Road Trip 2012: Sunday 10/7

175 miles and camped at La Pine State Park, La Pine, Oregon.

Tyler and Zoey at site 33, La Pine State Park, La Pine, Oregon

Roseburg, Oregon to La Pine State Park, La Pine, Oregon

Cory and I are on a quick, two day road trip.  So it's us, and our each of our dogs, Tyler and Zoey.  We start out along the North Umpqua River.  Cory knows the river well.  Part of it is in his BLM (Bureau of Land Management) District, plus he has fished it.  It is a beautiful river that flows through a steep canyon.  Cory knew of a spawning bed on the river where the Chinook Salmon might be collecting to lay and fertilize their eggs.   Sure enough, we found some.  The salmon return here two to five years after they were born to lay and fertilize their eggs, and then they die.  After they spawn, their bodies start to deteriorate.  They develop  a white fungus along their backs, and eventually succumb to the fungus.  We found several dead fish along the river, as well as spawning ones.

North Umpqu River

North Umpqa River

"Hey, why are we in here and you guys are out there."

All along the North Umpqua are a series of water falls dropping off the steep hills to the valley floor.  We stopped to watch a couple of them.  The first was the Susan Day Falls.  This was a .8 mile hike each way and gave the dogs some needed exercise.

The second falls we stopped at was Watson Falls, which drop some 293 feet.  It is one of the highest falls in Oregon.  It was a bit of a hike to reach the falls, but well worth the effort.

Then it was on to La Pine State Park.  La Pine is located on what is called The High Desert area of Oregon.  The park has two amazing assets.  One is that the largest Ponderosa Pine in the state of Oregon is located here.  A search of the web brings up many claims of the largest ponderosa, such as tallest, circumference, volume of wood, etc.  Anyway you look at it, this is a big tree.  The other asset is the picturesque Deschutes River which runs through the park, and eventually empties into the Columbia.

We struck up a conversation with some nearby campers from Massachusetts.  We compared traveling notes, and discovered that I have camped in some of the same parks they have.  They are actually going to put their campers in storage in a month or so in California, fly home for the holidays, and then fly back to California in February to continue their trip.  They plan to be back in Massachusetts about May 1st.  You meet all kinds of people on the road.

On Monday, Cory and I are off to explore Bend, Oregon and Smith Rock State Park.  We'll be back to Cory's house Monday night.  Cory has to work Tuesday morning.  I'll be hanging out at Cory's until Friday, and then it's off to the Mt. Shasta, California area for a few days.