May 2003 |
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Left the scenic red rock features of Moab behind as we headed north bypassing Salt Lake City on the way to Ogden. In spite of being mainly on interstate highways this is quite a scenic trip with mountains always near at hand. We arrived early afternoon, were able to finalize our RV insurance and research providers of truck bed covers. Called the other half of our rink, Ray Finley & Debbie Schaeffer, who came and picked us up for a meal at the Union Grill inside the historic Union Station which resides at the end of 25th street. In the 19th century 25th was lined with all sorts of stores, gambling halls, opium dens & houses of ill-repute. A local gentleman later recalled the situation in WW2, suggesting it was pretty similar then with all the troops disembarking at Union Station heading for the more sinful (pleasurable?) establishments on 25th. In the 21st century 25th street is still the location of most of the action in town. In Utah if a Bar/Restaurant does less than half it's business in food it needs a Club (membership) license. As a visitor you can purchase a membership ($4 it cost us) which lasts a week? Another interesting law in Utah is you can only be served one drink at a time, they will not bring you a new beer until your glass is completely empty. 25th is well endowed with Clubs & Bar/Restaurants and we visited one or two during our stay. After visiting two of Ogden's clubs we enjoyed a terrific meal at Rooster's 25th Street Brewing Co. (One of their ales is Polygamy Porter - appropriate for Utah?) Ray Finley had parked his hire car at the kerbside parking and about 4 hours later as we left Rooster's he fiddled around through all of his pockets looking for the car keys. He couldn't find them and we all ribbed him about being sober and still losing things. When we arrived at the car we noticed the lights were on, a low hum seemed to be emanating from the Ford Explorer, the doors were open, the keys were in the ignition and the engine was running. Ray desperately accused us of taking his keys and sneaking out of Rooster's to start the car but it was in vain, the final proof being the temperature of the bonnet (hood). We were sworn to secrecy by Ray, we must not tell anyone in Illinois and of course we can keep a secret! 
Curling - The Ogden Bonspeil was the strangest we have attended, is that why we played so badly? somehow I doubt it. They play on Arena ice in Ogden, once a week. This means the ice is rather twisted with lots of run-back and often in the latter part of an end you don't have a shot to win the end. It is the same for all the competitors and most of them seemed to handle it better than us. We struggled to win our first game but lost the next 2 rather heavily. As a result we were not involved on finals Sunday. There is no bar in the ice arena but we were told we could take our own drink in, which we did in our cooler. A Buffet dinner was served at the ice arena on the Saturday evening, but some people had to Curl after the meal. There were Curlers from Colorado, Oregon, California, Wisconsin and an English guy from Quebec. We met quite a few people, but not as many as usual at a Bonspeil, including Arnie Iwanick from Portland, Oregon. He had flown in with a cooler full of Microbrew beer from the Portland brewery. Wullie & Arnie swapped beers (Wullie had some Colorado beer) and curling stories. They are having a Bonspeil in Portland in early June to coincide with the Rose Festival and we were invited to attend. We declined as we were not sure where we would be at that time and after the way we had played in Ogden felt perhaps it was time to end the season. Ray Finley was very interested and said "if you 2 play, I'll fly over". Ray will go anywhere for a Curling experience and tried to talk us into attending one in North Dakota in June, which we politely declined.
The Ogden Curlers were friendly & helpful and hope to have their own premises soon, complete with all the facilities including a Bar (purely as a revenue generator). In fact while we were there they had received some news that a member of one of the local Mormon families was interested in talking to them about some property for a Curling facility, presumably at a favourable rate. This would certainly help their Bonspeil greatly and would be a just reward for their obvious enthusiasm.
Truck Events - During our stay at Moab the tonneau cover (roller type) on our truck fell to pieces (it had lasted 4 years) so we needed to provision a replacement. Visited a few retailers and finally settled on a less expensive tarpaulin type as we may not have the truck for another 4 years? They fitted the cover the very next day before the Curling Bonspeil.
While in Ogden we treated the truck to a 90,000 mile service (the big one) which along with the tonneau cover made for an expensive couple of days. However it's very important that we keep the truck in good condition to keep us on the road.
During our stay in Ogden there was a lot of roadwork (construction) in town and out of town, including the street which housed the Ford garage. The young man who drove the courtesy car for the local Ford garage remarked upon this fact and we asked if the roadwork had been going on for long? He reckoned that if we spent any amount of time in Utah we would come to expect roadwork as part of everyday life, and that some natives of Utah reckon the State Tree is a Traffic Cone.
Travelled 340 Interstate miles to Brentwood RV Park for our three night stay. Reason for this visit is to check out accommodation for our October visitors. It was no hardship to drive into Zion NP, stopping to take pictures of new Cactus blooms on the way. While we didn't really find any ideal sites we did discover that one we had penciled in, no longer has cabins for our friends to rent.
Pipe Spring NM - After visiting Zion NP we drove into the northern part of Arizona as we looped back to Hurricane.
Pipe Spring NM was a life source in a dry land and attracted travelers as an oasis or provided permanent residents with a water source in a vast isolated landscape. The springs have been in use since before 300 BC by semi-nomadic hunters, then Puebloan peoples, Southern Paiute tribes (The NM is located on tribal lands), missionaries & explorers including Mormons looking for a place to call home. One Mormon pioneer, James Whitmore, acquired 160 acres around Pipe Spring, brought in livestock, planted an orchard & vineyard. This control of the water supply stressed the Indians who in retaliation stole his livestock. Whitmore and his herdsman were killed trying to recover the stock, which resulted in a series of revenge killings between Mormons & Indians.
Twin Lakes RV Park is seven miles off the Interstate, but well worth a visit. This small and very tidy RV park is an oasis in the Southern California desert. The sites encircle a small spring fed lake with Ducks, Coots and even a egret enjoying the tranquillity of this setting. We knew this was a good choice when we stopped at the office and we spotted a Western Tanager in the tree above our heads. If you are ever crossing southern California on I-15 or I-40 stop at this gem of a site for a remarkably serene experience.
One of the problems of hiking the mountains of the Western USA is that the season is short and the peaks are plentiful. It seems that we won't get any hiking done in the Sierra Nevada's in California this summer/fall as we will be occupied in the Cascades of Oregon/Washington. However we have always fancied the drive up US 395 on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada's. The drive to Bishop on US 395 did not disappoint in any way at all.
In the past weeks we have grown used to spacious RV sites, so it was a bit of a shock to see how narrow these were, especially at their prices. The weather during our stay was sunny with temperatures in the 80's in Bishop, but somewhat cooler at the lakes.
Lake Sabrina and South Lake - At an elevation of 9,000 feet+ both of these lakes were still frozen which complemented the surrounding snow covered mountains, set against the clear blue sky. We strolled around admiring the views and gazing longingly at the hiking trailheads which were not passable for us this time!
Mammoth Lakes - 
This is the main Ski area on this side of the Sierra Nevada's and as a consequence is quite built up & commercial. We couldn't get past the commercial area because of the amount of snow. The road to Devil's Postpile NM was closed prohibiting a visit.
Drove to Twin lakes, took a short walk along a road that was closed to traffic but open for cross country skiing. A few people were taking advantage of the deep snow including a woman taking her three dogs for a ski - well she was skiing and they were running. Large parts of the lakes were still frozen but the unfrozen portion provided a mirror image of the snowy peaks towering above.
June Lakes Loop - Continued north on Hwy 395 to the June lake loop where we had lunch by the side of the lake. An Osprey circled the lake also looking for his lunch but he had no luck while we watched him. We enjoyed the scenic loop drive, discovering some RV parks for future reference, before returning home.
On our way north into Oregon we need to stop at least once and choose the Alturas area because of the Medoc NWR nearby. Sully's RV park is small, friendly and very handy for Medoc NWR. On arrival we were told that the past 36 days had been rain and it was nice that we had bought the sunshine with us - mid 70's was OK with us as well.
Medoc National Wildlife Refuge - One of the better refuges with good hiking trails between lakes. Saw a pair of Sandhill Cranes with a few hours old chick awaiting the second egg to hatch. Mother was trying to hurry things along by moving the egg around the nest. Other birds included White Pelicans doing there formation dancing on water, a Ruddy Duck in mating plumage with bright light blue beak and California Quail. Unfortunately parts of the refuge were temporarily out of bounds to protect the nesting waterfowl.
It was nice to enter Oregon to escape California's expensive petrol (gas), you know it was nearly $2 /gallon?
Situated near Bend, Oregon, where we bought our RV, La Pine SP is a typical Oregon state park with large spacious RV sites amongst trees and plenty of hiking trails. It's not quite as warm here as it was in California, we even experienced a few snow flurries the first evening.
During our stay Linda had expressed a wish to revisit Crater Lake NP, but it seemed unwise as only the southern entrance was open with still over 100 inches of snow around the lake.
Deschutes and Fall River Trails - Combining the two trails resulted in a hike of around six miles. A very cool but sunny day was good for hiking, although sometimes we took such a long time trying to decide what birds we were looking at it made us feel quite cool. Lunch was taken by the Deschutes river where a kayak expedition drifted downstream, on their way to who know's where. We
added a Yellow Warbler, Spotted Sandpiper and Williamson's Sapsucker to our every growing bird list. However the highlight occurred in the last mile along the river where we saw an adult Bald Eagle perched in a dead tree with what at first glance looked like a large brownish hawk perched above. This didn't seem right as Eagles usually keep hawks at bay. Out with the reference books to establish that the perch above was in fact occupied by an immature Bald Eagle.
Paulina Creek - We set out to hike the Paulina Lake trail which was impassable due to lots of snow but we enjoyed the views before driving to our alternative hike, Paulina Creek. A very pleasant hike along the creek to a waterfall, where we took a peaceful lunch break. An easy 6 mile hike on a very warm day when sheltered from the wind.
Before we left the RV we suspected that Stellar Jays were preparing to build a nest somewhere at the rear of the RV, but when we inspected it we could find no evidence. On our return our suspicions were proved correct. The start of a nest was evident on one of the rungs of the ladder we have strapped to the rear not an ideal location or so we thought. Thankfully construction had only just been started so we did not feel too bad about removing it.
What is it about our RV - this is the second time birds have chosen it as a nesting place. Maybe they know we are bird lovers?
Situated in the Cascade mountains 40 miles east of Portland Oregon we're staying a month at Mount Hood Village Resort, an ideal location for the many hiking trails in the area. Our hope is that most will be accessible and free from snow before we leave.
Mt Hood is an 11,240 feet volcano, offering year round skiing/snowboarding/sport and is quite beautiful with its blue tinged glaciers peeping through the covering of white snow.
The snow level is presently 4,000 ft. but temperatures in the 70's & 80's are forecast for the mountains with a freezing level of 13.000 ft. Hopefully by the end of our stay we should have access to most of our hiking wish list (This doesn't include Mt. Hood). Most of the walks lead to good views of the mountain, have lots of spring wildflowers in bloom (rhododendrons due soon) and all the streams are rushing downhill at a great rate of knots, swollen by the melting snow. I know! I know! life sure is tough sometimes but we have learned to grin & bear it?
Most of thehHikes we have chosen to do during our stay have come from
100 Hikes in Northwest Oregon (Bought 4 years ago!).
Tamanawas Falls -
This 5.6 mile loop is one of the most popular hikes in the area, especially mid summer when the water in Cold Spring Creek is warmer and children can play under the falls. This easy 4 mile round trip starts alongside the Hood River then follows Cold Spring Creek upstream to a wonderful 100 foot curtain of water in a green canyon at Mt Hood's eastern base. This is a delightful spot to relax for a snack lunch before heading back to the trail head. Our reference book is slightly out of date now and the forest service have rerouted the trail since the book was published. As a result we scrambled across the fast rushing creek on a washed out footbridge before realizing our error. We then had to scramble back - it all adds to the fun. We made it a loop by returning via Polallie Overlook, but we would recommend returning the way we came alongside the creek.
Central Salmon River - This hike leads to a butte high above the Salmon River gorge where we sat amongst colourful spring flowers for our lunch break. As we sat in the peace and quiet a hummingbird fluttered above the flowers then flew off.
This easy hike through wonderful huge old growth trees reminded us of a small version of the rain forest we visited in Washington as moss clung to trees. More wild flowers were added to our photo album.
Hunchback Mountain - This 9 mile hike is best forgotten although we don't think our legs will ever forget it. The first 2.1 miles are fairly steep with many switchbacks to a viewpoint over the Salmon River canyons.Tthat is the most enjoyable part of the trail as the trip to the other viewpoints is like a rollercoaster on a very narrow, root laden path. There are very few peeks at the surrounding mountains, but since you need to keep your eyes at your feet it wouldn't matter anyway. One overgrown viewpoint provides a reasonable view of Mt hood, but there are many easier hikes with better views in the area.
Wullie went into the Rangers office to provide feedback on the trails we had done and how accessible (snowfree) they were. He asked if they had ever done this hike and when told no, he told them not to bother. So don't you bother either!
Next month - More Mt hood, The Gorge and Sisters area, Oregon.
Miles travelled this month: 2,457
Total miles travelled since May 1999: 91,857
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