon supper cooked on the grill. yum! It was nice spending some camping time with family, and nice that they only had less than an hour to get back home. It was also encouraging to hear that they had driven through thick smoke almost the entire trip up the hill and we were just out of it. I had an entire weekend with no smoke and no heat. A good thing!!

Saturday was cool, foggy and rainy most of the day, so after a good bacon and potato breakfast we spent most of the day relaxing and reading in the MoHo. I say “bacon and potato” because neither of us remembered to bring the eggs! I also created some entertainment for the two of us by trying to wind a large skein of ribbon yarn that kept us occupied for more than an hour at least. Good thing Mo is more patient than I am at that kind of thing. Finally, later in the afternoon, the weather cooperated a bit and we had time to hike the trail to the hot springs. Of course, at the time, I didn’t know the springs were there, and kept wondering where the strange poopy smell was coming from! When we did finally find them, they were a bit of a anti-climax, since the actual spring was only a few feet across and less than a foot deep of somewhat murky, barely lukewarm water. I was cold from the windy hike, and had been having visions of dropping my feet into a hot pool. Not this one. We even skipped our fancy supper, opting instead for some warm chicken soup and a half tuna sandwich by the damp fire. I had planned to relax on this trip, but maybe not quite this much.

Sunday morning opened to a cold foggy morning, but we decided to go out on the lake anyway since it looked so still and lovely, and the previous day the winds had come up before noon. It was a good plan, since by Saturday afternoon the rains started. We circled the entire lake, checking out the springs from the water side, and enjoying the views during the few moments when the clouds cleared a bit and we could see Paulina Peak above the caldera. I made potato salad and Mo grilled burgers for us for a great evening supper watching the rain come on the lake and being very grateful for our warm MoHo.

Sunday night was cold, with the temperature dropping to just a hair above the freezing level. We were also grateful for propane and a furnace that night, and slept all warm and cozy. Our optimism regarding the dawning of a sunny day wasn’t rewarded, though, and after a quick breakfast, and a look at the very low propane levels, we though we might as well head home. Four days without hookups is easy, except the propane hadn’t been completely filled for a few trips, and with the temperatures in the high 30’s we really didn’t want to hang around. Geez, you couldn’t even warm a cup of tea if the propane ran out!

By the time we got back down the hill to LaPine, the clouds were clearing and by the time we reached the HWY 138 intersection with HWY 97 the skies were completely clear and off came the heavy sweatshirts. Heavy smoke from the Lonesome Complex fire filled the upper ends of the Wood River Valley, and was especially thick along HWY 97 north of Chiloquin. Even though the fire is very close to the Wood River Valley on the crest of the Cascades, the smoke stayed north and wasn’t too bad right around Rocky Point, even though you could see it all across the valley down to Klamath. A very smoky summer indeed, first California and then Oregon. As I drove back home, through more leftover smoke from the months long fires in the Klamath Forest of northern California, I sighed and wished for winter rains to come here as well. By the time I got back to Jamestown, the car temperature reading was in the low 90’s. Still. But I had a break, a cool, damp, fresh, clear break from it all and am ready now to “dig in” (yeah, it’s soils stuff) for another couple of weeks before the next camping trip into some clear cold mountains on the east side of the Sierras.
Here is a link to the rest of the photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/kyotesue/CampingAtEastLake#

John Day Country and home

The picasaweb link posted here is to an individual album that are part of this day’s story if you want to see additional photos. If you like, you can click on the link and see the entire album on Picasa. http://picasaweb.google.com/kyotesue/TravelingOregonToHome

Last night we traveled till we felt like stopping which put us at another Oregon State Park, Unity Lake SP. This place is truly a treasure, off the main track, maybe 3 miles from Unity on HWY 26. The park is small and quiet with large spaces along the lake, big pull through sites in the middle, shade from the typical desert locust trees, and no people. Admittedly, it was midweek, but still, midweek in August, and there was the camp host, another trailer next to him, a car camping family from England traveling the west, and a couple of small truck trailer combos down the way. There are probably more than 40 sites here, so the emptiness was a surprise. The cost was great as well, with water and 30 amp electric for only $17. I know it’s the desert, but it’s lovely, with sage and grasslands, and great views. The night was blessedly dark, not a single light or sound to mar the stillness, and the temperature dropped to 42 blessed degrees. I slept great!


We left this morning by 8, an easy start since we didn’t even have to unhook last night. Continuing west along HWY 26 we were surprised by the steep climbs and drops as we crossed the Blue Mountains toward John Day. I got my favorite thing while traveling, not another car in sight for miles at a time. Not far west of the sage country at Unity SP, we found 3 really nice campgrounds on the east side of Blue Mountain Pass, FS camps with no hookups, but open and lovely, shaded with a small creek. We thought it would be great to boondock for 3.50 a night with our pass in the FS camps, then drop down to Unity for a couple of nights of hookups to get ready for some more cheap boondocking. Someday.

I got my first view of the Strawberry Wilderness and Strawberry Mountain, an area I have heard of but never seen. The Oregon Trail passed through here and the interpretive viewpoint with the big covered wagon was a delight. The landscape is open and empty of people, with big ranches, irrigated alfalfa fields, all surrounded by thickly forested mountains and peaks. Truly lovely, and a great drive if you don’t mind the ups and downs. The Tow-Haul got a good workout on this part of the drive for sure. We stopped in John Day to visit the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site, location of some truly fascinating history about the Chinese immigrants who were part of the building of the west. In California we have visited several places that have a great deal of history involving the Chinese men who came here, without wives and families, to work incredibly hard and try to reap some benefit from the better economy here in the US compared to China at the time. My home is Jamestown is surrounded by huge areas that were hydraulically mined, mostly by Chinese, and Mo and I visited Isleton in the Delta last Spring, also developed mostly by Chinese. The exhibit in John Day brought all these parts and pieces together for the first time in a way that helped it all fit. It is an amazing story.

Leaving John Day we continued west to the John Day Fossil Beds. So many people seem to pass through this fascinating land without actually seeing it, so this time we made it a point to visit the visitor center at the Sheep Rock Unit. The visitor center has an amazing array of fossils that have been recovered from the 3 different areas of the National Monument, and the explanation and interpretation of the natural history there is magnificent. They even have the work area where paleontologists clean and catalogue and work with the fossils that is visible to visitors, with huge glass walls that allow you to watch the work in progress. The Miocene period is a repeating story in my soils work, and in most places I have mapped, there are interesting formations that are the result of the activity that occurred during this time, from 12 to 50 million years ago, give or take a weekend. Here in John Day, it was all about volcanics, as in the Sierra Nevada, and in the Columbia Basin. It was great seeing really beautiful artistic interpretations of all that was going on here while Table Mountain was being built in Jamestown, and while the diatomite in the Klamath Basin was forming, while the Latah Formation in Spokane was building. Great to see everything in perspective all at once somehow. I am so glad that we took the time to actually visit the visitor center. Just a little aside, while we were there, 3 German tourists arrived, and were taking many careful photos of the American flag flying against the very blue sky.
Our trip for the day ended back in home territory, at brother Roger and Nancy’s home in LaPine, Oregon. Nice to visit them, since they were unable to attend the gathering in Spokane. After a nice dinner out, we slept again to clear skies and cool temperatures in the low 40’s before we headed out home the last 100 miles or so to Rocky Point.

We both felt that it was a successful trip, with all the moving parts of the MoHo working fine, and both of us were glad to pull up into the driveway under the huge firs around Mo’s house and settle in to a few days of respite before I have to return to work in California.

Traveling to Spokane

Picasa photo link for today:
http://picasaweb.google.com/kyotesue/TravelingToSpokane


Wednesday morning
Finally, finally, a MoHo trip. Reading about all those folks who are full-timing out there is so much fun, but for us for the time being, we have to take what we can when we can. I left Jamestown at 3am in order to get to Mo’s early enough in the day for us to have a nice evening on the Columbia River on our way to Spokane. Our route from Klamath took us north on HWY 97, through Bend and Redmond to Madras and on north to the Biggs Junction on Interstate 84. Even though we were in Madras just a little more than a year ago, it was incredible seeing the growth and development that is occurring along that corridor. Redmond is now boasting big houses and brand new huge shopping centers that may eventually rival all the growth in Bend. The traffic was bad as well, with everyone in a hurry and aggressive. I kept wondering if really was a Tuesday afternoon and not a busy weekend. I also wonder what kind of recession we are really in, because even at more than 4 bucks a gallon there are a lot of big rigs, big trucks, rv’s, boats and toys being hauled around on the highways. Someone still has the money to play, as we do I guess. I know some people are really feeling all this, and I wonder how long it will take to hit the rest of us out here traveling the highways. So far we have managed to keep on doing whatever it is that we would be doing if gas were cheaper. We still drive 60mph to try to keep our mileage better, still buy discount gas at safeway and Costco whenever we can, but we still go where we want to go.

We are back on I-84 following Dan to Spokane after a really nice stop at theriver for a relaxing overnight. We originally planned to stay at the Maryhill State Park on the Washington side of the river at Biggs Junction, but the price was a bit steep at 38. We found the much less expensive LePage Park at the John Day Lock and Dam. Our national pass saved us half the hook up price which is a deal at $17. anyway, with electric 30 amp and water. The park itself is small and pleasant, with decent 2 bar telephone service. I let our air card go since I really didn’t want to keep paying 60 a month for that service when we aren’t traveling full time. I hope I don’t miss it too much. I suppose I can hang out at rest areas if I really need to get on the internet now and then. It all balances out eventually.

We are caravanning to Spokane from the park with Mo’s brother Dan. Being a bit independent, this is the first time that we have done this with someone and it’s a bit different, but should be fun. Dan and Chere, Mo’s brother and sister in law are in a nice Class A rig pulling a jeep. Her other brother Roger, who also has a Class A couldn’t make the trip this time, so we are the only two in the caravan. Does that qualify as a caravan?

We had a truly lovely relaxing morning today, after finally falling asleep during a very hot night. It was sunny and 104 degrees yesterday when we arrived at the park at 6pm. Hot, with a dry wind that made it feel like a real desert. We set up, and appreciated how easy this is getting for us now that we understand all the little details, but of course we still don’t have to do the satellite dish thing, and at this park we didn’t even have sewer, so it was all pretty quick. Steps worked, levelers worked, slide worked. I love it when things work. Funny side story however, this morning we ran out of water pressure as our fresh water tank emptied. Couldn’t figure out why, since we were supposed to be hooked up to shore water, and Mo finally found a little plug in the faucet that she had put there to keep bugs out while we were traveling. Oops, I didn’t take it out when I hooked up the water, and of course, we were just running off our water tank instead of shore water. Little things.

Dinner was about as good as you get, and fast as well. The little gas bbq that I got from Wal-Mart is still a hit, heats up fast and we had magnificent bbq’d pork chops in about 10 minutes, while I put some cole slaw together and microwaved a sweet potato. A glass of good red wine and things couldn’t be better. After dinner we took Abby swimming and discovered that the John Day River in this area is dammed up by the John Day dam enough that even though it’s deep, there isn’t enough current to worry about the dog getting carried away, so she had a great time swimming in the deep water, and then later when we took her over to the swimming beach where she kept trying to find water deep enough to swim in. The park itself is a really nice place, and we added it to the list of places where we might return and spend a few days hiking and definitely kayaking up the John Day River. Even though the park is in close proximity to the interstate, we couldn’t hear it at all down in the park, and even though the spaces are close together, they are all pointed toward the river in such a way that when you are sitting at your table, it’s still private enough that it isn’t too bad. We had a young couple with kids right next to us in a tent, and the only bad part was waking up at 530 am in a funny mood and worrying that our silly laughter might wake the neighbors.

We were waiting for Dan and Chere to arrive after 10 or so, so we had plenty of time to go for a nice hike up along a service road that paralleled the river along the middle slope of the basalt. High enough to see the rivers and trains and such, but not so high and steep that it was a difficult hike. We were entertained by flocks of chukkars running straight up the cliffs, lots of deer tracks and coyote tracks, and then Abby found a rattlesnake who obligingly gave us a great warning as we approached. Mo tried to get a photo, but I won’t know if it came out till I upload the photos.

Basalt on the Columbia Plateau and in this canyon is part of what is one of the largest continuous basalt plateaus in the world. I think the only large one is in India somewhere. The basalt has several different members with different characteristics, and different flows within individual members that have differential rates of cooling that makes them look like pillars and pillows, and little square chunks called entablature. http://www.cwnp.org/naturalist/basalt.html Then there are in between layers of pillow basalts that cooled under water, and conglomerates that were picked up from old river beds by the hot lava and all sorts of other interesting things. Of course, this area was also flooded 13,000 years ago by the catastrophic Missoula Floods, another fascinating story, so some of the very old rounded alluvial gravels that we found may have come from ancient Lake Missoula which covered a very large part of the state of Montana before the ice dam broke and created the floods. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_Floods

Regardless of the origins, the basalts are fascinating and lovely to look at while hiking along the canyons along the rivers.

Recreation Creek

This is one of those “other traveling tales” that isn’t about traveling in the MoHo, but for travelers, this is a place worth talking about. I drove to Klamath this past weekend, where Mo lives just a short distance up the road from the most wonderful kayak/canoe trail that we have found yet. The MoHo is waiting patiently in Jamestown for our coming beach trip, and then she will return to Klamath with Mo for the summer. In the mean time, until I retire to this place next year, I drive more than 400 miles each way to have the chance to kayak on these pristine waters as often as I can.

When the temperatures are hovering around 100 degrees in Central California, the cool nights of the mountains of Oregon are a respite worth the drive. Recreation Creek and Crystal Creek are on the western side of the Upper Klamath Wildlife Refuge. One of the highlights of my soils career was the opportunity to map the marsh soils in the 11,000 acre bird wonderland. The canoe trail is one of the best I know of, and the water is crystal clear from the input from meltwaters of the Cascade snow packs that feed the underground springs that feed the creeks and the wetlands.

We kayak this creek often, at different times of the year, and each time has surprises. The wetlands support tall bullrushes “tules“, that in summer make navigating without a GPS a daunting task, especially if you travel out into the marsh at all. But this year the spring came later, and the wocus flowers were just emerging and the tules were still brown and low so that nothing interrupted the views. We heard blue herons and sandhill cranes, saw lots of geese and ducks, willits, and red wing and yellow headed blackbirds. One of the best treats was watching a huge flock of white pelicans flying high over the marsh as they were arriving. I have never seen a flock this big before, and they were very high in the sky, circling and circling for a very long time. I thought maybe they were just arriving and trying to decide where to hang out for the springtime.

The beavers were especially active this year as well, and when we put our boats into the water later in the evening on Sunday we were boating with beavers. Fun. Somewhat like our kayaking with dolphins in the lo country of South Carolina. There were at least 6 we think, all swimming along, very busy of course. The whap of their tails on the water is loud. I tried making my paddle do the same and watched the instant diving of the beaver that had been swimming along beside us nonchalantly.
If you love to kayak on quiet fresh water, don’t miss this experience. The channel of the creek is deep and dark, bounded on the east by the fresh water wetlands of the marsh and on the west by the high ridge of the eastern Cascades. Mt McLaughlin, Harriman Peak, Pelican Butte all are visible rising above the steep front beside the stream. In the north are the peaks that surround Crater Lake, the Watchman and Mt Scott, covered with snow. Two wilderness areas are visible as well, the Sky Lakes Wilderness and the Mountain Lakes Wilderness. It’s a place that rivals any I have ever experienced. I have added the link for the canoe trail and another one for the birding trail that is here as well. If you are anywhere near Klamath and if you love to kayak or canoe, it’s a treat not to be missed.
Malone Springs is just off the West Side Road a few miles north of Rocky Point. It’s free boondocking, with a narrow gravel road that could still accomodate a motorhome and a large turn around area with a couple of camp sites right at the springs. Be ready for mosquitos, however, but it’s a beautiful spot. Of course, there is always the Rocky Point Resort for good food and camping as well, with space for RV’s, We launch either here at Rocky Point or at Malone Springs for the trip north to Crystal Springs, another deep velvet green wonderland spring. ahh, Oregon, how I love you.
All these places are listed as part of the itinerary for the volcanic scenic byway that includes Crater Lake. http://www.byways.org/explore/byways/2587/itinerary/4034

If the photos have inspired you to look further, check out the Recreation Creek album on my Picassa website. The link is at the top of this blog page.

MoHo goes to Klamath

http://picasaweb.google.com/kyotesue/MoHoToOregon

Last Monday was a holiday for me, so Mo and I ran down to the valley to get some work done on the MoHo. Didn’t happen, but we had a fun day any way. Did the Home Depot thing and even got to go to Costco, which I don’t do here in California because it’s too far away for me to justify the purchase of a membership. Got home by 3 and had time to make a great baked chicken dinner with oven fries. Amazing how easy it is to not feel guilty when your fries are baked not fried.

Mo was was planning to go to Klamath this week by herself to try to get the MoHo registered, and we kept watching the weather window, with really cold temperatures and snow. The window was pretty short and the T up there was 0 to 5 degrees, not a good plan for being in a motorhome with the water lines still not winterized. So Monday afternoon while cooking supper I had a brainstorm. “Let’s leave a 2 am, I’ll go with you, we will get to Klamath mid day when it is a warm 25 degrees, there is no snow predicted for at least 2 days, and we will get out of Klamath and back down off the mountain (Shasta) by dark. I can help drive and we can do it.”

So we did it. Left at 2 am, got home 24 hours later at 2:30 am. whew. The funniest part for me was that while the alarm was set for 2 am, so we could leave at 3, I woke up at something like 11:30, and couldn’t sleep, so we just gave up and got up and left. 3 hours sleep doesn’t work too well for me! I am at work today and my brain isn’t functioning at all. It was a fun trip, though, an adventure, with a bit of excitement added. About 80 miles from home with more than 300 to go the moho dropped something important on the freeway at high speeds. Guess the manifold and exhaust system didn’t have a clamp done right and everything came undone. Because of the time window, heavy rain in California, at the fact that it was 3 am and nothing was open, we just kept going and made it all the way to Klamath. I can’t tell you what a Ford V10 sounds like with no muffled exhaust system, especially climbing up the pass over Mt Shasta. Hysterical. We bombed into the rest areas in our new fancy rig sounding like some kind of teenager from 50’s hell. Got to Klamath by 10 am and managed to get the thing fixed right away at the Ford dealer. Amazing that they said, “oh here, let us roll her in right now”, instead of “come back a week from Tuesday” The guys were laughing when we drove it in, saying, “Hmmm, did someone drive over a snoberm somewhere?” “No, we don’t live in this stuff, we did this in California!” The question was valid, since Klamath has had a real winter this year, and the berms are piled up everywhere in parking lots and between driving lanes on the roads. Some are so high that it’s even hard to see the top of the MoHo which is nearly 11 feet.

After getting things fixed, we parked in Wal-Mart and rented a car to drive out to Mo’s house where the snow is many feet deep. That was fun as well just trying to walk up to her door without crashing into a big snow hole. Drove back to town, bought a burger and and actually got back over the pass before any more snow hit. It was a gorgeous sunny 4 degrees when we left Klamath, and pouring and 43 degrees by the time we hit the valley in California. You never saw 2 more worn out old ladies in your life. We both drove, but Mo did the last really hard part from the valley up to my house with all the hard rain and narrow roads with no shoulders and curvy stuff. I hate that awful feeling of driving and having to keep driving when I am sooooo sleepy and tired. ugh.