the blogger has returned

Eleven nights out, two campgrounds, one motel, one country hotel, and a final night at friends fine accommodations we made it home with large quantities of laundry. Here we are setting up camp in Page Springs Campground at Steens Mountain.
We overcame finding the ugliest campground in California, changing direction, encountering the smokiest campground in California, and backtracking to Alturas (the county seat of Modoc county) on our third night. Here we found a AAA approved Super 8 Motel (with a pretty reasonable continental breakfast) and a very amusing Italian restaurant with a decently priced bottle of drinkable red. The portions were so large, even on my small plate option, that we got a second night's dinner out of it too. We took a deep breath, and long showers and watched the final night of the democratic convention.
With a good early start on Day 4 we drove off to Lakeview Oregon. Lakeview appeared prosperous, and green after Alturas. Mike obtained his Oregon fishing license and we headed for Burns. After a stop at the forest service office in Hines, Oregon and a gas station (where remember in Oregon they pump your gas), we found a local fly shop and armed with information, and even more maps, Steens Mountain here we come. A quick run into Safeway in Burns, where they have block ice, a product not easy to come by these days we were set for six nights of camping. A later post and I will go into my cooler management system.

Above is the view from Kiger Pass. It is almost 10,000 feet and you climb up from the campground at 4,500 feet so gradually that you step out of the truck and are awestruck by the view and the expansiveness. This photo is made up of multiple exposures that Mike took, I sort of gave up trying to capture the landscape. Here is one of mine of the dogs guarding the sheep herd we saw on the way up.

I am told they may look friendly but don't get too close. We have yet to determine their exact breed, but evidently they are raised with the sheep and are there for protection, not herding.

The fishing was good, this a redband rainbow, a species that seems to survive well in the climate and the water temperature of the Donner and Blitzen River. We are trying to gather up our fishing friends for a return visit. By the next trip we will have sealed up the back of the truck, so as to not gather 6 inches of dust (or so it seemed), replaced the leaky air mattresses, fixed the Coleman lantern, replaced my chair seat, and gotten Mike a new pair of waders. The campground population varied from gigantic motor homes, to people with small backpacking tents, but they were some of the most friendly people I have ever camped with. Other than the "Grossbeaks". But that's another blog.