Day 19-20, 9/27-9/28, 2008- Oregon coast to home, Woodinville

We headed north along the coast Saturday morning and were so blessed with the sunny weather. The views were just spectacular!!! We arrived at Cape Lookout Campground around 5:00 and fortunately were able to find a spot. We were able to go for a nice long walk on the beach, but then we ended up cooking dinner in the dark.

Sunday we continued up the coast and at Cannon beach we were able to go for a nice walk along the beach. The weather was just gorgeous. In a weak moment we thought about cutting over to I-5 and driving over to Olympia but thankfully we came to our senses and continued on home via the Hood Canal and the Bremerton Ferry to Seattle. Why would we go any other way?

On the last leg of our travels, we both reflected on all the things we had seen and done in the last twenty days, so many beautiful places and such wonderful memories. A truly charmed adventure, on the road less traveled, 2,204 miles in all. We were true to our goal to stay off of the main highways, we never touched I-5 while traveling through WA, CA and OR. It is good to be home and see family and friends.

Day 18, 9/26/2008- Oregon Coast, Harris Beach

We woke up to another beautiful day along the coast. Decided to stay another night here and just take in the views and sunshine. Harris Beach is truly a five star hotel. It is definitely our favorite camp ground. Wi-Fi, showers like home with real hot water, and even a laundry. And of course the beach is just spectacular.

Day 8 thru day 17 –(Sep 16-25) At the Lake house or lovingly known as “My Mothers Castle” & North on the coast.

Day 8, 9/16/08- We arrived at the Glenhaven lake house Tuesday afternoon and were pleased to find everything in good order. No obvious plumbing leaks, yippee (we didn’t look to close). We always enjoy the beautiful, ever changing views of the lake and Mt. Konocti. We went for a swim and the water was just perfect. We woke up Wednesday to clear blue skies and a beautiful day. Di kept busy trimming bushes and making piles!!

Bruce cleaned the deck and then we gave the deck a much needed coat of stain.

The turkeys are presenting a real problem this year, there are so many of them and their path to the neighbors is starting to erode the steep area by the “water line project”. NOT a good thing. Bruce was quite creative with his beach combing and found some perfect boards to terrace the area. He also put up a “turkey” wire fence to block their path. I must say they are not the smartest of animals, the new fence is causing quite a bit of gobbling as they decide what to do with the new obstacle.

Day 13, 9/21/08- Well I suppose Hot Tamale had to speak up once during our trip, so she decided a crack in the coolant tank might add a little excitement. After all we are close to the vortex of Vanagon doom, N. California. Is this an omen that we should avoid N. California? We are most thankful that we were not on the road when this occurred. Plan still to be determined……..

Day 14, 9/22/08- Bruce was very fortunate to be able to order a replacement for the leaking coolant tank from Go Westy (excellent and helpful staff), should arrive UPS tomorrow, Tuesday, around 2:00 if all goes well. Not a bad spot to be marooned, beautiful view of the lake, running hot water, nice bed to sleep in etc. We are most thankful!!! I suppose this is just a good reminder that when on the road less traveled to hold the travel plans loosely.
Day 15, 9/23/08-Yippee, UPS did their thing and the car part arrived early afternoon. Big smiles on our faces when we saw the familiar brown truck!!!! Bruce did a great job of installing the new coolant tank. Hot tamale is running cool (or at least cooler) again and we plan on packing up and heading up the coast.

Day 16, 9/24/08- Drove 240 miles. We landed at Prairie Creek Redwood State Park along the CA redwoods, just north of Orick. What a nice park and no sign of “Deliverance” here. Bruce getting into the true “on the road” mode scavenged three Dundee Brown Honey beers left by the dumpster in camp (gotta recycle good beer, right?). Amazing :) !!!! We heard Roosevelt Elk bugling in the meadow at night. The weather forecast looks good, so we can hike tomorrow.

Day 17, 9/25/08- Well, not sure what I was thinking when Bruce said , “hey lets go on an 11.2 mile hike through the redwoods to the ocean and back.” So off we went down the James Irvine trail and looped back thru the Miners Ridge trail (trail is rated as one of the best redwood forest hikes in the world).
http://www.redwoodhikes.com/Prairie%20Creek/Miners.html

It really was a beautiful hike through such huge trees. Bruce was kind enough to agree to walk behind me as cougar bait (I joked that we should paint eyeballs on his butt like they do for tigers in the Indian brush). We did whistle and sing loudly a couple of times when the berry bushes were over our heads and fresh bear poop (lots of it) was visible on the trail. Definitely a charmed day.

Finally we arrive at the end of the trail, feeling every bit of our 56 and 61 years!

We then drove to Harris Beach State Park for the night, just north of Brookings Oregon. Such a great site with showers (the best we have encountered in our travels) and even laundry facilities.

Day 7- Exploring special memories. A visit to the Baccala Ranch near Chester, CA

After our long hike yesterday we broke camp early, highly motivated by the idea of a nice long shower at days end. We headed to Chester, CA for some great biscuits and gravy at the Cooper Kettle, highly recommended by Stephanie.

We decided to see if we could find the Baccala Ranch where Diane worked during the summers during the mid-late 60's. What a wonderful travel down memory lane!!!! After multiple wrong turns on gravel logging roads, Bruce's persistence paid off. We ventured past a barb wire gate and lucked into meeting Pauline and Mel Corliss, relatives of the Baccala's. They were very gracious and filled us in on all the goings on in the last 40 years.

We eventually were able to locate Soldier Meadows where the main ranch houses resided. Such great memories of a time long ago that I will always cherish. Our plans to make it to Clear Lake were aborted due to our great time at the Baccala ranch and we found a great motel in Chico. The shower was delightful!!!

Day 4 thru 6- Journey into hell and back (Bumpass Hell) and on top of Mt. Lassen

We woke up to another day of full sunshine, we haven't seen a cloud since we left home!

After a 180 mile drive we arrived at North Summit Lake camp in Mt. Lassen National Park. To our great surprise the camp was almost full, but we were able to get one of the last spots. There are so many trails and lakes to venture out to from this spot that we are sure to come back and do some serious backpacking next year.
















We hiked to Bumpass Hell the next morning and what a great hike. Very easy trail and the thermal features were just awsome. We spent the afternoon just reading and relaxing beside Summit Lake.


Thanks to Bruce we were up bright and early the next morning for our trek up Mt. Lassen Summit, elevation 10, 450 ft. Yikes, I must say I was a bit dubious about being able to make the climb. Thanks to Bruce's patience we were able to do the round trip in 4.5 hours.

Day 3- Mt. Vernon, OR to Goose Lake, OR (237 miles)

After a great breakfast of camp site biscuits and gravy we headed South along Hwy 395. We enjoyed more of the John Day beautiful valley and then progressed into the dry flat lands south of Burns Oregon which gave way to the extraordinary fault blocked uplift of the Abert Rim! This feature is just spectacular!!!!!!!! The Abert Rim that runs for 30 miles is faulted and rises 2500 ft above the valley, the highest such visible fault in the US. We also passed multiple saline or alkaline lakes which were so very scenic. A side note for you rock lovers, we were able to pick up a sample of the Steens basalt along the road which is chuck full of plagioclase crystals. :)

We ended our day camping at Goose Lake near Lakeview Oregon. The lake is an extremely large and very shallow (~8 feet) lake that lies in both Oregon and California. It was on one of the major western US emigrant trails (Applegate Trail).

Day 2 Spray, OR to Mt Vernon, OR. (84 miles) - Journey through time exploring the John Day country of Eastern Oregon

We left camp in the morning with the intention to drive all the way to Hat Creek by Mount Lasen. We found ourselves so enjoying the beauty of the ranch lands and the geologic beauty of this area that we played all day and only drove 84 miles.

We stopped and toured an old ranch homestead, went through the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center and then decided to go on a 4 mile hike through the Blue Basin trail. We were fortunate to find a very peaceful and cool place to camp just south of Mt. Vernon.

Day 1: Woodinville to Spray, OR (207 miles) - On the Road Again

Well the Westy, fondly nicknamed "Hot Tamale" is running cool these days after a some major engine work this Spring. So we are off on our adventure of the road less traveled or (There and Back Again Part 2). We left home on Sep 9th. and drove the back roads to Eastern Oregon and were so happy to be out just going down the road through new and interesting places again!

The windmill farms near Wasco Oregon were a real surprise and so fun to see close up, they are really huge!!!! There are 71 windmills in the "farm" and they are expected to generate enough power for 500 homes.

Traveling along the John Day River, the 2nd longest free flowing in the lower 48 states, was a true delight to our eyes. It flows 218 miles from the Strawberry mountains into the Columbia.

We found a very quiet camp at Bull Prarie resorvoir north of Spray, OR for our first night out. Very restful with only one other camper.