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Published: July 26th 2010
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Vive le roadtrip!
We set off to explore South East Oregon, a geology nerds dream. Absolutely amazing history of the lands out there.
This is our first entry so it's taking a bit of time getting used to this site. The pictures were uploaded in order but showed up out of order in the photo section. Here is our first blog entry of our adventures.
We've been playing around with this blog more, and learned it's best to break up the destinations by seperate entries. This was our first July road & camping trip. In total we did 1267 miles which is 2039 kilometers, with our route, some of those miles were because we had to back track, missed the unmarked roads. Some of the miles covered were on gravel roads in between lava beds. Roads with steep drop offs, with no guard rails, lots of cattle guards, and a lot of two laned roads with noone behind us, in front of us, or driving towards us in the on coming lane. The roads were virtually ours, desolate, lifeless, and an excellent escape from the over crowded Portland metro area. The days were hot into the upper 90 degree F/
Diamond Lake Campfire
Maco thought getting the fire nice and smokey would help to steer the mosquito's away. It didn't work. 32 degrees C, while the evenings were in the low 40's to high 30's F/ -1 to 5 degrees C. We filled up whenever we would pass a town with a gas station. We would eat one meal a day at a diner in one of the little towns we would pass thru. In the evenings we would make our meals on the campfire. We had sausages & pork & beans. In the mornings it was nutella sandwiches, fruit leathers, granola bars. And during the day, a lot of water consumption. Before our trip we headed to REI, and got two platypus bags. They are great, and well worth having. We also got a colapsible 4 gallon water jug, which came in handy to put out the campfires & also refill our platypus'. This first trip we didn't bring anything to fend off the mosquito's thinking going to the south east, there wouldn't be many due to the dry days, but we were wrong, and were bit loads of times each day.
We were up and down in elevation constantly thru out the day so at the elevation posts we would pop our ears. We used our Burton charger to
Campfire @ Diamond Lake
Our fire was ready, so we decided to have some sausages from Trader Joe's. The meat is pasture raised, and not pumped with hormones or antibiotics. recharge the ipod, which Maco kept the proper grooves flowing during the trip. We saw some deer, a ton of horses, cattle, a fox, heard lots of frogs & birds. Saw eagles, lots of ravens, hawks, wood peckers, and native birds.
Most of the lakes had blue green algae warnings. Our first trip we didn't get sick or sun burned, only eaten alive by the mosquito's.
When we would to our campsite, Maco would set up the tent, while I would go around and gather fire wood. We had our system down, which was good, because we would get to our campsites, after 7 p.m. 19 heures. So that left us with the Mosquito's out in full force, and only a few hours of daylight. We were in the mountains and shaded by big old growth tree's in some spots so that would make our daylight left even shorter. But we both had our headlamps and flashlights, & we would get a campfire started up shortly after arriving.
Our first night camping at Diamond Lake, late at night, someone crashed their truck on a road ditch. We listened in the still of the night, as two guys tried and succeeded
Diamond Lake
Another lovely piece of tranquility. to get the truck out. That was our bizarre entertainment for that night.
Our second night at Mud Creek, it was only Maco and I around for miles & miles. We listened to the cattle in the evening because they became very vocal for a few hours. The winds were really strong that evening, loud gusts hit our tent time after time. In the morning, I stood on a picnic table and got a signal for my cell phone. This was the first time during the trip that I turned mine on. I received a text from my Gram & learned my Aunt Helene passed away. Later that day Maco & I were talking about my Aunt Helene. I got to see her during my last trip home to Buffalo, but Maco never got the chance to meet her. He asked if she was the one on the cassette tape of my Grandparents 50th anniversary party, singing loudly & having a great time in the background, I said, that was her, and just then a huge raven was on the road in front of us at this curve, the raven then flew in front of the car for a little
Mosquito Picture time @ Diamond Lake
It was still warm at this point, but there is nothing worse than buzzing mosquito's near the ears. bit, almost guiding the car, I told Maco, there was my Aunt Helene's spirit. When we got home from our trip, I called my Mom, and she told me, my Aunt told her daughter, she would give messages via birds. I knew it was her. R.I.P. Aunt Helene.
Our 3rd night, we spent at East Lake, in the Deschuttes National Forest. The mosquito's were more mild here, and the winds were a lot more calm here, since we were in the caldera of Newberry Crater. We loved this spot, the water at the Lake was crystal clear, it was a beautiful peaceful setting. It was hard to find dead wood anywhere near the lake or our campsite for a campfire here. So we made a mental note that next time we camped here, we'd have to stop on the drive up to collect firewood. We still made due with the bits that we found, and decided to have sausage with pork & beans for dinner, shocker! It was really good than we called it an early night and went to sleep.
The next day, we took our time on the journey back enjoying the scenic drive back, stopping off at
Diamond Lake, Attack of the Mosquito's
Maco is getting tired. We had a long day on the road, and the dances with the mosquito's were taking their toll. places, we decided since we were passing Breitenbush Hot Springs, we would go there. Maco had never been, but I had been once before with my school during a workshop weekend that we had there. When we got there, it was really crowded with people, and we checked out the springs, but every area had people using it, so we decided to continue heading back. We passed a farm store, with local fruits & produce, so we got some things for dinner. In the parking lot, a guy had a barbeque fest going, so we got some barbeque chicken, and some cole slaw for dinner. We were set for the evening. All that was left was getting home, unloading the car, showering off the layers of Eastern Oregon dirt and enjoying our dinner.
***** This Entry has 9 pages of photos, scroll down, and check out each page to see our photos from our roadtrip. *******
***** Ce post a neuf page finis.... regardez tout les fotos ******
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