Eclipse October 2023 and Steph Neyhart 70th Birthday

The Dusty Trails Wagon Train hit the trail again for the Eclipse of 14 October 2023 and to celebrate the 70th trip around the sun for Steph Nyehart. The destination was the Cabin Lake area east of La Pine, Oregon. It is one of our favorite spots to just get away quickly and spend time in the outdoors. The cabins are old Forest Service duty station that has been abandoned. The lake is usually not even visible when the ground starts to dry. So, as we often say, "There is no cabin and there is no lake."

But there is a nice flat accessible dispersed camping area for large groups. It is great to view the night sky and is well away from any ambient light from civilization.  Fort Rock is just 10 miles south of the spot on a very wash board road so it takes a hardy individual to trek up to the site.

Kasey and I set off from Roseburg ahead of our tribe to secure the spot and await the arrival of our friends.

Kasey and I arrived first and found the area vacant so we easily secured our preferred spot for the weekend. The gang appeared shortly after we acquired some firewood for the night so as the caravan maneuvered into their spots, we settled down to fireside chats on this cool night. Diana Wales, Liz Gayner, Mark and Debbie Hamm, Jody Seay, Steph Neyhart, and of course the canines Willow and Tula.

Morning was cold and we easily rekindled the fire for more visiting, laughing, and goofing off in our joy of being in nature and experiencing the elements.

It was now Steph's birthday and she celebrated all day showing us her skills of balancing, fire dancing, singing, laughing, and eventually drinking and blowing out candles on her birthday cupcakes made by her best friend and soul mate, Jody Seay.

We brought games and soon, the competition was strong. Kasey and I brought the game but the crowd was up for the challenge and took us out with their unique and successful bag-throwing techniques. The cheering and laughter interspersed with singing and dancing, filled hours and hours of the day.

Steph decided that she would show us how good she was by throwing left-handed. Yes, she is right handed. She does not let a little disability hold her back.

This was Comet's first camping trip. She is 13 years old and has never been so we opted to try it and see if she would freak out. She not only did not freak out, she enjoyed the different view out of the window. We converted the outdoor storage compartment to her food, water, and potty box compartment since it had an access panel from inside near the bedroom floor just perfect for the size of a cat. She seemed to enjoy the fact that Lincoln was also there as well.

Day 3 was Eclipse Day and Mark and Debbie were up early with their excitement overriding their desire to stay warm and snuggly in their camper. As each of us rolled out of our cabins, the excitement was building......

Everyone was ready for the big event!

....but the clouds! Oh, no. Will we not get to see the big event after all of this effort?

But, the clouds parted just enough and were thin enough that we were able to witness the BIG EVENT!

Then, we didn't settle for an awesome event, we decided to drive over an hour to Paisley, Oregon for lunch because Mark had not been there before and he wanted to experience the Paisley Saloon, established in 1883 and still serving customers. The trip over took us past Fort Rock and east through the high desert of Oregon under wispy skies with the steam from the nearby hot springs contributing to the mystical scene.

The Paisley Saloon has a lot of character and history. In fact, it turns out Steph's grandfather patronized the saloon on occasion so she took great pleasure in ordering a drink (Steph doesn't normally drink but she felt the need to honor her ancestor). 

Well, Diana decided to look up the history of William Sherlock and she located his grave less than 2 miles away so after lunch, away we went to the cemetery to find ol' William.

How exciting it was to find the headstone. He was only 47 when he died in 1910.

After the cemetery and on the way back to Cabin Lakes, we stopped to hike to the oldest known human habitation in North America, the Paisley Caves where it was discovered that a human had defecated in the caves thousands of years ago. It is amazing to think about how resilient humans were and imagine how it would have looked like to stand along the caves and look out to what once was a huge lake. 

Returning to our campsite, we rekindled the fire and Kasey added one big log to the fire to be sure that we had plenty of warmth for the evening.

The next morning was time to clean up and get ready for departure. Liz helped sweep the dirt off of our mat but had to sweep around Lincoln who decided that it was the best place to rest. When he finally got up, Liz was a little dismayed that she had to go back and sweep the area that had been under the dog and not accessible.

One last bit of fun before we left. Kasey flew the drone around the camp and Mark decided to try it out. They got some great pictures of our setup. Our little wagon train then had to depart for home.

Day 50: Virgin Valley Nevada - Roseburg Oregon- 320 miles "Homecoming!"

Janice woke up at 6:30 am before sunrise this morning and took the Boys out. I tried to feign sleep but I was also excited to hit the road for home. I started to get stuff to put in the Honda from the motorhome but discovered Janice had already accomplished that task as well. I did make breakfast and we talked about our day ahead and how great it would be to be home with our Comet Kitty and see our Friends and our beautiful Umpqua again. 

We took the Doherty Slide section of Oregon Route 140 toward Lakeview. It is an amazing road of steep decents and hairpin curves. At several points, the road, without guard rails,  is over 1,000 feet (100 stories) above the valley floor. Imagine winding your way down the road, driving a 28' motorhome pulling a car. Before the decent, a yellow sign says "Final warning, 8% slope head." It was exhilerating. Fortunately, there were only a few other vehicles on the road. It was stunningly beautiful. Doherty Slide - Oregon Route 140

I am so impressed with how well our motorhome and the breaking system in the Honda performed while we have been on the road. I am also proud of how well our roadtrip went. We traveled over 8,000 miles and made over 50 stops and never had any issues driving. It is challenging and dangerous if you are not comfortable and ready to deal with the unexpected. On our way west on 138 east near Crater Lake we saw a demolished 40' motorhome that went off the road and flipped. It looked like a can that had been twisted. It is very important to be very cautious and Janice always helps give me information while I am driving. We are a great team.

We love driving eastern Oregon because of the sparseness of population and amazing vistas. It is a rough and rugged area and it it is easy to imagine what it was like to travel the area in a Wagon pulled by a horse. Fortunately, we were moving much faster and made it home by 3:30.

It is wonderful to be home. We have lots of incredible memories and are so grateful for special times with Family and Friends and being able to attend the wedding of Ryan and Ryan. It was a perfect trip. Lots to process!

Lots of things to catch up on at home and with our work with Umpqua Watersheds.

Day 49: Tooele, UT to Virgin Valley, NV: 463 miles

We decided to cover some miles today and drive nearly the entire daylight hours. We filled up with water and left our host in Tooele (pronounced too will uh), Utah before 8am; one of our earliest departure times. 

We didn't even make coffee. Making a bee line for Interstate 80, we made plans for getting gas and coffee at the same time. We had 7 hours of driving planned if we were going to make it to Virgin Valley Campground west of Denio, NV. There is a hot springs on this free campground on Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. We stayed in the campground a couple of years ago in our May 2021 eastern Oregon trip with our friends Diana
Wales, Steph Neyhart, and Jim and Pat Arneson. Back then it snowed on us a little but we had a great time and scored the best spot in the campground near the Willow trees. We were hoping to get the same spot. 

I-80 took us west through the Bonneville Salt Flats with great views of the surrounding mountains. The roads are very straight and the speed limit in 80mph. But we are towing a vehicle and so 65mph is our limit. There are sculptures in the flats occasionally. One is called the Tree of Life.

 The Salt flats look tempting to drivers who think the flat land is an invitation to do some off road adventuring. It is clear from the deep tire indentations and a few immobile vehicles that the calculations of the drivers were in error. Tow truck drivers have a guaranteed income and insurance companies probably deny a lot of claims. The flats were used recently to direct the payload from a spacecraft sampling episode of the asteroid Bennu. That payload arrived in Utah this spring, flew on a military plane to Texas and the contents are currently being carefully studied.The Bonneville Flats Speedway is also used for vehicle speed tests. The movie The Fastest Indian with Anthony Hopkins kept coming to mind. My nephew, Chris, has been here to test vehicles from GM. I suppose that all the auto manufacturers have trips frequently here to test the speed of their new creations. Not every spot on the flats is appropriate, as we know.

The 2 lane highway with its opposing traffic of 18 wheelers created wind turbulence events that shook the motorhome right and left for a few moments. The need to anticipate and react was a constant job of the driver, Kasey. I offered several times to help drive, but he has his butt print embedded in the driver side and does not want to break in another seat.

We made the miles go quickly by reading the latest news stories from politics where the government may shut down because a handful of representatives in Congress feel emboldened enough to extort from the speaker of the house that needs to keep the country functioning. So much so that if he does not agree with them, he will renig on an agreement with the president of the US or face being ousted. How did he get into that situation? Sorry to get into politics, but our lives are affected. Every one of us is affected. We like reading Heather Cox Richardson's commentary and summary of the daily news. She is a historian (and a Republican, in case you are wondering). She writes about the state of our democracy and invokes parallels from the past. We also pass the time looking up the various interesting features along the way such as the flats, then Elko, NV, and Winnemucca, NV. Interesting history there especially Winnemucca. 

We stopped in Winnemucca to get gas, give the dogs a potty break, and get some topical muscle relaxant for Lincoln who seems to be a bit limpy. I keep forgetting about that nasty puncture vine. It stops a dog in his tracks. Poor guys. I had to pick the burs out one foot at a time.

Winnemucca has some interesting history. The Piute occupied the area before the white settlers arrived. Chief Winnemucca, for whom the town was named, had a daughter, Sarah,  that became fluent in English. She became a champion of native and women's rights. She was controversial because she acted as an interpreter for the military and pursued friendly relations with the Anglo-American settlers which was not viewed favorably by some. Winnemucca published Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims (1883), a book that is both a memoir and history of her people during their first 40 years of contact with European Americans. It is considered the "first known autobiography written by a Native American woman." She has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

We got some radio reception but in this part of the country, we lost radio and Internet for much of the rest of the trip.

We arrived at Virgin Valley Campground at 5pm and wouldn't you know it, our desired campsite was available. We do have good karma. We ventured into the swimming pool sized hot springs which is the temperature of about 85 degrees. It was warm enough but could be a bit warmer for my standards. It felt good to get the dust off of us. Our dermis approved. We were the only ones in the hot springs. Sweet.

Besides puncture vine, another thing that I won't miss is that the dry air plays havoc on the nostrils. In western Oregon, there is enough moisture in the air that we apparently avoid the bloody nose syndrome. It happens every time we are in Eastern Oregon or further east. If you experience that, know that it is normal. Enough of that.

There is an opal mine near the campground that one can pay to explore. We walked the road from the campground with the dogs and found obsidian most frequently. A few coyotes seemed to be trying to interest our canines, but we scurried back to the motorhome as the nearly full moon made its appearance. Kasey cooked dinner and we played cards. Tomorrow, we will be home to see our sweet Comet.

Day 48: Utahraptor State Park to Tooele Utah 252 miles "Getting Closer!"

We started the day looking for dinosaur footprints and fossils at the Utahraptor State Park where we stayed the last two days. We saw several footprints and found (and left) some rocks which looked like they may have fossilized bones in them. It was fun traveling the dusty roads in the Honda. 

It was amazing to see this rugged landscape and imagine how dinosaurs roamed the area for millions of years before they were wiped out by a cataclismic event. I thought about how the native people in this area lived for thousands of years in relative harmony with natural processes before European settlment. It is sad and concerning how quickly the landscape has changed in less than 200 years.

After we left our campsite we drove a few miles down the road to the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Track Site and saw over 200 dinosaur tracks. The signs were excellent and explained how, when and what types of dinosaurs left the tracks.

We then headed toward Salt Lake City and our Boondocking Host Site in Tooele Utah. The drive was over 4 hours but the driving was relatively easy because traffic was light and the roads were in good shape. We saw some pretty Fall colors as we drove as well as the Great Salt Lake.

We got to our Boondocking Host site around 5pm and were greeted by Steve, our host, just as he left for 9 holes of golf. He welcomed us and directed us were to park and invited us to plug in for electricity, water and to use his backyard.

We took the Boys for a walk. Janice made dinner and we sat near the garage and enjoyed our meal. We planned out our next stop and hope that we will be home by 6 on Thursday if we are able to drive over 750 miles in the next two days.

Around 7:30, Mary, Steve's wife of 42 years, came out and talked with us and shortly Steve got home from golf. We sat and talked and had some beers and then Steve and Mary's neighbor, Joe joined us.

It was a delightful evening and a perfect ending to our Boondocking experience for this trip. I wish I had gotten a picture of our group but we were talking and laughing so much that time got away from us and it was after 10 pm! We are so grateful for their hospitality and hope they will visit us in Oregon after Mary retires.

Day 47: Arches and Canyonlands National Park

Today would be a day of over 300 pictures. I won't put that many here. 

It started with sunrise in red rock country. We camped just north of Moab was BLM land but is now managed as the Utahraptor State Park. Utahraptor is a relative of velociraptor, and was recently discovered in this area, so they are naming their newest park after the dinosaur. The area will have 80 campsites in the future with flush toilets and electrical (rolls eyes). I guess this is the first and last time for this campsite. We like the less structured camp spots but the amount of people over the years is taking its toll so they need to gain control to protect the area. 

BLM also had a dinosaur trail nearby that allowed dogs so we went for a walk to check it out. Although not a National Park, many areas nearby have equally stunning landscapes. We saw many fossilized dinosaurs. The signage was informative. BLM has done a nice job on the displays.

 Unfortunately our appointment for getting into Arches NP was quickly approaching. A new reservation system is in place for Arches NP. Ours was at 11am so we got moving so we could be there on time. When we arrived the line to get in was so backed up. It was a 30 min wait. The reservation system charges a processing fee so even though we have one of those lifetime passes, they still got a few bucks out of us and we got the priviledge of waiting 40 min to get into the park. 

I have to say though that it was not crowded and made for a more enjoyable experience. It was worth the two bucks. I am so glad that I checked the park info a couple of days in advance. About 15 people an hour are turned away at the entrance because they did not get a reservation. 

Once we got in, we were not disappointed. The stunning, massive, rock formations rolled out before us. Delicate Arch was fairly busy with buses rolling up every few minutes. It is, aferall, a very recognizable image.

 We snapped a few pictures and headed for The Windows which were more impressive. Still the parking lot was filled. Kasey went on up to the Arches, about a mile walk, and I drove around until a parking spot opened. I stayed with the dogs with windows down. You can still see a lot from the parking lot. Double Arch was very prominent. 

After Arches, we headed to Canyonlands NP. It is almost 30 miles from Arches. It lies on the Mesa separating the Green and Colorado Rivers which is essentially the headwaters of the Grand Canyon. There is a crazy switchback road that that is called Shafer Canyon. We did not drive it, it looked too much like work. We also didn't have 2 hours to spend on it, but got a good look at it from above.

Canyonlands did not disappoint. It was less crowded and no wait to get in. After seeing all the overlooks, we headed back to our motorhome, fed the dogs and went to town where we bumbled into another brewery. Moab Brewery was very busy, but we were seated right away, got a drink and ordered food. Our food was delivered quickly and was excellent. We were out of there in less than an hour.

Our camping area is quiet and has amazing views of the stars. What a day. 1000 miles to go and we will be home.

Day 46 - Mesa Verde National Park Colorado to Moab Utah 160 miles - Wonderment

We awakened after a peaceful rain during the night, had a nice pancake breakfast and headed to Mesa Verde National Park. It is a long and windy drive up to the top where the cliff dwellings are located. We left Lexy the motorhome at the visitor center with the Boys before heading up to the summit. Janice drove the Gray Toad and I took pictures on the way up and down. It is hard to capture the stunning beauty of Mesa Verde in words. We took LOTS of pictures.

We decided to take the Petroglyph Point Trail. It was about 4.5 miles and included climbing a lot of steps. We got a good workout and I rate it in the top 10% of hikes we have taken because of the fascinating history of the Cliff Dwellers. Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings

It was such a treat to walk the trails to the Petroglyphs and think about the lives they lived in these dwellings. It is amazing how resilient the Ancestral Pueblo people were to live so far up in the sky in the cliffs. I want to learn more about their history and culture.

After the hike we went to the Cliff Palace Overlook. We couldn't get tickets to go into the Cliff Palace but the Overlook was spectacular!

We got back to the motorhome around 2:30 and headed to Moab Utah. It was a beautiful drive with so many rock formations and valleys along the way. We found a primitive camping area on BLM Land but when we got there we discovered a lot of people were around there so we headed to a BLM undeveloped campground. There were a lot of campers here also but we found a perfect spot up on a little Mesa.

We are going to be here two nights so we can explore the area. Janice told me we are 1,000 miles from Home and if all goes as planned we will be Home on Friday!