The first week out on the road found us camping for several days near Hat Creel, CA. JR had a chance to fly fish and got five hits. We spotted white pelicans and Canadian geese nearby at Baum Lake. A snow flurry dusted our first campsite and the mornings were a chilly 30 degrees. Mt. Lassen and Mt. Shasta and the surrounding mountain ranges up the northern California Central Valley were spectacular all laden with snow. We’ve spotted black tail deer, blue jays, woodpeckers, hawks, egrets, gray squirrels, a long ear jack rabbit and a duck nest of broken eggs in the grassland. Stops in Oregon to visit the John Day Fossil Basin Monuments, Sumpter Dredge, and Oregon Trail Interpretative Center near Baker City were great highlights. We were able to rendezvous with JR’s brother Dennis at his frequented gold mining camp near Durkee close to the Oregon-Idaho border.
The Oregon roads seem sparse with traffic and gas station attendants actually for customers pump one’s tank. With some 825 miles behind us we are heading north through the lush green Wallowa Mts. into Idaho and Montana. The open farmland pastures, evergreen forests, mountains and rolling hills are very lovely and picturesque. Our great escape continues on toward Glacier National Park come June 1. We are having fun with our cameras. Be sure to bookmark our blog site to tune in again if you haven’t done so yet. We hope to post updates every two weeks depending on WIFI access.
