6/29-6/30/2017 - Crater Lake

Thursday - It was a chilly night, and a chilly morning (47 degrees), and the entire day probably stayed in the 70s, it was lovely. We didn't plan much for today, so I took a walk down by the river after breakfast and spotted a few things:  a duck with 3 babies, the osprey(?) and an eagle, and a river otter.  Could not get a picture of the otter.

 This eagle flew right over the top of me but I couldn't find him in my viewfinder until he got further away.

The mountain off the west appears to be losing a lot of its snow cap, although I wondered if it got a little more snow last night since it got so cold here.

Collins and Joe made the short drive up to the logging museum, and spent several hours here.  I drove the girls to the casino so Mazie could spend David's free money, then we stopped at the market in town and came home to get ready for our cookout tonight.  We actually sat outside in our lawn chairs for a while before Marilyn lit the grill, and we ate outside -- real campers!

We reconfigured our kitchen to try to accommodate 6 card players again.  This time, Collins brought over a smaller folding table, and some boards to level it out a little.

 Since Joe was the photographer and didn't get in the photo, he took a selfie to add to the mix.

 Friday - Our plan today was to make the drive to Crater Lake, leaving at 9:00.  We are all using the campground's showers and restrooms as much as we can since we are not hooked up to sewer, so Dave went over early to get his shower.  Unfortunately, the hot water was not working in the shower he used, so he had a really quick shower.  When he reported it, he found out that the other shower had hot water, it was just the handicapped one that he had used that wasn't working.  Mazie opted to shower in their RV rather than risk the cold water.   So we loaded up into 2 cars, Dave drove his, and headed out.  Our first scenic viewpoint was Annie Falls, which we could see in the distance.

Next we stopped at the pretty visitor center and got some more maps.  They still have the eastern rim road closed due to snow, and there is road construction (with up to 30-minute delays) on the western rim road, but off we went.

Here's our first look at beautiful Crater Lake! And I love the mirror image of the snow-capped mountains reflected in the water.  It was hard to see where the water ended and the mountains began.  Crater Lake, at 1,943 feet, is the deepest lake in North America.  Located in the Cascade Mountain Range in South Central Oregon, it's depth give it a shade of blueness that no photo can capture.  It became a National Park in 1902, 49 years after it was discovered. 

 Panoramic shot.

There is still plenty of snow around, some in small patches, and some in snowbanks.

Joe spotted a cross-country skier and I thought I might have seen a snowman but it was pretty far away.
The lake was absolutely breath-taking, so we took lots of pictures.  We stopped at a couple of different viewpoints so we got some different angles.  And we even saw a boat out on the lake.  I first thought it was a duck, it was that far away.

 I think this next photo is my favorite.

And more pictures.

We saw a few unfamiliar birds, and a chipmunk came to see if we had any food.

As we left our last viewpoint, Mazie tried to hit Collins with a snowball (she missed).

We had an expensive sandwich at the village restaurant, then headed home.  Joe and I took a walk down to the river and got a closer look at the boats they use here -- they call them drift boats.  They seem to be able to maneuver them pretty easily in these shallow rivers.

And of course, after dinner we played cards again.  Last night the girls won. Tonight the guys won.

Marilyn left their windows open when we left this morning, and the sprinklers came on and got the back of their sofa wet.  We forgot to open our windows or turn on the A/C, so our RV was pretty hot when we got back, but we were probably lucky that we forgot to open the windows.  This campground has really been a great place to have some downtime.  We don't have any plans for the July 4 holiday, and with all the forests around here I don't know if Klamath Falls will have them or not, but we should probably look into that tomorrow.  I think Joe has another drive in mind, and there's a miniature railroad museum right up the road that is on tomorrow's agenda.

6/28/2017 - The Brundiges Have Arrived

Wednesday - We moved off our premiere campsite with our river view, to the back row this morning.  Dave and Mazie were dumped and moved before we even got out of bed, but we all got resettled pretty quickly.  Joe again worked on Dave's back flush and has finally just given up on it and put things back together.  Then we settled in to await the arrival of our 2 missing travelers.  They pulled in just before 1:00 p.m., a welcome sight.  We spent the afternoon catching up on news, went to dinner at the Mexican restaurant (Dave and Mazie had already started grilling their pork chops for dinner before we got our plan together, so they opted out of that little trip), then we reconfigured our kitchen to set up for 6-handed Hand & Foot.  There is room for improvement, but with Marilyn's folding card table and some leveling boards we were able to make it work.  We played 2 short games (conceded loss before final hand), with a win apiece per team.

The weather is just great, stayed in the 70s today, a welcome relief to our travelers who experienced 119 in Las Vegas last Thursday.  We are going to take it easy tomorrow, let them get rested up, then probably make the drive to Crater Lake on Friday.  Our 6 Ruskateers are finally all together again!

6/27/2017 - Klamath Marsh Loop

Tuesday - Today was a fairly uneventful day.  Walking around outside with David this morning (waiting for Joe to wake up), he (David) spotted a bird cruising the river that he thought was an eagle.  It landed in a tree on the far side of the river, so I grabbed my camera and was able to zoom him in.  I don't think it is an eagle, I thought it was a hawk; Joe thought it might be an osprey.  I think he is right.

After breakfast we piled in the car and headed out.  We stopped off in Chiloquin at a gift store/visitor center to get some information on the roads through the Klamath Marsh.  There were some beautiful pieces of art, various media, in the store, but we didn't buy anything.  There are some murals on some of the buildings in this little town, here is one.

We headed out, armed with another map and took Highway 97 to Silver Lake Road.  We did find the marsh, with a few birds, not nearly as many as we saw the other day. 

After several miles of driving the highway, Joe couldn't stand it anymore and found a dirt road to explore.  It started out ok but got a little worse before we got back to pavement.

This turned out to be a 200+ loop drive, finally getting back to the campground around 3:30.  Chipmunks were the only other wildlife we saw.  We have to move campsites tomorrow, and we are expecting the arrival of our missing two ruskateers, the Brundiges.  The weather is wonderful, and we are enjoying our slowed-down, relaxing time here on the river.  We have been awaiting their arrival to make the drive to Crater Lake, also hoping they will get more of the rim road up there cleared of snow.  And there is a waterfall road we have yet to drive.  But tomorrow we don't plan on doing much, just getting moved to the other campsite and watching for the Brundiges.  By the way, the girls won at cards again tonight.

6/26/2017 - Logging Museum

Monday -  This morning's first chore was to find our next campground.  After the problems we ran into last week, with the dog show and the July 4 holiday filling all the campgrounds in the area, I expected we would have an easier job this time.  Wrong.  The big quilt show comes to Sisters the weekend of July 8-9, and everything is, again, booked.  I called all around the area and finally found a campground in Prineville, which is east of Redmond, that could accommodate the 3 rigs for 5 days.  So we are set for another week. 

When I got that done, and Dave finished his laundry, we went to the casino for breakfast, then drove to the Collier Logging Museum just north of Chiloquin.  I was expecting a big building with lots of photos but instead, this is "one of the country's best and largest collections of rare, antique logging equipment. This Park also features a Settler's Village filled with authentic log cabins . . ."

"The museum, most of which is in the open, displays logging equipment dating from the era of animal-powered logging through the early 1980s, and it holds the largest collection of McGiffert and McVay log loaders in existence. There are also steam tractors, a steam donkey, a steam locomotive, and a Corliss steam engine that ran Long-Bell Lumber Company’s sawmill for forty-seven years in Weed, California. Other early equipment includes several sets of high wheels, chain-driven Mack trucks, and pull-type road graders. Mid-twentieth century logging is represented by a collection of power saws, gasoline and diesel-powered tractors, a Weyerhaeuser truck reload, a log-raft tugboat, and two sawmills, one operable."

Lots of old equipment, most of which I knew nothing about, but Joe knew what most of it was, how it worked, what it was used for.  We spent a couple hours here, at least.

I was more into the carved bears.

And a bench with a lovely carving on the back.

There were huge logs, and several log cabins.  They have demonstrations here on Father's Day, which we missed, of course.

Joe found 2 dozers he had driven in the Army, in the Dominican Republic and in the States.  He said he drove newer equipment in Viet Nam.

Spring Creek runs along this museum, with a very nice arched bridge that takes you across to the campground and day-use area.  The water in the creek was crystal clear, and had some depth to it as well as a waterfall upstream.

 moss underwater

I can never remember to take a towel with me, so of course I had to put my toes in this cold water, then tried to dry my foot by sunning it on the bridge.  Joe stuck his hand in the creek to confirm that it was cold.

There were chipmunks running all over the place, and I finally caught one with my camera, even though he was hiding in a bush.

We finally left here, stopped by the RV, then headed into Klamath Falls.  Dave and I both needed haircuts, and Joe and I wanted to check out an electric broom like Mazie has.  So we did those chores, shopped the Oregon Gift Shop (didn't buy anything), came back to casino for dinner, and called it a day.  I decided to do my laundry, and we thought a storm was going to blow in, but we just got clouds, some thunder, and maybe a dozen drops of rain.

 Joe spotted a white egret (I think) in the river by our campground.  My Florida kids will have to confirm that this is an egret and not an ibis.  Andrew would know.

Tomorrow we are looking for a waterfall drive.  Then we are hoping to see the Brundiges on Wednesday.  Joe checked on Oregon fishing license for out-of-state residents, and they are $20/day (and you know Joe doesn't get to go fishing without ME) so at this time we are not thinking we are going to do that.  We really don't have the right equipment either.  We may elect to hire a guide on the Columbia River and do some serious fishing when we get in that area.