Occidental – Page 79 – Occidentalist

Opal and Silver on the West Side, June, 2016

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2016-07-08
Post category:Hiking Truck Camping Uncategorized
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I guess if you are posting about June trips during the second week of July that means you are a bit behind. Such is life in the summer, days are long but they fill up with all kinds of things. We traveled to the west side of Oregon with a couple of objectives, and we actually over achieved.

We launched out of central Oregon on Friday afternoon with hopes of finding a spot to camp on the way to Opal Creek. Turns out we ended up passing our stopping point but were lucky enough to realize it was the best thing going and we turned around and claimed it after a bit of exploring and backtracking. This old logging landing on a ridge turned out to be one of the best camp spots ever. It was full of blooming bear grass, rhododendron, penstemon and several other wildflowers all in full bloom on a forest ridge with nobody around and as it turned out, nobody passed the entire time we were there.

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Grande Ronde River, June 2016

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2016-06-27
Post category:Fishing River Uncategorized
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It had been way too many years since I was on the Grande Ronde (2013 was the last trip), so I was pretty excited to make the trek across the state to get on the river. The Grande Ronde may just be the prettiest float trip in the state, but that probably depends on what you are looking for. The long drive and short flow window have limited trips to an every few years kinda affair. But here we were, after a half day trek to Minam the day before, ready to launch. As is my usual experience at the launch, it’s the big scene playing out. People who must, from all appearances, only rarely do this kinda thing. You’ve seen them, they have gear spread hither and yon, taking up every available slot in the launch, no apparent direction, you could watch them and wonder if they are taking out or putting in they are making so little forward progress. And here I was thinking it was called a boat launch because, what, you launch your boat there….oh, no, that is the place to make meal decisions, load the cooler and decide what goes in which dry bag, and yes, take a break at the nearest table and eat your full breakfast! Yes, you wouldn’t expect us to eat breakfast before splaying our stuff out all over the ramp would you? How would we ever find something to eat until we unloaded everything? So we pushed the trailer and boat through the willows and…yep, launched and loaded the boat. OK, enough of the crowd, deep breath….

And we’re off, away from it all, just like that. (more…)

John Day Float, Service Creek to Clarno, 2016

Post author:Occidental
Post published:2016-06-10
Post category:Fishing River Uncategorized
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So much for plans. The plan was to take advantage of spring flows and spend Memorial Day weekend on the North Fork John Day. Well, spring must have ended a few days early, the snowpack was gone and the flow dropped like a rock during the week leading up to the launch. The night before departure the flow dropped below 800 cfs and we pulled the plug and looked downstream for an alternative. Friday we found ourselves at Service Creek and off we went.

Service Creek to Clarno is a popular float for Memorial Day, the flows are usually good and the weather hasn’t turned out quite too hot yet. This is the perfect recipe for crowds. Fishing wasn’t red hot the first day but there were definitely bass to be found. (more…)