Oregon - Day 3 - Klamath Falls

Klamath Falls KOA, Klamath Falls

Tuesday, 3 May 2022

today's route

On my way through Lakeview, I stopped for gasoline.  Oregon is one of the only states that doesn't allow regular people to pump their own gas (New Jersey is the only other one I've found so far).  I don't care for this system, but I learned in NJ not to let them top up my tank, which for some reason they really want to do.  The Car Talk guys said don't do it, so I don't.

Anyway, in this instance the situation was helpful because I could ask the guy what that plant was across the street.  A door factory, he said.  A sign told me Pacific Pine Products.  He also told me he liked living here but they hadn't had a real winter this year - just one big snowstorm and that was it.  A report that doesn't bode well for those depending on snowpack to help the water situation.

As you might be able to see from the map, I drove through mostly rural area this morning - a few tiny towns here and there, lots of cows and horses and sheep and goats.  Many of the horses were sunbathing - lying flat out in the sunshine.  I'd become accustomed to all the tan and brown I saw for a month in Nevada, and here I saw green everywhere.  Quite a change.

I passed a sign telling me to turn left for the Mitchell Monument, which I'd never heard of.  This site turns out to be unique: it commemorates the only place on the American continent where people were killed by actions of the enemy in WWII.  It's almost a bizarre series of events, and the clearest account I found is on the Wikipedia page.  Keep reading the page to see what happened during last year's Bootleg Fire.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Mitchell-Monument 

I passed dozens of "containers" that told me this is very rocky land.  Square or round molds several feet across and 4' or so high, made of chicken wire and filled with rocks, I've seen them used as part of fences, as entrance gateposts, and even as decoration with metal designs and figures attached to a wall of them.  But lots of people seem to have been willing to clear the rocks from the land, because I saw miles of crop fields.

Oregon is really attached to a 55 mph speed limit and, except for going through towns, that was the limit for this entire drive.  Since I myself am a fan of going 55 (saves gas and is safer for slower reflexes), that's fine by me.

I passed several signs that were some variation on "Join the State of Jefferson."  That's something I came across in northern California.  Of course there was also "Move Oregon's Border www.greateridaho.org."  In case you're curious, here's the link.   https://www.greateridaho.org  Of course, there are some fallacies in the arguments they present - I found several just in the opening statements.  (E.g. "it just takes" getting both state legislatures and the US Congress to agree to the plan - as if all those things are likely to happen.)  But there seems to be some interest in the idea.  

Along those same lines, I passed a newish-looking sign reading "Trump Pence - Keep America Great."  Maybe it was 2 years old, or maybe someone hasn't realized neither Trump nor Pence would want to be on the same ticket these days.

We got to Klamath Falls, checked into the campground, and then went to look around town a bit.  Particularly, I wanted to find the falls.

I'd already learned online that this wasn't a situation like Sioux Falls, SD, where a big beautiful waterfall was part of a big beautiful park right in town.  Turns out there actually aren't any waterfalls here and never were.  The name came from some ripples made in the Link River (runs through town) by the water flowing over rocks.  But I still wanted to find them, just to say I'd seen them.

I tried really hard and never succeeded.  I went first to the place that looked on Google like a parking area by the park that surrounded the river and the dam.  It wasn't.  It was a parking lot by the Klamath Falls Fish & Wildlife Office, which was closed, so I couldn't ask for help.  I walked the dogs, we had lunch (all the kids were falling over with hunger by then), and I consulted Google again.

It said I should try down the street and turn either at Thrall Street or at Link River Drive, both of which would get me to the park.  Right.  Thrall St. turned out to be not even as wide as an alley and was basically someone's driveway that continued straight up (seriously, up) a hill to no destination that I could see.  So I tried Link River Dr. - much better - looked like a real street, but it had huge chunks of concrete blocking the road at the top of the hill.  They clearly didn't want us going there.  I had to turn around on that steep hill and head back down.

A plumber who'd chosen that parking lot to have his lunch (I disturbed his peace) had advised me to go into downtown to the Veterans Park, and Google agreed that park was at the other end of this park area I was trying to find.  So I followed Google's directions and got completely lost because streets weren't where they said they were, or else they didn't have the same names, or something because nothing looked like Google said it would.

I then tried to find an area called Putnam's Point, which looked like a nice little recreation area at the southern end of Upper Klamath Lake.  I thought we could walk a bit and maybe look at the birds - it was supposed to be a good place to see duckies.  Well, this was one place I found - except it was closed because it was full of construction equipment which might have been working there or maybe just staging from there - but I couldn't get in.

But fear not - right down the street (I was looking for a safe place to turn around) I found a nice large park called Moore Park.  The dogs and I started out on a pleasant walk through grass and trees, until I discovered that the dogs had discovered that the Canada Geese had discovered this was a good place to eat grass and poop.  By then I was ready to throw in the towel.  All I had to do was figure out how to get back to the campground, given my current record of getting lost in this town.

But I managed it, and also managed finding a grocery store we'd passed on our way into town, which at that point felt like an accomplishment.  And since the store was right next to a Speedway gas station, I filled up again to be ready to leave tomorrow with a full tank.

The nice thing, after all that, was that it was a sunny and pleasant afternoon, and our campsite was right next to a nice dog park, so the dogs and I had a comfortable rest of the afternoon.