Eugene Oregon 2005

8/15/05 Said goodbye to Doug and Lana and left Sandpoint at 8:00 a.m. Drove 240 miles to Ginkgo Washington and checked into Wanapum SP on the Columbia River. The 98 F. heat was suffocating, but we walked the Ginkgo Petrified Forest trail anyway. This park should only be visited during moderate temperatures.

8/16/05 Took Meghan for a nice walk before taking off for the 150 mile drive to Maryhill, WA. Stopped in Yakima, WA at the Sportsman SP to take Meghan for a little run. Arrived in Maryhill about 3:30 p.m. and got a nice pull through in the SP on the Columbia River. It was very windy as usual and the wind surfers out on the river in force. Bought sweet corn and peaches at the local fruit stand. Spent a windy evening watching satellite TV.

8/17/05 Drove 240 miles from Maryhill, WA to Eugene, OR. The weather cooled nicely to 60’s most of the days with a on and off mist apparently typical for Oregon. We checked into the Richardson County Park RV Park. It’s a beautiful wooded park with water and electricity. Normally it also has a large reservoir with full boating and fishing facilities, but it was mostly drained to do work on the dam. Took Meghan on a walk around the dry lake park. I made pork chops and sauerkraut for dinner.

8/18/05 Got up at 6:30 a.m., had breakfast, and then drove to Paul Flashenberg’s house. Paul, Linda, Meghan, and I drove about 60 miles to Northern Oregon Cascades on Willamette Pass. We did a 6.4 mile hike seeing three water falls. The first Salt Creek Falls at 240’ being the second highest in the state was very impressive. The second Fall Creek Falls not as high was even more beautiful. The third one Diamond Creek Falls only Paul and Meghan made as the last 500 yards was the steepness only frequented by mountain goats. The hike was mostly through beautiful first growth virgin forest. The trees were mostly Douglas Fir and were way taller than Idaho’s trees are. Bought local sweet corn from Bushes Farm Market near out camp ground for dinner, which was excellent.

8/19/05 Linda and I picked up Paul about 8:30 a.m. We drove east on hwy 126 about 50 miles up the McKenzie River to the Blue River - Forest Glen put in site. Got the rafts inflated and out fitted for a class 2 float down the river. The river was running at 700 cfs and the day was perfect starting in the high 70’s and ending up in the 80’s. Paul using the 12’ Soar had very few problems negotiating the river. His only problem was going over the top of a large flat rock just below the water line. He was hung up on top of it for 15 seconds and I thought sure he was going to capsize, but he made it off without a flip. Some of the class 2 rapids were quite exciting and very enjoyable. The river was wide enough so that many of the rapids could be sneaked if desired. We put out after 2 hours at the agreed location where Linda was waiting. I would definitely raft this river again. Paul said that he is ready any time for more rafting. Paul and Amy invited us to their house for dinner this evening. They prepared a vegetable sautéed with cheese tortellini which was delicious. Enjoyed a nice bottle of wine and a pleasant evening of conversation with Amy and Paul.

8/20/05 Slightly hung over this morning and did not get underway way until 10:00 a.m. Drove on I5 about 200 miles from Eugene to Ashland, OR. Checked into the Glenyan Campground which was a bad mistake. The temperature was 99 F. After an hour my main circuit on the 5^th wheel tripped out and I had not air conditioning. I reset the breaker and found out that the Campground power voltage was down to 97 volts so I turned off the electric water heater, refrigerator, and all other non essentials but with the AC running the power was still 97 volts, so I left the AC off fearing that I might cause damage from the low voltage.

8/21/05 Drove about 175 miles out of Oregon into California to Rancheria RV Park. It’s a beautiful park with broken pine tree cover, grassy sites, a small lake, full hook ups all in a beautiful forest setting. I prefer partial treed open RV Parks to heavily shaded dense forest kind. 100% shade gets boring after a couple of days. Spent the rest of the day staying cool in the rig and watching TV. Barbecued hamburgers for dinner.

8/22/05 Drove about 25 miles into Lassen Volcanic NP visitor center and into the park a ways but wasn’t feeling well so started returning to the RV Park. We stopped at Hat Creek Camp ground and took Meghan on a 3 mile hike off leash along Hat Creek. It was a very hot hike the temperature being in the low 90’s. Returned home to cool trailer and more satellite TV. Had cucumber salad, barbecued Rib eye steaks, sautéed carrots, and a hot fudge fresh peach sundae for dessert.

8/23/05 Cooked huckleberry sourdough pancakes this morning which turned out excellent. Took Meghan for 2 mile walk on a logging road leaving from the RV Park. We then put Meghan in the trailer with the AC running and drove to Lassen Volcanic NP about 20 miles away. We entered the park from the Northwest entrance at about 4,000’. It was quite dry at this elevation but started getting green and beautiful as we went up the mountain. At about 6,500’ we saw Hat Lake the headwaters of Hat Creek. This lake is fed by snow and ice on Lassen Peak. At about 7,600’ we stopped at Summit Lake Campground which had beautiful wooded sites with views of the lake. This would be as far as a big rig could negotiate hwy 89 up the mountain. Our 5^th wheel might just find a site big enough in this campground. Next we stopped at Kings Creek which was pristine with beautiful expansive green meadows up steam. We took several photos of the meadows. Next we reached the road summit at 8,500’. A visitor center was here and a trail head lead to Lassen Peak. The hike was 5 miles round trip and 2,000’ of elevation to strenuous for me this late in the day. We continued on a ½ mile to Bumpass Hell. We started the trail down to some geothermal features but I was feeling lousy this day at 8,500’ and could only handle 2 miles of hiking, so we did not see the features. Drove back to RV camp for rest and diary writing. Linda decided to do laundry. Had a green salad, barbecued chicken, carrots, and green beans for dinner.

8/24/05 Got up at 7:30 a.m. had breakfast and got ready to travel. We drove via Susanville and 395 to Reno Nevada. Checked in at the Rivers Edge RV Park again in Sparks. After resting a while we went to visit Conrad and Kathy. After a couple hours of conversation in the Evans back yard patio we decided to walk to the local golf club country club and have dinner. The food was excellent