Oregon - Day 7 - to Port Orford and the coast

Bandon/Port Orford KOA, Langlois
Saturday, 7 May 2022

We had a couple of walks around the Sutherlin campground before we left this morning, accompanied by varying amounts of rainfall both times.

In this campground their degree of cluelessness about pet needs was stunning.  They proclaimed themselves "a Pet Friendly Park" in capital letters and had set aside 2 fenced-in dog parks and a small area of grass labeled as a "dog area."  Everywhere else in the large park we were greeted with signs saying "Please No Pets In This Area," also in capital letters.  Everywhere.  And their list of rules also says pets can't "use the facilities in your space," which I guess means they can't pee (i.e. "use the facilities") even just outside their RV - which mine anyway won't do because they never use whatever area is designated as ours.

But this campground, like others we've seen, seems to think dogs should be teleported from inside their RVs directly to the dog pens.  What century are they living in?  Much as we all might like that little piece of science fiction, it's still fiction and not yet reality.  So I took my dogs out around the campground while it was dark, and a second time later but before anyone else was up, and let them do whatever they wanted wherever they wanted and just picked up after them.  The problem isn't what my dogs do.  The problem is all the owners who won't pick up after their dogs.

While we were walking around, I noticed that they'd probably shown their movie last night, though I didn't hear or see it, because one of those propane fire pits was uncovered and had chairs around it, a change from what I saw yesterday, and someone had left a soda can and popcorn bag lying on the grass.  Myself, I think littering is worse than letting my dogs pee somewhere, though I agree it's not as bad as someone not picking up after their dogs poop.  Stepping on a discarded popcorn bag is by far less yucky than stepping on poop.

today's route

For the first 17 miles of today's drive, I took I-5, and then cut off just south of Roseburg onto OR-42 toward the coast.  We had nearly constant rain or showers all morning, making this mountainous s-curvy drive more challenging.

First, I passed through Winston again, pop. 5,410.  I should have noted before that here in Oregon, sometimes the highway department posts a population figure, sometimes the town does, but often nobody does.  Sometimes the highway department doesn't bother to even post the name of the town, and that seems to have nothing to do with the town's size.  Nobody seems to care about altitude here, an attitude that's odd when compared to the emphasis on it in the last 4 or 5 states I've visited.

On this road to the sea, I passed cows and horses and sheep.  I saw high hills covered with green - both crops and grass/trees.  Verdant is the word that springs to mind.  Even lush at times.  Very green.  'Course, that's what can happen when you put a lot of rain and river water into an area with soil (instead of sand).

Along this mountainous road I saw a building technique I don't remember seeing before.  Apparently they had a real problem with rock falling on the road in this area.  For miles I saw near-curtains of fencing-type wire draped over the rock faces that the road had been blasted out of.  In other places I saw miles of jersey barriers along the road, presumably to catch any rocks before they rolled onto the highway. 

At one place I saw an unusual retaining wall construction: it was a very tall concrete wall that was propped up by arms of steel or aluminum of various lengths, and each arm ended in what looked like a pencil eraser stuck on sideways and aimed at - pressed against - the wall.  It reminded me of the arms in an old typewriter or those inside a piano.  They didn't look like they could do more than hold the wall up, didn't look strong enough to hold up rocks that had fallen against the wall too, but they must have been or why use them.

Along this road I came to a town called Remote and I was curious about it.  The name came from early settlers for its distance from other settlements.  It's considered an unincorporated hamlet here.

I passed several signs along the road advertising an event in June called Tour de Fronds.  Here's the link with information.   http://www.tourdefronds.com  If you're planning to be in Oregon in the middle of June, you might want to check the various routes participants can take - or plan to stay home for the day.  It would be a nightmare to be a regular vehicle stuck on those hilly winding roads full of bicyclists.

I also passed signs all morning advertising Jesus.

For much of the drive, the various forks and tributaries of the Coquille River ran alongside and we crossed them many times.

Myrtle Point (pop. 2,583 in 2020), has a sign proclaiming it's "In the Heart of the Myrtlewoods."  Despite this, and despite the town's name, its Wikipedia page doesn't even mention myrtles, so it was no help for me to figure out what myrtle trees look like.

Online articles didn't show me any photos of myrtles that might help me identify it if I were standing in front of one, though I did find a photo of Oregon's largest myrtle.

There's a person for scale.

This tree is nearly 5' in diameter and 90' tall.  The myrtles grow only from the west slope of the Cascades to the coast in northern CA and OR - and nowhere else in the world.  I did find a commercial website that shows what the wood looks like when it's been milled - really pretty.   https://www.cookwoods.com/oregon-myrtlewood  And that's about what I know on myrtles.  Something to spend more time learning about if I had more time here.

Near Myrtle Point I came to the Hoffman Memorial State Wayside.  I can't find out who the Hoffman was who's being memorialized here.  What I did learn is that this wayside is in a myrtle grove, and that the state of Oregon says people use the myrtle leaves in place of bay leaves, because they're related.  However, a website I found on myrtles said they can be poisonous, so I hope a lot of people don't listen to Oregon's tourism department.

Nearby was the "Norway Cemetery" and I wondered who had settled here.  And I had a hard time finding that information.  Apparently many Scandinavians were attracted to the Portland/Astoria area for fishing and shipping jobs and to the Willamette Valley for agriculture.  Which doesn't explain to me how a cemetery out here away from much of those influences came to be called the Norway Cemetery.  Looks like I'll be leaving Oregon with at least as many questions unanswered as I get answered.

Not far down the road I came to the town of Coquille, and we stopped for a break at Sturdivant Park alongside the Coquille River.  This looked like it would be a really nice park if the roads weren't mostly flooded - we had a hard time walking even along paved roads there.  I imagine the town's life centers around this park in the summer.

My mind worried at that name Coquille for a while.  I've thought for years that the word meant scallop (that you eat) in French, and it seemed odd to me that there would be scallops here and that the French would be heavily involved in settlements here.  Turns out the word "coquille" refers to scallop shell, that "coquille St. Jacques" refers to the marine critter scallop, and this town had nothing to do with either one.  Instead it was named for a local Indian tribe.

Just after leaving the park, we crossed the Coquille River and saw that it was really swollen.  In fact, we saw it for miles because the road continued to follow it.  After passing the appropriately named town of Riverton, I got my first thank you this month from someone who passed when I pulled over.  Oregonians are good about passing when I let them (instead of stopping behind me as if they can't drive without having me in front of them), but they seem to take it for granted.  So my first thank you was appreciated.

The sun came out - first time all day - and it made the landscape much brighter.  I've been seeing lots of blooming azaleas and rhododendrons, and along this area I started seeing banks of wild pink rhododendrons in full bloom.  I'm not much of a rhodie fan most of the time - I think the drooping leaves look depressing - but this time of year they're absolutely glorious.

At Bandon, I hit famed US-101, which almost everyone who has driven on the West Coast has followed for at least part of their drive.  It begins at Los Angeles and ends in Tumwater, just south of Olympia, WA.  Because in this area the road is sometimes running right along the Pacific coast, I started seeing signs here and there warning of Tsunami Hazard Zones.

And I started seeing masses of what I think are goldenrod.

internet photo of goldenrod

I passed a facility for Ocean Spray Cranberries, and now I know cranberries are grown here.

The only radio stations I could find along here were either country/western or religious.

The sign for Curry County, in far southwest Oregon, told me "We Honor Veterans and First Responders."  All the other counties honor only vets.  Wonder what the local discussion was that resulted in that decision.

Then I came to "World Famous Langlois," according to their sign.  I found conflicting information online but have concluded the population of Langlois in 2020 was 135, a decrease from the 177 they had in 2010.  Nonetheless, the town is proud of itself, as you can tell from its sign.  Here's their website explaining why they think they should be world famous.   https://www.worldfamouslanglois.com/why-langlois-or-should-be-world-famous  Oddly, that website doesn't mention the Langlois Market, which is what Wikipedia says is "world famous."   https://en.wikipedia.org/Langlois-OR  I passed that market without realizing I should have stopped - a good reason to do my research before I drive instead of after I've seen things.  Otherwise, what I saw was an artsy kind of town strung along the main road, and I wondered where people parked.

I passed fields of cows and of sheep.

I passed the town of Denmark, which was founded in the 1800s by Danish immigrants who had a thriving little dairy industry, with a cheese factory and creamery.  There's not much left of the town any more.

I was aiming for Port Orford, pop. 1,190.  It's a commercial fishing town on the Pacific Ocean but, most unusually, it doesn't have a natural harbor.  The dock fronts directly onto the ocean without protection.  They must be tough here.

I couldn't get a photo of the fishing facilities without having a lot more faith in gravity than I do (very steep unpaved road made me afraid I'd either roll over or not be able to get back up).  But I did find a vantage to get a couple of views of the ocean.

This is a sort of overview.

This shows a little more detail of the land . . .

. . . while this shows a little more detail of the ocean.

Online I'd found a place called Battle Rock Wayside Park and thought it would be a nice place for us to stop and walk before heading to tonight's campground.  But it wasn't like that at all.  Instead I found a very few parking spots at the top of a very steep hill.

Even if I could have inserted the RV into one of the spots, we'd have had to walk down that steep hill that went straight down to the beach by the ocean.  I could see an active Golden Retriever halfway down, which meant I could have trouble hanging onto my dogs to pass it.  And then once at the beach, I'd be dealing with Gracie who's afraid of the sound of the ocean surf.  Maybe you can see in my photos that though there wasn't exactly the perfect surfing wave, there still were waves coming in.  And then we'd have to climb this very steep hill to get back to the RV.  When I saw the situation, I turned around and started hunting for someplace else in town for us to walk.

And Battle Rock itself has an ugly history anyway.  If you're interested in yet another local Indian vs. stupid white settlers argument, here's a link.   https://yourenotfromaroundhere.com/battle-rock-port-orford

As I was driving around trying to find someplace else (and we were all really ready to stretch our legs), I happened on a sign that pointed us to the Buffington Memorial Park, a nice grassy area that was almost solid with play equipment of various kinds.  Not much place for us to walk, but we managed.  I talked with a woman about my age who was coming back from walking her dog, and she said she liked living here in Port Orford very much.  She said there's absolutely nothing at all to do here - you have to be self-sufficient, she said - but after living here 6 years, she felt very much a part of the community.  That seemed a reasonable amount of time to me, meaning folks weren't too clannish to accept a newcomer.

As we were leaving town, I noticed a window cleaning business called I Can See Clearly Now.

We got to our campground and the owner gave me incorrect instructions for how to get to my campsite.  Fortunately, I got it figured out for myself without much trouble, I walked the dogs a couple of times, and we were settled in.  I was a little surprised that almost no one was here on a Saturday night.  They had about a dozen full-time campers, but only us and one other RV were here for short stays.  I finally decided it was because of the very rainy and cold weather forecast, which was in fact turning out to be accurate.  Not what holiday-makers are looking for.  But it seemed fine for one night for us.

Oregon - Day 6 - Gold Hill to Sutherlin

Sutherlin/Umpqua Valley KOA, Sutherlin
Friday, 6 May 2022

It was rainy on our first walk this morning, but we were lucky to get some sun on our second one.  After that it was clouds and occasional light rain the rest of the day.

today's route

I left the campground on OR-99 again, but it ran out in Grants Pass.  From there I had to work diligently to get Google to route me from one town to another via the scenic route.  Not only is Oregon unusual in not maintaining the old US-99 route, but it's also unusual in not providing off-shoots from interstate highways to take people through the small towns the interstate bypasses.  I've been finding and following those offshoots, known as Business Routes, in pretty much every state.  At least, they're there when I'm looking for them so I guess they're in every state.

But not Oregon.  The nice thing about these Business Routes for someone like me is that I can use interstates for the ease of travel, but I can also get off at one end of a town, drive through it - maybe finding a park to walk the dogs and see what the town looks like - and then get back on the highway at the other end of town.  In Oregon, there's no such ability, or if there is, it's not easy to identify it.

But routes like these allowed me to see long-haired brown goats that were almost hidden in a field of tall grass that they were munching on.  I crossed several narrow old stone or concrete bridges.  Here's the one in Gold Beach.

Rogue River bridge in Gold Beach

In the City of Rogue River, they had an unusual metal one across their namesake river (sorry, all internet photos were copyrighted).  From there, the road wound alongside the river for miles, with occasional waterfront houses and almost constant trees.  Really pretty drive.

I stopped at Grants Pass, pop. 36,465, for groceries and at a liquor store (Oregon doesn't sell hard liquor in grocery stores, only beer and wine).  I asked the guy working at the liquor store if he liked living here and he quickly said yes.  When I asked why, he said "It's not Portland."  When I asked why it's better than, say, Medford, he said, "It's more laid back,"  

With almost 50,000 fewer residents than Medford, it's easy to believe Grants Pass is a bit calmer.  This town was originally named Louse Creek, but residents decided to change it when they applied to have a post office here - they thought folks wouldn't flock to visit a town named Louse Creek.  Instead, they named it in honor of then-General U.S. Grant, a hero of the Civil War (in some parts of the country).

Here's what directions for a real back route looked like (without mileages attached) beginning in Grants Pass: left on G Street/Upper River Road; right on Pinecrest Drive/Plumtree Lane; left on Camp Joy Road; right on Jaime Lane; left on Merlin Road; right on Merlin Avenue (by this point we're in the town of Merlin); right on Pleasant Valley Road - you can see what I mean.

Driving this route, we passed through rural neighborhoods and farmlands.  I saw several Trump/Pence signs, which still strike me as odd.  But maybe those folks aren't reality deniers (thinking the 2 candidates still want to serve together) but instead election deniers (thinking these 2 candidates should be the ones in office now).

Merlin (pop. 1,922) says it's the Gateway to the Wild and Scenic Rogue River.  Odd that the City of Rogue River didn't make that claim, though it may not have been "wild and scenic" there.  The Rogue has that designation for nearly 60% of its course, but that still leaves a lot of river without it.  

A sign in Merlin suggested I turn right for the Haines Apple Tree, and I might have done that if I'd known what it was: OR's second oldest apple tree, planted by the Haines family in either 1852 or 1854.  Since apple trees typically live for only about 50 years, you can see that this is an unusually hardy tree.

During today's drive I came to several mountain summits, all below 2,000' except Canyon Creek Pass at 2,020'.  And just past all of them, I came to signs saying 6% Grade Next 3 Miles [usually]."  The steep downhill grades came so like clockwork after the summits that I almost took them for granted.  Odd what you can get used to.

I came to the town of Sunny Valley and, oddly enough, it was both: I came out of heavy clouds and saw down below the town of Sunny Valley - in the sun and in a valley.  A sign told me it was home to the Applegate Wagon Trail (a southern route off the end of the Oregon Trail) and a historic covered bridge from 1920.  (Once again, being old out here in the West is a relative condition.  Keep in mind that Oregon didn't become a state until 1859, just before the Civil War.)  I don't know how big the town is, though I'm guessing not very because it has so few residents they don't even take the census here.

The town of Wolf Creek is in a similar situation.  It's too small to be a census-designated place, and it's the home to the historic Wolf Creek Inn, a state heritage site.  Open since 1883, it's the oldest continuously operating inn in the Pacific Northwest.

A sign said to watch for elk in the next 7 miles.  I keep being disappointed by their nonappearance.

Signs tell me when I'm coming into a different county, and each sign says, "___ County - We Honor Veterans."

I was constantly seeing hills covered by green trees.  I saw a herd of Belted Swiss - they look like cows wearing cummerbunds.  Lots of goats and horses, though not together.

We stopped at Canyonville (pop. 2,013 in 2020) for a walk and some lunch.  That was actually harder than it sounds because I couldn't find any place at all to do these things.  I kept turning down side streets and sometimes having to make u-turns in small spaces.  But I finally stumbled on a place called Pioneer Park that worked out well for us.

It was a small park, but it had several things of interest.  We parked next to the stump of what was once an ancient Douglas Fir.

The tree was long gone, and it was the
old trunk we were parked next to.

plaque on the trunk

And we found a covered bridge that went over a stream alongside the park.

The stream the bridge crosses.

The bridge had no sign saying how old
it was or if it's been moved (which I think
it may have been).

When I finally found the sign saying this was Pioneer Park, it helped explain why the restroom building was made to look old and why they'd decorated the area as they did.

I talked to some nice people in my general age range who were walking their 16-year old American Eskimo/long-haired Chihuahua mix.  They said they liked living here, despite there being little to do, because it was quiet.

Leaving town I passed a home with a sign on the gate in front reading, "Beware of Cat."

At the Herbert Lumber Company, I saw many many huge piles of logs, and all of them were being watered.  I don't remember seeing that done before and can't quite figure out why they'd do that.  This wasn't a high fire risk time.  Seemed odd.  Maybe it was the old "ounce of prevention" thing.

From Canyonville, Google told me to take roads that weren't labeled at all what Google said they'd be labeled.  Despite this interference, I managed to take the back roads again, this time to Myrtle Creek, pop. 3,460.  I saw a business called Bogie's Hoagies, passed another covered bridge, and crossed the Umpqua River.  

The Rogue and the Umpqua Rivers are among only a handful that rise in or east of the Cascades and still make it to the Pacific Ocean.  Both are about the same length - Rogue (124 miles) and Umpqua (111 miles) - but the Rogue rises from a mountain spring, where the Umpqua rises from snowmelt.  I crossed them both many times when I was in their areas.

I was forced back onto I-5 for a few miles, and then managed to find a remnant of OR-99, which took me past several more small towns, and through a lot of farmland and past farmhouses.  At one point, I saw a Confederate flag flying from a pole in front of one house, while across the road a neighbor was flying a Trump 2024 flag.

Near Dillard (pop. 568 in 2020), I passed the Dillard Log Yard at an enormous facility that encompassed maybe 4 or 5 buildings.  It was labeled Roseburg Forest Products, and apparently plywood is at least one of its products, based on a sign I saw.

I heard on the radio that grasshoppers thrive in drought conditions.  Given the extreme drought we're having in most of the Western states, the farmers here may be looking at some serious problems ahead - to compound the problem of the drought.

Winston, pop. 5,410, claims to be Home of the Wildlife Safari.  This business has more than 600 acres where more than 100 species of animals live in the wild.  You're allowed to drive through on your own, but you have to leave your pets in kennels at the entrance, for which they sell locks ($5 each).  The entrance fee for seniors is $21 (plus $10 lock fee for my 2 dogs (I always ignore Lily at times like this - she'd just sleep through the drive anyway)), so it's too steep for me.  Cheaper than a trip to Africa, though.

Anyway, when I crossed the bridge in Winston I saw an unusual sign that told me to "Raise Plow for Bridge Joint."  Presumably it's meant for winter snowplows, but it's still one I don't remember seeing before.

Today I saw lots of very large campaign-style signs that read, "Remember Term Limits When You Vote."  That's what they all said - no group affiliation or explanation.  Though I suppose it's a reference to the why-bother-with-term-limits-when-you-can-vote-them-out-of-office-when-you-want way of thinking.  I think most people's real problem is that they often like their own elected representatives and want term limits on those that others elect.

In Roseburg, pop. 24,820, I passed the Historic John Rast House 1875 (once again, what's old is a little different here on the West Coast than I saw on the East Coast), and the Buckaroo Barn, which offers "square and round dancing."  That seems to sum up what I saw there.

And then at Sutherlin, pop. 8,260, I came to tonight's campground.  This KOA is unusual: it was once a drive-in movie.  The screen stayed in place, though long ago it stopped operating as a movie place and turned into a campground.  Then the current owners, who had grown up in this area, bought it, kept the campground and refurbished the movie part.  They even got licensed by the Motion Picture Licensing Corp. so they can get a range of movies to show.  They installed a digital projector and an FM transmitter so campers can pick up the sound on their radios.

When you make a reservation you can specify that you want a site that has a good view of the screen.  Others go up to a large grassy area near the screen where the owners have propane fire pits for people to gather around and stay warm.  The office provides free popcorn.

The night I was there they were showing Safari.  Of course, these days the sun doesn't set until 8:20, and the movie was set to start at 8:45, which is more than an hour past my bedtime.  I put up extra towels over the windows to keep out the light and we were fine.

Oregon - Day 5 - in the campground

Medford/Gold Hill KOA, Central Point
Thursday, 5 May 2022

We spent the day in the campground, which turned out to be a pretty decent place.  They had 2 good-sized dog parks, though one of them was hard to access and out of the way.  The other was two side by side, with each side being bigger than many such parks I've seen.

This is one of those places that says "pets are welcome" but expects them to be teleported from their campsite to the dog park.  The signs here say, "Please exercise your pet only in designated areas," but since dogs think walking to and from the dog park is exercise, they don't know the difference.  This sort of requirement is one I'm starting to catalog under the don't-worry-about-it heading.  I do my best, my dogs can't read, I'm not dragging them away when they start to relieve themselves in the wrong place, and I always pick up after them.

On the plus side, the campground is just big enough that we're able to find a variety of places to walk so we didn't get bored while we were here.

Also on the plus side, this campground has a nice strong wifi signal, which I didn't expect since it's out in a rural area.  It was good enough that I could actually get the first 3 posts of the month written, which put me almost current (what a concept).

I had more time to write because we got a fair amount of rain during our stay.  That made the ground soggy - and made the dog parks not attractive to any of us - but that seemed to be the luck of the draw. 

The weather forecast showed this kind of weather for the whole Pacific Northwest, and the weather service was saying to expect November-type temperatures instead of normal for May.  That weather pattern started today and was expected to continue at least through the weekend.  I would have preferred May, I guess, but I also expected western Oregon (on the west side of the Cascade Mountains) to be wet and cool - even in May, so I'm not crushed about this.

Oregon - Day 4 - to Ashland and Medford and beyond

Medford/Gold Hill KOA, Central Point

Wednesday, 4 May 2022

The Klamath Falls KOA turned out to be a pleasant place.  I hadn't expected it because the only sites I could afford were way in the back of the campground, and I was afraid I'd have trouble walking the dogs.  But with a nice dog park right near our site, and with being at the end of a row, we managed to find enough room for the 1 night we were there.

Plus, their wifi network was so much better than most campgrounds I've found lately, that I almost hated to leave.  On the other hand, the local NPR station was all classical music and I wanted some news.  On the other other hand, I saw another goldfinch - they're so striking and pretty and really hard to miss.  

American goldfinch

Trying to make plans, I learned that the weather forecast for the Crater Lake area this weekend included a 90% chance of snow for several days.  The campground I'd planned to stay in wanted a 2-night minimum stay, which I would have agreed to reluctantly, but with the weather it sounded like I could get stuck there for much longer, so I decided to wait and visit later in the month when the snow chances would be diminished and instead head north and toward the coast.

today's route

I'd passed by Medford and Ashland more than a month ago when I was trying to get from the California coast around to Mt. Shasta.  But at the time, I didn't try to visit anything because it was still my month in CA and I figured I'd get to these places when it was my month for Oregon.  Which it is now, so I planned a driving route that would let me visit both places, at least briefly.

Once again, I spent most of the drive passing through rural areas, though it was certainly scenic.  You can see that for quite a ways the road skirts the Upper Klamath Lake, which was a really beautiful area.

My first plan was to take OR-66 directly from Klamath Falls to Ashland, but then I noticed that part of OR-140, the northern route, included the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway.  I saw that byway down by Mt. Shasta and it runs up to at least Crater Lake, so I thought I'd drive that way and see what the countryside looked like.

A side benefit was that the road skirted Upper Klamath Lake, which I saw the end of yesterday when I was driving around Klamath Falls, so I got a nice look at a beautiful lake.  It's Oregon's largest natural lake, covering 90,000 acres.  Great place for birdwatching - I saw a lot of duckies that I couldn't identify while I was driving, but I'm sure I saw some Buffleheads - the males are easy to identify - and I'm sure I saw a Northern Pintail - the neck stripe is easy to see.

Bufflehead

Northern Pintail

Apparently fishing was good for both the birds and the people, because I saw quite a few boaters putting in at the boat ramp and maybe a half dozen people fishing from shore.

Just past the elbow in the lake, a road headed north toward Crater Lake and a town called Rocky Point, which is apparently too small for the AAA folks.  But I knew it was there because of signs telling me so.  One of those signs was giving credit to the litter pick-up crew in that area: Quilting Sisters at Rocky Point.  It's a fabric store there, which seems odd as there doesn't seem to be much of a year-round population.  It's an old town (by OR standards) that's been known almost entirely for recreational opportunities, which apparently once included a brothel.

Another sign I saw along the road said only "Mt. McLoughlin" with a diagonal arrow pointing up and to the right.  And when I looked where it was pointing, sure enough, I saw an absolutely classic mountain.  I took this photo off the internet because there wasn't anywhere for me to stop along the road, but this is what I saw.

Mt. McLoughlin

Mt. McLoughlin, 9,344' high, is a dormant (note, not extinct) volcano, which makes sense since it's part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc.  This arc includes Mt. St. Helens, which erupted pretty thoroughly in 1980, though scientists are so completely not expecting Mt. McLoughlin to erupt that they're not even monitoring it.

I came to the Great Meadow Sno-Park (per the signs) and suddenly started to see piles of snow beside the road.  That made me drive a little more carefully, in case there might be ice on bridges or somewhere else sneaky.  Luckily, there wasn't.  This sno-park (why did they have to spell it that way?  does it really make it more attractive to recreationists?) is very popular in the winters (duh) and has facilities for snowmobiling, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing, including a monster parking lot to accommodate trucks pulling trailers with equipment on them.

The area was beautiful with thick evergreen forests, and signs told me I'd reached Lake of the Woods.  Actually, signs for the whole drive seemed to think that lake was where I wanted to go, so I'm guessing it's a popular place

Near here, I reached the highest summit for the whole drive - High Lakes Pass Summit at 5,105'.

The first part of today's drive took me through more of the Fremont-Winema National Forest, which I'd picked up near Lakeview my first day in Oregon.  Past the High Lakes Pass Summit, though the AAA map doesn't show it, signs told me I'd reached the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.

And though I'd left the Volcano Legacy byway behind, I started to pass large lava fields.  Mounds of lava.  Huge mounds.  After the volcano education I've received in New Mexico and Arizona, I can recognize lava now when it looks as obviously like itself as it did here.  There was a lot of it, with a lot of vegetation growing on and around it - Nature coming back to life after the flow of fire.

After Fish Lake (another popular recreation area), the road took a 5% grade for the next 10 miles with s-curves the whole way.  Definitely a road better suited for a sports car.  I'd passed a hill of red dirt that looked like it was being mined, and as I drove along the road I noticed red dirt at the road's edges.  I finally concluded that red dirt from that hill was used to build this road, and the pavement was sitting on a bed of it.

A sign told me to expect "Intermittent Road Work Next 8 Miles."  I had time to wonder if the "intermittent" referred to them doing the work now and then or doing it here and there.  Turns out it was here and there, because I passed several places where work was ongoing.

A sign told me I could turn right for "Historic Lost Creek Bridge."  I didn't turn but I did look it up and learned that it's southern Oregon's oldest and shortest covered bridge.  I can't say I'd thought of Oregon in connection with covered bridges, but the state's got 54 of them.  This one was built around 1881 and is 39' long.  It's no longer in use for vehicle traffic, which figures.

I passed a farm that sold chicken eggs for $3.50/dozen and also advertised emu eggs (no price).  I didn't see either the chickens or the emus, though I trust in truth in advertising.

I did see lots of bee boxes and that reminded me of the sad story in the news yesterday about the woman who was shipping thousands of bees to customers in Alaska, but the airlines rerouted the bee containers to Atlanta, where they somehow didn't get put on the next available plane.  The airport staff got nervous about having a bunch of bees around and put them outside the building, where the bees began to die from the heat and lack of water.  Via the internet, the woman managed to find a bee person in the area who went to the airport to rescue as many as he could, but most of them died.  Plus the customers in Alaska didn't get the bees they needed for this year's crops.  These days we're all learning how essential pollinators are in our world (and in our food supply), and that knowledge gives this story an impact it wouldn't have had 10 years ago when we were more clueless.

A sign welcomed me to White City, "A Great Place to Live."  I was curious about the name and looked it up, learning it was originally Camp White (named for an adjutant general), established during WWII as an Army training base and also used as a POW camp.  In fact, with all the people there, in 1943 it was the 2nd largest city in Oregon.  When the base was decommissioned, the residents who remained renamed the town, now with 9,468 residents (as of 2020).

CA poppies

California poppies were blooming, which puts Oregon's springtime more than a month behind California's.

By this time we'd been driving for nearly 2 hours and were past ready for a break.  Thankfully, I found a highway rest stop just past Medford.  Odd place, though.  Many signs said don't walk dogs anywhere except the designated dog walk area, and then no dog walk area was designated.  Seems to me if you can post a bunch of signs saying go to a specific area, then you can also post a bunch of signs saying here's the specific area.  (Sorry.  People can be weird about other people's dogs, and I get grumpy these days when being a dog owner is made even more difficult for me than the problems already inherent in having dogs.  Though I still don't have to pay for tennis shoes or college, so I'm happy with my choice.)

Ashland, with 21,360 residents in 2020, is home to Southern Oregon University, which I was surprised to learn was founded as far back as 1892.  The school says it offers 45 degrees, and oddly has only a 46% graduation rate.  I don't know why that's so low.

Ashland seems to be built on a series of hills, and I found myself going up and down some very steep ones just by going around the block.  It also has a lot of green space, though its largest park was for people only - no dogs allowed.  But I wanted to see something about the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which is Ashland's enduring claim to fame (even I've heard of it for years.)  I think the festival is held in different theaters around town, with one right next to the headquarters building.  It's the Allen (as in Paul Allen) Elizabethan Theater, and it has a sign saying it's "America's First Elizabethan Theater."  I couldn't find an uncopyrighted photo online and it wasn't possible to stop and take a photo of my own.

The whole town seemed to be geared around the festival - which runs from April through December each year - with shops and restaurants everywhere that catered to the theater-going crowd, or just those who are Shakespeare fans.  But I was surprised to learn that the festival is including so many non-Shakespeare plays that this year there're only 2 by Shakespeare on the line-up: The Tempest and King John.

Ashland is a lovely place - at least it was when I was there because of glorious flowering trees and wisteria everywhere.  And I learned that Ashland is where, in 1946, Lithia was founded - the 3rd largest car dealership group in the country.  And Lithia has given back to its hometown - there are parks and streets and all kinds of things that carry its name.

But we had miles to go, so I got back on the road.  This time I'd had to fight hard with Google because I wanted to take the scenic route instead of the interstate.  OR-99, which is the local iteration of the former US-99, isn't highly respected in this state, and much of it no longer exists.  But here in the southern part, I found it running all the way from Ashland, through Medford, up to Gold Hill, and that's the route I took.

We passed towns with names like Talent and Phoenix.  We passed orchards.  

In Medford, we passed the corporate offices of Harry & David, well-known fruit shippers.  Somehow, though I thought I was going right through town, I missed Medford's historic downtown area.  Medford, with 85,289 residents in 2020, is the county seat.

We went through part of Central Point, with 19,670 residents, and I saw a business called Lillie Belle Farms Homemade Chocolates.  And I suddenly missed my Momma a lot.  When I saw the sign my first reaction was that I should stop and get some chocolates to send to her, and then I remembered I couldn't.  Like it or not, moms really stick with you in your life.  And in my case, I'm lucky to have had a good mom.

Despite all that driving, we made it to the campground by 1:00, and I was tired enough to be done for the day.  We have a reservation for 2 nights here.  I'd been seeing a lot of woodpeckers today, and I saw another one here.  Not close enough to be sure of identifying them well, but my best guess is they were Hairy Woodpeckers, based on them belonging here while other species don't, also on their size, the amount of white when they flew, and the not obvious red on their heads.

Hairy Woodpecker

Whatever they are, they're pretty.

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.

Oregon - Day 2 - geyser and campground life

Wild Goose Meadow RV Park, Lakeview

Monday, 2 May 2022

The town of Lakeview has about 2,300 residents and sits at 4,802'.  The town claims this elevation makes it the Tallest Town in Oregon, a claim that's contested by far smaller Greenhorn.  In fact, Greenhorn (actual name - it was a gold rush town) claims to be the smallest, highest (at 6,300') and most inaccessible incorporated town in the state.  There's a mildly hilarious account of the town at this link.   https://www.oregonlive.com/oregons-smallest-city-a-mile-high

Lakeview's real claim to fame, from my point of view, is being the site of Old Perpetual, the only geyser in the Pacific Northwest.  Oddly enough, it started out as only an area of natural hot springs.  In the 1920s the landowner wanted to develop the hot springs into a spa, and tried to increase the natural amount of waterflow by drilling wells.  He got more waterflow all right: he got 3 geysers from his 3 wells.  Two of them have since stopped spouting, but this one, called Old Perpetual, still spouts often.  

There was a period in the mid-2000s when the town tampered with the hot springs again to get more water for the local prison, resulting in the geyser no longer geysing.  But about 10 years later, it started up again, and can still be seen fairly easily.  My campground was the next piece of property over, and one morning when I was walking the dogs I saw it spout.  I didn't have my camera, but I saw both these views from the internet.

This is the view I saw first.

After the first show was over,
about a minute later I saw this.

A brochure I got in the campground office said there are several hot springs in this general part of the state, including one on US Fish and Wildlife Service land, indicating to me a lot of underground geothermal activity.  Apparently Old Perpetual used to spout every 60 to 90 seconds, but it's not doing that any more, probably a result of the city's tampering.  Still, I did get to see it, which is what I came here for.  Pretty neat.

You can see lots of duckies in that 2nd photo - no doubt attracted to the warm water during the winter.  I saw only a pair of Canada Geese, but there was plenty of goose poop around the campground, making it really hard for me to find a place to walk Dexter where he wouldn't be eating that junk, which he thinks is candy.  Ugh.

I heard a Western Meadowlark singing - such a beautiful song.  And a really tiny Dwarf Hyacinth was growing snuggled up next to the tree at my campsite.  Spring was trying to come, which you might think was about time given that it's May now.  But the weather wasn't so sure.

Yesterday it was overcast, chilly and windy all morning until I got to Oregon, when the sun came out and warmed things up a bit.  But today it was really cold and raining and very windy.  The high temperature wasn't supposed to get up even to 50°.  And I'm sure it didn't because suddenly at 10:30 sleet pellets started coming in sideways.  So much of it pinging against the RV that at first I thought it was a sandstorm.  Then I saw that the sleet was piling up like snow, and still it kept blowing in.  After about 15 minutes, it stopped as suddenly as it started and we got blue sky.  Just weird.

The wifi in the park was pretty good, so I managed to finish all my Nevada posts.  Incredible compared with last month.  Now I can pay attention to Oregon almost from the beginning.  And I made several reservations for the rest of the week.

Oregon - Day 1 - driving through hills and forests to Oregon

Wild Goose Meadows RV Park, Lakeview

Sunday, 1 May 2022

It rained off and on all night and, during our 2nd walk this morning, we got a little snow.  But the forecast was for reasonably warm weather today, and the snow wasn't sticking, so I didn't worry about the drive.

today's route

Unlike yesterday's drive, which was mostly on the interstate, today was 30 miles on US-95 and the rest on NV-140, which became OR-140 when we crossed the border.

I spent much of the drive through Nevada crossing broad flatish valleys, some with crops and others covered with desert plants, all surrounded by more mountains.  These mountains not only had snow on top, but the snow looked fresh; I guess they got more of what I saw while walking in the campground.

countryside, including snow-capped mountains.

I saw a small, white building a little way off the road, with a sort of tower on top shaped like a very large bowling pin.  There were no cars or fence or sign to say what it was, just a gravel road leading up to it and a couple of big power boxes by the main road.  No antenna, nothing special besides that bowling pin on the roof.  Sometimes Google will tell me what a building is but not this time.  Some top-secret government confirmation of a far-out conspiracy theory, no doubt.

I saw the first highway warning sign for a BUMP that I've seen in Nevada, so I figured I'd better be careful.  But it turned out to be less than an average railroad track.

We stopped at a rest area that was pretty bleak but at least gave the dogs a place to stretch their legs.  A guy in a Corvette stopped there to use the restroom; said he'd driven that morning from Westover (Utah-Nevada border) and that he'd had rain and snow the whole way across.  That would have slowed me down, but I'm not driving a Corvette.  He said it was okay because we need the moisture, which is sure true.

I'm beginning to think that posting those wild bull signs, rather than the placid cow signs, is intended to make drivers pay more attention.  I saw a warning sign for pronghorn (antelope), though no real critters except cows, who were all lying down against the strong cold wind.

I'm sorry to report I hit a bird - my first in a long time.  Very upsetting, though the way they've been flying around it's surprising there haven't been more.  All morning I've seen them sitting or lying on the roadway, and when I get close they suddenly fly up and usually fly across in front of me.  This time there were 3 of them together and they flew in different directions, which I think was confusing to this poor little guy so he wasn't able to avoid me.  And I don't see them in time to take any evasive action, assuming I could figure out what would work.  Such a shame.

I started seeing wild burro signs:

I saw so many of them (signs, not burros) I started counting and got to 5 in Nevada and a couple more in Oregon.  I'm sorry that I didn't see any more burros than I have elk or pronghorn, which I also often see signs for.

I passed a sign to turn for Blue Lake, which seemed odd because I distinctly remember a Blue Lake near West Wendover a few days ago.  Turns out there are indeed 2 of them, but this one seems to be much more inaccessible, according to online comments.

I passed a working windmill with a water trough nearby; they were out in the middle of absolutely nowhere though I suppose either cows graze in the area at times or wildlife gratefully come to drink.

I'd been going over several summits during the drive, all under or near 5,000'.  I passed a turn labeled "Opal Mines."  Turns out northwestern NV is known for its opals, and especially black fire opals.  These are so rare that this area is one of the only places in the world where they can be found.

I stopped at another rest area where we were alone for about 10 minutes, then suddenly a lot of Oregon cars stopped to use the bathroom and picnic table.  There was an oddity about this area.

Can you see the water gushing out of this pipe?
It did that for the whole hour we were here,
and no one came around to check on it.
I never figured out where it was going.

That water flow was just to the left of this photo.
You can see that water was badly needed here, but
that water didn't seem to helping out this dryness.

I passed warning signs for a trotting horse, a pronghorn, and a "Rutted Road - Use Caution."  (The road didn't seem any worse than usual.)

Then suddenly I was past the mountains, and I saw a sign: "Thanks for Visiting Nevada."  I can't remember another state thanking me for visiting, though I'm sure there were a few somewhere.  Followed, of course, by another sign: "Welcome to Oregon."

Oregon - my 38th state

I was greeted by Sage Hen Hills Summit, 6,349' - higher than the other summits I've seen today.  This was followed by Doherty Summit 6,240'.

After these summits, it shouldn't have been a surprise to see a sign saying an 8% grade was coming up, though this was followed by another sign saying, "Last Warning - 8% Grade Next 3 Miles."  What on earth was that "last warning" about?  Sure an 8% grade is steep, but I've seen them before without a suggestion that it'll be life-threatening.  But it turned out that this 3 miles of road included s-curves the whole way down to a broad flat desert plain with no hint of a guard rail, so I could see some sense in the warning.

That was followed by a 7% grade over 6 miles, which was actually 7% grade for 2 miles, with a breather section, followed by 7% for 4 miles.

At the bottom of this grade I saw acres of standing water (it didn't look like a lake - it looked too shallow) with nearby crops being watered, followed by an actual lake with geese and ducks in pairs.

I saw a sign saying it was "Unlawful To Pass School Bus or Worker Transport Bus when Red Lights Flash."  I don't remember seeing that worker transport bus bit before.

I started seeing several placid cow signs (no wild bulls here?) and several Bighorn Sheep signs (though no sheep).

Somewhere around the almost non-existent town of Adel, I started to see a creek running alongside the road.  It got bigger and bigger, with lots of water rushing in it, and then I got a great view of a small, pretty waterfall.

Deep Creek Falls

OR-140 is only 2-lanes-no-shoulder along most of its length, so I had to make do with an internet photo.  And I had to go online to figure out that the creek I'd been seeing was Deep Creek and accidentally saw that the map mentioned the falls.  And sure enough, this is what I saw.  Pretty nice for a creek.

A sign told me I was entering Fremont-Winema National Forest - a 2.3 million acre set-aside that runs from California up the Cascade Mountains into central Oregon.

I passed through Warner Pass Summit, 5,845', through hillsides full of evergreens, along a road of constant ups & downs and s-curves that would have been wonderful if I still had my Miata.  Then a couple of miles on US-395 to tonight's campground.

Though we were only on the road for about 5½ hours, some of which were spent in rest areas, I was still pretty tired when we got in.  We'll be here for 2 nights, so I was able to relax.