The last post from our unexpectedly complicated trip to Oregon in early September left us marooned high up on the east side of the Imnaha River canyon on the Sunday evening before Labor Day. The sun was setting, and as we contemplated what to do about an oil pan left with a gaping hole rent from an encounter with a large chunk of basalt, it began to rain. Staying where we were was clearly imprudent, so I began to back the incapacitated EuroVan down the steep single-lane gravel road in neutral with the motor off and without the benefit of power steering or brakes, searching for a spot where I could turn the car around with a minimum of pushing. The cursing in my head continued unabated. The majority of our 6-person party walked in the gentle rain, so as to avoid putting undue stress on the brakes, and inadvertently causing yet more vehicle-related disasters.
As we crept backwards, fortune smiled in a small way, and my brother noticed that he had a blip of cell reception. Hot diggety! As remote as we were, we had not completely evaded Verizon’s kraken-like web, and the Google overlords were able to deliver us the phone number of Mike’s Garage in downtown Joseph, Oregon, a mere 35 miles away. We got through to a friendly, competent man named Kyle who found us around an hour later, driving an old International flatbed tow truck with over 500,000 miles on the original engine, all of them driven in Wallowa County. Kyle cheerfully informed us that a lot of folks hit rocks on that road - between the rocks, the deer, and the tourists, he has himself a livelihood. Fair enough. Because we could only cram 3 of our 6 person party into the cab of the International, the rest of us rode in the van up on the back of the flatbed for an hour in the rain back to Joseph.
Luckily, The Ponderosa Motel in Enterprise, OR, had one room empty at 9:30p the night before Labor Day, and the room just happened to have enough beds for all of us. We dropped the van in front of Main Street Motors, and prepared to wait until Tuesday morning when business as usual would resume and we could assess what path was in store for us next.
We had initially set out for Oregon because my mother was getting married that coming Saturday on the coast. My only fear at this point was that it could take a significant amount of time to find a replacement oil pan for a EuroVan in a county where Fords, Dodges, and Chevrolets are the clear favorites - perhaps because it’s easy to find parts for them. Unsurprisingly, the nearest oil pans available were in Portland, but it turned out that among the good people of Enterprise, there are a few residents who are talented aluminum welders. After three unexpected but comfortable nights in The Ponderosa, the fine people at Main Street Motors bid us on our way, and I’ve never been happier to pay competent people for a service rendered.
All in all, that one moment of poor decision-making ended up costing a little over $1K, but we spent a fine Labor Day exploring the public bus services of Joseph and Enterprise. We even made it to the coast in time for the wedding, and with time to spare to explore Oneonta Gorge with my father. Despite growing up in the greater Portland area, I had never seen the falls pictured here. They are accessed by negotiating a slippery log jam at the mouth of a narrow canyon, then wading upstream through several chest-deep pools.
Explored 2015-10-19
Tags: waterfalls water gorge Oneonta Gorge Oneonta Oneonta Falls Columbia River Gorge Oregon canyon moss sunlight forest Pacific Northwest
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That I came to be here, at this moment, to take this photograph, is testament to one hasty and extremely poor decision on my part. We entered the southern reaches of Hells Canyon, where it is not so deep, early in the day, and 6 of us plus a dog in one EuroVan had traveled for many hours as we made our way northward along the Imnaha River valley. My goal was to reach Hat Point on the western rim of Hells Canyon for sunset and camp. I had estimated from the map that it was probably about 12 miles up a steep gravel road from the town of Imnaha, Oregon, to the campsite at Hat Point.
When we arrived at the road junction in Imnaha, it was 6:00p, and everyone was visibly tired of being in a cramped space while traveling on twisty gravel roads. Thusly, I was dismayed when the sign at the road junction indicated it was not 12 miles to Hat Point, but 24 miles. The road is narrow, one-lane gravel with turnouts, and it climbs over 2000 feet very quickly at the beginning as it ascends the eastern ridge of the Imnaha River canyon. Maximum speed is around 20 miles an hour, so this meant we would not make it into camp until a little after 7:00p - another hour in the car.
For a variety of reasons, the decision was made to push onward to the campsite, rather than turning the other way and risk trying to camp nearer to Joseph, OR - a popular destination for tourists in NE Oregon - on Sunday night before Labor Day. So I was trying to make haste, pushing the trusty EuroVan as fast as it would go up the ridge. I rounded a bend, and I noticed there had been a slide of small-ish looking rocks across a portion of the road. Not wanting to slow down, I judged the van could clear the rocks, and was rewarded for that decision with a loud bang from the undercarriage of the car. I immediately shut off the engine, my oldest son informed me that he could smell something, and I leaped out of the car to inspect the damage below. I then bore witness to, along with my hopes for the evening, the entire volume of engine oil pouring out of the sundered oil pan and into the dust of the road gravel. A 2 inch by 1.5 inch hole gaped at me from the gathering darkness underneath the Van. I next experimented with a variety of curse words and phrases - I think the words "proper fucked" may have been uttered more than once.
How we got down is too long to tell here, but I want to credit my wife Eldora for being an incredibly solid person in the hours that followed. She was supportive, positive, and full of good ideas with respect to what needed to happen next, and she even insisted I accept the fact that what happened, came to pass, and there was no use throwing a verbal fit. I tried to see the wisdom in her words, but it took some time for the truth to sink in and for me to stop silently cursing myself. However, I was able to see the beauty in the sunset when it began to happen. As I looked up from the oil-soaked road, the sun illuminated the Wallowa Mountains and the Eagle Cap Wilderness in the west, and the ridges at the doorstep of Hells Canyon glowed in late day light.
Tags: evening golden light golden hour Imnaha Canyon Wallowa Mountains Eagle Cap Wilderness sunset canyon
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A pair of giant Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) partially obscure the Milky Way on the Oregon Coast near Cascade Head. These specimens were over a meter and a half in diameter, and quite impressive. The rest of the duration of our stay it was so foggy that stars had to be imagined.
Tags: galaxy Milky Way stars trees spruce Sitka Spruce Picea sitchensis Oregon Coast Oregon Cascade Head
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Flecks of foam race across the surface of a pool along the Lostine River in Northeastern Oregon. I first went up the Lostine over 20 years ago on a backpacking trip with my mother and brothers. The road up the Lostine is one of the primary ways to enter the Eagle Cap Wilderness in the Wallowa Mountains - a blessedly oft-forgotten place for most of humanity.
My brother and I have a habit of jumping into cold rivers, and I was fortunate to be traveling with him on this most recent trip. This river was extraordinarily cold, to the point where it took my breath away, and I did not want to double-dip! I imagine the temperature was somewhere in the low to mid forties.
Tags: river Lostine River water cascades Oregon pool Wallowa Mountains forest
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Purples infuse the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge on a January evening in SW Washington State. Though the visuals are tranquil, the refuge hosts hundreds of Trumpeter Swans in the winter, and their calls add a wild dimension to the experience.
Tags: Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge sunset reflections Washington
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