Memoirous

Up till now we were in the forest, under huge fir trees and waterfalls. As we got started the next day there was more open road and a divided road with . . . signs! We actually had a solid idea of where to go next. Leading us to Crater Lake. Here we were in the high Cascades, snow-capped peaks and  coat-weather, or else heavy sweatshirts. We stopped first to take pictures of Eagle Rock and a pumice desert, all relics of or evidence of the volcanic activity that formed this area. We made it to the rim of Crater Lake—a big hole blasted by volcanic explosion and filled in by numerous seasons of rainfall—the deepest in the United States at a depth of 1,949 feet. We crossed snow banks to get to photo points. I’m not even going to bother describing the color of the water. I will never see that color again in nature—so deep, so blue, so purple, so startling brilliant. A sapphire comes the closest, but still not hitting the mark. Instead of riding our bikes around the lake, our origin...

We got up early and struck the campsite. We were actually finishing breakfast when the first drops fell. No problema, we hopped in the car and drove (the wrong way at first) down the road, looking for Toketee Falls. Toketee Falls is one of the most famous waterfalls in all of Oregon, renowned far and wide for the graceful columnar basalt formation framing the two-stepped falls. The North Umpqua River has carved a sinuous gorge out of the lava flow, resulting in a waterfall of 113 feet in height - a 28 foot upper tier which plunges into a pool flanked by a deep alcove, followed by an 85 foot plunge into a large pool. Despite the 200 steps to get to it, it was an EASY hike. Again the rain was not so bad. Then we went looking for Umpqua Hot Springs in the area. This again was difficult as we were clueless. Eventually we found a trailhead (Hindsight later would tell us we could drive closer to the Springs and park for a $5 fee, Next time.) and began a 2-mile hike through thick forest and d...

The next morning after waking up to spotty sunshine was to dry out the tent and take stock of where we were. We had no map, data, or GPS. The best could do was ping the phone and see the dot of our car moving on an unnamed road. As I was spreading my rain fly out on the middle of the tiny asphalt forest road a cyclist came by. She lived literally at the boundary of the national forest and knew the roads well. We snapped a pic of her map with our phone and she gave us some advice for that day’s travel. Stay on the paved roads. Yes, we thought. We can do this. We stopped at Parker Falls for a quick hike and were on our way in search of the illustrious paved road. This again turned out to be a bit of a misnomer. What started out as a 50 mph roadway again narrowed as we climbed higher. And higher, and higher. We crossed rock fields from slides and S-curves with no guard rails on the sides. We heard the soft whoosh wind makes in mountains and the scream of some raptor gliding by. We wer...

My Camping Trip in the Umpqua Forest/High Cascades   Now, let me first remind my readers—both of you—I get lost, a lot. But this trip was definitely off the map from my normal getting lost. Mainly because we didn’t even have a map. At least not at first. I had a friend come out from Chicago for a week and we hatched a plan to go car camping. A former workmate at the bike shop loaned us his car. A white Volvo that looked great parked in a driveway, but awfully small tootling down forest roads beneath a canopy of giant cedars and spruces. But, I’ll get to that in a moment. Suffice it to say, my friend wasn’t much better with directions. After riding bikes around Lake Dorena and snapping photos at the 11 or so covered bridges along the route, we loaded the bikes up and rode into the Umpqua National Forest, where blue skies turned into patchwork beneath the thick foliage. I was surprised that the sun set at 7 instead of 9 or 10 at night. But, I’ll get to that. We traveled t...