Travel – Page 17

July 28, 2019December 16, 2019

Plotting an escape

I wonder if anyone remembers when getting lost didn’t involve losing cell coverage? The smart phone has become more than a communication link, it is also a navigation tool. How easy is it to just email the directions for Google and have turn by turn navigation to nearly anywhere?

The trouble with this method of way-finding is a matter of screen size, well, and the need for a cell connection. We are rarely on the road without at least one paper map. Free highway maps from AAA are standard, as is a USFS Forest map. And when there’s a hike or off road we also have the USGS Quad handy.

We love maps and have quite the collection. Paper maps offer big picture views that don’t exist on a phone screen, don’t require cell reception, and can hold pencil marks and sticky notes from past adventures.

Recently we added a handheld GPS to this navigation tool set and have been enjoying the planning process even more. With any GPS system you can track or set waypoints, making getting to a spot really easy. All of these resources together have made it easy to plot an escape.

If you want more info, this is a list of the apps and web sites we use regularly:

Gaia GPS – online and app to plan routes

REI’s National Parks – An iPhone app with guide info to national parks

Hiking Project – find and keep track of trails and hikes

Outlay – Nice resource for dispersal camping and you can get a free one year sub right now, this is also an iPhone app, but there is a web component

USFS Forest info – online maps and info about any national forest, we still get specific forest maps but this is a great resource for planning out of state trips

Rec Gov – Bookmark this link, it’s the place to make camp reservations

Garmin Basecamp – Specifically aimed at Garmin GPS devices, this is a cool piece of software to map out routes for uploading to or saving from your GPS.

June 30, 2019January 6, 2020

Cascade Loop

Blazed by early explorers like John Fremont, a mostly two-lane road winds south out of Bend onto the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains. This nearly 100 mile stretch started out as a dirt trail linking the city to a southern route over those rugged peaks. It’s those peaks that draw most of the traffic these days.

We regularly access the upper Deschutes River and Davis Lake along a stretch of FS 47, Cascade Lakes Scenic Highway. Though at least once a year we make the loop from the southern edge of Bend to it’s junction at Highway 58 because it’s a really beautiful drive.

South from Bend you climb to the base of Mt Bachelor. A major section of the highway is closed until late May but by mid-June it’s lined with wildflowers and snow capped peaks. There are many places to pull off and explore but we never just pass the meadow on the western edge of Sparks Lake.

Soda Creek Campground caught our attention this trip. Only ten sites but all with views across the meadow.

We will very likely be back for an overnight, to hopefully catch some wild life that venture onto the grassy flats that the creek meanders through.

From June to September the lakes and their resort beaches are filled with swimmers, kayaks, even powerboats … places we mostly avoid in the summer. We do however frequent a couple of turnoffs between Lava Lake and Crane Prairie Reservoir. A crystal clear stream, headwaters of the Deschutes River cuts a channel through the pines and offers great picnic sites.

June 16, 2019December 16, 2019

Thunder and rain

Summer camping got into full swing this week. We are doing short one and two day trips to fine tune the systems in our Eurovan camper. We will eventually do longer trips but for now we are working out kinks.

On a recent Crooked River trip we were treated to an afternoon summer storm. Watched it roll over the canyon walls and in about 30 minutes it was gone.

It took the muggy warm day and left us with a very pleasant evening. Fishing wasn’t all that good but we did get caught up on our reading.

May 26, 2019January 6, 2020

Cattle Drive

Oregon’s roads present us with so much more than a means to an end. Each turn presents new vistas, viewpoints, historical markers, even whole roads designated scenic byways. This day it was a cattle drive.

A Fort Rock area rancher was moving his herd to new pasture using Highway 31 west of Summer Lake. The wait was much more entertaining than a construction zone. Complete with cowboys on horses and cattle dogs.

We pulled to the side of the road, rolled down the windows and uncapped our lenses. Except for the blacktop you might have been sitting on the sage prairie two hundred years ago. Then 20 minutes later we are back on our way to Summer Lake and another roadside treasure.

May 12, 2019December 16, 2019

Not Always a Highway

Sometimes when you start out for the day there is a destination in mind. Other times you don’t know where you’re going, and once in a while it changes mid journey.

Last week we had just that kind of day. It started with a trip to get sunrise images at Fort Rock, maybe grab photos of raptors, and hike up around the rim. It was a frosty morning, a bit too cold for a long walk, although we did pick up some great shots.

Generally speaking, we don’t like to return on the same route we came. With more of the morning to take advantage of, we pulled the maps and plotted a loop home that looked interesting. It took us over ground we’ve not yet explored … via forest service roads.

Bouncing around on small forest service roads is an adventure. Often not much more than a couple of ruts in the high desert duff, winding through the sage and pine that nearly always presents you with spectacular views.

Central Oregon forests and high desert lands are typically crisscrossed by a web of dirt roads. Probably because it’s pretty easy to cut a road in this country.

Even when there’s not a road mapped, a simple two track exists on the ground. This means you really need to keep a close eye to the USFS road markers, those flat metal posts at most junctions with numbers on them.

Standard kit in our car are BLM and USFS district maps to aid the GPS. The forest service roads are numbered at junctions, unless some stoop has used it for target practice. Main routes (arterials) get assigned two digit designations. Secondary or collector roads are a four digit number, and local, short access roads, have three digits.

Arterials can be paved, are often graded and usually travelable. But when you start down the four digit routes it gets a bit more dicey. Few of these dirt tracks are maintained with any regularity. Here you need to navigate with some caution as you can run into rough patches, downed trees and worse.

We unexpectedly came upon a controlled burn in the Cabin Lake area. Drive through it? Nope. We took a sharp right on a 2-track lane, turning east, away from the choking smoke.

To the east of Fort Rock is a lava flow formation called the Devils Garden (scheduled for a separate day’s exploration). We start with USFS 18, skirting the western edge of that rocky structure, then turn on to 2431 and bump along the seam where forest meets high desert.

Our travels took a few different types of ‘4 digit’ roads that slalomed through second growth Ponderosa pine, offering frequent vistas out onto the Christmas Valley hay fields.

Eventually we wound up on the southern rim of Hole-in-the-Ground, a unique, if unimaginatively named geological feature.