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.