Chasing Signs

This week Mark and I just went bumming around on our adventure day. We work five days a week. We wash clothes, straighten up the house and shop one day and then we have one adventure day to discover Oregon.  This week we started our day without a plan. You guys that know me well know I like having a plan. But our isolation from technology found us with a free day without a plan. So we decided to chase signs.

You know those signs you always see on the way to somewhere else, and you pause a moment and think, “I wonder what that is?” or “Where does that go?”.  Well we just followed a few of those signs.  No GPS, no reviews read, just a camel back backpack, a dog, a drone, phones and some street signs.  We headed towards Eugene, that’s one of the towns we’ve gone to, to meet friends but, it is big town not yet really explored. The first turn off was for Diamond lake.

Diamond Lake is a beautiful lake up in the mountains, that is child of Crater Lake; in that is was created by the explosion of Mount Mazama. The out pour of ash and its pyroclastic flow dammed up one of the valleys. The results of that became Diamond Lake. It is now a recreational lake within National Forest Lands. It is feed by streams from the mountains and is relatively shallow.

The next Point of Interest sign we found, was to National Falls. It was a small brown sign with the falls name and that it was 2-1/2 miles. It was not a falls that we had read of, nor heard of in the conversations we’ve had with people about the area. So we followed it. The narrow two lane road eventually split off into two one lane roads, one going up the side of a mountain and one going down. And I do mean one lane but not one way.  There were wide spots (turnouts) every so often that one car could scoot over and allow another car to just squeeze by. And a point to mention here; is that we were in the dually (and it is such a small vehicle, NOT). Mark said if we hear banjo music in the distance we were turning around; he didn’t know how, but he was doing it. The only signs on the road, mentioned that there were “heavy truck” using the roadway (which would be interesting if we met them going opposite directions. There were no other signs and no signs of civilization but still we followed the road. When the road forked, there were no signs as to where they went, but we did see a car go on the downward road – so we chose that path. Final we saw a tiny sign that was National Fall that way. We found a dirt road turn off, with a side spot just wide enough to park. This dirt road was more of a rough track and we decided to hike down it; just so we didn’t get stuck somewhere we couldn’t turn around. Just a short ways after we started down the track; we discovered the actual parking lot, which was just a little farther on. So Mark went back and moved the truck. There were only two vehicles there. The hike was half a mile of fairly gentle switchbacks tumbling down the side of the mountain. And we were rewarded with an incredible twin falls that we had mostly to ourselves for quite some time. We had read that while drones are not allowed in the National Parks, they are allowed in the National Forest and we wanted to try it and see if the drone would fly. Our brand has a built in feature that checks the area for drone restrictions, to help prevent “legal” issues, from flying in restricted airspace. It didn’t have restriction issues and we sent it up. Now we have another “camera” to add to the phone/GoPro cameras.

We left National Falls and headed back towards Crater Lake, by way of a different highway. Remember we are without phone service or internet and I am directional challenged to begin with; so Mark is on his own, to get us back home at the end of this adventure. Thank the Lord he was blessed with a good sense of direction, The next stop was Rogue Gorge. This is a deep narrow, gorge that was created by the collapse of lava tubes and the tumble of rocks cast out by volcanic eruptions that the rush of the Rogue Rivers flows through. The rivers personality changes here; from mountain creek, to a loud thundering beast, that is squeezed into a deep but narrow channel. The times we had crossed it going to Medford is was a wide rambling lazy river, with patches of white water. It is beautiful and clear, in both its phases.

Just a little farther down we found the Natural Bridge sign. The Natural Bridge is an area along the Rogue where a portions of the lava tubes did not fully collapse. During high water the bridge is submerged but this late in the season the bridge is visible. The clarity of the lakes and rivers is incredible. It never fails to surprise me each time I look at a new body of water. The color and clarity remind me of the Caribbean, not something I’m used to seeing in fresh water. A dear friend commented that a picture I sent was “candy for the eyes but health food for the soul” and I think that is a pretty good description of what Oregon has been for Mark and me. It has revealed so many pages of God’s coloring book that is our world. It has renewed my desire to do my part the help preserve what He has given us for the next generation.

Thanks for check in on our adventure. We only have six more weeks here but hundreds more things we want to see. Stop by and see what else we find/get into. We’ll post again as soon as we find internet.