I don’t know if you have been out in the great outdoors in the past year, but if you have I’m going to bet that if you had to choose one word for your experience it would be “busy”. Yes, it’s busy out there. I can only hope with the pandemic slowing down that people will go back to whatever they were doing before it struck, instead of camping, fishing and generally crowding things up. So, with this in mind, and with Memorial Day upon us, what were we to do? Where could we go that wouldn’t be over run by the crowds? Well, I guess our answer was, as far away as possible. Luckily we found some peace and quiet. But trust me, you would never want to go there. So don’t do it. I’m serious.
We got out of town late Friday and took a dusty side road that eventually led us to the top of a butte for a great view of the sunset and eventually a 7 minute view of the International Space Station as it traversed the darkening sky above us. I think we are still getting dust out of the cracks and crevices of the truck, but the view was worth it.
Side note: if you want to get an alert of opportunities to view the ISS check out this site: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/
The next morning we continued on into Oregon’s outback. But not before passing a little historic remnant. Brooks Scanlon went out of business in 1994, I think this land has changed hands several times since then, much to the defiance of this property tag.
We found a quiet spot to camp and then went for a hike. Our planned hike destination was still under snow, which was great, considering the drought conditions that we are experiencing. We settled for an abbreviated turn around at a historic lookout site. We had the hike to ourselves. Did I mention it was Memorial Day weekend?
After a great night around the fire it was time to continue wandering. We spent a bit of time fishing our way up a creek, catching a few small trout, with nobody else to be seen. Did I mention it was Memorial Day weekend?
After working up a sweat in the waders on this very sunny day, it was time to head back to the higher country to find a spot to spend the night. We passed a few prospects and finally settled on Vee Lake. We had it our to ourselves (if you aren’t counting the eagles and sandhill cranes). Did I mention it was Memorial Day weekend? Vee Lake was on the low side, but had enough water to support thousands of frogs singing us to sleep.
Our final day wandering the Warners we went north to an overlook of the Abert Rim. We couldn’t quite see 4 states from here, but it was close.
We had a bit of time left before we needed to head for home. We picked a piece of the Fremont National Recreational Trail and hiked until we ran out of time. I’ve never seen a trail with so little traffic that wildflowers are taking over the trail, until now. And yep, you guessed it, we had the trail all to ourselves. Did I mention it was Memorial Day weekend? Yeah I guess I did.
Living in Tenn. its nice to see places I
may never get to see. Enjoyed.
thx for the report. will be down at summer lake in a few wks, and this gives me some ideas. will check out the sunstone mines this time.
nice pic of ft rock. have u been out to crack in the ground? its an interesting little hike
a couple yrs ago, i took a fly rod up the chewaucan, but decided i would be spending too much time looking out for snakes vs fishing.
keep up the good work. oh, we did the john day the last week of may, and had good luck with the small mouth. they seemed bigger this year.
Yes we have been out to Crack in the Ground – we were last there April 2020. It’s a pretty cool spot – the link to that trip is here: https://www.occidentalist.org/the-isolation-of-the-lost-forest-2020/
We fished the Chewaucan last Memorial Day, great fishing, if a bit on the crowded side. The link to that trip is here: https://www.occidentalist.org/the-isolation-of-the-lost-forest-2020/
Enjoy the sunstone mines, when we went last year they were not open, but we found some in the public area.
thx for the lost forest link. have not been there. its now on the list. we were supposed to go summer lake a few days ago, and canceled due to the bootleg fire. we pivoted and headed up to the north fork john day. tried to drive up from monument, but found the road is closed – so spent night up the hill with some views. then went over to hit north fork from ritter, and found a great campsite for a couple nights. it was one of those places just off the road, next to river. we only saw 2 vehicles on road for 2 days, which i found surprising, but i later found out they closed umatilla forest a day before. we were on blm land, and oblivious. the north fork seemed too warm for fishing, so didnt try. did some ridge up hiking, then hit the river for kick back brews.. where did u guys float the north fork?? we drove to it on road # 15.
We floated the North Fork from Camas Creek (just below hwy 395) down to Monument. 3 days of floating. Yep, the bottom part of the road is closed off to the public, We only saw an ODF rig out driving around wasting fuel on area familiarization. Otherwise, nobody on the road.