Tag Archives: Oregon

On Paved Roads Again

05 Wednesday Jun 2019

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After a month at the City of Rocks and Castle Rocks, Idaho, it was time to hit the pavement and get home to Seattle.

Birds of Prey
I’ve never had a bad night camping in the many years I’ve been camping. The odds caught up with me; with my stay on the Snake River near the Swan Fall hydro power plant. It was a Sunday night; it should be a quite night – correct? I was tired of driving. I-84 throught Idaho was busy, boring, and hot; so I simply picked a camp site that look adaquate. I settled for camp site #1, which was very close to #2, #3, and #4 and a vaulted toilet. Not a good site, but it being Sunday night, I was sure it would be quiet.

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Overlook view. My camp site was towards the top of the photo at the bend in the road.

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Lonely Road

18 Wednesday Oct 2017

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Today I started driving home.  I decided to take the backroads – the blue route.  The road was scenic and remote; in places slow and twisty.  The road north of Burns had a rhythm; twisty-turny up hill, pine forest, a summit sign, twisty-turny down hill, then valley grasslands; repeat.  It took me 7 hours to drive it.  I’m guessing I saw a total of forty cars the entire day, except for the short stretch on highway 26 and at Burns.  An enjoyable road.

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Silver City

17 Tuesday Oct 2017

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I had been wanting to go to Silver City for years, ever since I had seen the TV show Northwest Backroads on it. I think that show was about eight years ago. When the snows came on Saturday, I was wondering if I might not make it in this trip. But I decided to hang around and let the roads dry out for a couple of days. Today: Silver City or Bust.

I took the road from Jordan Valley. It is a gravel road freeway all the way to the DeLamar mine that is now closed. After that the road is a single lane windy, twisty, road that I drove at 5 to 20 mph.  I was glad I had waited two days for the roads to dry.  There was still a bit of compacted snow on the road in a few locations.  Following are photos from the drive.

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I always pause to wonder about the life of the people that lived in abandoned houses.  To let a home crumble to ruins strikes me as sad.

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Rock Hounding

15 Sunday Oct 2017

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I am not an avid rock hounder and have little experience in rock hounding. And I don’t know much about rocks. But I love geology and I like the concept of rock hounding. Today I visited a place south of Succor Creek State Park to look for fossils. I had been to this place before with a geologist, someone who gave me a clue of what to do. I had a chisel and hammer with me ready to split open the rocks looking for leaf fossils. Success.

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The large leaf is about 2 inches long

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Lazy Day

14 Saturday Oct 2017

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Today would be a lazy day. A day to let the roads dry out.

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Rocket and I went on a walk along the road follows the shoreline. I reflected on our public lands. I was camping for free, with a million dollar view; our public lands are a national treasure. We have something very special in the US.

Snakes – Oh My

11 Wednesday Oct 2017

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I had read that the Owyhees was rattlesnake country. One of the hunters I talked with didn’t bring his hunting dog with him because of the snakes. Another group had all their dogs given the rattlesnake vaccine. I took this chatter as a serious warning. Rocket would have to stay on a leash.

On our walk up Juniper Gulch we fortunately saw no snakes. The next day I walked up the Sage Creek track.

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