Exploring

Wandering the Southern Oregon Coast, 2021

With Veterans Day falling on a Thursday we decided to make a long weekend of it and escape to a location that was too far for a regular weekend. With cold weather and some snow on the east side of the Cascades we narrowed down our choices and headed to the South Coast. The quickest way to get to the Brookings vicinity is actually through California, down Hwy 199, the Redwood Highway, so we took off and headed there for an overnight along the Smith River. Things have been brown and dry in Central Oregon for a while so it was nice to wake up to blooming shrubs and lots of green the morning of Veterans Day.

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To Ft. Rock and Back

The Bend Fort Rock Ranger District on the Deschutes National Forest used to be two districts. From 1921 to 1945 the Ft. Rock District was headquartered in Cabin Lake north of the town of Ft. Rock.

We spent a weekend exploring the old Ft. Rock side of the Deschutes, along with some adjacent BLM land. A few highlights were Oregon’s largest juniper tree and Derrick Cave.

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Colorado Leaf Peeping, 2021, Part 2

We woke up to snow, camped in the East Troublesome Fire, near Stillwater Pass, but it was just a dusting. We finished up the loop and aired up when we hit the pavement. Today we’d be headed south in search of more aspen, through Leadville and hoping to find a camp south of there.

Airing up at the end of Stillwater Pass

We planned to see about picking up some drive by pie in Grandby we heard about, and we pulled into town right at opening time. The proprietor had a slice of blueberry ready to go for us, and easily talked me into a butterscotch cookie to go along with the pie. If you are near Grandby, make sure to stop for pie!

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