August 14; ALONG THE OREGON TRAIL

August 14; leaving Mike’s and heading to the mountains. Supposed to be in the 90’s today here; heading on out at grees7:30 am at 66 degrees, and blue sky. Good-bye to the Pacific and cool breezes, and hello high-country.

We drove through the stunning Columbia River Gorge, past the hydro-electric dams along the way and eventually left the lush green rain forest behind to make way for the desert, and (today) 94 degrees. Deserts have their own beauty; maybe I can say that since we lived in the high desert of western Colorado, and the sagebrush reminds me of the years there.

We won’t camp for the evening until we are further into the mountains and the temperature drops. Just while typing this it has dropped to 88 degrees as we climb. Can ya feel it getting cooler????We pulled off the road not far after Pendleton, OR, where the terrain turned once again to beautiful, lush pine forest that is right through where the Oregon Trail crossed this territory.

This campground is called Emigrant Springs because this is the exact place where the emigrants traveling over the Oregon Trail stopped to replenish their water and rest. These pine forests were so thick that they had to cut down pine trees in order to get the wagons through; the trees were so dense that it was dark in the day time. From the looks of some of these pines around our campground, we figure that some of these pines could have been here when the oxen pulled the wagons through.
Isn’t this beautiful??? We stopped, made camp, and by 2 p.m.

we were chillin’ in our reclining chairs. We haven’t had these chairs out a hand full of times because of both the rain and mosquitoes along the way in Canada & Alaska. Even Tommy got to digging a hole so that she could chill out. It’s not hot, but I suppose with her fur coat, it could be a bit uncomfortable. She had to get a wet-wipe down before bed tonight with all that dust.

We had the pleasure of grilling Chris’ salmon outside and enjoying dinner outside. Perfectly fabulous evening.

August 15, 2008

We left the beautiful Emigrant Springs State Campground and headed to the desert. Doesn’t sound like fun; but it was. It was 54 degrees when we left at 7:30, with a perfectly cloudless blue sky. Crossing the 45th parallel (which is ½ way between the equator & the North Pole) we were squarely in the land of the sagebrush and brown grasses. Our first stop of the day was at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. It was very interesting learning more about these 300,000 stalwart folks who braved the unknown in the mid 19th century. The most enjoyable thing was a presentation by a living historian putting on a show similar to the traveling medicine men of that era. Loads of fun, interactive, and good for many a laugh.

As we left, we observed the actual ruts that the wagons made over the desert/prairie (or whatever they call this dry stuff. There’s only about 300 miles of this trail still visible; look just like a “two track” into the bush. Early cars used them before the onset of real roads. We continued eastward to Hell’s Canyon. We wound up and down hills & mountains, all the while the temperature outside got hotter and hotter. When we finally wound ourselves around and along the Snake River, past the Oxbow Dam and further up the reservoir, the canyon got more and more rugged.

The temperature inched to 106 degrees as we reached the Hell’s Canyon Dam. We now know how this place got its name!
Traveling on, we reached Peyette, Idaho; a beautiful little area in the arid zone of Idaho. There we spent the evening with Chris’ friends, Wayne & Pat. When we set up our camper, we wondered what was all over the side of our camper, by the vicinity of the water-intake hole. It looked like we might have hit something, or something was dead there. Going inside it was easy to diagnose: (ta dah!) a previously unopened bottle of soy sauce, stored under the bed, had EXPLODED! We surmised that it was because of the 106 degrees outside…which was much higher inside the camper. It was everywhere! Could have been a worse smell, I suppose.
So, until we “connect” again…