South to Crater Lake

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When we were planning out our travels surrounding the solar eclipse, we had booked some spots heading into southern Oregon after the eclipse. The original concern was dealing with the upcoming Labor Day holiday. Oftentimes spots are hard to come by during the big holidays so we had booked a spot back in early May. The trouble was, it seems to be a bit early in the season to be heading south plus there were two geocaching spots we really would like to get to before we consider our trip to the Pacific Northwest to be complete. One is a bit southeast of Portland Oregon while the second is in the mountains just east of Seattle Washington. Both of these are well north of where we are but when we attempted to change our reservations a month or two ago, we were not having any luck finding an opening over Labor Day in northern Oregon. I suppose we should have put a bit more thought into the plans 4 months ago and we could have booked a spot heading in the direction we now want to go. But that's just how it goes sometimes.

Don't get me wrong, we are excited to be heading to our next stop. It will take us to one of the places on many traveler's bucket lists - Crater Lake National Park. The campground we are staying at is Collier Memorial State Park which is about a 45 minute drive from Crater Lake. Right now, there are some pretty large wildfires burning in the Crater Lake area. Of course, that type of problem cannot be predicted so we just have to roll with the punches. It is a rather smoky drive from Bend to Chiloquin but it is also a pretty short drive at just under 110 miles. We chill out at a rest stop along the way to kill some time before the 4 PM check in time. The site we are in is a full hookup 50 amp site. Which isn't typical for state parks, but this one has a few full hookup sites. There are enough trees that we can't put out our awning, but we also find that there are enough trees that we don't need to put out our awning. But they are pine trees and we find that the pine cones dropping onto the roof of the rig became a bit of an annoyance.

Our first full day, we decide to drive to Crater Lake. As we are approaching from many miles out, it looks like the whole place is socked in with smoke but we continue our drive and are pleasantly surprised to find the smoke levels are not too bad once we get into the park. There is road construction during the week so a portion of the 33 mile rim road around the crater is closed but that left the 25 miles along the south, east and north still open to traffic. Since the smoke conditions were decent, we decided to skip the visitor center and do the drive to numerous overlooks while we had a chance to see things.

Crater Lake

Crater Lake was formed less than 8000 years ago when Mount Mazama erupted spewing debris over hundreds of miles. When things settled down, there was a huge hole in the mountain that slowly filled with rain and snowmelt. Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the USA at 1943 feet. The lake is roughly 5 to 6 miles across. We decided not to spend the $42 per person for a boat ride figuring we could enjoy the views from above for free.

Waterfalls

Still a Bit of Snow in September

Another Viewpoint

Just a Little Smoky Haze

When we got to the north end of the rim road, you could see the smoke coming from less than a mile away. We didn't see any flames at that point but you knew they were there. With the road closed for construction further west, we start to drive back the way we came. Along the southeast portion of the rim road, is another road that takes you back to the Pinnacles. There was both an earthcache and a traditional cache hidden just down a trail along the pinnacles to a point just outside the national park boundary. I'm glad we took the detour to go check the place out. At first glance, the rock formations look a bit like the hoodoos at Bryce Canyon. But these were formed in a much different manner. Each spire represents what used to be a vent for some of the hot gasses before the eruption took place. The heat from the escaping gasses welded the various minerals into a very hard lining for each vent. Over the last several thousand years, the softer rock surrounding each vent was eroded away, leaving these spires which are often still hollow.

Smoke from Fires on North Side of Crater Lake

Pinnacles in Foreground

Pinnacles on One Side of Valley

On the way back from the Pinnacles but before getting to the rim road, there is a trailhead for a one mile hike back to a waterfall. Plaikni Falls trail was a nice walk. It was even listed as handicap accessible but it seemed to me that it would be a bit of a challenge for a wheelchair or scooter. The water is not coming from the lake but just from snowmelt. It seems to be awfully late in the summer for there still to be snow to feed this waterfall. I know they normally average 14 feet of snow each winter, but this past winter was an exceptionally bad one. There were lots of wildflowers in bloom right along the water and lots of moths or butterflies all over the place while we were visiting.

Plaikni Falls

Colorful Moth

We stopped by the visitor center to watch the park video and get our national passport book signed. By stopping at Crater Lake early in our stay, we should be able to fit in a second visit before we head out of the area. This is definitely a very nice park that even the smoky conditions can't cover up.

The next day we head south to the town of Klamath Falls. We don't have any particular places to see but it is the closest "big" town in the area. We stop at a couple different bike shops and we each take a bike out for a test drive. I came close to getting the Trek that I rode, but it seemed to be just a bit too big of a frame. A quick stop at the library to replenish our phones with TV shows and movies on the Amazon Prime App. We have been finding this works out well for those evenings when we need some sort of television entertainment but don't t have TV reception or there isn't anything worth watching.

Part of Collier Memorial is a logging museum. It is on the opposite side of the highway and a creek, but they have bridges and underpasses to allow us to simply walk from the campground to the museum. As a guy, I found that the machinery and signs describing the stuff to be quite interesting. They have the equipment grouped into different eras so it is possible to see how the logging process has changed over time. They offer free, ranger led wagon rides around the facility with a small and very old bulldozer as the means of pulling the wagon. We skip the ride, mainly because I wanted to take my time checking out everything more closely. All of the old cabins that have been relocated here have sprinkler heads over the center of each one. I suppose given the ever present fire danger, having the sprinklers operating during nearby fire events could keep a single ember from taking the whole place out.

Entrance Gate to Logging Museum

Intricately Carved Boots, Hat and Lunchbox

Old Log Skidder

Fixer Upper Dodge Truck

Wagon Tour

Old Cabin

Old Grocery Store

I discovered there is a trail out of the campgrounds that goes along the Williamson River. Chris wasn't in the mood for a ride, so I went solo. It turns out to be a pretty nice mountain biking trail with mostly easy terrain. The trail ends in a national forest campground. From the looks of it, most of the spots here are level and big enough for our rig. We might need to remember this place for any future visits.

Along Williamson River with Smoke in Distance

We met up with another couple we first ran into during the Newmar Kountry Klub rally in the desert at Quartzsite last January. Marge and Paul have been camping at Collier Memorial for a few months volunteering as camp hosts and at the logging museum gift shop. Their stay here was coming to an end as the camping season wraps up. We got together for dinner one night to catch up on things and just get to know them better. They will be heading east to the NKK fulltimers and the international rallies in Missouri this fall. I suppose the rallies would have been fun to attend. We could catch up with other Newmar owners we have met in the past and meet some new couples but we still have lots we would like to see and do while up in the Pacific Northwest and Missouri seems like a long ways away.

Staying here for a week, it becomes clear that we are situated in the middle of chipmunk country. There are dozens of them and they are everywhere. They obviously have become accustomed to having people and RVs around and are very impressive beggars.  There were times as we step out of the rig, we nearly step on them. Chris even had one jump up on the corner of her chair while reading outside. Back in our home in Rush NY, we had a chipmunk problem and I would catch the little buggers in a small Have-a-Heart trap, let our dog Shelby watch them for 20 minutes then take them back to the pond to go "swimming". Over the years, I lost track of how many I had caught. But I'm pretty sure I know where chipmunks go to heaven - the campgrounds at Collier Memorial State Park! The upside to having so many chipmunks around, the grease tray on our grill is now perfectly clean!

Meet Chip, He Wants to Clean Your Grill

We did have a few times during our stay where the winds were just right to cover the campgrounds with a thick cloud of wildfire smoke. We even had ash in the air. On those days we tended to put on the air conditioning and just stay out of its way. All of the places we have been in Oregon have had a burn ban in place, but that doesn't mean we don't get to have the the smell of campfires wherever we go. We did get to make it back to an interesting spot in the forest just north of the campgrounds during one of the smoky days. Spring Creek which runs into the Williamson River near the campgrounds is a pretty impressive creek. Lots of water flowing with some sections of rapids to watch and enjoy. Most of the water flowing here comes from a section in the forest about two miles away that is literally bubbling out the water from the ground. Not just one big spot, but dozens of spots. I found pictures didn't really do the place justice so I have a video I shot more for the sounds than the views.

We wanted to get back up to Crater Lake again and had been trying to gauge the smoke levels to see which day might work. We ended up going on Labor Day which worked out well because the road construction crew was off so the west rim road was open to traffic. Much of the "road" was torn up and just gravel. This isn't a simple repaving project. Several of the scenic overlooks had all sorts of construction equipment and huge piles of gravel and other supplies.  Even if the road wasn't great, the views we got were pretty nice. One of the virtual geocaches we tackled took us to Crater Lake Lodge. This place is quite remarkable both inside and out. I can only imagine what the guest rooms must be like. Quite a few of them definitely have great views.

Road Construction at Crater Lake

Crater Lake Trolley Wasn't Running Because of Fires

Crater Lake Lodge

View of Crater Lake with Lodge on Right

Fireplace Inside Lodge

Nice Craftsman Style Furniture

Sinnott Memorial Overlook

The fires we had seen the last time we were here a few days earlier had grown considerably. As we got back to one of the more popular overlooks of Crater Lake, the billowing clouds of smoke on the opposite side of the road were nearly as impressive. At one pullout, we got a good view of the actual fire. Every now and then you could see one of the trees light up like a match. There were two firefighters at the overlook basically watching the fire progress. Since there are no towns or buildings in the path of this portion of the fire, they are letting the fire burn and waiting for the fall rain or snowfall that will put the fire out. Not that we want to see the forest burning, but I will admit it is a very impressive sight.

Huge Plume of Smoke

Overlooking Wizard Island with Smoke Nearby

Fires Raging

One of Many Beautiful Buildings

Next to the Visitor Center

View Along Annie Creek

For our last full day, we head southeast to the town of Sprague River. There is an old railway converted to bike/hike trail that sounded interesting. Another cacher had placed dozens of geocaches all along the trail - roughly every tenth of a mile. We find a parking spot next to the little library in town and head out. This turned out to be one of those plans that was better on paper than in practice. At first we headed east. We weren't having much luck with finding each geocache, plus it is really tough to get into any type of bicycling flow when you need to stop every 500 feet or so and look around in bushes for caches. So we decided to just ride past them and if we feel like stopping for a break, we could be sure there would be a cache to look for not too far away.

Oc&E Woods Trail in Sprague River

Well this place is high desert country and the trail to the east had no real trees to provide any amount of shade. The sun beating down on us made us turn around after a couple miles. Possibly the trail to the west was better? There might be a few more trees in that direction, but the gravel surface was rather thick in spots so you needed to keep your speed up in order to plow through them. It didn't take long before we decided we could find a better place to ride. So we made our way back to the car and headed back to camp and I showed Chris the forest trail I had done the other day back to the primitive campgrounds. This was much more our type of bike ride.

Bend Oregon

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With our two nights in Sisters ending, we are heading just a bit further south to Bend. We are hoping for better air quality but I guess we won't hold our breath. The plan is to stay at the Elks Lodge. They only have 9 spots but two of them are not large enough for our rig. When we pull in at first we think we are in luck. One of the spots seems to be open. However once we get closer, it turns out the spot is taken but by a shorter rig so we didn't see it at first. We pull over into an area to the side of the lodge that appears to be where the overflow rigs park but don't completely setup. When we go in to register, we find they are having a lunch special that sounds pretty good so we sit down for lunch. One of the guys in charge tells us we can park in a different portion of the lot closer to the street. The advantage is that it's more level and completely paved instead of the dusty area we had picked. The disadvantage is that it's closer to what turned out to be a pretty busy road. We pay for 6 nights of boondocking but hope that something opens up before we leave. It turns out to be quite a busy place. Before night falls, there are four additional rigs boondocking there. 

Sunset at Bend Elks Lodge with Smoky Skies

While we were eating breakfast the next morning, we see one of the larger motorhomes pulling out of the lodge. Chris runs over to confirm there is an opening and quickly gets the Jeep moved into the spot to hold it. It doesn't seem like anyone else had even realized the spot had become available. We pack up the rig to drive it about 400 feet to the other side of the building. It's not like everything needs to be done but it still takes a bit of time before we are squeezed back into the site with 50 amp and water. When we go in around lunch time to pay for the new site for 5 nights we discover they are having fish and chips for lunch so we stick around for that. We have found that all the Elks Lodges seem to have friendly people. Be it, locals that might give us the inside scoop for things to check out while we are in the area, or fellow travelers that share some tidbits from their travels. 

We used to be much more avid bicycle riders in our younger years. Back in the late 1980's and early 1990's, we had purchased 5 bicycles and a tandem. We had done two different long bicycle trips - one around Lake Ontario and another in Nova Scotia.  In 1991, we had even taken 7 weeks to bicycle from Los Angeles to Nags Head North Carolina. So when we decided to sell everything to become fulltimers, we ended up getting rid of many of our trusty steeds and only kept our two mountain bikes. These bikes have seen lots of trails and I have maintained them very well but since they are approaching 30 years of age, we decided that it might make sense to come into the 21st century and get new bikes with nicer features. If we are going to buy new bikes, it only makes sense to do so while we are in Oregon since there is no sales tax.

Chris and Her New Friend in Downtown Bend

We head into the Old Mill District in Bend which turns out to be just a huge bunch of shops. One of them is REI so we take some time to check out the bikes and at least try to get a feel for what is available at different price points. Chris keeps reminding me that our current bikes or any new bikes are going to spend their lifetime in the outdoors. They don't get to live in the family room like our other bikes had. So even though I might really like a $4000 full suspension bike, it might drive me crazy to see it suffer from all sorts of bad weather we might experience as we wander the country. Like normal for two engineers, we don't make any impulse purchases. In fact we didn't even test ride any. Right now we are (I am) in a fact finding mode.

The mill district was really crowded and we discovered why. Just across a pedestrian bridge is a large craft fair. The vendors seemed to be selling pretty nice things, not your normal fair fare. Turns out it is a juried show where all the vendors have to apply and be selected to participate. Of course, we really don't need or have room for many of the items I found interesting. 

View from Pedestrian Bridge at Mill District

We noticed dozens of people floating down the river in tubes or rafts. It turns out that tubing on the Deschutes River is a very popular activity. We subsequently discover that the town has put in a bit of a whitewater park at one portion of the river. People have the option to go over a handful of small rapids or walk their tube the couple hundred feet past them if they aren't feeling adventurous. Next to the rapids section is a place where they have a drop off that has formed a standing wave. There are ten or more people with their surfboards waiting for their turn to hang ten. Some of the surfers are obviously quite skilled and could likely continue for long periods of time, but they eventually give way to the next one in line. There were a few that would barely get into the water before the surfboard goes flying one way and the surfer the other. As they wash downstream they swim over to the shore to come back up and stand in line for another attempt. Looks like fun but not something we would try!

Surfing the Deschutes River

Wipeout as Board Goes Flying

Tubers Having Fun

Big Group Holding On

As we continue to have some smoky days, we find we are getting outdoors less. It's kind of a bummer since this area seems to have lots of interesting things to check out. On one of our slow days, we head over to Pine Nursery Park.  It's a nice little park with the standard playground and ball fields and trails. We do some geocaching as we walk around the park. We discover there is a disc golf course, but we never find the chance to make it back for a round. There were several rugby games going on while we were there. One was a men's game and the other was a women's game. We don't know much if anything about the rules of rugby and after watching the women play for ten minutes, I don't think I figured it out any better. 

We finally get some better air quality - not great, but better than we have been experiencing. We head west of town to the Mount Bachelor area. We know not to attempt any serious elevation hiking with the slightly smoky conditions but we head to The Todd Creek trailhead. There are three trucks with horse trailers in the parking area but we never come across them or anybody else for that matter. The trail we have picked to hike has several geocaches along it and is part of the Metolius Windigo Horse trail. It's a 100 mile trail that runs primarily north/south on this side of the mountains. Since this is an arid area, the horse trail is unlike many we have attempted to hike. Usually we find horse trails to be muddy messes. This had some really dusty sections but was generally a fine hiking trail. We ended up doing a total of 7 miles which was plenty long enough given the conditions.  

Parking Area at Todd Creek Trailhead

A Glimpse of Snow on Mountain

Creek with Lots of Wildflowers

Bright Red Berries 

At Scenic View Heading Back to Bend

The next day our air quality was reasonable again so we went to an area just west of town along Skyliners Drive. There are lots of trails out this way. Much of it is used for mountain biking but we opt to just hoof it. There were a series of caches where you needed to find one cache in order to be told where the next one was. It is kind of like a multicache but you get credit for each of the intermediate caches you find. The series hadn't been found in nearly a year so it was a good challenge. We find ourselves hitting the southern tip of Shevlin Park which might be a good destination on a return trip. Not having good trail maps definitely hindered our ability to navigate from one to the next. Towards the end of the day, we found ourselves high up on a ridge overlooking a stream below, but it took us what seemed like forever to navigate a trail that did eventually wind its way down to the water. This turned out to be a 6 mile hike but with all the trails and geocaches, we could have easily come back several days without seeing it all. 

View Near Shevlin Park

On our last full day in town, we visited another couple of bike shops. I have started to narrow down what I am looking for but we are still trying to figure out what Chris wants/needs for her next bike. We also stop at Pilot Butte State Park. It is basically the remnants of an old volcano that is pretty much in downtown Bend. On a clear day the views are probably spectacular. On this smoky day - not so much. Designating it a state park seems a bit overkill to us. It is basically a spiral drive up to the top with parking and information signs.

The Wildfire Smoke Ruins the Views from Pilot Butte

Since our next destination is more remote and we will be there for a week, Chris decides to go grocery shopping while the getting's good. It was a rather hot afternoon, so we had the shades pulled and the air conditioner running. About 90 minutes later when Chris returned, I come out to help unload the car and discover that the winds had shifted dramatically. It smelled like we were parked right next to a raging campfire. Worse than that, there was actually ash in the air. I guess the silver lining is that no embers were falling from the sky! Of course our next destination is heading towards Crater Lake National Park, where some of these wildfires are presently burning. We likely would have cancelled this stop if it wasn't over the Labor Day weekend. I guess we should just keep our fingers crossed that we don't end up surrounded by wildfires. 

The Total Solar Eclipse We Nearly Missed

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Many people had made plans to view the solar eclipse a year in advance. We hadn't put much effort into the planning until April and by then most of the campgrounds were completely booked. We had found a place to stay that was in the path of totality on a site called Boondockers Welcome. The site lists people that have room on their property to fit a visiting RVer. There are not a huge number of locations across the country, probably a few hundred. But we had found one just south of Madras Oregon that we had contacted in mid April to see if he had room for us during the eclipse. And he did!

On Boondockers Welcome, you are only expected to stay a night or two so that was what we had planned for. We were going to come in the day before the eclipse and leave the day after. We had even booked two days at different campgrounds on either side of those days so we could be sure we had a place to stay during the crowded time. But a week or two ago our host, Bob, called and told us the expected crowd in the central Oregon area was going to be massive and he suggested we come in a couple days earlier than we had planned. Fortunately our plans were rather flexible so we were able to shift the stops by two days and hopefully get there before the roads were too bad.

The drive out of Mount Hood Village to central Oregon takes you up and over the Cascade Mountain range. The drive is nice since there is a good view of nearby Mt Hood at many points along the uphill climb. Things were going well with a fair amount of traffic but it was moving right along. We were probably only 15 minutes into the drive going up a reasonably steep grade when we heard a loud thud from the rear of the coach and all of a sudden I had no power. Fortunately we were just coming up to a good sized paved pullout so I slowly worked my way of the side of the road. 

We had no warning lights on the dash, the engine seemed to be running fine, but we had no power. I shut it off and went out to see if I could find anything obvious like smoke, leaking fluid, steam, broken belt, etc. But I didn't see anything wrong. We called the 800 number for our chassis maker - Freightliner. After a bit of a wait, I gave the guy all the info I could. He concluded the transmission was stuck in the wrong gear. After trying one thing and pulling forward in the pullout a bit, I could tell it was no better. So he talked me through reprogramming the transmission. To see if this helped, I needed to pull out onto the road since my pullout was all used up. I waited for a break in the traffic and pulled out. I managed to get all the way up to 7 or 8 miles per hour. With flashers on, traffic used the passing lane to work its way around me in and there was another pullout we stopped at. 

We knew there was a rest stop at the top of the pass and it was only about 2 miles away. We tried one more thing suggested by the service guy on the phone and pulled out again. Still we had no power. We crawled until there was another pullout and figured we might need to call for roadside service. It was then I noticed an Oregon DOT truck behind us. I talked with him and he confirmed there was both a rest area and a ski lodge parking lot just a mile or two up the road. He had a big sign on the back of his truck that could display a flashing arrow and he agreed to follow us up until we could get to a larger parking area to regroup. It seemed to take forever but we made it and the ski lot was mostly empty with only a few dozen cars parked. We sat for a bit and it was starting to sink in that we would likely need to have the motorhome towed back to Portland for repairs and we would miss the eclipse or at least miss totality.

We unhitched the Jeep and I opened up the rear engine compartment to see if there was anything I might have missed. It was then I noticed that the 4.5" pipe that feeds the turbocharger had snapped a hose clamp and was disconnected from the charge air cooler. It looked promising that if I got a clamp, I could be in business. But where would I find a clamp? Not here in the town of Government Camp Oregon. But I could probably drive back towards where we were and find an auto parts store and get something that would work. It was just then that a guy who was working on a tour bus just on the other side of the parking lot walked over to see what our problem was. He and his buddy were sent out from a garage in Portland to work on a hydraulic leak on the bus. He wasn't sure if he had a clamp that would work but we went back to his truck and found that he had plenty of clamps too small and one too big. We decided we could daisy chain two smaller clamps and make it work. He put us back together and said it might hold until we get to where we were heading but it might not. There is a special clamp that is to be used in this situation so our solution was far from ideal. Chris had offered to make them sandwiches for his help since he wouldn't take any money. We snuck some cash in the bag with the food and I assume he eventually discovered it.

We drove the rig a couple miles through the town of Government Camp and it seemed to be running like normal. We came back and hitched up the car and continued on our way. The next 50 miles or so are mostly downhill and we seem to be doing okay. Just outside of Madras is another climb of about 800 feet. Halfway up the climb, we experience the same loss of power. We managed to crest the hill and start down into Madras. Even with all the people coming here for many big eclipse gatherings, we manage to get into a parking lot out of the way of traffic. We find there is a Freightliner service center about 25 miles away in Redmond. I call and find they have the right type of clamp, so I drive the Jeep there, get the clamp, come back and install it and drive the 10 remaining miles to our boondocking spot. 

Our guests are Bob and Peggy. They previously were fulltimers for quite a few years but had now settled down on their five acres near Terrebonne Oregon. Being on the dry side of the Cascades, most of the property is not irrigated so Bob shows us the general area he wants us to park and we pull in and setup. They were having about 4 other rigs staying and had actually expected a couple more but those people had cancelled when they heard how bad the traffic was expected to be. Other than a couple from the Netherlands with a rental RV, all the others were friends and family of the hosts. We got together the first evening and sat around the patio meeting everybody. 

Sunset in Terrebonne with Smoke from Sisters Fire

 

Cloud Looked Like Donut

Looking Over Boondocking Spot for Eclipse

Another View

With a couple days to kill before the big event, we went out and explored some of the area. Smith Rock State Park is not too far away so we headed there. Apparently we weren't the only visitors that decided this was a good place to be - the place was packed. Since we will be in Oregon for awhile and the state park pass is only $30, we opt for it. The park has many trail options. Some that go up and over the rock formations and others that follow along the Crooked River that runs through the park. Smith Rock is a big destination for rock climbers. There are dozens of people in small groups all along the river climbing various sections of the rock walls. We see many other places where there are anchors in the rock for climbing. We stop and are amazed at the strength and agility and either fearlessness or stupidity of the people climbing. Most seem to be attached to a safety rope but there were a few that were free climbing. At one point along the trail was a safety shack with a few tools, crutches and a metal stretcher for the inevitable accidents that may occur.

View at Smith Rock State Park

Stretcher and Crutches - Just In Case

A Couple of Climbers

There is a Guy Up There!

Slightly Closer View - He is Nearly Centered in Picture

Beautiful Late Afternoon View from River Trail

Also in town is an alpaca ranch - Crescent Moon Ranch. They are right along the main road in town and hard to miss since there are almost two hundred of the animals living in the many acres of fields next to the house and the store. They have lots of very young ones that look to be all legs. They even have a geriatric one that is 21 years old. They have bags of feed you can buy in the store and go out and wander along the fences feeding them as you go. The very young ones were uninterested in the handouts while the adults were very conditioned to come over for a bite. The problem with the adults was if more than one was trying to eat, they tended to get a bit aggressive. The most well behaved ones were surprisingly the juveniles. They would come over and eat quite nicely out of your hand. 

Inquisitive Alpaca

Chris Feeds a Juvenile

Mom and Baby

Chris Feeds Adult

Lots of Alpaca

Everyone Likes the Alpaca

Another tourist destination wasn't too far from our camping spot at Peter Skene Ogden State Park. It is located right where US 97 goes over the Crooked River. There are three bridges near one another. The current one carrying the highway, an active railroad bridge and then the former highway bridge that is now a pedestrian walkway with one exception. There is a big truck parked here with a platform that extends up and over the railing of the bridge so that people can bungee jump. With all the people visiting for the eclipse, this place was busy both times we were there. The platform is 300 feet above the river and by selecting the right bungee based on a person's weight, the person will fall 250 feet before being yanked back up to bounce around a few times before a hoist will pull them back up to the platform.

Looking Down the Crooked River

Leap of Faith

Train Heading North

 We stood and watched quite a few people jumping. Most would scream during the jump, but some would remain eerily quiet making us question if they had passed out on the way down. Most of the people would get up on the platform, let go of the railing, put their arms above their head and take the plunge in a matter of 15 or 20 seconds. One person obviously had second thoughts once she was staring at the river below. It was nearly 10 minutes before she got the nerve to jump - I'm pretty sure they didn't just push her but all the onlookers were cheering her to jump! Chris wanted nothing to do with it but I was contemplating it figuring you only live once. It's only $129 for the first jump and if you want to jump again, subsequent jumps only cost $49. I was informed I would NOT be doing it!

This Guy Wore a Rabbit Suit to Jump

Heading Down

Bouncing Back Up

On the morning of the eclipse, the ten of us got out our chairs, donned our eclipse glasses and sat on the driveway to watch the show. Bob had an app that accounted for our exact location and it would count down the various phases of the eclipse. I hadn't bothered to buy any special solar filters for any of my cameras. Since we had a couple extra pair of eclipse glasses, I was able to create a filter for my GoPro and found I could simply point my small Sony camera through the other half of the glasses. I had my Nikon DSLR on a tripod so I could shoot during totality. 

Watching the Eclipse

In hindsight, I should have put more thought into photographing this spectacle but I found myself more interested in just experiencing it. It turned out the video from the GoPro was far from impressive. Surprisingly the shots with the Sony were reasonable but small in size based on the focal length of the lens. I hadn't carefully focused the DSLR so they are a bit soft. Oh well, maybe we will get to experience the next one in 2024?

Composite of Eclipse

The afternoon after the eclipse, we went back over to the nearby park to watch bungee jumping again. It was then we saw the huge traffic jam heading south on US 97. Many of their people were probably heading home to California somewhere. The northbound traffic was light at this point, but was likely as bad or worse once you got the handful of miles up to the Madras area. I'm glad we opted to stay the extra night to let some of the craziness subside. 

Slow Moving Traffic After Eclipse

Bull in the Shade

From Bob's place, you could often see the smoke from the nearby Mille fire in Sisters Oregon. This one had turned bad and forced quite a few evacuations over that way. Our dilemma was that we had booked a spot in the town campground in Sisters. We called to ask what the fire and smoke status was before we headed out. At that point there was no real fire danger, and the smoke level would very quite a bit as the wind direction changed.  Even though the place was identified as "full", it was pretty empty. They have a no refund, no cancellation policy so I suspect many people just don't show up because of the fire and the sites go paid for but unoccupied. 

Before heading to Sisters, we swing by the Freightliner service center in Redmond. I want to understand if there is some underlying problem that caused the hose clamp to snap off the first time. I had noticed about an inch and a half lateral misalignment issue and suspected that something may have loosened to cause that. After a couple hours of investigation, it was determined there wasn't any real new problem. The original design of the bent pipe ahead of the turbocharger was not real good and there is a replacement one that can be installed. Of course it can only be installed if it is in inventory somewhere. Right now there are none available and it is unclear when they will be running another batch. They reassembled things as good as it probably was from day one and for the time being we will live with the status quo. 

Replacement Clamp

The drive from Redmond to Sisters is a short one so we didn't bother towing the Jeep. It seemed a bit odd to be driving into the smoke, but we took the word of the campground that there was no fire danger. Sisters Creekside Campground is a nice place under normal conditions. We opted to avoid any real strenuous hikes based on the air quality warnings we were experiencing. The town itself is a cute little place. We walked around and found the library, a good burger joint and a bakery with some good looking bread and coffee cake. For the most part we took it easy and stay inside as much as possible.