Our contract at Crater Lake has ended and so it is time for us to move on to another adventure. Mark and I really enjoyed our time here but we are looking forward to new scenery and new possibilities.
Fauna and flora were bountiful in Oregon this summer. The fauna were more camera shy than the flora. We saw ground squirrels, regular squirrels and Chipmunks daily. We also saw: deer, wild turkey, pelicans, osprey, bald eagles, ducks, geese, coyote, but most were too quick for me to get photos. The flora was more cooperative. The fields and forest bloomed with new colors every couple of days. I guess with the short summer season this far north, the flowers have to bloom quickly and make way for the next set of flowers.
Here are some pictures that didn’t make a story but we wanted to share with you. I hope you enjoy!
Only bears we saw the whole trip
Thanks for stopping by and checking on our adventure. We are headed east to see what other mischief we can get into. We’ll catch up with you again in Idaho.
Oregon has a thriving wine industry. There are 725 wineries and one Meadery. So you know where we ended up. Oran Mor is a small meadery in Roseburg. We stopped by on our last day off for mead tasting. Michael Garcia, one of the owners, took us through a flight of their 11 different flavors.
Having been to the Renaissance Fair more than once, I expected the mead to be cloyingly sweet. Oran Mor ‘s mead is not. They have married the ancient recipes of mead to the science of the modern age. They deliver a beautiful medley of flavors in a delicate wine with a crisp, clean finish. Michael visited with us about Mead and the process as well as the special properties of each of the flavors.
Oran Mor is not a large operation. It is housed in a single barn where production, tasting and events all happen under a single roof. They have managed to keep the tasting room open despite Covid-19 and the Local fires. Their tasting room is a warm intimate room that normally doubles as a local meeting place with regular scheduled events like: karaoke nights, private concerts with local artists, trivia nights and of course small plates and their mead tastings.
We spent a lovely afternoon with Michael and Oran Mor. We brought home a few souvenirs and some awesome memories of the day.
Thanks for stopping by and checking in on our latest adventure. Our time in Crater Lake National Park is almost done but we still have plenty of adventures planned before we head back home. Happy Autumn.
We bought a 12’ kayak about a year ago, well before we left Texas. It rides packed in the garage beside Mark’s Motorcycle. We have always been into lazy rivers and streams and kayaking is something we wanted to try. We never got one of those round “tuit”s, and it has yet to be wet.
On one of our days off last week, we booked a guided kayak trip. It was awesome. The trip was on Spring Creek (cool coincidence) and it is actually a spring feed creek that is cold, clear and shallow. The water at the source springs is a constant 38 degrees, year around. On the main part of the creek, the temps averaged in the mid-40’s. We paddled upstream for about a mile up to the ‘dancing sands’ where you can see the bubbling up of the springs through the bouncing of the sandy bottom. This was a bit of a chore; as the moment you stopped paddling, you quickly slowed and started drifting backwards. This was not a fast moving stream, but it still had a respectable current.
We guided our kayaks over logs lying barely below the surface, around ones above the surface, and we paddled by ducks and geese that seems unbothered by our quiet little boats. The Spring Creek in Oregon is unique in that it contains the rare ‘mare’s egg’ algae. This type of algae only grows in few places in the world; all of which are very cold streams, which have sandy stream beds. We were able to see them like little moss covered river stones on the sandy floor of the stream. When we got to the stream’s source; we had a photo op. We then turn around and as we paddled back with the current; found it was a much easier task.
We totally enjoyed our morning on the creek. While we couldn’t sneak up on the wildlife, we also didn’t seem to partially disturb them. It was totally awesome how shallow we could go in the kayak and how very maneuverable they are. We will definitely look for more quiet places to explore in a kayak. By the way our kayak has still not been wet; we used the ones from the guide service. That way we could learn and hopefully not tear up our gear. We will be looking for opportunities in the future to get a second kayak and to make our own splash, and hopefully take Nala with us (as we saw a lady and her dog paddling along with us).
Thanks for checking in on our adventures. Leave a comment so we know you were here. We hope you get a chance to have an adventure of your own.
Let’s talk about another elephant in the room and get that over with. The Oregon forest fires. There are fires pretty much all around us. The 242 fire is in Chiloquin which is about 35 miles to the south-east of us; it is mostly contained on the populated side and is burning itself out on the forested side. The Medford fire is about 70 miles south-west of us and is still running its course, and luckily (for us) it is not headed our direction. The Mount Thielsen fire is about 70 miles due north for us. It has just recently been assigned a fire crew and has not been contained, but it is not expected to head our way. Many roads are closed that prevent free travel, but this is mostly done as protective measure. There have been several instances of people heading down those roads and running out of gas (as there are no stations before the fire mandatory road blocks), or breaking down. With no cell service in those areas and no vehicle traffic; that could lead to tragedy.
We have loaded the bike and kayak and all our little used miscellaneous things back into the garage, so we can leave quickly should the need arise. We have an exit plan. We are still working, as the Park is still open and there are a few die hard campers that have the park mostly to themselves.
The weather is clear and cooling. The winds have turned in our favor recently and with cooling temperatures, the dew is getting heavier. There is rain predicted for the coast this week, but it isn’t expected to get this far. However, the moist air will be helpful in slowing the fires. I have repeatedly mentioned the beautiful weather, and what that translates into is cool mornings and warm afternoons; and we have had no rain since June 26th. So we have beautiful weather, but also very dry conditions. And that dryness has led to favorable conditions for fires. All our current fires are man caused; with several being caused by careless campers and their campfires. This has led to a total ban of all open fires in the state of Oregon. Where our home is mobile; there are many people whose homes are at risk or have already been lost to these fires. Please pray for the safety of the fire crews and those families which have been affected by the fires.
The silver lining to all this is that the smoke, which has made for hazy days; has also given us some incredibly colorful sunrises and sunsets. We have had colors from orange, to salmon, to cantaloupe, and many other in between.
More about Bear Boxes
It has been brought to my attention that some of you don’t know what a bear box is. Well I didn’t either before I got here. They are intended to be storage devises for food stuffs. They are heavy gauge steel boxes that are welded together; and are then set in concrete. They come with a funky locking system, which is built to confound the most determined bear, squirrel, chipmunk or raccoon. They securely lock up your yummy smelling food items; as a tent wall is just an easy open wrapper for all those treats. And though we haven’t seen any bears in the campground (and they are in the area); we have seen many, many squirrels and chipmunks, and those are always looking for treats.
Our tent campers use them for just that purpose. Unfortunately when some are ready to leave, they decide that these are a great receptacle for their trash, or items that they no longer want/don’t want haul home. And giving the benefit of a doubt; maybe some people just forget to check the bear boxes, for forgotten items. See my blog titled ‘Eating Local’ and ‘First Glimpses’.
Thanks checking in on our adventure. We are counting down the days until the Park closes and we begin roaming along to another location and more adventures. We wish you all a safe and happy end of summer.
We’ve made many new friends along our adventure. From the college kids that work with us, the campers that asked about sights to see, and the Pacific Crest Trail hikers that pass through the campground, along their way. This trip has come to mean so much more, than just our traveling adventure. It is a realization that people all over this great country are managing to meet their personal challenges and obtain their dreams and goals, in spite of and sometimes even because of, the insanity that the pandemic has caused.
I have so many friends on Facebook, that have posted their progress towards their goals and I congratulate them, and I mean it. Whatever your dreams, I encourage to take steps toward fulfilling them. I remember that moment this crazy idea started “cooking” in my head. We were sitting at my sister’s house, a place where lots of fun and conversions happen. My brother-in-law was talking about something he had read about the lottery and dreams. Basically, what would you do if you won the lottery? I mean after you bought the new vehicle and such. The article continued; these are the thing you should work towards making happen. Starting now with what you have and not to wait on the lottery or whatever the delay is. The chances of you winning the lottery are not that high; but your future is going to happen, whether it’s planned out or not. Use that avenue of boundless freedom to explore your dreams. Mark and I have played “if we won we would” over the years before and since that conversation and we have always put travel in there somewhere. This R.V. was our way to make that happen with what we have. This first season we have learned so much about ourselves and people; that I have begun to understand, that the merits of travel are more about learning, while being distracted from the fact you ARE learning. This is done by all the beauty around you, both in nature and the beautiful souls we meet.
Our Co-Workers
We’ve hung back and let young men working on their career dreams be our “bosses”. In truth, here we are all cohorts doing a job, but we ask them the plan, let them tell us what to do and called them “boss”. Both of the guys we were teamed with said they weren’t comfortable with being the boss but they were both very good at it and very capable young men. Did we do anything to help their dreams along? Maybe not, but we gave them a safe environment to practice leadership and provided a willing team to work with. I hope it will be a fond memory for them.
PCT’ers
We have “helped” a few groups of Pacific Crest Trail Hikers along the way by giving them lifts from the campgrounds back to different parts of the trail. Mazama campgrounds will accept and hold packages for PCTer’s (Pacific Crest Trail hikers). Those packages are resupplies from themselves or from family for the trip up or down the trail. Mazama is not on the trail just very close to it. So they have to detour off the trail to pick up the packages and they often stay the night in the back country camping and recharge their GPS devices and phone and then continue on back to the trail. Though they need to detour to get supplies and recharge it cost them time. That’s kind of like life in general right there. We enjoy the stories they share about the trail and about how much they have achieved; to get this far and how much farther they want to go. But anyway, giving them a lift back isn’t cheating because we are not on the trail and they have already taken extra step to get here. Did we help them achieve their goal? Nope, but I Hope we gave them the break they needed to be revived in their attempt to achieve a dream.
AND of course, we had to check in with the local biking chapter while we were in the area.
Thanks for checking on our adventure. We miss our ole friends and seeing y’all here feels like sharing too. Hope you find ways to enjoy the summer despite/or because of the Pandemic
Oregon is a State with 238 named and discovered waterfalls.
We’ve been to a handful, each beautiful and each with very different personalities. This week’s adventure found us winding down one of the many scenic highways in Oregon Highway 138, this one leading to Roseburg. We stopped by Clearwater Falls and Falls Creek Falls.
Clearwater Falls was true to its name, was clear but also, rushing and thunderous. The trail started on the creek and the falls were almost immediately visible. The creek had undermined the trees that grew along its banks leaving moss covered roots floating above the surface of the water.
We continued along Rogue River, stopping several times to admire the allure and strength of the river.
Falls Creek Falls is at a much lower altitude that we have been. We found the weather warm and humid. The creek was extremely shallow and we were pretty sure it was too late in the season for us to see much “falls”. We did enjoy the stroll through the forested pathway. It was very “Jurassic Park” ish, with huge boulders blocking the dry creek bed and massive trees sprinkled without. Their branches strung with moss hanging overhead. Nala did not like the boulder squeeze on the path but we thought it was fun and she managed it just fine, with a little coaxing from Mark.
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Thanks for checking on our adventure. We’ll check in as soon as possible. We hope ya’ll are finding your own escapes this summer.
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.
National Falls and our first drone picture.
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.
When we first set out, I posted on Facebook a question about what criteria one would need to do for a visit to count as visiting 50 states in 5 Years. This is our goal for this nomadic life we have chosen for the next few years. Was just traveling through a state was enough to having said you were there or if you needed to visit an attraction or eat local or both.
I’d like to think the majority of ya’ll said I had to do more than travel through but, I don’t honestly remember the total of the poll I took. I just like that notion the best.
In New Mexico we visited The Ice Caves and ate local.
In Arizona we ate local and visited with a local relative ,
So far in Oregon we have visited several attractions and we have eaten at Beckies and Mac’s Diner.
Beckies is a historical business named after Ed Becklehymer, the original operator of the restaurant and has survived since 1922, While the original building burned in 1937, it has been was quickly rebuilt in 1938, in the beautiful lodge style. It has been a favorite of celebrities like Zane Grey, Jack London and Herbert Hoover over the years, Though it is best known for their homemade pies, the food was also quite excellent. I must say that the blackberry pie was almost as good as my Mom’s and Sister’s dewberry cobbler and that, my friends, is the highest compliment I can give a pie. They also make a huckleberry pie that all the locals ask about but the huckleberries haven’t ripened yet. I can’t wait to try that one. If I get the chance.
We also stopped by Mac’s diner. It is totally retro to the 1950’s with a fully equipped soda fountain. The atmosphere was really cool and right on the Rogue River. The food was excellent. Mark had a hand mixed Vanilla Sulphur, (cream soda) that was quite unique and yummy.
And remember those bear boxes. I know you’re thinking “what on earth does bear boxes have to do with eating local?” “Bear” with me a minute ; ). It turned out as the season got busier, we have to check bear boxes to make sure the previous guests doesn’t leave nasty surprises for the next guest.
And we do find surprises in them most days. Mostly trash but we find treasures from time to time. One of the treasures we found was Buzz BallZ. I discovered I liked them… And we bought a few more. So we are now supporting back home local as well as local here. These are made in Texas by a women owned company. You didn’t see that coming did ya?
Thanks for checking in on our adventure. Let us know what great things you have going on. We’ll respond as soon as we find Internet.
While we are loving Crater Lake, last week we ventured out to some local waterfalls. This area is rich with lakes, streams, creeks, and waterfalls. We visited Watson Falls and Toketee Falls, which are north of us. Watson Falls is an 1hour and 17 minutes from us, and Toketee was another 7 minutes beyond that.
Watson Falls is a 292 free fall that drops into a rushing stream. The hike was a .8 mile steep trail that winds through old growth Hemlock and Douglas firs. The trail is lovely with lots of nature eye candy in the short distance. The rolling boulders along the trails are covered with velvet green carpet of moss, with the gentle music of a trickling stream, that off shoots from the main stream. Far up the trail the rush of the water develops in to a full symphony of sounds instead of soft back ground music. I was reminded that I can’t walk and admire scenery at the same time; as I tripped over a stone in the path and received a beautiful souvenir in the guise of a bruise the size of an eggplant on one shin.
The view at the top was absolutely worth the ‘moderate’ climb. The falls drops far below, spraying up misty fine droplets of water at the trails viewpoint.
Toketee Falls is a more “tamed” trail, in that there are no switchback to navigate and no scrambles. The trail has been painstaking built up with stairs all along the route; having said that, hundreds of stairs are a challenge of their own. The trail begins at a 71 year old engineering marvel. There is a 12 foot diameter redwood-stave pipeline that is the first part of hydroelectric system that feeds 3 generator turbines. They generate enough energy for about 22,500 homes. I thought it was beautiful in an architectural way. It has sprung a few leaks over the years.
The Hike itself was along a fast moving river and ends in a spectacular double fall. It would have been incredible to have drone footage of this fall as the viewpoint was not directly in front of the falls.
The view was magnificent none the less.
There are more falls to see and more hikes to take. Thanks for checking in on our adventure. Leave a comment or question if you have any ideas of what we need to see or what you’d like to know about. We’ll get back to you as soon as we find internet again.
The Rim Road was created by the Army Corp of Engineers in 1919. It is still the only road that fully encircles Crater Lake. It is 33 miles of incredible. The roadway itself is an engineering marvel of the time; to think about how difficult it must have been to build in that era. Above that wonder; are the many views it offers of the lake and those views are unbelievable. Those 33 miles of road took us six hour to complete. In our defense; there was a lot to see and do in those 33 miles. These are so many vantage points to stop and see the lake from different angles, different views of the same landscape. There are also little spur roads, that lead to hikes and trails and a couple of waterfalls that we just couldn’t keep from being distracted by. But there was also what could be around the next curve, to draw us onward; and there were a lot of curves.
Two of the main points of interest, along the Rim Road; are Wizard’s Island and the Phantom Ship. Both of these are smaller volcanic vents, which rose after the collapse of the main Mazama Caldera. In addition to those are the incredible color of the water, the flora and fauna of the Rim, the wide open vistas of the valleys that stretch away from the caldera rim, then there are the waterfalls, and the distant volcanic pinnacles. Mazama is not an extinct volcano, as there is still thermal activity below the surface of the water; so at some point, there could still be changes to the caldera area.
Our first stop was discovery point, where John C. Freemon is thought to be the first white settler to see Crater Lake at approximately this area . This was one of the first good looks at Wizards Island. It is the largest island and rises out from the side of the lake. It is hard to see from here, but there is also a caldera on Wizards Island. It is approximately 90 feet deep. There are several more stops, from which to see the island; and we did get a better view of the island’s caldera.
From there we worked our way around the West Rim Road to the Phantom Ship Island lookout point. This was our first view of the smaller island on Crater Lake. And it does have a small resemblance to a ship under full sail, I’m sure in the dim light of sunset or sunrise it would be more striking. It is visible from The Rim Village but that trail was still closed with snow when we were there last.
From there we took the turn off to turn off to Plaikni Falls and the Pinnacles. The Plaikni Falls trail is a 2 mile trail that leads to a beautiful double falls. The majority of this trail leads through old growth forest. The trail then opens into a peaceful trail following the creek that runs down from Plaikni Falls. Back home, pine were, well just pines but, here there is great diversity in the old forest from the copper orange bark of the Ponderosa Pine, the deeply corrugated bark of the White Fir, or the horizontal bark of the Whitebark Pine or the comical crook top of the Hemlock. The falls themselves were gorgeous; but there was an added bonus, of them being a watering spot for the local butterflies. They really added to our wonder of the place. Butterflies swirled around us and lighted on the path before us at each water puddle. There were orange ones and blue ones, all somewhat small, and they cluster together in the moisture splashed on the rock path.
The Pinnacles are seemingly delicate spires of volcanic ash. The winds and rains have eroded the more fragile ash away from the canyon’s sides, leaving stone spires standing alone, against the backdrop of the canyon walls. Some of them were thick and substantial; while others are thin and delicate looking.
From there we decided to head home; as we had been out for several hours, and lunch was calling us back. We passed by Vidae Falls on our way home. It was right off the highway and fell from a high ridge; splashing down the ridge face and disappearing under the highway, to come out on the other side. From there it continued its way through the canyons, to eventually join up with Annie Creek.
Thanks for checking in on our adventure. Please leave a comment so we know your where here. We’ll post again when we find internet again.
