# Blah Blah Blog - So. Central Oregon



## BigBadBrain

Rather than have my apparently inevitable 2000th post be some kind of arbitrary or capricious post on the color of the sky or the temperature of the surface of the sun or something else, I thought it would be appropriate to have an in depth review of our latest camping adventure. Now when I say in-depth I mean this sucker is going to be done in installments it's so big. It seems that if one must suffer the indignity of a 2000th post, it might as well be something worth remarking on don't you think? Here we go&#8230;








*Chapter 1 - 3, 2, 1, Ignition, Launch! Uh, Dad, did we do a light check?*

We launched from Kent on Sunday June 22nd with the entire family (sans cats and fish) to travel to Central Oregon for a week-long vacation. Caroline, Ben, Colette and I (my name is Brian or, if you prefer to be like my mother -in-law, Brain) were bound for Prineville Reservoir which is just a little northeast of Bend Oregon. For those who've less experience with Oregon and Washington States and the effect of the Cascade Mountain range (an active volcanic range that forms the Eastern ridge of the rim of fire around the Pacific Ocean), suffice it to say that the Western parts of those two states are moist and green and the Eastern sides are drier and generally desert like where irrigation is not in effect. Bend OR is the population center of this region and has about 75.000 people (according to the sign at the edge of town). Priniville Reservoir is a center of interest for folks who fish and water-ski as there is little else to do - with a major exception for our family and once a year for a bunch of central Oregon amateur astronomers- the region is perfect for star gazing!

The trip to Prineville was uneventful. The Outback was dialed in and towing was about what it usually is - sway free and solid with a periodic desire for additional horsepower on the many, many hills on the way. None of the passes are greater than 4000 ft. or so but there are a couple of fairly demanding grades even so. Our route took us up HWY 18 from Kent WA to I-90 and across to HWY 97 south to Yakima and Goldendale. We Crossed the Columbia at Biggs OR and continued south to Madras OR. Just past Madras we turned on HWY 26 and followed it to Prineville. We got 9.5 MPG average for the day which is a little better than my usual for Washington and Oregon travel with the Expedition and a fully loaded (empty tanks) 23rs. We had packed for a week and really limited ourselves by space and living comfort constraints without too much regard for weight. Still, our weight pulling out was not far off of our usual for a short camping trip - not sure how that happened. None of us had any really heavy things anyway. We did take two bikes packed inside the trailer on the forward bed.

On our way past Goldendale WA we stopped by Brooks Memorial State Park near the top of the pass that is north of Goldendale. The park is small for camping and has a few nice wooded sites but for the most part there is little to do in the area except Goldendale. There are a couple of nice hiking trails. The day use area is nice though and we had a short picnic and played a little catch to loosen up before the drive continued. It was a nice break and while we were there a very interesting Class B motorhome pulled in down the lot from the Outback. It was one of the Canadian models that looks small and probably is but is quoted to get as high as 20 mpg and which might be perfect for a couple traveling light and wanting to stay mobile without too much hassle. It was an interesting distraction and made me think about life after Outback. Travel time between Kent and Prineville was about what I'd thought it would be and when we pulled in we were greeted on the road in by the Park Ranger who was wearing a big smile and said "You finally made it!" Now I doubt she was waiting for us specifically but it was a nice welcome and it was starting to get a little late in the day - most of the sites were full. In fact, I didn't see anyone else pull in after us. We set up camp quickly with all four of us practiced at getting things set up it went fast. There are benefits for having four adults (or almost adults) to pitch in. Our site was a little different than you might guess but I'll deal with the description of it in a bit but first a little about how we do our vacations.

We tend to take themed vacations (can you tell I'm a professional nerd with nerd kids?). Last year our theme was geology and more specifically rock collecting. This year we continued the geology theme (with less rock collecting) and added astronomy. Now many of you are probably like my sister and wonder if I've lost my mind and have decided to torture my kids by making them learn every second of their waking hours, well, let me explain a little about my kids. They really get into this stuff - I do the themed thing as much for them as for myself. Really! (I can hear my sister "OMG you gave your kids BOOKS for Christmas gifts?!" it's the same thing again). Anyway, we do the themed thing and if others think we are strange then I guess they can go their own way. Meanwhile we do things our own, nerdy way. My name is Brain and I'm a geek. On with the story.

Prineville Reservoir is what is called a 'dark site'. That is to say, when the stars come out, people say "wow!" and we were no exception. Sunday evening we set up the Orion Newtonian telescope on a Dobsonian mount (the astronomers out there will understand and I'll save the rest of you from the details unless you ask). The telescope has a 10 inch aperture meaning it collects a LOT of light. For purposes of traveling, the Orion Xti10 is about as big as you want to go unless you go to a truss type scope. The storage of the telescope was a constant headache but it was certainly justified! The skies were magnificent. My son, who has held little interest in astronomy since our skies at home are light polluted in extremis, was blown away. I had forgotten that the last time he saw dark skies was when he was only 6 years old so on this trip he needed to be reacquainted with what he was seeing. Apparently, only one in four kids has ever seen the Milky Way galaxy due to light pollution and lack of access to dark skies. Ben was amazed. After looking through the telescope, where a single view of the Milky Way in the constellation Cygnus produced a view of thousands and thousands of stars, he was hooked. Colette was also awed at what we could see though the telescope but was more interested in what kind of pictures she could take. She captured some very nice astrophotos and better by far than my best efforts to-date (although to be fair to myself, I never had true dark skies to work with either). I could go into great detail on what we did for astronomy and I will if others ask me to. However, for the sake of expediency and brevity (OK, so I don't seem too interested in brevity) I'll skip over the details. A couple of the highlights included the ability to see the body of the Milky Way without a telescope or binoculars, Jupiter rising and being so bright that it reflected off the lake, bands of colors visible on Jupiter through the XT10i, Jupiter being clearly visible as a disk and all of the Galilean moons visible through the 15x70 binoculars, countless satellite passes caught both in the telescope viewer and with the naked eye, and a number of meteors that were quite visible and caused a lot of overly loud expressions. I'm not sure if other campers were wondering what we were up to in the dark with all the racket we were likely making but I can only imagine. So Sunday night was eventful and produced some wonderful memories for all of us but it had been a long day so eventually the toys were put away and we readied for bed.

 
*Scroll down for Chapters 2 through 10!*


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too

really enjoyed your post! I understood every other word, but I enjoyed it!


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## hyewalt34

What a awesome experience. I've always wished I knew someone into astronomy so I could take a peak at the heavens!

Walter


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## PDX_Doug

Great story, Brian! I will look forward to reading more.









We stayed at Prineville Reservoir a few years back when we were still pop-up camping. We didn't do any serious stargazing that trip, but I can attest to the fact that it is indeed dark threre! And a LONG ways from anything! Personally, I hope it stays that way. The way the region is growing and sprawling, I can see Prineville being next. Hmm... May be a good time to invest in some 'cheap' land.









Happy Trails,
Doug


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## Y Guy's Wife

Awesome 2000th post Brian!!!!

Dark skies are the best. Can't wait to hear more!


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## Y-Guy

Nice one for #2,000 BBB - glad the trip was safe and sound... well at least so far in the report!


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## BigBadBrain

*Chapter 2 - Prineville Reservoir or How I came to Love the Boat
*







Monday morning we woke to bright morning sunrise at 4:30am. After closing some shades and getting a couple more hours of sleep, our morning was relaxed and filled with the images of the lake and all of the action of the boats at the docks. We were in site number B10 which has a number of unique attributes. First, it overlooks the lake. Second, it has shade in the AM and in the evening but not during the day (I picked it for its lack of trees to aid in nighttime stargazing). Third, it is a 'reverse' campsite. That is, the table and fire pit are on the 'wrong' side of the camper. This really did not cause us any trouble at all - a little more walking to and from the camper during meals but that was about it. (If you want to see the campsite in detail, I recommend Google Earth with the following exact lat-long input: Latitude 44° 7'45.24"N Longitude 120°43'14.54"W). The lake was very beautiful and although the skiers were kind of obnoxious (it seems one must have music to ski these days and it isn't enough to try to use headphones; apparently you must use a 500 Watt amplifier and high power speakers to broadcast to the skier and everyone else within 5 miles) it was very picturesque. With more than three ski boats competing for the loudest it became almost comical. Almost.








We walked the park later in the morning to see what there was to see. Lots of wild life of the small sort - ground squirrels and lots of birds. (Did I mention we also like to study birds? Well, it wasn't our theme so we didn't spend a lot of time dedicated to it but whenever we had the chance we did a lot of bird watching and there were some good opportunities at Prineville - a number of hours were spent doing this). The park area that is friendly to the campers is kind of small. The lake itself is very dirty - lots of algae and pollen floating in the water. There were few campers willing to enter the water and all of the ones who did were younger teens and kids. No adults were willing to get into the soup. Colette and Ben were not at all interested in swimming - very unusual for them as it is their sport of choice and they are both dedicated competitive swimmers. The park is in the high desert so anything outside of the irrigated part of the park was sage, juniper and cheat grass. Both the sage and the juniper were in 'spring' mode and the scent was wonderful for me and for Caroline - both of us from Eastern Washington and grown up with sage. Cheat grass in the socks also brought back memories but not such good ones to be frank. Caroline was continually asking about the possibility of taking home one of the junipers. We didn't although we have lots of cheat grass seeds to start an annoying garden if we chose to.








In the afternoon clouds moved in so we were unable to do any stargazing later that night. We started a fire and roasted marshmallows to pass the time and to enjoy a little camping environment. I had one marshmallow but it wasn't very roasted regardless of how long I held it towards the fire (this could have been that I was not willing to lean forward and make more of an effort to actually get the marshmallow close to the fire - I paid good money for that reclining chair, why would I lean forward?!). It seems that although there were a fair number of marshmallows consumed, none of them made it to complete s'more stage. A lot of chocolate seemed to disappear (and not in my direction I swear) as well. I consumed only the one marshmallow. Really. No, seriously, I have a firm rule about sugar after 7pm. I only had one. And no chocolate. True story!
 
*Chapter 3 gets exciting!*


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## skippershe

Great story so far!
You've got me hooked


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## Oregon_Camper

Love it....

Bring on the next chapter!!!


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## BigBadBrain

*Chapter 3 - What to do, what to do? Paint the hills?*

While we were at Prineville we took a trip to see the Painted Hills at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. This was part of our geology themed vacation. The Painted Hills are a separate part of the monument that is located between Prineville and Mitchell on Highway 26E. There is very little at this site except for the site itself - that is to say that there isn't a visitor center where you can go inside and look at exhibits - that part of the monument is another 60 miles down the same highway to the East.








We left a little late from camp to go see the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument as it was a lazy kind of camping morning. We found a lot of things to do in camp that kept us occupied (not busy but with things of interest to us like walking through the campground) until after lunch. By the time we had gotten all of us in one place again, mounted up in the Expedition and departed the campground it was 2:30pm. We planned on going to both the Painted Hills and the main John Day Monument site HQ but failed to realize that the hours are rather limited and they'd be closed at 5pm. We therefore were faced with a choice when we got to the painted hills - either stay and enjoy the late afternoon light at the painted hills (although it was partially overcast so the hills weren't at their best) or we could continue on and see the museum part but we'd only have a half hour or so to browse. We elected to stay at Painted Hills and enjoy a leisurely visit that would give us enough time to take all the hikes they have in the park.








The Painted Hills really do live up to their name - they look like someone first smoothed the hills to perfect roundness and then took a large brush of red, gold, yellow and even blue and made great horizontal brush strokes across their faces. There are also areas where the hills have dashes and dots in lines between the broader brush strokes. All of these colors are actually ash falls of clay with the color coming from the mineral impurities of the clay. Every time you go the hills tend to look different. Direct sunlight late in the day seems to produce more intense colors (consistent with what photographers have known forever) but the weather, clouds, and sun direction can affect the colors or intensity.








We went on three 'hikes' as they are called by the signs. The longest is a mile round trip on a relatively level trail and therefore very easy. All of the trails are either gravel trails or boardwalk so access is good for everyone. If you decide that you must bring your Segway, go ahead, the trails will accommodate it. That's not to say they aren't worth it. Each of the trails has their strong points and only one was really disappointing. The first trail, which starts at the information kiosk of the first lookout location along the road, takes you to a vantage point that you cannot get to any other way. From the end of the trail you see the back sides of the hills you see from the lookout. The colors are similar but the hills are different shapes and there are more of them visible. The second trail is the lake cove trail. It doesn't actually have anything to do with the lake except that it is visible in the distance from the trail. The trail has its own parking area and is very short. It is perhaps the best trail for understanding how the painted hills formed. There is an outstanding solid red mound of clay that greets you whichever direction you take (it is a loop trail) and the texture and color are truly outstanding. The trail winds around to other mounds and at one point crosses purple and blue rock and clay (colors will depend on the sunlight and if overcast it might all look kind of grey). The last trail was the only fossil trail we went on (and the farthest from the entrance. The trail is a loop trail again and only about a quarter mile. The trail promises a view of a fossil bed and that's pretty much what you get - a view of a mound of broken clay shards that one supposes has some fossils in them. You don't get close enough to see them and you aren't allowed to touch any rocks try to examine the rocks you can reach. We all kind of looked at one another and shrugged wondering why anyone would come here to stare at a mound of rubble just because there are supposed to be fossils in it. Of course we were there and our answer was that we had expected to see some fossils. They do have a sign at the entrance to the trail that has a clear plastic display with a couple of fossils (one supposes from the fossil bed on the trail) that you can see pretty closely. Those are the only fossils you are likely to see on this trail. We did have the opportunity to see a seemingly perfect pentagonal clay shard. Boy, that was exciting!








Well, when we finished our last trail it was past 6:30 and we were ready to say goodbye to the Painted Hills. It was _well _over an hour drive back to camp so we decided to head out. After getting back to Prineville we decided to 'spend' one of our eating out coupons that we allow ourselves for these kinds of vacations. It was nearly 7:30 and another 45 minutes back to camp (after fueling the truck and the long drive from Prineville to the reservoir) meant it would be kind of late to start cooking dinner. We all liked the idea of a quick bite at Dairy Queen and stopped in to help celebrate Mary's birthday. Mary worked at the Dairy Queen and was turning 80 that day. They had all dressed up like pioneers and were having all kinds of events throughout the day. Unfortunately, we missed most of them and didn't get to meet Mary - she sounded like quite a person from all the comments we heard. We fueled up and headed back to camp (and yes, I broke my 7pm no sugar rule at the Dairy Queen. I mean come on, it was Dairy Queen! I had to have ice cream!). 

*Chapter 4 and the Outback gets down and DIRTY!*


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## Herbicidal

Great story! Sorry I didn't get back to you before you left on your trip regarding Lava Beds National Monument.


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## BigBadBrain

No problem Herb. We just didn't manage to get that far south on this trip. Our timing was OK but the crew opted for a rest day rather than a long day trip to California. That doesn't mean we won't be going down there in the near future. For some reason I can't seem to avoid the volcanic sites - they are just fascinating to me. Fortunately, my kids and (with more limited enthusiasm) my wife share the interest.


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## Herbicidal

I totally understand about the 'rest' day. Not to hi-jack your thread, but I finally posted pictures from our trip so at least you and your family can take a virtual tour until you can go in person.









Take care!


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## BigBadBrain

No problem - I kinda did the same to your thread without intending to (hijack that is). You had a great set of pictures! I'll be posting a lot more of mine as well when this narrative is done.

Long camping vacations - they're the best!


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## BigBadBrain

Remember the marshmallow that just wouldn't toast?








I really don't see what I more I could have done!


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## BigBadBrain

*Chapter 4 - The Road to Chiloquin and the Road Less Travel[Trailer]ed*

The next day was a planned move from Prineville Reservoir to Walt's RV Park, Chiloquin OR. Chiloquin is about 20 miles north of Klamath Falls OR which is on Hwy 97 about 40 miles north of the Oregon/California border. From Prineville Reservoir Chiloquin is about a 4 to 5 hour drive. We were not necessarily going to go straight to Walt's RV Park but had planned on stopping and seeing a couple things on the way down.

The first stop was the Newberry Volcanic National Monument Information Center. We turned into the drive for the info center and were greeted with a closed gate and a notice that the center was closed on Monday and Tuesday of each week. Why they couldn't have put that on the sign on the highway I don't know. So we spend a good 20 minutes trying to find a location to turn around and get back out on the highway.

Our next planned stop on HWY 97 was the Lava Cast Forest which is part of the Newberry Volcanic National Monument. We took the exit (HWY 97 is a very well developed highway with limited access and nicely set-up entrances and exits to and from the highway) and passed under the highway to following the sign. About 200 yards past the highway, the road surprisingly turned to a gravel surface. I wasn't too sure I liked this development but it was a little late and too far to back up the trailer so I continued. I figured there would likely be a place to turn around somewhere on this stretch of road or even better that it might eventually become a paved road when it got to the National Monument property. I should have known better. It turns out that the Lava Cast Forest is about 9 miles from the highway on a dusty and rocky (and washboarded) road that goes from being fairly decent to not so great to one-lane-only-hope-you-don't-meet-anyone-coming-the-other-way type road to a two-rut-what-the-heck-are-we-doing-with-a-travel-trailer-on-this-road kind of road. And there are NO potential turn around spots. Regardless, we managed to get to the Lava Cast Forest without any damage other than dust on the camper. We were pretty surprised that no dust got into the camper at all - we had feared the worst. What I found really ironic after all the concern about the road was that they actually had a sign pointing one direction for 'CARS' and another direction for 'RVs and CARS WITH TRAILERS'. Go figure.






















The Lava Cast Forest was quite fascinating. Because we are all geology nuts, the whole process and the effects of a lava flow that surrounded and toppled a mature forest was very cool indeed. The variety of rock types and casts of tree trunks of trees that were upright and some that came down into the lava and left tunnels in the rock was pretty amazing. It was one of those kinds of places that really captures the imagination and allows you to really imagine what it might have been like. Well, at least it worked for us - YMMV.








The Lava Cast Floe - CAUTION Geology Lecture. For those who've been to a lava floe and experienced the strange terrain and twisted and stretched rock it only takes a reminder to let you imagine the bizarre landscape. For those who've never sampled a lava flow, it is almost impossible to describe the kind of rock you see. One might imagine that it would be all one massive pavement with little or no interesting features but it is quite the opposite. The variance is phenomenal. Volcanic rock many times has a lot of gas and air entrained in the basalt rock as it erupts out of the crater or dike in jets and streams. The rock when it begins to solidify still has these bubbles trapped inside the rock - the material is too viscous for the gas to rise to the surface and escape. So volcanic floe rock looks like a cleaning sponge with large and small holes captured in the rock. What makes this sometimes very cool is when the rock is still plastic - simply meaning it is still hot enough to stretch - and the holes are stretched and pulled as though they were air bubbles in taffy. The rocks themselves look like taffy that is being pulled and stretched and then frozen and broken with a hammer. 











The freezing part is actually correct and the hammer is, oddly enough, water. As the rock cools to the temperature of the air it is actually in the process of turning from a liquid to a solid - it's freezing. But where water enters the picture is what happens in the centuries since the rock floe formed. Water rains down on the rock floe over time and seeps into all the cracks and crevasses in the basalt. All those holes start to get to be kind of important as the rock is very porous as a result and therefore water can easily seep into the rock. When temperatures get below freezing, the water freezes and expands causing stress to build inside the rock. When enough stress builds, the rock cracks and breaks from the surrounding rock. So as time goes by, the smooth plastic floe breaks apart and becomes a field of shattered rock with razor sharp edges made even more dangerous by the holes in the rock causing the rock edges to approach serrated knife edges. It is very unwise to casually pick up lava rock from this kind of floe or even walk with tennis shoes or light boots. The floe is very young geologically and so the rock is still very sharp and unforgiving. The very little that we trod on some of this rock left scars on our tennis shoes during our short hike - some of them pretty deep cuts. I kept warning everyone to be very careful - a scraped knee on this stuff was a trip to the nearest hospital (this wasn't a big issue - there was a paved trail through the floe that allowed us to see almost everything we wanted to see). The casts themselves are almost a different rock altogether. Because they are hot lava that is contacting cool trees, the lava tends to cool much more quickly than the rock which is still in contact with the superheated air above the lava. This causes, interestingly enough, the air entrained in the lava to be lost and the lava to cool at much quicker rates. The lava is a lighter color, has more crystalline features (a druzy type crystalline glint) and in some of the casts it actually drips and runs along an almost polished surface on the inside of the cast. We were full of guesses at the processes at work here but none of us really agreed on what really happened in those casts to cause all these variations. Suffice it to say that it was, to us, a fascinating example of how geology holds a lot of unsolved mysteries - which explains its draw for us.

Of course there were a few other things we enjoyed too like BBB striking 'epic' poses ("Before you pass this tree by me, first you must answer these questions three!") and the ground squirrels who knew no fear.















So, we headed back down the road to get back to civilization. When we got back to the pavement we did a quick investigation of the trailer and found that other than dust and a few rocks on the bumper and up in the stabilizers, we were OK to head on down the highway. Next stop: Chiloquin.

*Stay tuned for Chapter 5 and a surprise or two!*


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too

thank you for sharing your story! I LOVE visiting the Lava Fields in Oregon, and stopping and grasping just what took place and what is under all that lava! I don't have your depth of knowledge but my curiosity keeps my mind busy!


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## BigBadBrain

I think I've discovered the theoretical saturation point for Outbackers! Apparently, 10,000 words on a trip blog is too much. I still have six chapters to go with a list of trip statistics at the end!

Oh well, I've already got it written so I'll keep going.

Here is a little foreshadowing -


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## coletterby

This is cool. Much better than anything *I'd* be tempted to do.


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## tdvffjohn

Interesting reading and great pics









I keep waiting for the familiar Outbackers pic of your feet with a great view in the background









John


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## BigBadBrain

*Chapter 5 - Chiloquin Realized - We meet Scooter the Camp Dog*

Our arrival in Chiloquin was not an especially dignified one. While Caroline called to get directions on where to turn off of HWY 97 and hurriedly wrote directions on a notepad, we sailed right past the entrance to Walt's RV Park. Now it is important to understand something about Chiloquin on HWY 97 - it doesn't really exist. There aren't really any businesses or other locations with a wide enough area to turn the camper and certainly there was no place to slow down and pull a u-turn. Additionally, the tractor-trailer unit behind me seemed less than obliging in allowing some goofball who missed his turn to slow down and finding a place that we could slow down and turn around meant an additional mile or two added to our trip. Additionally, they had lost our reservation (long story but suffice it to say that there was a legitimate reason). Fortunately they had plenty of space and therefore were able to put us into a pull through spot - not my first choice but that's what was offered and so that's what we took. At the check-in, Bob, the owner of Walt's RV (never figured that out) introduced us to Scooter, the camp dog, who was dressed in a cat suit and making barking noises that sounded a lot like a cat meow. Scooter had a lot to say on everything around him whether he was greeting guests or on his way into the woods to hunt with his fellow, uh, canine partner (who also strangely resembled a feline). Often while in camp we could hear Scooter's continuously murmured commentary without actually seeing him walking through the camp. Strange little dog Scooter.








A note about Bob, he is a three time retiree with a career in the United States Marine Corp, a career with his own business as an electrician, and another as a consultant. He then bought the park and is now enjoying running it even though he doesn't really have any way to keep improving it. His wife of 41 years is suffering from cancer and spent only 2 weeks in the last 10 months at home so his medical costs are through the roof. He is pretty much resigned to losing her. Bob was a great host, friendly and considerate, and in spite of his situation was always 'up' when we saw him. He offered free well seasoned firewood for our camp as well and allowed Caroline to pick out half a dozen largish post cards of Crater Lake. Bob was one of those folks who make a lasting impression and who provides an example of how life should be lived; it was a pleasure to meet him.








At check in we received warning from Bob about a camp hazard in the form of winged vampire bugs - mosquitoes - millions of them! The place was so thick with them you dared not open your mouth to breathe for fear of eating them. OK, it wasn't THAT bad but at times it seemed that way - and I did inhale one! This was very bad news as we had chosen Walt's on advice of someone who had tried the State Park down the road and had preferred Walt's because there were no bugs compared to the SP. We all quickly lathered up in the available repellant (all-natural organic insect repellant sounds so good when you are shopping - won't make that mistake again) and proceeded to set up camp. It was a full hookup camp and we connected everything up and then set up to dump the tanks (our site at Prineville Reservoir SP was water/electric only so we had some tank content - not a lot). After getting the camper setup and stabilized and closing the tanks back up, we all went in to count bites. I suffered the worst but everyone had gotten multiple bites. All I can say is that if the SP was worse it must have been a terrible experience. We didn't do a lot of outside activities while in camp at Walt's and while the total count of bites didn't exceed the century mark for all of us combined, it came close.

Another side note - we somehow had a lot of trouble remembering the name of Walt's RV Park. I'm not sure why that was but we called it numerous names that had no apparent relation to the real name. At first, when we were in the reservation mode a few months back, I mistakenly referred to it as Wally's Cozy Camp. It was a simple error that caused a lot of confusion when Caroline later tried to confirm our reservation. Later I got Walt's name right but still had the Cozy Camp thing added. Again, we had trouble with it. For some reason, the name Walt got translated into Wally, Irving, Willy, and a few others I can't recall. Finally we all resigned ourselves to calling it Scooter's Mosquito Paradise.








The news of the mosquitoes was disheartening in the extreme. We found that as the sun went down the population of the bugs increased dramatically. We also discovered there was almost no access to the sky due to trees and no open areas! The combination of these two factors (and the constant itching reminders) made our desire to gaze at the stars vanish rapidly. The up side to this was that the family stayed inside together and had a very good visit. With our daughter at college for the last two years and our son becoming more and more independent in his high school years, it was a good time to get caught up on what things were happening in the family. It was heartening to have my daughter comment the next morning "Dad, somehow I'd forgotten how much family means - I need to come home to visit more." I almost lost it on that one - it's something you want to hear so bad when launching your kid and pretty much assume you never will. My son's contribution was "Dad, we're out of milk and I was kind of thinking another couple bowls of cereal would really hit the spot. Can you do something about that?"

Setting up camp:







Some of the dirt and rocks we acquired on our trip to the Lava Cast Forest







*What's next? Chapter 6 The search for gas - oh, and Crater Lake*


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## TrainRiders

Since I was the one to recommend "Walts" to BBB, I'll comment on a couple things that Brian mentioned.

First, yeah, "Downtown Chiloquin" is a mile or two east of 97 and even then it is not much of a town. Don't blink, you'll miss it. There was a "Pacific Pride" gas station area just south of Walts that I think we used as a U-turn spot, but even so, the big rigs on 97 don't give you much room to make decisions as to where to turn off the Hwy.

Its interesting that the current owner "Bob" is suffering through a series of medical problems with his wife as the previous owner of the campground "Walt" (hence the name) dealt with similar problems prior to his passing a few years back. I guess they have still kept the "Walts" name although it used to be "Walts Cozy Camp" so the various names you remembered it by had a degree of truth in them.

Sorry about the bugs.







Really, they weren't that bad when we were there in July of 2006 and Collier was much worse, Its good to know that you enjoyed the family bonding time in the TT, but you missed the chance to star gaze at night.

It sounds like the resident deer that practically lived in the camp when were there has moved on or Scooter and the cat have chased him off.

Looking forward to the next installment about your trip to Crater Lake.


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## BigBadBrain

John,
We didn't see the deer but Scooter is clearly a vicious threat (he'll talk you to death) so maybe that explains it.

Hey, bugs come and go - they are having one of the worst years there according to Bob and some other folks we met. There are signs everywhere to "Vote for Mosquito Control" so it sounds as though the issue is one of major local concern. Being that close to the big marsh in So. Central OR is likely a big reason for it (and a reason why environmentalists argue against the mosquito control).

The lack of stargazing was as much the trees as the bugs. I could have faced a lot of bugs if the sky was wide open! We searched up and down 97 to find a site we could set up off the road and without looking like we were terrorists (my telescope looks a lot like a HUGE mortar and people get nervous about such things (people in complete darkness messing with something that looks like a weapon will invite local authorities to investigate - usually with a 2 million candlepower search light). Anyway, we couldn't find anyplace that didn't have light pollution issues or didn't have the same tree issues. It's OK, you'll see in the next to last chapter that we had a superb night for astronomy a little later in the trip.

I'll have lots of pictures for Crater Lake too!

BBB


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## skippershe

Great continuing saga Brian, I'm really enjoying your adventures!

I can totally sympathize on the mosquito thing...it brings back horrible flashbacks of a blood sucking fest we experienced a couple of years ago on the 4th of July while camping right next to a hidden swamp on the beach









Looking forward to the next chapter


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## hyewalt34

Hey, I kinda like the sound of that RV Park. "Walt's RV Park" has a nice ring to it!









Walt


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## BigBadBrain

*Chapter 6 - Mt. Mazama and the search for gas
*

As the next morning dawned we prepared for our first day trip - to Crater Lake. First on the agenda after getting breakfast done (how can one teenage kid eat SO much and still be skin and bones?) was to find a gas station and tank up. We could find no one at the front desk or anywhere else in camp to ask about the nearest gas station (apparently we were the last ones out of camp for the morning - even Scooter the dog was nowhere to be seen - or heard) and so had to guess at where we'd find a station. My reasoning was that as we got closer to Klamath Falls the more likely we'd find a gas station - so off down HWY 97 we went. The first gas station we encountered was commercial only and the second was not promising and turned out to be abandoned - either permanently or temporarily, we couldn't really tell. The next gas station looked equally abandoned and the news at the pump wasn't too encouraging either: "This product is neither tested nor approved for public use!" which fr some reason really amused the kids and kinda scared me. So, we continued towards Klamath Falls. Along the way we enjoyed the views of the lake, the grebes that nest along the shore, the cliffs of rock along the east side of the road, and the bright sunshine. HWY 97 is wedged between rocky cliffs on the east side of the road and Lake Klamath on the west. The lake is a very large lake and even though it is a popular vacation spot for recrational boating, fishing, etc., we didn't see even a single boat - and we could see a LONG way! The scenery was wonderful and the driving was great but it was still in the wrong direction. Finally, on the outskirts of Klamath Falls we found a gas station. And it was crowded. We decided to go a little farther down the road and only a mile or so later found a station with only one vehicle and apparently the station was not abandoned and had tested and approved product. We filled up and headed back the way we came passing the still crowded gas station, the nesting grebes, the cliffs on the right side now, the lake on the right, the unapproved product gas station, the abandoned gas station (with someone parked at the pump and standing outside his car looking for an attendant) and finally the turn off 97 towards Crater Lake. We only added 36 miles to the trip making it 76 rather than 40. Oh, and we found out later that Chiloquin has a perfectly good gas station only about 4 miles from our camp and 'generally' on the way from camp to Crater Lake.

A view across Upper Kalmath Lake







The roads to Crater Lake are good but we chose a day that they were resurfacing the road with an oil/rock mix. We waited a good half hour for the pilot car to arrive and then threaded our way across fresh oil and rock to the other side of the construction area at 10-12 miles an hour. Did I mention the construction was 8 miles long and the pilot car didn't vary in speed regardless of the fact that only the first couple miles were actively being worked on? What should have taken 8 minutes took well over an hour. Oh well, no harm, the crew knew their business and there was neither oil splatter nor rock chip damage (not that a little body damage would have mattered after our soon to come adventures in the wilds of Central Oregon - but that comes in a later installment). We had an interesting talk with the guy who was signing for the crew while we waited. He particularly liked my McKesh mirrors and took down the phone number from the small decal so he could look into getting some for his truck/trailer combination. When the pilot vehicle arrived we waved goodbye and continued on our way.

First glimpse of Crater Lake is breathtaking







Crater Lake. For those who've been there no words are necessary. For those who haven't, no words suffice. What an amazing place. It's not really possible to wrap your head around the size of this place. It's so huge that it defies description. The water is so blue that you can't really explain it. Colette, who'd never seen Crater Lake, said "Too cool! The water color is the same as the Antarctic Sea! I never thought I'd see water that color again!" The caldera of Mt. Mazama (which is the crater of Crater Lake) is a place of superlatives without end. Go see this place if at all possible - you'll never regret it. Last time Caroline and I were there was 27 years before. It hadn't changed but we had - it was a point of reflection we enjoyed while staring at this truly outstanding view. There was a still a lot of snow - enough so that our plans on driving the rim were canceled because the East Rim Drive was closed due to snow! In late June! They'd had significant snowfall just two weeks before we'd arrived and there were places with 12-14 feet of snow bordering the road. Even though there was snow, the temperature on our visit day was a balmy 75 degrees with a nice breeze coming over the rim of the caldera - perfect! Hopefully, some of the pictures we took will be enough to revisit the place in our minds - the pictures themselves can't do it justice. Since we were limited to just the West side of the caldera, our plans for hiking were canceled. We spent most of the afternoon just looking at the lake, the surrounding caldera, and the mountains that are visible from the crater rim looking across and outward from the rim. It was bright sunshine with only high cirrus clouds and light wind (except in places where it was channeled where it got pretty gusty). We ate lunch at the small café/gift shop just outside the gate. It was a nice place with unspectacular food and unsurprisingly expensive tab. Obligatory t-shirts were purchased.

Wizard Island - with snow








Snow was still all over the area - the rim road was closed because of it







Contrary to previous posts I'm going to skip the lecture on how calderas differ from normal volcanos and how Mazama used to be the tallest peak on the contenent. Ok, so I'll mention that I guess but I won't go into the magma chamber forming and erupting with the gas chamber on top of it which causes expansion of the mountain to the point where the whole thing weakens and collapses back into the big and now empty gas chamber causing the entire mountain (what was left of it) to make the huge, perfect caldera that is home to Crater Lake and I'm going to just skip all that and I'm not even going to mention that the volcano, before it collapsed, ejected 14 cubic miles of rock and ash which is 14 times as much as St. Helens in 1980. I'm going to skip over all that and simply say it was really cool.

It was really cool!

BBB composing a photo






Snow at the visitor center






Colette facing into the wind for her Dad's camera







The drive back to camp was uneventful. We stopped and looked at the site of Fort Klamath where there is a big empty field now and a little tiny town with a tiny grocery store and a tiny dog on the rather largish porch of the tiny grocery store. Back at camp the mosquitoes were still there and there was no sign of Scooter the camp dog although Bob was motoring around camp in his golf cart. We'd used up most of the day and we (meaning me) were tired from driving so much. Most of the campers had left leaving us and about four others who appeared to camp there year round. It was late in the day and I proposed a quiet evening (indoors) while watching a movie. We also sorted out pictures and downloaded them onto the computer so we had more than one copy - a habit that has helped in the past!

*Next: Chapter 7 - We get an itch to go shopping*


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## wolfwood

WHAT A *GREAT* TRAVELOGUE!!!!

Next chapter please .......


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## OregonCampin

Ahhhhhh... Crater Lake. One of my most favorite places in the world. I actually worked at the lodge a couple summers in a row. That was a great experience. I hiked places most people only dream about, saw water so green you thought there would be emeralds at the bottom of the lake (aka: the emerald pools) and got to talk to a group on research individuals that were actually going in the lake in a manned submarine to "see if they could find the bottom" - they were also looking for volcanic vents that were actually heating the water from the bottom... now, I will tell you from experience, this lake is COLD COLD COLD, but there is a significant increase in the temp as you go down (WAY DOWN)!

So - I will second the notion that if you have never been there.....GO. Also, if you have the opportunity (or your kids do), sign up to work at the lodge for a summer... it was a great experience! They love college students looking for summer work!


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## BigBadBrain

*Chapter 7 - We get an itch to go shopping*

The next day was designated a rest day (meaning limited driving). We got up, showered, did our outside things while the mosquitoes slept and prepared a shopping list for our first trip to get supplies since we left four days earlier. The list of essentials (like anti-itch solutions that had not expired two-years past) that had stacked up was getting a little long so we decided a trip to Klamath Falls to see the town and do some shopping was in order. We set out a little later than planned (it was a nice relaxed day!) but got to Klamath Falls and toured around looking at the town. Klamath Falls is the largest town in the area and has a quoted population of about 20,000 - the town seemed much larger than that to me. It was a nice place with a very nice downtown area that begged exploring. Unfortunately, our relaxed day was running kind of long and we decided to simply get our shopping done and get back to camp for dinner. We searched a little more and found a Fred Meyer store - like a home away from home! They had everything we needed and we probably went a little overboard on the mosquito control but we had far too many bites to give it short shrift. Well fortified with needed supplies (and the obligatory unneeded items as well) we headed back to camp for a BBQ in spite of the bugs. Turns out I was the sacrificial cook and everyone else huddled inside while I did the grilling. That's OK, the combination of smoke from the burgers and brats and the multiple layers of three types of repellant seemed to keep me safe for the duration and I escaped with only a couple fresh wounds. Besides, the brats were wonderful!

While I was grilling I could hear Scooter off in the woods muttering what I can only guess was a social commentary about the heavy burden on a camp cat - er sorry, dog - in keeping the place free of scurrying vermin while being at the mercy of the winged vermin whose copious quantities made it rather &#8230; well, you get the idea. It went on for quite a length of time until it faded in the distance. The responsibilities of a camp dog can be daunting I guess.

Don't worry - the next installment is coming post haste...


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## BigBadBrain

*Chapter 8 - Books? You want to buy BOOKS?!*

The next day we discovered Chiloquin. No kidding, we were unaware that the town actually existed off the highway a couple of miles. That's when we determined that there was a gas station in town in addition to a nice little local artists' store and a fantastic used book store! I mean fantastic! I'm not sure how many tens of thousands of books this guy had but the place was immense! There was also very little order to the place. The non-fiction was sorted by subject - kind of. The fiction was sorted by genre - sort of. There were groupings of fiction by author but no sense of order of the authors. Basically, it was a hunt to find anything of interest rather than looking for a specific book or author. A clever if unintentional strategy for exposing browsers to a much wider range of books than if everything was ordered. It worked pretty well for us and after a cool $120 we finally had to leave. This expense was definitely NOT in the travel budget. With my kids it was worse than the worst tourist trap!








A note about the gas station in Chiloquin: It's located at the main crossroads in 'downtown' Chiloquin and is a tad difficult to get the trailer into (we found this out the next day when we came back into town to fuel up). As difficult as it was to get into, it was really hard to get out of. I waited until the traffic cleared (yes, I did actually have to wait) and then I took all of downtown Chiloquinto turn the trailer around at the same time I exited the gas station. It was the only way out of the gas station as it turns out. I did end up holding up traffic but the lady in the Volvo and the kid on the bike seemed not to care at all. Oh, and it was the most expensive gas we found on the trip.








We left Chiloquin looking for some cheaper entertainment than the book store and decided on the logging museum at Collier State Park which is just down the road. The logging museum is an outdoor museum with a lot of fascinating displays of donated logging equipment from the very early days of logging on the west coast of the US and Canada. They had everything from the earliest days of horse and mule powered equipment to steam and then modern internal combustion. The curators of the museum were reconditioning a steam 'donkey' which was used for pulling logs through the forest in place of horses or mules. It was an innovation that transformed the logging industry at the time and was in part driven by the immensity of the timber that was being cut (no one on the East Coast had ever encountered logs this size). The restoration of the steam donkey included making a new log skid (using two foot diameter timbers for the skids and one foot thick cross members) and picking up the massive hardware with a fork lift to move it to the new skid. It was fun to watch the meticulous care the guys working on it were giving the hardware - can't go to the hardware store and buy a replacement if you damage something! Some of the exhibits were truly massive! I recommend it to anyone traveling HWY 97 through this part of Oregon. Take some mosquito protection - Caroline gave up and went back to the protection of the truck while Ben and Colette and I finished most of the tour and stopped by the rather uninspiring gift shop (including an unfortunate shop attendant whose job Colette listed as number 648 on her list of jobs she'd never want to have).




















That evening we did another BBQ and did some preparation for departing the next day. It was another nice evening of family talk and we had a slide show of all the photos we'd taken so far on the trip. At that point we were up to about 1600 among the four of us (we didn't look at them all of course). And no, none of them was of the Fred Meyer store or the gift shop attendant at the museum.

*OK, Things get back to being a little more interesting in Chapter 10 - We are northward bound...*


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## BigBadBrain

So, is anyone still reading? Shall I go on? I notice the number of visits is tapering to nothing.

I can go on if folks want me to. Actually, I haven't gotten to the real exciting part yet.


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## Herbicidal

BigBadBrain said:


> So, is anyone still reading? Shall I go on? I notice the number of visits is tapering to nothing.
> 
> I can go on if folks want me to. Actually, I haven't gotten to the real exciting part yet.


Continue please.







I've been in some of those exact same spots. In fact my picture of Crater Lake and Wizard island has some of the same (close up) trees as in your picture (one dead one in particular jutting out from the bottom of the picture). We spent time around the Newberry crater and the Wikiup reservoir and we did the (I think it was called) the Lava River Cave just south of Bend. Very cool. We also went through Chiloquin to get gas, but didn't have the Outback attached - missed the used book store. We visited an outdoor model railroad which is in the same general area. It was AMAZING! The network of tracks was literally miles long! There were train rides for a small donation. Oops! Almost hi-jacked the thread again... Man, I love it in that area! Our trip up there was about two years ago. Thanks for the memories!

However, we are leaving on our next trip starting tomorrow so I'll have to play catch up upon our return.


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## LarryTheOutback

Keep going! It is summer and people are reading when they can. This is also a thread where you have to dedicate some time to reading it. Personally I've been skipping it in my several-times-per-day read, but catch up with it when I've got some time. Don't stop!

Ed


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## RLW7302

BigBadBrain said:


> So, is anyone still reading? Shall I go on? I notice the number of visits is tapering to nothing.
> 
> I can go on if folks want me to. Actually, I haven't gotten to the real exciting part yet.


Please continue. It's the weekend, and I'm sure a lot of folks are camping. Those of us that aren't, can enjoy reading about it!

Happy camping!
- Roger.


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## skippershe

Yes!! Please!!


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## Camping Fan

BigBadBrain said:


> So, is anyone still reading? Shall I go on? I notice the number of visits is tapering to nothing.
> 
> I can go on if folks want me to. Actually, I haven't gotten to the real exciting part yet.


Yes, keep going please!!

I'm enjoying the stories and the pictures.


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## ember

BBB,
By all means continue!! I'm enjoying it immensely!! 
Also tell BBBs dotter I enjoyed her input as well!!
I'd love more details of the bookstore!!
TTFN
Ember


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## BigBadBrain

OK, cool. I'll keep going.

Thanks.


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too

keep em coming! I am loving every word and the pics! We tried to see CLake in May but all we saw was snow.


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## BigBadBrain

*Chapter 9 - We say goodbye to Scooter and Bob and the Mosquito Ranch*

A LOT of pictures here so some are smaller...

The next morning we packed up and left Walt's RV Park after saying goodbye to Bob the owner (never did figure out who Walt was). We looked for Scooter the dog to say our goodbyes to but never found him. Ben said that on a bicycle trip around the camp he heard Scooter out working in the woods somewhere but couldn't see him. Did I mention how Scooter was a strange dog?

Heading North on HWY 97 is at first quite an interesting drive. Very soon however the road becomes arrow straight and the only variations are the mountain tops that can be glimpsed over the continuous juniper and pine trees to the West and the growth of wildflowers along the shoulder of the HWY. One stretch we gave the moniker of the 'purple highway' due to the proliferation of blooming sage plants that formed a carpet on both shoulders stretching almost from the edge of the road to the trees. It was a hot day with a maximum temperature of 103 as we traveled north on 97.








We had only one destination on the way back through Bend that we wanted to stop and see - the High Desert Museum about 10 miles south of Bend on HWY 97. We had allocated a good portion of the day to stopping in and reacquainting ourselves (and introducing Colette) to the excellent displays and exhibits. We spent the better part of four hours at the museum including having lunch at the little café they have. The Birds of Prey exhibit is perhaps our favorite. The otter is always fun to watch and the new exhibit on high desert critters was very well done. We had not seen this exhibit since it was still under construction last year when we visited. The exhibit featured some of the critters I grew up with including a couple kinds of scorpions, some rattlesnakes and the inevitable Black Widow spider - all of which my brother and I used to catch (not so much the rattlesnakes - we hunted them but left them alone when we found them). We missed the saw mill operations by a couple of hours unfortunately. The farm exhibit featured a few newly captured mustangs that were shy of people so we got no pictures. An occasional rump was visible in the stables but they were still too new to be ready for public exposure. If you stop at the museum, check out the way the barn and the saw mill structures are built - all massive post and beam that I suspect was cut at the sawmill itself judging by the kind of cuts and odd sized beams and posts. Fortunately, it was only about 90 degrees at the museum for the outside exhibits.














































We reached the Madras KOA at about 6pm. This camp is located about 10 miles south of Madras and 20 miles north of Redmond. Both Madras and Redmond are fair sized towns and have restaurants and stores if you need them. Last year we bought four new tires at the Les Schwab in Madras after having suffered a flat on a short and rather benign (we thought) off-road experience. No we didn't lose all four tires but we realized the tires were pretty worn and decided to change them all. The KOA is a nice camp and we got the last hookup spot available for reservation. This of course put us in a water/electric only hookup on the edge of camp closest to the road. Fortunately, at this camp that site is pretty darn nice! A full lush lawn, open fields to the back of the trailer and to the side with the awning, and a clear view to the North of the cattle grazing on green grass with irrigation and a nice ranch house where this day they were having a wedding! We were a good 150 feet from the road so it wasn't unpleasant in terms of traffic noise (in fact only once was it intruding when a convertible Volkswagen Rabbit pained in magenta with fluorescent green flames went by with stereo blasting out polka tunes - which was much more funny than it was an annoyance). The small camp store has a nice selection of groceries and other thing that campers sometimes need and kids always need. The camp was completely full. In our experience that generally means a lot of noise and some obnoxious behavior out of at least one camp. Not this time. It was very quiet and the best thing about it? NO mosquitoes! Unfortunately, there was also no camp dog.

Colette's sunset panorama of Mt. Jefferson and the Cascades







That evening we set up for some stargazing by first setting up the telescope and collimating it while it was still light out (collimating is a process for aligning the mirrors and eyepiece). This attracted considerable attention by people wandering past our site to go out to the road and watch the sun set behind the Cascades and Mt. Jefferson. We offered to share the views later when the stars came out but surprisingly no one came by later. It was a Saturday night so we figured the camp might be a little noisy after the 10 pm curfew but we were rater surprised that we seemed to be the only ones still up and active. We had a great time looking at the stars and Colette captured some additional pictures that are very good. The view of Andromeda was magnificent and filled the 25mm eyepiece! We were out until 1am and finally wrapped it up, stowed the telescope and prepared to call it a night. A thunderstorm was approaching from the southwest and after taking a couple of photos of the storm approaching (lightning makes wonderful long exposure images) we headed inside.









*Next - We go WHEELIN!*


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## BigBadBrain

Here is Colette's first attempt at capturing a piece of the Milky Way - constellation Cygnus. Vega is the bright star. You can make out the dust trails across the Milky Way snaking across the middle of the photo.








Nice picture Sunshine! (Hope you don't mind me doing the post-processing. The original is safe.)


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## coletterby

I think this blog/journal/story/thread of our trip is fantastic.

I also took a picture of one of my favorite constellations. It's a common one, no worries.










yay!


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## skippershe

Beautiful photos!
Thanks for continuing your story, it made my night


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too

love waking up to read your stories! keep em coming! you should write for a travel magazine.


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## ember

BBBs_dotter said:


> I think this blog/journal/story/thread of our trip is fantastic.
> 
> I also took a picture of one of my favorite constellations. It's a common one, no worries.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> yay!


Hey Collette, even I recognize that one!! Thanks for sharing!!
Nice also that you TOLD your Dad about being reminded of the importance of family!!
TTFN
Ember


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## N7OQ

I really enjoyed reading your stories, and I wish I was there with my scope. I travel 97 a lot, that is the way I go when I go to Spokane and Bend is our half way point. I haven't taken to the Outback up that way yet but plan on doing it soon. I have now been able to get any scope time here in a few week, got this brand new scope and can't use it, way to much smoke and I aint got no smoke filter for it. When I bought this scope I joked with the Wife that it would rain for weeks on end sense that is what happened when I bought the last 2 scopes I even broke a 7 year drought, I never though about fires and smoke. I like the pictures especially the astro photos. Thanks


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## BigBadBrain

*Chapter 10 - We go wheelin' and houndin'*

The next morning - Sunday the 29th of June, 2008 for those not keeping track - was a bright morning with no clouds in the sky. This was an active day when we expected to do some rock collecting at Richardson's Ranch. The ranch is north and a little east of Madras and is a 4000 acre working cattle ranch with some dig sites for thundereggs, opal, and agate. (OK, here's a pop-quiz - can anyone tell me the Oregon State Stone? That's right - the thunderegg!) It also features a great (probably the best in the Northwest) rock shop with some things that only Richardson's has. We'd been to Richardson's twice before; last year was our second visit and the first visit was when Colette was not quite three (Ben was still in the oven). While it doesn't sound like much - a cattle ranch with some holes for digging, I think it os one of the prettiest places in central Oregon. The ranch has a number of acres irrigated and therefore lush and green. Those portions of the ranch are surrounded by high desert with Juniper trees, sage brush, cheat grass, and other typical Oregon desert plants (and animals). What makes Richardson's really stand out in the beauty department though, is its cliffs of weather worn red rock basalt. There is a lot of geology going on here and that's one of the draws for us. The others, as I said, are the mineral deposits and the wild/tamed effect of the ranch in the desert. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

An example of the red rock in the canyons at Richardson's







We stopped for breakfast at The Apple Peddler restaurant in Madras. We nicknamed this resauraunt the 'Blue Diner' because all of the walls, carpet and ceiling in the main dining room are a baby blue color that while it is tastefully done, kind of grates on the sensibilities and definitely reminds you that this is a town of unique businesses not resaraunt chains and stamped out clone businesses. It was a nice reminder of where we were and why we were there. The wait staff is very nice and the food was good. I encouraged everyone to eat a good meal (some of us usually do very light breakfast) because we'd be working in the heat and would need a good set of caleries to get us going. So, lots of protien dissapeared that morning in combination with a lot of milk, water and OJ - fresh squeezed and only hungered for and not consummed by BBB. We mounted up, buckeled-in and made the short drive (half hour) to Richardson's.

We went in and checked in with the shop and got some buckets and a couple of additional hammers (we already had two) and got directions to the dig sites. We chose the opal dig site which we'd never been to before and got the warning that it was a four wheel drive road only. Not a problem - we have a Ford Expedition with four wheel drive, we'd be fine. I was a little concerned by the temperature this early in the morning (OK, it wasn't THAT early) because I knew it'd take half an hour to get to the site and we'd want to be there for a couple hours. That meant we'd be working right up to the hottest part of the day if we weren't careful. I warned the crew (we'd become a crew since we got to the 'dig') that we'd only have an hour of dig time due to the heat. Everyone agreed that this made sense so off we went. Well, after going through a couple of closed gates that we dutifully closed behind us, we found the road that shot off to the right of the main road and headed easterly towards a canyon of wonderful weathered red rock. The road was OK at first and then got a little rougher but nothing that was of too much concern, we were still in the bottom of the canyon and I figured we'd stay that way because the mineral deposits that we'd encountered at Richardson's before were all located pretty deep in the strata and didn't require any elevation gain at all. We forded a little creek (only about 8 feet wde and less than a foot deep) and I was thinking that the need for a 4x4 was really kind of overstated, sure the road was a little rough but it wasn't that much worse than any other road I'd encountered on this ranch in previous visits. Then the road started to climb. It was gradual at first but there were a few times I was thankful for the four-wheel drive and switched to 4-high to get some better traction up the hill. I was watching for sharp rocks in the roadway as last year we had gotten a flat tire on the road to the Priday thunderegg dig site to the north of the Opal beds. We encountered steeper road as we progressed and I began to get a little concerned - thy'd sid 4x4 pickups could do the road with no problem. And then started the switchbacks - not the one where you simply reversed direction by following the curve around a 180 turn but the kind where you do three or even five point turns to get the truck turned around in a very narrow space. Now I feel it necessary to explain that I was not inexperienced with trail driving. I'm not a jeeper but I've spent a lot of time learning trail driving in my old 1962 Ford F-100 pickup (4x2) while I was in college and nothing gets you trained better than a very light duty pickup without four-wheel drive. My chief concern was that I'd never driven a truck this big or heavy or, truth be told, this pretty into a rough situation where body damage is par for the course and where skid plates ought to have been the real stated requirement for the road. Are you with me so far? So here I am, Dad the great and wise, with my family in our five year old SUV that had the distinction of having used only the 2x and AWD ONLY so far in its life, driving up a trail that would have been out of the question if I'd appreciated what Mrs. Richardson calmy said needed a 4x4 vehicle. Everyone was fooled pretty well I think except maybe me. I was getting distinctly uncomfortable - the 4WD was working fine but I was going UP, what about going DOWN? It was kind of moot because there was no way we were turning around - there wasn't a place to do it and we were in for a penny&#8230; I was beginning to wonder about how the whole adventure would turn out when we saw the top of the trail - it was no longer a road. I think Caroline was seeing through the ultra-confident posture and was beginning to suspect that I was in deeper than I should have been. We parked with Caroline's final comment of "how exactly are you going to turn around?" which I told her with what confidence I had left that I'd handle when it was time to go (I had no clue).

The easy part of the roa is in the distance







Images going up and coming down the road to the dig site







So we were at the Opal dig site. We got out and looked around to discover we were very high up and had commanding views from all sides of the mountain top. The opal dig site was like a lot of others at Richardson's - pretty well dug up with lots of tailings and evidence of long time digging. After sizing it up I decided the tailings were the most promising and started searching for thundereggs (which would have either agate or opal in the center) or for shards of opal that others had missed. For those who've never had the pleasure of digging for rock or mineral or even gem stones, it may be hard to describe what it was like to dig for the opal. The pictures hopefully show a little of what it is like. The opal is not simply little gems like you might find diamonds; instead, it is a mineral that deposits over time in cavities (gas pockets) in the volcanic matrix. So, some 13 million years ago, one or more of the Cascade Range volcanoes erupted large amounts of ash and lava. Much of this was thrown in the air and hence was full or 'bubbles' that, when the lava landed, could not escape the cooling stone. The cracks that form as the rock cools allow a channel for ground water, rich in silicates, to penetrate the matrix and fill the small cavities. Over millions of years of this, the silicates in the ground water precipitate in the form of agate (for thundereggs) or opal (in our case) or, if conditions are just perfect, the silicates crystallize and attach themselves to the wall of the cavity and form a geode (a thunderegg that, when opened, has a hard outer shell of the matrix and an inner lining of crystals growing out from the walls). Another kind of stone that can be found is an odd thunderegg that is hollow (actually, they can be either full of air or still full of the silicate rich water which feels very slick and slippery as if it were oil) with small stalactite type formations. Sometimes these look like little worms attached to the wall of the thunderegg - and they are very fragile. But I digress (it's my specialty) - back to the opal dig. The opal was found in hard rock and in ranged from very tiny nodules to large embedded nodules. It also varied in quality from an almost moonstone look to a blue-chalk type look. Of course, most of it was poor quality but I was going to be happy if I could find enough opal to have the rock shop folks at home (Jerry's rock shop in Kent) produce a couple of post earrings for Caroline for our anniversary (BBBs_Dotter better not mention this!). We had enough that with some work at home we could prize out some smallish opals. Good enough for me!

The opal is located in the strata of rock at the base of the cliff - it's tough to get out














The view from the dig site at the top of the hill/mountain







We stayed at the dig site for a couple hours and finally called it a success when we'd found a good array of eggs, opal, and larger rocks we'd open later when we got home (about 50lbs of rock). Back to the truck and I was now faced with answering Caroline's question. The place where I parked was generally level. That is to say that the truck was not in any fear of rolling and not meant to imply that I was parked in a parking lot. In fact, there was less room than some of the tighter switchbacks we encountered. I walked around the truck and studied the situation and formed a plan. (For those of you who have ever studied Principles of War, by Carl von Clausewitz you will know the principle that says "No plan of action survives first contact with the enemy). So, I get in the truck and begin backing up with Colette behind the truck guiding me. I encounter what I believe to be a rock against the right rear tire as I start to back up. Assuming it is the rock I examined when I did my walk around I continue to backup. Well, this particular rock was a different rock that I had not accounted for. It was loose and when I started to backup it rolled from behind us to under us and when I gunned the engine to get over what I thought was a smallish rock the truck did a little jump and quick backwards rool and there was a load crunching/grating noise from the right side of the truck. I will have to live forever with 'the look' I got after the crash that meant I'd high centered the running board on the passenger side. I tried the 'grin guiltily and say "Oops"' routine to see if she'd maybe forgive me and she just kept giving me 'the look'. Maybe I need to make sure I get some really BIG opals for those earrings. If you really look closely you can see it isn't quite straight anymore but you really have to look close (really - OK, maybe you don't have to look THAT hard). Well, with a few more paint scratches on the underside of the back, and front, bumpers, I got us turned around. My exclamation of "Piece of cake!" got another 'look' and a comment from Ben "This is one of those times I shouldn't say anything isn't it?" To which I answered affirmatively. It took a lot longer getting down than getting up. Knowing a fair amount about wheeling from my days in college we got into 4-low and crept down off the mountain in low gear to save the brakes. Some of the hairpin switchbacks were a little unnerving when the wheels were almost over the edge but that's the fun of wheeling anyway isn't it? ('The look' again.) All of us (OK, maybe not Mama) enjoyed doing a little rough road driving and I gave the kids a thrill when we forded the stream by cranking up the speed a little and diving into the creek (another 'look' from Caroline)! It really was a lot of fun and the kids will have a great memory of it regardless of whether we got any good opal or not. Ben finally couldn't hold his comment in any longer and had this final epitaph for the journey: "Look at it this way Dad, even though you bashed up the truck you can now be satisfied that YOUR SUV isn't one of those four-wheel drive SUVs that never goes off road in its life!" Thanks Ben, you're my hero!

Looking down the cliff face from the dig you could see the road/trail







Back at the rock shop we paid for our diggings and spent another couple hours in the rock shop looking for keepsakes and gological oddities that we wouldn't find anywhere else. I gave each of the kids a surprise budget that would allow them a nice item or two to take home and they spent a long time making up their minds. While we shopped, the outside temp broke 100 degrees in the shade. Even the peacocks stopped shouting and settled in the shade. There is no air conditioning in the rock shop but they had fans blowing. An interesting thing - Grandpa Richardson likes to sit in a chair in the rock shop and tell stories (see I told you this is a cool place) and as he was sitting there without an audience, he noticed Colette standing by some largish yellow clear glass like 'rock' on the shelf near her. "See that yellow glass-like thing?" he called to Colette, "Try and pick that up!" Whereupon Colette picked it up and held it at shoulder level and declared "Wow, that's kind of heavy." "Put that DOWN!" shouted Grandpa Richardson, "That thing weighs over eighty pounds. I didn't think she could lift that much!" he muttered loud enough for a few of us to hear. I guess he underestimated my swimmer kid. It turns out that this yellow glass thing IS glass but it is impregnated with lead and is part of a window used in nuclear reactors so they can look directly into the reactor. He had another, bigger piece that weighed over 200lbs. Cool. Anyway, Caroline and I settled on a beautiful 8 inch amethyst sphere as our keepsake to go with a 6 inch adventurine (from India) sphere we got last time we came. The kids each got a smaller sphere of their own (Ben agate and Colette obsidian) plus a few other nice items that they can enjoy as displays.

For a rock hound, leaving Richardson's is always a little hard because there is so much to see but it was getting late in the day (we'd been at the ranch for about 6 hours - half of that at the rock shop where we looked at everything four times, saw a demonstration on how to polish rocks with a sander and buffer, listened to Grandpa Richardson's stories about the ranch and how his dad had run the ranch before the rock shop and dig sites were discovered, toured the rock piles outside the shop, counted the Peachicks (I'm assuming since you call them Peacock and Peahen that you'd call the brood Peachicks right?) nearly stepped on at least three chickens, and got bombarded by the barn swallows who lived in the eaves of the shop and would dive at your head and snap their wings as they turned ninety degrees just before they smacked your face. It was time to get back to camp. There were very dark clouds on the horizon and thunderstorms when it is above 100 degrees always make me a little nervous.

103 degrees in the shade - not the best time for this kind of weather on the horizon







At the Outback all was well and oddly enough there was a hole in the storm clouds just above the campground that let the sunlight through. That hole in the clouds hovered over the camp all afternoon while the thunderstorms swept all the way around the camp - weirdest thing I'd ever seen. Another camper who was a seasonal camper at that KOA told me he'd seen that over and over and attributed it to the bluff behind the campground and the way the winds moved around it. All afternoon we got only a half dozen drops of rain while around us the deep dark gray of thunderheads and rain seemed to reach all the way to the ground like a curtain. We watched while silver and gold lightning strikes hammered the fields around Madras and in the hills. The forest service (who the seasonal camper worked for) was put on high alert due to the fire danger being rated 'high' and they were already being dispatched to some lightning strike locations for fire control. The rest of the day we watched the storm and sat outside the camper doing little or nothing except enjoying the camp and talking about Richarson's and our adventure. About half of the RV's had left camp and almost all of the tent campers had left so the camp was much quieter. I had my annual cigar which I'd spent considerable time choosing at the cigar shop before vacation. I smoke my cigar, in part, to honor my departed father-in-law with whom I spent many enjoyable hours smoking cigars and swapping tales during our early RVing years and whose company I miss dearly. It was a very good cigar and I enjoyed it and the memories of Grandpa Dale immensely.

Storms on all sides but not overhead - weird weather!







There was no stargazing that night as we were still surrounded by storm clouds with only a narrow opening above us. We all tried to get to sleep a little early as tomorrow was the long drive home. Everyone was a little melancholy, especially Ben who seems to have a strong affection for Central Oregon. To tell the truth, I could have gone another week without a problem myself! 
 
*Next: We say goodbye to Oregon.*


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## BigBadBrain

*Chapter 11 - The Last Leg*








The next morning we broke camp and began the long drive from Madras OR to Kent WA. We pulled out at a little before 10am and started north. We didn't stop until we'd gotten to Grass Valley Oregon which is about 40 miles south of the Columbia gorge. We parked on the edge of the 'downtown' area in some shade under a big silver maple tree. Oddly enough, it was right in front of the Grass Valley RV Park - I doubt it is listed in Woodall's. The girls got out and walked back to town to a small shop we saw when driving through. It was more to stretch than with any interest or need for shopping. Ben and I stayed with the camper and I took the opportunity to check tire pressure, lug nuts, and do an all-around visual on the trailer, hitch and Expedition. I must admit that the war wounds on the Expedition bothered me a little. Brush scratches (sage is tough stuff), rock scratches (finding rocks to avoid by hitting them with the bumper is not advised), and of course the 'slightly' domed running board gave me some distress. Ben pointed out again that I was probably one in a million who actually took their SUV on a real wheeling adventure. It helped a little but the scratches didn't go away. We waited patiently for the girls to return. Then we waited some more. Then Ben fell asleep and I waited alone. Then I fell asleep and Ben woke me up. Then we waited together after we each had some bottled water. Then I checked my phone to see if it had service - one roaming bar - not good. I tried to call Caroline but her phone was not connecting. I tried Colette and it connected! But she didn't answer (she'd turned her ringer off - that's useful!). So Ben and I waited. I took the opportunity to do another visual inspection. I was musing on the idea that too many opportunities for some things could be rather annoying when finally we saw them coming back along the street to the camper. Turns out that the shop owner wasn't even in the shop even though the door was wide open and it said come on in. They found a few things they couldn't live without so they waited. No one ever came so they left money with a note on what they'd purchased on the till. It also turns out that the great-great grandfather of the store owner (according to a large photo and sign on the wall) donated a large tract of land in Parkland Washington to the founders of a new academy called Pacific Lutheran Academy. Eventually Pacific Lutheran Academy became Pacific Lutheran College and then became Pacific Lutheran University - whose name was printed on the t-shirt Colette was wearing and which is the school she is attending. She left another slip of paper with her name and PLU's address and zip code and with a little note of appreciation for the contribution of the shop owner's great-great-grandfather to her education. The world is sometimes not as huge as it seems to be.

On the road again! (Someday I need to learn more of that song so I can be TRULY annoying when we get back on the road after stopping!) Our next highlight was the wind turbines near the gorge. As you approach the Columbia River gorge about 10-12 miles from Biggs start looking towards the horizon in the east. A field of windmills (not technically mills of course) will appear that provide 'green' power by generating electricity from the wind in the gorge. The wind turbines are immense measuring over 400 feet from the tip of the blade when at maximum upward position to the base of the tower. Each blade is about 140 ft. long. There are currently at least 76 wind turbines and they make a pretty amazing sight (there were 76 made operational in Dec 2007) and combined they produce a capacity of 125 MW or enough to power 34,000 homes. Follow-on development authorizes up to 225 turbines (including the 76) that will generate 450 MW or more depending on the model of turbine they buy. There are lots of folks who argue that they disturb the environment and are unsightly but to tell the truth, of all of the ways mankind has chosen to generate energy this one I class as the most graceful and least harmful. Of course, others will argue with me. I'll tell you one thing; I'd rather see a wind farm on the horizon than a coal burning power plant. In any case, it's worth a snapshot if for nothing to capture the sheer scale of the installation.








We crossed the gorge and stopped at Stonehenge - a recreation of a rather idealized, full scale model of the Stonehenge located on England's Salisbury Plain. It was built by businessman and philanthropist Sam Hill (1857-1931) in 1918 as a war memorial to all of the servicemen from Klickitat Co. Washington that died in the First World War. It was dedicated before the war was even over and construction completed in 1929. It's an interesting place that has, unfortunately, none of the mysterious feel that I imagine the real Stonehenge has. It does make one reflect on the wars of the 20th century and all of those who died on the battlefields during that bloody 100 year stretch of time. The structure represents the original thought of those who built authentic Stonehenge (at least the main structure - it doesn't include all of the original Stonehenge outer rings of stones many of which were discovered since this model was built) and to that degree is pretty fascinating. For the original structure in England, theories abound but it's still a mystery as to what its real function was and how it was constructed. For our part, it was a great place for lunch! OK, I doubt that PBJs had much to do with the original intent of Stonehenge but it is a nice venue as it overlooks the Columbia gorge and the bridge at Biggs. There is a Washington State Park below the Stonehenge site and a number of orchards along the river. Barge traffic up and down river can be seen and the cliffs on the Oregon side of the river provide a beautiful backdrop to I-84 and train tracks on both sides of the river. Far over to the East on the Oregon side horizon, the wind turbine farm can be seen - an interesting juxtaposition; Stonehenge and a modern wind farm. It was hot and there is no shade around the memorial so soon after lunch we hit the road and made tracks for Goldendale and points north.















Great panorama by Ben!​
Other than a stop for gas in Toppenish we made a bee-line for home from Goldendale. Our total travel time from Madras (including the stop at Stonehenge and Green Valley) was about 7 ½ hours. It was bittersweet getting home. Great to be home but sorry to have the trip over.















So how did our themed trip go? Well, according to the participants it was great! Everyone is ready to go back and do those things that we either didn't have the time for or didn't have the weather for. While we would have liked to do more stargazing, the times we did were spectacular. It's hard to describe what you can see through a 10inch Newtonian reflector when you have nice dark skies. Geology was our other theme that we spent plenty of time enjoying. Almost everywhere we went there was some kind of unique geological feature that begged exploring. This was not surprising because we chose the area exactly for that reason. The Cascade Range is a range of volcanoes and there is a lot of young rock and recent (in geological terms) volcanic activity. Mt. Mazama was fantastic as always and the lava cast forest at the Newberry National Monument was unique and something we'd never seen before. We enjoyed each others' company and rarely had any squabbles. With two teenage kids (yes, I still count Colette as a teenager even though she is really beyond that age - it's a dad thing) we expected more difficulty but these guys were practically angels. I think Caroline might have bribed them.

So how about the tow vehicle and trailer? The tow vehicle, a 2003 Ford Expedition with 60K miles on it, did well. It struggled on the hills but no more than I expected and other than occasionally getting stuck behind a semi on a long hill, I had no regrets. Well, let me amend that a little - I'd love to have a great big monster diesel with the ability to pull 18000 pounds but I don't have one and don't expect to get one. The Expedition is paid for and works for what I need. The trailer pulled fine and the Reese dual cam was faultless as always - not a hint of sway even at the gorge. We encountered many semis on the two lane roads and never felt them go by and the wind coming up the canyons leading down into the gorge was at times very intense, still no sway. Camping in the 23rs is kind of tight for four adults. Each day is a lesson in clutter management and we quickly established an order for things. Everything had its place and no one ever really hesitated to rearrange their stuff to accommodate the rest. If there was one thing that we noticed about the Outback it was that it is a camping trailer not a traveling trailer. What do I mean? Well, on the way back from Oregon we stopped for lunch at Stonehenge in the Columbia River Gorge. Well, we had packed the bicycles inside on the forward queen bed and without pulling out the slide-out in back, there was no place to sit once lunch was prepared. So we all stood around inside (the sun and heat forced us inside) all in a row from the slide-out to the front door. Ben towards the back, then Caroline, then Colette, and I stood next to the door. That was all the room available. Someday maybe we'll own a motor home for those long travel trips.








Some statistics:

MPG while towing (average): 9mpg

MPG while unhitched (average): 16mpg (it was mostly highway)

Average cost of a gallon of gas: $4:40/gallon

Total miles driven: 1430 (including numerous side trips)

Total miles towing: 770 (including 20 miles on dirt side roads)

Hamburgers consumed: 8

Bratwurst consumed: 5

Marshmallows burned: Approximately 12

Marshmallow (or remnants) consumed: Approximately 35

Number of Hershey bars consumed: 6

Number of actual s'mores prepared and eaten: 0

Total mosquito bites endured: Approximately 85

Total number of mosquitoes swatted or killed directly: 4 and one inhaled

Total games of Monopoly played: Approximately 0.75 (The National Parks Edition)

Number of stars gazed upon: Billions and billions

Number of lightning bolts observed: Approximately 15

Number of sightings of Scooter the camp dog: Officially 2, unofficially 8

Rocks examined: Approximately 6000 (not counting cliff faces, basalt floes, lava casts, volcanic cinders, mountains, calderas, rock quarries, mud fields, clay mounds, pavement, general gravel beds, gravel drives, gravel roads, gravel on the bumper of the travel trailer, gravel stuck in shoes, fossil remnants, trail turtles, etc.)

Rocks examined that were perfect pentagon shape: 1

Number of books read: 14 (4 classics - 3 existential and 1 dystopian, and not including pamphlets, geology books, mineral reference guides, pocket guides, etc.) All but two books were read by Ben and Colette - Colette read the classics (no, not for school - she actually LIKES those things!)

Total number of dirty socks in laundry bag at end of trip: 39 (the search is on)


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## BigBadBrain

A note about this blog:

I hope you've enjoyed reading this blog as much as I've enjoyed writing it. I tried to stay as factual as possible within the bounds of my personality and restrictions of my imagination. Colette has read it all and certainly could challenge anything said that was beyond tolerence. I enjoy writing and usually only do so for work which is stuffy and doesn't allow real creativity in terms of writing style. As I said, I hope it was entertaining for some of you.

As for the pictures. I've gone back and started adding captions and credit for the pictures in the gallery which is publically viewable if you choose. I must say that my whole family contributed to the collection of photos used inthis blog and some of the more outstanding were taken by Ben and Colette with no surprise - both are blessed with an artistic sense as well as their interest in science.

So, after 14,500 words and 60+ photos I will say goodbye to the blog and look forward to the next adventure which, hopefully, may inspire a little more travel adventure writing.

Thanks for reading!
Brian


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## coletterby

This blog is made of win.

I've certainly enjoyed reading it.


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## skippershe

Bravo Brian!! 
















Thank you







I loved your blog and I'm sorry that it had to end...
It was great to venture along with you and your family on this fabulous trip!








Hurry up and start planning the next one would'ja??


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## ember

Great Blog BBB I really enjoyed it!! Just a few thoughts!! I for one would really love to see photos of the finished anniversary surprise!! Also if you really want more RV time, add a few travel tips and directions to this blog, print it in a softcover booklet, and "BBB and BBBs Dotter rockhounders guide for RVer's to So. Central Oregon" is born!! Look out Arthur Frommer!!! 
Ok I tried to make a link, but apparently missed a step!! so Google Herkimer Diamond Mines in Herkimer NY.

index.php?act=findpost&pid=0

TTFN
Ember


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too

Fantastic! loved every minute of it!


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## PDX_Doug

Well done, Brian!
I very enjoyable read. It is a rather nice camping state we have here, isn't it?!

Happy Trails,
Doug


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## OregonCampin

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your story - my family made a similar trip when I was in 7th grade, only there were 5 of us and only the adults (2) got to sleep in the 14 foot trailer - kids got to sleep under the stars!!!!


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## BigBadBrain

Wow, 
I copied and pasted from this thread straight into a MS Word document - it took 24 pages (the pictures copy just fine by the way). That's a lot of pages! Must be all those pictures.


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## tdvffjohn

Nice job BBB. Took a lot of time to do this and I also enjoyed the reading.







Thanks

John


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## wolfwood

Yanno, the worst part about reading a really good book is when you turn that last page.

Thanks, Brian. It's been a _really_ long time since I read such a good book!!! <sigh>


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## Carey

Great Blog! Thanks for writing it! You done very well!

Carey


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## BigBadBrain

PDX_Doug said:


> Well done, Brian!
> I very enjoyable read. It is a rather nice camping state we have here, isn't it?!
> 
> Happy Trails,
> Doug


Thanks Doug. I think a trip down the other edge of the green side might be in order. I have to do some research for camping locations along the Oregon coast. Any recommendations from anyone?


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## OregonCampin

BigBadBrain said:


> I have to do some research for camping locations along the Oregon coast. Any recommendations from anyone?


OH - YOU BET! Where do you want to start and what do you want to see? I have stayed and/or driven through almost every campground from Bandon to Nehalam. Do you desire lakes in which to swim or just the ocean? Do you want to try playing in the dunes? You are obviously rock hounds, so someplace to look for agates? Now for the big question - do you require full hook-ups or can you survive a couple of days dry camping? - lots of GREAT dry camping on the Oregon coast!

Give me the low down on how far south you want to go and I can give you where I would stay and what I would do while I was there!


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## BigBadBrain

Well, how about starting at Astoria and going to the Redwoods? (OK, technically that's California but anyway...) We have traveled the Oregon Coast and are familiar with the wonderful scenery and the well cared for State Parks. I must admit though, my DW and DS are not really gung-ho about dry camping so water and electric is kind of a must. Ben loves a swimming pool (nothing like doing laps in a pool to keep in shape right?). My personal choice is either a quiet lake or oceanside camping. Agates are good. Dunes are interesting as a curiosity but not to camp on/near. The theme for this trip will likely be photography (can't think of a better place) and tide pool/area oceanography.

Oh, and we like cheese too.


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## OregonCampin

OK - here goes.

Ok - now I am truly an Oregon girl... our idea of camping is as far away from our neighbor as we can get so we spend a lot of time camping in the wilderness or in small forest service campgrounds - not so much in the RV parks, so I can't help you with the swimming pool places, but I can tell you the best places to go during the day??

Nehalam Bay State Park. North of Tillamook and quite the twisty tury (is that a word?) road to get there, but worth it. Nice campground, but very open air (ie - you can see your neighbors). Easy walk to the beach where you will see wind and water surfers playing in the bay. Pretty protected in the bay from wind, so it is a nice place to stroll and treasure (rock, shell, etc) hunt.

Cape Meares State Park - Tillamook Bay. I have never personally stayed in this park, but I have heard good things about it. Most of our State parks are really nice - hard to go wrong... and it's close to the cheese (and my personal favorite, the ice cream)

Now - a bit south - Lincoln City - this is a shopping mecca.... OUTLET MALL!!!!! My sisters and I rented a cabin on Devil's Lake last year for our annual "girls" weekend - great lake! Swimming, kayaking, motor boating, or what we did - sit around and stare at the lake. We did not stay in the Devil's Lake State Campground, but drove through it - seemed like a really nice place and you can't beat the lake! We also went down to the warf in Lincoln City - nice public beach along the jetty - people were swimming and boating though there and it is still legal to have fires on the beach.

Ok - lets get moving south shall we? I know that there are a bunch of Outbackers that stay at Beverly Beach over Thanksgiving. I have personally never stayed there, but it must be OK because they go back every year. As you travel south, you must make a point to stop at the following places (most of these places would not be any fun with the Outback attached, so find a campground and then go): Devils Punchbowl (amazing place with amazing views!), Agate beach and Yachats (pronounced Ya-hots). I am also going to point out a little known day use park called Strawberry Hill Wayside - the reason I point this out is because most people pay to go look at sea lions at the sea lion caves - skip it and stop at this park - you will most likely see more sea lions with ZERO cost and you won't have to go down in that smelly, stinky cave (YUCK!). This is also a great place to watch whales if it is that time of year.

Around this area is Carl Washburn State Park - another nice place to stay with a good trail to the beach. Also - make sure you hit Heceta Head Lighthouse and the haunted lighthouse keepers house&#8230; you can stay the night there if you are so inclined. Darlingtonia is a neat little park as well - we used to go there as kids and pick Venus fly traps and plant them at home.

Now we are to Florence. You should spend a day here - down on the waterfront (ie: river water front, not Ocean). Some neat shopping down there. If you like Moe's there is one right down on the water front. A great family place to eat, but I am not real crazy about the food. Good food?? Try Outfitters (just up the way from Moe's) or for sea food go to Weber's right on 101. A bit south of Florence is Honeyman State Park. Here there is a non-motorized lake that you can swim in, take paddle boats on and just spend the day lounging around. On one side of the lake is a very large sand dune (no motorized vehicles) that you can climb. They also have a store and the campground is HUGE with Yurts and Cabins to rent. Also in this area is Sandland Adventures - here is where you want to go if you desire a good look at the dunes on a motorized vehicle. They have the you drive or we drive option.

Moving right along&#8230; a south we will go. From here most of my favs are non-hookup primitive campgrounds. Tahkenitch Campground (not the landing campground, but the other one) - this is very primitive - no showers, only flushing toilets and no hookups, but does offer a great hiking trail across a protected section of the dunes to the beach. There is another trail head along 101 if you do not want to stay at the campground. Tahkenitch lake is across the hwy from the campground - this is a motorized lake, but mostly for fishing, which if you like to fish, this is a great lake to do that in. BTW - you are now officially in the National Dune Recreation area so stick to the trails when you do hike or you might find your self face to face with a quad.

As you travel south from here you will find a lot of campgrounds that cater to the world of dune riding, so be careful when you reserve spots if you don't want to listen to the noise. There are a couple of the KOA's and several other RV parks have dune access, so ask first. Reedsport and Winchester Bay are the next couple of towns to stop in. If you have an hour or so, take Hwy 38 east from Reedsport and go check out the Elk Preserve - it is about 20 minutes from Reedsport and very worth it. You get to see hundreds of elk just hanging out.

Winchester bay is a great place to stop as well - lots of sea food, great shops, you can crab off the jetty, book deep sea fishing trips and ride ATV's. There are several RV parks right there (Discovery Bay I have heard is good), but most have ATV's running around. Up above Winchester bay is the Umpqua Lighthouse. From there you can see all of Winchester bay. Lake Marie is up there and is a good place to fish and swim. There is also another primitive campground there called, surprisingly, Umpqua Lighthouse Campground. Again, neat place, but no hook ups and only flushing toilets. Also - the road up to the lighthouse is steep, so I do not recommend taking the OB unless you plan to stay there. Another 5 miles up the road is Lakeside - there are several non-OHV campgrounds here, my favorite is Eel Creek with it's hiking trails and very secluded camp sites (nope, no hookups). There is an RV park in Lakeside, but I have never been there.

Now we are cruising down to North Bend / Coos Bay - watch the cross wind on the North Bend bridge as you come into town - I have had the wind push me around without my trailer in tow. Now, I grew up in this area so I will tell you&#8230; skip straight to Coos Bay - not much in NB. Actually, where you really want to go is Charleston. Out in this little area is lots (and lots) of INCREDIABLE sea food&#8230; the oyster farms are right there, you can go catch your own crab and have them cook it for you and there is a ton of beach walking, agate looking and tide pooling. The best place to stay in this area is Sunset Bay - another state park. Across the road from the campground is the actual bay (day use area) - there are great tide pools, caves, fish - lots of things to just "check out". Further up the road is Shore Acres State park - gardens, wonderful view, a nice hike down to the beach. A must see! When you head back towards "town" (Coos Bay) there is a small downtown with shopping, the waterfront often has big ships sitting in it and if you have any interest, there is the Mill Casino - I just go there for the food.

On to Bandon we go. Just before you reach Bandon there is a state park called Bullards Beach - it has been many years since I stayed there, it is a neat park with beach access and camping. There is a small "Old Town" area of Bandon with shops and an area to walk along the water. As you travel further south there is a day use area called Devil's Kitchen. There are lots of big rocks, tide pools and it seems to be a place where sand dollars accumulate - I have found many walking along this beach. There is also a wild animal park south of Bandon, if you are into that kind of stuff.

Now, this is pretty much where my expertise ends, but I have heard good things about Cape Blanco and Humbug Mountain state parks. I would also highly recommend taking the Jerry's Jet Boats out of Gold Beach up the Rogue River and take the long trip - if you like photography you will love this run - everything from eagle to bear and river otter to deer.

Let me know if you have any specific questions about anything and have fun planning your trip!


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## BigBadBrain

Wow, that's a lot to digest! I'll have to drag out the map and start looking up all these places. Thanks! Getting excited about going back to Oregon again already!


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