8/5 - 9/12/07 Summer Sojourns - Catching up & Rotsa Rocks

Summer 07 Photo Gallery

8/29, Columbia Gorge - It's been a hot day here in the Columbia Gorge, hot & still. We arrived here at Memaloose State Park, just west of The Dalles Sunday. About the second thing we did was put up our new wind turbine. Where better to test it out than here on the Gorge, the wind surfing capitol of the world. If you happen to be a wind surfer, I guess we owe you an apology. We seem to have a wind curse. The winds died down almost immediately upon the first few rotations of the turbine and have been still since. We took it back down today since we will be moving on in the morning.

If you have been following Travels with Timmy, you might be wondering how we got from Arizona in the fall of 2006 to Oregon in the summer of '07. Not only that, but you may be surprised to learn that "we" is not the same crew as it was a year ago. So we'll give you the short version: Sadly, Liz & I split up last winter. Timmy & I headed back to California in January, spending a couple of months in the Diablos before heading back to our home base in Eugene. We endured some sad & soggy days before the Oregon spring finally set in. I had decided that keeping a home in Eugene no longer made sense for a full timer RVer, so selling my house was a major milestone. And I decided the best way to mend my heart was to try to find another traveling companion. Things came together in June with the house selling (at a nice profit) at just about the same time that we met Stephanie & her little dog Cleo. Not only do I have a new relationship, so does Timmy. He & little Cleo, a Dorkie (Dachshund/Yorkie), romp & play every day.

So that's the short of it. Steph & I are traveling around Oregon this summer, starting 8/5 with a trip over to Tillicum Beach on the central Oregon coast. We also hoped to try the wind turbine there, where winds are normally almost constant & had been blowing steadily just days before we arrived. But there was barely enough breeze to lift a kite the 5 days we stayed there. We enjoyed the beach, visited the aquarium in Newport, roasted marshmallows & had a great first trip together. We hoped to find some beach agates along the shores, but came up empty. We finished that trip with 2 days on a ridge high above the beautiful McKenzie River valley.

Steph being a fellow rock hound, we decided to head for the thunder egg capital of Oregon for our second trip. The area around Madras and Prineville in the center of the state is home to numerous thunder egg digs & mines as well as a variety of other interesting rocks, including agates, jaspers and petrified wood. We departed 8/16, with our first stop Richardson's Ranch, a vast pay-to-dig area east of Madras with several different sites & types of material to dig for. We had to brave a minor forest fire on the way into the ranch, with junipers lighting up like torches alongside the road. We wondered about driving through it, but there was no place to turn around & it was coming at us. At the ranch we watched billowing clouds of smoke, but it soon burned itself out. We were amazed at the huge quantity of rock from all over the world available for sale at Richardson's: rose quartz boulders weighing hundreds of pounds, piles of exotics like tiger eye & more thunder eggs than you can imagine, both rough as well as cut & polished. We parked the trailer in their orchard area, no cost camping for customers who go to the digs. We set out the next morning & returned in the afternoon with around 70 pounds of 3 different kinds of eggs, including blue opals, along with a smattering of agate & jasper.

Day 3 we headed for Prineville in search of Maury Mountain agate. We found the beds at the end of 7 miles of gravel Forest Service road, with a great boondock campsite nearby. Our take (Day 4) was a meager collection of moss agate fragments as our digging in a heavy drizzle turned up little. We concluded we'd need a couple of strong young guys helping if we were to move enough mountain to find the elusive agates. Day 5 was a trip to Eagle Peak, about 25 miles away for agate. The road was hard to find & steep. Without 4 wheel drive we would not have made it to the site. At first we thought we were going to come another cropper, but I worked my way up to the base of the rimrock along the top of the mountain & found a trove of lace & angel wing agate, probably 30 pounds, tailings from earlier digs. We headed home the next day pleased with the results of our first rock expedition.

Our current trip began on 8/26: a combined rock hunt & visit with family & friends. Our first destination, The Dalles, is listed as a good source of jasper, plus it's near Biggs, famous for its picture jasper, & our maps indicate carnelians may be found across the river on the Washington side. We chose Memaloose for its proximity to the area & found it to be a lovely park on a bench above the river. The only negative aspect is the frequent passage of large freight trains just below, OK during the day, but a little loud at all hours of the night. Our first day of rock hounding yielded several pounds of multi-hued jasper in the hills between Hood River & The Dalles. Plus we met up with a local rock hound & shop owner who suggested some sites for additional finds. Day 3 we spent mostly in the High Prairie on the Washington side. As with Day 2 it started slowly though the drive up was very scenic. Then Steph spotted a huge chunk of jasper & agate along the road. It led us to several pounds of jasper & was a prelude to a good collection of very nice carnelians just down the way.

Today has been a day of rest before we head east for our next rock stop. Our wind turbine was still becalmed, so we worked on our take-down procedure. It has yet to put out a watt, but we're sure that one of these days we'll be glad we have it.

9/3, Labor Day, Joseph OR - We've been here since Saturday, staying with friends. If you've never visited this area, Joseph is a small town rich in arts which is nestled at the foot of the Wallowa Mountains, just below Wallowa Lake. The weather has been grand, warm but not hot. Today Steph & I abandoned the doggies (left them with our friends) & took the tram to the top of Mount Howard. Even though we've both visited the valley previosly, this was the first Wallowa tram ride for each of us & it was spectacular. A 3 mile trail around the top of the mountain provides views in all directions, a 3-state panorama. We also met up with some thirsty squirrels and chipmunks.

Before arriving at Joseph, we spent 2 nights at Catherine Creek State Park, southeast of La Grande. We enjoyed this small park & the cooler weather. However, we came up nearly empty on our rock expedition further south. Sometimes the books aren't so good. Oh well, more to come before we wrap up this adventure.

9/7, Lucky Peak, ID - After 5 nights in other peoples houses, it was nice to spend last night in Gypsy again. We were staying at a nice place too, Ponderosa State Park at Payette Lake just outside McCall, ID. We had the place almost to ourselves, not counting the wildlife: several mule deer, squirrels, chipmunks, ravens & a bushy-tailed coyote.

Before moving on from Joseph, we took a tour of one of the town's renowned bonze foundries. It was fascinating to learn how these art pieces are made, from small table top pieces to massive sculptures. Joseph proudly displays several very nice bronzes on various street corners.

Leaving Joseph Weds, we headed north on OR 3, the Nez Perce Trail, & despite being warned that it was a curvy road, we were still surprised at the grades between there and Moscow. First you climb a long steady grade into a forested plateau, then you drop 2500 feet into the Grand Ronde gorge in just a few twisted miles. Egor was in second all the way down. Next you climb right back out of the gorge, back to the plateau, again in a few tortured miles. After dropping relatively gently back down to the Snake River at Clarkston, you again climb 1500 feet from Lewiston back to the plateu, this time on US 95 on a steady 6% grade for 6 miles. Following a pleasant visit in Moscow, we headed back down the Lewiston grade yesterday. Fueling there, we noticed the acrid smell of hot brakes even though I had been very careful during the last descent not to over work them. We had one more set of grades to go, up to White Bird Pass & then 3000 feet down the steep incline to White Bird. But it was all scenic, sometimes spectacular.

Today's drive from McCall was exciting in a different way. The drive up the Little Salmon & down the North Fork of the Payette is very pretty - much of the Payette is thrashing white water. But things got very interesting just beyond the junction with the East Fork where we encountered a forest fire. Smoking hot spots dotted the eastern canyon walls as fire crews worked to mop up some of the accessible areas. High on the ridge, plumes of smoke told the story of an active blaze. Helicopters were ferrying big buckets of river water up into the forests. This was our second fire in 2 weeks. At least we didn't have trees torching right next to us this time.

After stopping for groceries in Boise, we headed up ID 21 to Lucky Peak Reservoir where we'll be spending the next couple of days. We have a commanding view, high above the lake, which is well below its normal level due to Idaho's drought.

9/9, Succor Creek State Park, OR - It seemed almost like the forest fires were following us. Late the first night at Lucky Peak the wind came up & blew like crazy until dawn. We smelled smoke during the night & woke up to a yellow, smokey haze. It cleared gradually during the day & we had a nice picnic lunch with family & friends who came up from Boise to join us for the afternoon. But night winds last night again brought back the haze, maybe even worse today. Idaho is burning! We were glad to move on.

We headed west, just over the Oregon border to Succor Creek Road, a 15-mile, sometimes rough, gravel road down into the Owyhees. In Oregon rockhounding circles, Succor Creek is well known as a source of "picture jasper," rock that cut & polished may have patterns resembling landscapes or seascapes. We arrived in the early afternoon, quickly set up camp, including a quick repair to the slide mechanism on the trailer. We ate lunch & headed out, returning several hours later with a nice collection of the jaspers along with a variety of agates, some petrified wood & even a few leaf fossils we found in shale deposits.

We're boondocking here. Our site is set in a canyon surrounded by high towers & castle-like rimrock mesas in purples & red-browns. The creek is nearby, but running quite low. The state campground is nearly a mile further down the road & it's rather primative. We like it here.

9/11, back at Mamaloose - It's still hot here in the Gorge - mid-90s as we arrived this afternoon & balmy this evening. We are enroute to Portland & decided to break the trip here so we'd have just a short leg tomorrow to finish the trip. With the heat & needing to dump waste water, we opted for full hookups this time. Air conditioning is nice after a lot of boondocking & dry camping.

Yesterday was a big day in the rock fields. We drove about 25 miles from the Succor Creek area to Graveyard Point, another renowned Oregon rock site. At the first stop we hauled away a 5 gallon bucket full of red, orange & multi-hued agate. Then we wandered through a 3 mile maze of dirt tracks & somehow located a large quarry for plume agate. We brought back a couple of bags of rock from there, including 2 large blocks. We have enough raw material to keep us going for years.

This morning we towed Gypsy back up the 15 miles of gravel road & headed west. When we stopped for lunch we found everything inside coated in a film of fine dust. We had to mop all the surfaces before we dared fix dinner. As we rolled along I-84, we couldn't help notice the haze everywhere. The Blue Mountains were all but invisible until we were crossing them. Is the whole West burning?

Well, this has been a fine adventure. We're returning with a nice trove of several varieties of valuable rough stone. We'll be in Portland for a week or 2, but plan to be back on the trail soon.

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