2008 – Week 16

Tuesday, August 12, 2008:
43 degrees this morning with bright blue skies at the North Fork John Day Campground in the Blue Mountains. Susie, Daisy and I took a short hike this morning to try to stretch out Susie’s back without much success. We spent some time with our neighbors talking about wildlife and conservation in general. The camper next to us was walking around in camo gear and, according to the neighbors we were talking with, is out hunting for a bear. He left the campground around 10:00am with a rifle in the front seat of his truck. It made us think that walking around in the forest may not be a great idea. We left the campground at 11:30am after Susie took Daisy for another swim and headed east on USFS Road #73, the Elkhorn Drive Scenic Byway. We climbed over the Elkhorn Range with a top elevation of 7,392 feet before winding down into the Powder River Valley. On the way down, there was a sign that warned of road construction, and when we arrived at the traffic control point, the signalman indicated some shoulder and road widening work. As we followed the traffic signal truck through the work zone, it was a lot more than that. A portion of the road must have collapsed as they were constructing a new retaining wall on the downside of the road. The trip through this section was especially rugged, as the bulldozer had not done a very good job leveling the dirt and rocks. We crossed I-5, and went to the town of Union OR. AAA said there were some Victorian houses worth seeing. What we saw was a town in its death throes. We estimated about 75% of the stores were closed and had been for a long time. Before we saw the town, we had asked at the Post Office if there was a place to eat. There was some hesitancy in the answer before the postmistress said the hotel would be best. We walked down towards it, but before we arrived, we decided that this was a bad idea. We jumped back into the RV and headed to La Grande. Driving from Union to La Grande, we entered the Grande Ronde Valley. It was a very productive area with almost all the fields full of wheat that was being harvested. There was another crop that was still under irrigation, but neither Susie nor I could identify the plant. We drove into La Grande, stopping to gas up the RV and at the USFS Office to investigate camping along the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway (OR82). They were very helpful, probably the most helpful we have encountered. Leaving there we found a restaurant, had lunch and started to head east on OR82 but were stopped by the sight of a Dairy Queen. We continued to the east through the towns of Elgin to the Minam State Recreation Area. This is a primitive campground without electricity or sewer and is located on the Wallowa River. We found a spot out of the sun, but it was also out of the wind so we moved. Directly behind the campground on the other side of the river is a 500 foot tall bluff that makes a nice backdrop and funnels the wind across the campground. We took Daisy for a long swim to try to tire her out. There is a herd of deer in the area so it may be a long night, as Daisy will probably be barking continuously. Clouds are moving in, and I thought I heard some thunder, but nothing seems to be happening. Susie just told me it was 10 days until she turns 65 and that I am going to suffer!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008:
Daisy and I scared up a blue heron on our walk this morning. I took her to the river for a swim, but she wasn’t interested so we continued down the road where we scattered a half dozen deer. Back to the RV for breakfast. We had soft-boiled eggs, sausage and the last of the donuts. We prepared to leave, and Susie took Daisy for a walk down the road. I assumed that she would follow the road so when I was ready off I went, planning to pick then up. I drove about a mile and realized that something was wrong. Usually she carries a walkie-talkie, but not today. I had to go a bit further before I dared turn around. When I got back to the campground, there were she and Daisy. She had taken Daisy for a swim, and I had missed them. Off we went, following OR82 along the west side of the Wallowa Mountains. These mountains peak out at around 8,300 feet, and there was still snow visible. We stopped at the USFS Center in Enterprise and received information on road conditions and viewpoints of Hells Canyon and the Seven Devils Mountains that are located in Idaho adjacent to Hells Canyon. We moved on to the Wallowa Lake Oregon State Park located at the south end of Wallowa Lake (elevation 4,400 feet) and were able to get a spot for 3 nights. We didn’t do much when we settled, and Susie was able to rest her back. We did take Daisy for a walk and then swim in the lake. As we were walking home, it became evident that due to the way the Park is tucked into the mountains that the sun would disappear around 5:00PM and leave us with a reduced light level. Thank goodness we don’t need to rely on the battery for electricity. Someone off in the distance was playing a trumpet as if practicing for a concert. With so many people here, I think we can expect almost anything to happen. We haven’t been in such close quarters in a long time. The temperatures are comfortable, not like last week, so we are glad we delayed a few days to come here. We are debating whether to take the aerial tram to view the sights or do a bit of driving on the back roads to see down into Hells Canyon.

Thursday, August 14, 2008:
Daisy and I took a walk and a swim (Daisy swims) before breakfast. It was another clear and beautiful day. We had showers and then breakfast after which Susie lay down for a bit to rest her back. She had taken another one of my shoulder pills, and they seem to work really well on her. Around 10:30AM we headed to the aerial tram and reached the top of Mt. Howard (elev 8,250 feet) at 11:15AM. On the way up, we noticed that most of the pine trees were very tall, but skinny. These were named subalpine firs. The trees on west side were stunted due to the west winds blowing across the lake and up the canyon with great force. There are several trails up there, and if you take them you get to see in all directions. We were about 3,700 feet above the surface of the lake with a great view of the Wallowa River Valley to the west, the Wallowa Mountains to the south and west, Hells Canyon and the Idaho Seven Devil Mountains to the east and the high desert to the north.
We were able to see the glacial moraines that formed the east, north and west sides of Wallowa Lake. We walked all the trails and had lunch at the little restaurant at the top. The altitude and apparent lack of oxygen must have affected the staff because all sorts of strange things happened: dropped plates, wrong orders, missing food, etc. Ours was OK, but some of the other clients had real problems. We called Meredith and Diana to check in because we had great cell service up there due to the line of sight to Joseph. We also called Todd Johnson to ask of the results of the Lightning NA’s. Our heartiest congratulations to Allan Terhune and his team plus all the others who participated. Todd asked where we were. We told him, and he found Mt Howard and then the little building that housed the restaurant and cable car terminus. We waved, and he said he saw us (good luck since it is not real time). We were very lucky to see a Rough-legged Hawk, a bird that spends the winter mostly in the US between Canada and Mexico, but spends the summer in north around the Artic Circle. It is a very different bird in that it can hover by flapping its wings. It was this characteristic that brought him to our attention. A second was the Clark’s Nutcracker that eats conifer seeds at high altitudes. There is a white bark pine tree here that is very different from the white pines in the east. The ones out west have very short needles. We have seen this bird before in Jasper British Columbia. We stayed at the summit for about 4 hours just having a very relaxed time. We came down and stopped at a store with our favorite Tillamook ice cream. Back to the RV and a nap to overcome the effects of sugar-shock before taking Daisy for a walk and swim. We bought some firewood and had hoped to have a fire tonight, but there was a talk on the Nez Perce Indians and the Yakima tribe in particular. We went to the talk, a bad mistake. It was awful! We went back to the RV and discovered about a dozen kids riding their bikes in the dark making all sorts of noise. It wasn’t long before they all crashed.

Friday, August 15, 2008:
Daisy and I took our walk, and while we were gone, Susie discovered that there were 10 bicycles around the trailer. Now we are sure that all kids weren’t from one family because the trailer was pulled by an extend pick-up that can carry only 4 people. Goodness knows where the others came from. We took showers and then went to catch a bus that would take us into town. It was hot today, and Daisy was much better off in the RV under the trees and protected from the sun. The word is that the temperature is going to be up for the next 2 days. Portland OR is to be above 100 today. The town of Joseph is definitely a tourist town. There are numerous restaurants and 4 bronze foundries to cast art.

There are a few T-shirt shops and card shops but we suspect that most of the town goes to sleep in mid-October and awakens in mid-April. There is a small ski area in the National Forest, but not very challenging according to the locals. We returned to the RV and did a few loads of wash. The bus driver told us that the kokanee, land-locked salmon in the Wallowa Lake, have started their run upstream in the Wallowa River. The female salmon turn bright red, except for the dark grey head, and are easy to see in the shallow water. He also told us that there is an osprey nest nearby and the young are learning to fish. We never did find the ospreys. We had dinner, the leftovers from our lunch in town, started a fire and cooked marshmallows over the fire. We had another RV move in next door. It was one of really large ones towing a Jeep station wagon. We were surprised he could get in the spot.

Saturday, August 16, 2008:
This morning we prepared the RV for tomorrows exit from this wonderful area. We talked with a SP Volunteer this morning. He comes from the Texas/Oklahoma Border and volunteers in Oregon SP’s during the summer. He said the first snowfall occurs in mid-September above 7,000 feet elevation and another before the end of the month at an elevation of 5,500 feet. After that, anything can happen which is why the town shuts down by the end of September. We also had to change campsites to stay the extra night. When we were done, we drove the RV to the small (very, very) town of Imnaha about 25 miles to the northeast of Joseph. It is the last town before we had to make a decision to keep going east into Hells Canyon and drive to Top Hat, the best viewpoint into the Canyon or turn south and take a road just to the west of Hells Canyon. Both roads were gravel, so I went into the only open establishment, a combination grocery store and bar. Sitting at the bar were four people, and there was one bartender. I asked about the roads and two of the men at the bar said the southbound road was a beautiful drive except for the last few pothole-filled miles. The bartender said road to Top Hat was a good gravel road after the first 5-6 miles, but getting there required the navigation of a narrow road and 15-18% grades. She was really pushing for us to go up there. The men were silent on the issue. After talking to Susie, we started up to Top Hat, went about 1/10 mile and turned around. We then took the southbound road following the Imnaha River upstream. The Imnaha River was the winter home of the Nez Perce Indians before they were forced onto the reservation in Idaho. It was an interesting river with dormant grass hanging on the exposed rocks, giving the valley a fuzzy look. With its washboard surface, the road would have been great for anything than an RV. We went about 3 of the 20 miles before turning around. We didn’t have enough baskets to pick up all the pieces that would have fallen off. A few years ago, not knowing any better, we would have done it. We headed back towards Joseph, but took another side road to Salt Creek Summit. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that we would take the same route tomorrow as we left the area. Salt Creek Summit (elev 6,100 feet) is a snowmobile rendezvous for the area, plus a remote headquarters for a search and rescue team. During the summer, it is an OHV center. The road is only plowed to this point during the winter. As we drove to Salt Creek Summit, we realized that we were looking at an area that was consumed by a fire forest fire about 15 years ago. Then looking at the map, we realized that we had overlooked this area from the top of Mt Howard when we took the cable car to the summit. We were actually only 8.5 miles from the Wallowa Lake SP, but what a hike that would have been. We returned to Joseph, visited a shop that served many purposes. It was a small restaurant, glass sculpture shop, served espresso and ice cream. We put some gas in the RV, bought some groceries and headed to the same ice cream shop we visited the day before yesterday. I dropped Susie and Daisy of at the bridge over the Wallowa River before parking the RV. I was in the new campsite for only 5 minutes before the sun went behind the mountains at 4:35PM. We had another campfire, and because we were still full of the Tillamook Ice Cream, dinner was cheese and crackers. Our fire slowly died, and as we watched the stars come out, we saw the space station (or a satellite) streak across the sky. We were looking for shooting stars, but none were visible. It was very hot today, but now that the site is sheltered from the sun it has started to cool. I heard from a ranger that it was 103 degrees in Portland, and a camper said it was currently 107 degrees in her hometown in Idaho. We are hoping that this wave of heat will be gone by Monday. Tomorrow we plan to drive south and then west to Baker City on I-84 to visit the Oregon Trail Museum and then look at a large gold nugget on display at a local bank.

Sunday, August 17, 2008:
Today was to be one of travel back west to the Cascade Mountains. We cleaned the RV, packed up walked Daisy and left the campsite around 11:30am. Susie was taking Daisy for her last walk, and I had turned on the radio, for what reason I’m not sure, and found that NOAA was broadcasting on a FM station. I didn’t listen too carefully until I heard the words “severe heat warning”. The temperatures in the areas were to cross were expected to be 95 to 105 degrees. Susie and I agreed that we should stay in the Park if they had a spot. This s a very popular place, and it is full almost every night, from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. They had one, and we settled in. The maintenance man came around to change the sewer connection, and now we are fully connected. We read some, napped some, called Kimberly and Brian and took Daisy swimming in the Wallowa River. It was amazing how cold it was. Daisy didn’t care! We saw the osprey circling over the lake, but didn’t see it hunting. The temperature in Pendleton OR, about 60 miles from here, was 105 degrees. We didn’t hear how high the temperature was in Joseph. As soon as the sun went behind the mountain at 4:45PM, the temperatures dropped. For dinner we had a cold salad using a can of the tuna fish we bought in Garibaldi a few weeks ago. To refresh your memory, it was a small tuna caught, cooked with all the natural oils and canned locally. The difference in taste was significant, and we’ll be looking for more when we go back to the coast. By the time we went to bed, it had cooled down considerably, and the wind direction had changed to the north. I am hoping that the heat spell has broken, but we’ll check tomorrow morning.

Monday, August 18, 2008:
When we awoke this morning and took the morning walk, the temperature was noticeably more pleasant. There was a buck at the breakfast table of a family nearby trying to have breakfast. Around 9:00am, the wind began to blow, and the thin wispy clouds were moving north. We left the campground and headed into Joseph to get some breakfast in a WiFi equipped café. The café was decorated in a Coca-Cola motif and looked quite spiffy. The food was good, but the owner needed about 6 hands because he was training new help. The food was delicious, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen an omelet served with such elegance. We both had about 50 e-mails, most of which we don’t need to respond to. We completed the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway, stopping at the Hells Canyon Overlook near the south end of the Hells Canyon NRA. The view just about blew us away.



The rock formations are varied in color and material, and it is easy to see the effects of the various tectonic plates that have been push, crushed and folded. It was hot on the top at elevation 5,550 feet, but it must have been much worse in the bottom along the Snake River (elev 1,200 ft). This area is a softer Grand Canyon. There are animal tacks through the area, but we didn’t see any wildlife. Early morning and dusk must be when they travel. As a side note, we saw cattle standing in the middle of the road, probably wondering what we were doing in their house. We continued on and stopped at the National Oregon Trail Interpretive Center just to the east of Baker City. We arrived at 4:00pm and that would have given us plenty of time to visit since it closed at 6:00pm. However, when we opened the RV doors, we found it would have been impossible to leave Daisy inside. We continued on to Baker City and checked into a RV Campground adjacent to I-84. We plan to be at the Interpretative Center when it opens at 9:00am tomorrow. We started to wash our clothes and noticed a big black cloud to the north. The campground owners said it was mostly smoke from the forest fires in the mountains to the northwest. However, there was lightning and thunder and Daisy banging at the door so we figured rain was on the way. It was, but not for long. We looked at NOAA on the internet, and there were several areas of rain to the north of us. Hopefully, the water will dampen down the fires. Looking at the National Interagency Fire Center website, we discovered that where we are now is the location of a 6,000 acre fire. It looks as if we’ll need to go a bit further north to get around it. I went outside the RV after the rain stopped and the sun was out and the temperatures had dropped. Good sleeping weather. Wow, sunset here is 7:51 pm and sunrise is 5:58am. Quite a change from a month ago.