7/16 - 7/22 The Wallowas - Both Sides Now |
Wallowas Photo Gallery |
7/17 - Tonight we find ourselves in the little burg of Wallowa, camping in the Wallowa Lions RV Park. We're not quite downtown, but it hardly qualifies as boondocking either, although it is free. And maybe for those not in the know we should clear up the pronunciation now... it's waLAWwa; there's no "wallow" in Wallowa. Wallowa is on the north side of the mountain range that it takes its name from, alongside the river of the same name. It's a half day's drive from Halfway on the south side of the Wallowas where we spent last night & thought we might spend the week.
This is the start of the homeward leg of this voyage. We left Stanley Lake Creek in Idaho's Sawtooth Mountains yesterday morning, backtracked over Banner Summit, down the Payette (South Fork then main stem), heading west at Horseshoe Bend to avoid the Boise Valley, then catching I84 into Oregon. After the long grade to Baker City, we took SR86, part of the Hells Canyon Scenic Route, headed east. It picks up the Powder River canyon after a few miles, a very rugged area, arid & mostly desolate. The river itself isn't much, sapped for agricultural needs upstream, it is generally what my fishing buddy Rhett calls "frog water": slow, mossy & brackish appearing. At Richland the road heads north up a steep grade that put eBoy to the test. Because of sharp curves near the bottom, you can't start up with any real momentum, so it's just a grind. We had to stop & let the transmission cool part way up.
From the summit it's a short drop into the pretty ranching valley with Halfway at its center. Some readers may recall Halfway's 15 minutes of fame: At the height of the dot-com craziness, Halfway cashed in by changing it's name to half.com as a publicity ploy for yet another Internet startup. It's Halfway again, but there are still half.com signs around. I never did find out where it is halfway to or from. It was getting a little late, so we pulled into the Halfway RV Park for the night.
It didn't take us long to determine that Halfway is in a cell service
void, which meant that I wasn't going to be able to work from there
this week. So this morning we headed back up the grade, easier from
the other side, back to Baker City & on to La Grande. I had notions
of camping on the upper Grande Ronde, but when we got to the turnoff
a few miles beyond town, no cell service. So maybe the other way...
At the town of Elgin where the lower Grande Ronde starts, the only place
to camp was a hot & dusty RV park. I thought we could do better
farther on, but we soon lost the cell signal again, so I decided to
just go all the way to the Wallowa valley which I was pretty sure would
have service, having a robust tourist trade & the small city of
Enterprise. 
The park here is quite nice, grassy & dotted with Ponderosa pines,
on the edge of town. The river isn't too far off, across a grassy field.
Because of the heat & the forecast for more, I sited us for afternoon
shade, hoping I got oriented so that we get morning & midday sun
for our solar power needs. We'll see tomorrow. I may have to move a
little, or it may get so hot (mid-90s forecast) that we'll just have
to go to the pay RV park so we can plug in & run the AC.
7/19 - We've survived the heat another day; tomorrow should be a bit cooler, but Thursday is forecast as a scorcher. I pulled Gypsy 10 feet forward yesterday afternoon, extending our maximum solar exposure by at least 3 hours, but still leaving us shaded for the hottest part of the day. So it looks like we'll be OK here at the park.
Late yesterday afternoon we drove 8 miles up the valley to Lostine,
another small town. Between the bucolic rural countryside & these
small towns, this area has a timeless quality to it: a taste of what
much of the country was like fifty or more years ago. I took a few pictures
of local color: the Blue Banana espresso shop in Lostine, it's adjoining
faux outhouse, The Coffee Pot & the Wallowa Union Railroad ticket
station. Yes, the valley has its own railroad, an excursion train that
runs on weekends.
This afternoon I met Glen, a local who is tent camping here in the park. I think he's kind of a floating ranch hand. He was practicing his horseshoes at the pit adjacent to our camp & invited me to throw a few. I've tossed "shoes" a little, but it has been maybe 8 years since I last did so. To make it interesting we started a game, although Glen had to help me remember the rules. We started out slow, with me trying to find the range & Glen adding a point here & there. Just when it looked like I might get skunked, I ran off a few points to get back in the game. Glen pushed ahead, still mostly a point at time. I got a leaner to get closer & then racked up a few single points when Glen lost his range, so that as we entered the late stages, I was still in it. At 10 to 9 (game is 15), I pitched a ringer to take the lead. Glen picked up a point to close the gap, I got a point to reach 13. Then damn if I didn't catch the peg again with another ringer... a ninth inning homer to win the game! I hope I didn't embarrass Glen. We may play some more this week & I'll probably get clocked.
7/21 - I have to remember not to complain. It has
been stifling in Wallowa today, high-90s since noon, no breeze, just
hot! But there were many days in the dark & cold last winter when
I would have gladly traded for this. I think it's supposed to start
cooling a bit, at least for a couple of days. We can stick it out one
more day here without plugging into the grid.
Last evening, in anticipation of the full moon rise at sunset, we drove
east again, this time almost to Enterprise, the largest town in the
valley. I found a hill overlooking the valley there & waited for
the moonrise. Unfortunately, it was rather dark by the time it edged
over the horizon, less than ideal for the kind of photographs I was
hoping for. But the drive was lovely. As I see more of the region, I
can't help but think about the Nez Perce people, the area's original
inhabitants. What a paradise they had! How heart rending it must have
been to have been forced off their beautiful, ancestral homeland! The
heroic, though ultimately futile struggle they mounted under their gallant
leader, Chief Joseph, is a testament to their loss. I remember having
similar thoughts a few years ago when we backpacked up the Lostine &
into the Eagle Cap wilderness, the heart of the region. 
Yesterday a little orange-crowned warbler crashed into Gypsy's back window, mistaking the reflection for open sky. I rescued it from Timmy right away, not that he is a great hunter, but just so he wouldn't accidentally make things worse. The warbler scooted under eBoy & sat there for the better part of an hour, collecting its wits. Then it was gone, no worse for its encounter I hope.
Tomorrow we'll pack things up. We're going to leave Gypsy here in temporary storage for about 10 days while the rest of the crew makes it back to Eugene. Timmy will stay with his mom, I'll get my other crown done & gather up my backpacking gear. The first week in August is our annual men's backpack. This year we are trekking the southern Wallowas, using Halfway as our rendezvous. That was part of the reason for going there last weekend, even though it didn't work out for staying then. So eBoy & I will return to pick up Gypsy & then set up base camp maybe 50 miles to the south of here as the crow flies, about 4 hours as the earthship rolls along.
<< prior adventure next adventure >>
