Travels With Mimi www.avita.us |
SIGHTS OF EASTERN OREGON September 16, 2024 |
It took about 40 hours of researching to come up with some new things to do and see in Oregon as we've been there so often. Even then we wound up revisiting some places we had seen before. But as we joke, thanks to a fading memory those things might seem new again. Plus we usually find new things to do at old places. It would be much simpler to just park a trailer at a reservoir for a week as we see so many people do, and they seem to enjoy themselves, but it would drive Mimi and I nuts. Perhaps when we get older we'll learn to just relax and sit. But as one person somewhat morbidly said, "there will be plenty of time to rest once we're gone". |
One of the many scenes we saw on the road from our camper. This I believe was the John Day river near Spray.
September 19
Today we head for Pendleton seeing sights along the way and hoping to get a tour of their factory.
I had figured the drive would take about four hours, but as usual between fueling up, stopping for sights and a bite of lunch, it took over six and we missed our tour. But it was a small loss as we didn't want to miss all the old towns and other sights along the route. Plus we have come to realize that just riding along watching the unique and sometimes strange landscape and views through the large picture windows of our camper is one of the things we really enjoy. Afterwards we toured Pendleton a town rich in old buildings but sadly a lot of it's buildings were either vacant or boarded up. Next we headed for our Emigrant Springs campground. They had several sites left but we couldn't get them without going online and reserving them they said. Well it took the help of a friendly lady camp host and ourselves almost a half hour to download the application program and then go through all the hoops of securing a site.The semi ghost town of Vinson Canyon
The historic section of Pendleton. Does something give you the idea this is a western town?
September 21
It got down to near freezing last night, the coldest one so far. Luckily it stays about 20 degrees warmer inside our camper and we have two heaters to bring up the temperature quickly. After dumping and filling up with water (complimentary with our cheap campsite), our next stop was La Grange. Another wonderful old town center filled with stately stone buildings more reminiscent of European towns than the strip cities you often get here. Unfortunately it also had many closed shops. Still the walk and window shopping was fun. On to the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center near Baker City. It's an amazing museum filled with displays and stories of settlers coming to the west during the 1860's and the hardships they endured. And after that trip, the work of starting a farm in this new land was just starting. No wonder mostly young people took this trip as there was a lifetime of work ahead. On through Baker City as an accidental detour. It wasn't on our agenda but it's downtown looked so stately we had to stop for another walk. Again a this elegant downtown had quite a few stores closed. On to Sumpter. We had planned on looking over the town and museums but as it was getting late we looked at our campground list instead. Union Creek was the first one we came to and being state run it was fairly full and most likely about $35 or without hookups and needing to work through some sort of reservation system. On a lark we drove to our second choice the Southwest Shore CG which was run by the Forest Service. It was mostly empty, very scenic, cost about $6 and had no reservation system but instead you filled out a simple tag where one part went went on your windshield and the other with your money going into a metal slot. Fast & simple with no cell signal or connection needed.
After settling in we took a scenic grassland and Ponderosa pine walk with only soft warm winds, bird chirping, and our footsteps to accompany us in the waning evening light.
Mimi making friends at the museum.
A very pleasant evening stroll right out of our Southwest Shore campground.
The new Sumpter Dredge.September 22
We had a nice leftover breakfast of eggs, spam, onion and potato's made better by eating it while camping.
Off to the small town of Sumpter which use to be much bigger except for a horrible fire of 1917 that destroyed most of the town from which it never recovered. The main stop here was the giant dredge that would dig for gold starting at the end of Phillips and working it's way to Sumpter about 8 miles away. The digs are so large they can be seen by satellite and on most maps. When we first saw it 20 years ago the dredge was a rusting rotting hulk. It was about to be destroyed but in a nick of time a few thoughtful people worked to preserve it and it's now the star attraction of the area and an important state historic site. On to our Slide Creek campground in a deeply wooded forest that sounded real interesting complete with a creek side hike. So Ms Garmin (our female voiced liberated GPS) guided the way. She's usually very reliable but I got suspicious as she took us miles out of the way. But finally she had us turn in the right direction which would have been through a locked gate past which we could see a old and deeply rutted dirt road scaling the side of a mountain. After a bit of detective work I found the right road and Ms Garmin finally caught on after after several miles and guided us the right way. Still it was over five miles of washboard roads to a small overgrown campground at the end. We finally found a spot and after putting on our hiking gear took the Slide Creek Connection trail which got high ratings. Well it was nice but so full of scrubby undergrowth it lost much of it's appeal. We still enjoyed the hike and campground but not as much as many others that were far less trouble to get to.
Some of the dredge machinery. Slide Creek Connection trail, ah... going over the Slide Creek.
September 24
After another hearty breakfast we changed into our gear and took a mile or so hike on the Blitzen River, first named Donner and Blitzen by a German army lieutenant in the mid 1800's for the thunder and lightning as he crossed it. Now you know what the reindeer names mean. On to Winnemucca and the Water Canyon. It was a long drive with only two stops. The first one was the Three Mile Creek Hike about 20 miles down. After a parking on a lumpy and very sloped staging area we changed and took a steep dry dusty rubbly hike up a mountain face through a sparse dwarf Juniper forest with marginal views. That was one of our shorter hikes. Our next stop was the Winnemucca Sand Dunes we had passed many times but never stopped at. Well Mimi was driving and I was navigating and somehow the turn off came up so abruptly we missed it again. It was not worth turning around for as it was a fast freeway we were on with large trucks so we drove on for a tour of the historic downtown of Winnemucca instead. Compared to previous towns it had a lot of gaps in the three block area where building must have been torn down. The remaining ones weren't as stately as other towns and most of the stores in them were thrift stores, bars, pawn shops and a small cafe or two. Though to give credit it did look like the city was trying to revitalize the area.
On to the Water Canyon a BLM area above the hills of the town. It was several miles on dirt but newly graded and dampened so very fast and dustless. We luckily found a great spot overlooking the town below and took off on a hike upstream along the dense poplar and aspen laden creek which was very enjoyable. The evening glow made for an almost surreal sunset as we dined looking out of our camper picture window to the city below.
View from our Water Canyon campground in the evening.
Notes
Only a half dozen things went wrong with the camper on this trip. Loose screws, lost signal to the backup camera, awning problem, a strange clunk from the back (only happened once though) a few other very minor things and the need to change oil - which is really not something wrong but a painful chore anyway. On getting home the estimates for an oil change ranged from $150 to $600 so I'll be doing it myself. It only takes about 45 minutes as it's always a little bit of a learning curve. If I did it regularly like the shops do it's a 25 minute job. To be fair it takes 12 quarts of oil which is about $70 of the cost.
Trump signs:
Were all we saw. I suspect you'd get lynched if you displayed a Harris sign. I also suspect that the great political divide in our country might be more between country and city than any other factor.
Fuel prices:
Were fully a dollar less than in California. And the roads are generally better... but not always.
Oregon vs Nevada:
We saw quite a few old farmsteads that looked abandoned similar to those found in Nevada & saw a trend.
If the building is surrounded by farm fields, you're in Oregon.
If the building is surrounded by junky cars and other equipment, you're in Nevada.