So our trip had an interruption and Nancy and myself flew back to Keene to take care of some business but we are back in Oregon now. We were lucky we could leave the camper with Chris. I'm not sure what we would have done if we were camping anywhere else.
The town Chris lives in is Lakeview, Oregon. It is a small town of about two thousand people. Life here is typical small town with a cowboy flair. Very dry and desert like conditions. A few recent sunset pictures.
The things that stand out to us are the fact that deer and quail, in large numbered groups, wander the town freely. They have become domesticated to the point that vehicles and people do not phase them as they wander through peoples yards and feed on the grass, flowers and shrubs.
Chris says the deer stay year round and the wildlife office employees do get a few nuisance calls about deer during the rut season. They tend to get tangled up in clothes lines and hammocks and other such things. During the rodeo they got a call about a deer wandering around the wood mill area in town, that is located near the fairgrounds, trailing a lasso rope that was around his antlers. They think someone got liquored up at the rodeo went home and decided they knew how to rope a deer. 😁
It is not unusual for us to leave the camper and see deer. This photo was from our camper window looking at Chris's house.
This fawn was spotted one day between the garage and car.
A doe feeding her two fawn twins in the yard across the street.
The quail are around constantly crossing the road and pecking in the grass and at pebbles in the street. It seems every night we see migrations of large groups numbering up to 20 or more. It keeps the neighborhood cats entertained.
On a walk downtown we saw this incredible sculpture of cowboy boots complete with spurs.
Every year during Labor Day weekend the Lake View County Round-up, complete with a rodeo and destruction derby, is held at the fairgrounds. It is a big draw from all over Lakeview County. Friday was the Ranch Rodeo event with cowboys and girls from local ranches. They had several different types of roping calf events. On Sunday they have a qualifier pro rodeo event. Monday we saw bull and bucking bronco riding.
One day we sat right behind a family and the father was a horse riding judge of the different competitions. One of his sons decided he needed a closer view of the action. A future cowboy for sure, dressed to the nines, and even had spurs on his boots.
In the pig livestock display area we got a good chucking from this sign. Of course we had to send it to Ashley and Jacob right away. 😁
Sunday night was the destruction derby and it very entertaining.
Unfortunately another yearly tradition in this area is summer wildfires. There is a nearby area of the Hart Mountain National Antelope preserve which is very close to Lakeview.
A very beautiful area.
They had a big fire on the top of the mountain this year and it has caused some smokey days here in Lakeview off and on. By the time we got to Lakeview it was 50,000 plus acres strong and over 500 firefighters battling to contain it. Chris is hearing the area may have to be closed of hunting, maybe for several years, because of the extent of the damage. Sad.
Nancy and I went for a ride to see what we could see from the nearby roads. On the way towards the area we saw the mountain and one hot spot coming down the hillside towards a very large lake. The top had burnt off many acres already and we saw signs of it where it had crept down the hillside in many different areas.
We saw a staging and camp area for the fire fighters near the lake.
Seeing this gave me even more admiration and respect for the dangerous and physically stressful work these firefighters do year after year.
We rode further and turned around to head back home. By this time we saw 3 and maybe 4 hot spots on the side of the hill. They were all heading towards the lake. It was very startling how fast this happened. There is maybe an hour gap between the pictures showing one hot spot to the pictures showing several spots.
On the ride back to Lakeview we went by a very large ranch. The Crane Creek Ranch. A very good motorcycle road with twisties and hill views.
It had several entrances like this one with different sculptures.
Earlier this week we went with Chris who had to deliver some equipment to the Summer Lake Wildlife site. Summer lake looked more like a salt flat than anything else. Not much water left. When I helped Chris move to Lakeview last February we went by and there was some water in the lake.
At the office Chris showed us the Marsh Master equipment they use to mow and control cattails, an invasive species. It can also be used to fight fires. Chris said the Summer Lake crew here is very excited about using this more in the future. With its track system it can go just about anywhere. The mowing deck is hydraulically powered with no belts to break.
Since I had followed Nancy and Chris on the bike I took a back road Chris had told us about on the way home. It started in Paisley.
It was a dirty job but I did not mind. 😀
It was about a 1.5 to 2 hour ride and I only saw one other vehicle until I got to Lakeview.
The Oregon area is popular with sportsmen and is one of the many reasons Chris wanted to live in here. Last night he brought me to the local shooting range and brought two rifles. One of them is his new Bergara 308 rifle. The stock folds 180 degrees just behind the hand pistol grip. This shortens the overall length of the rifle and makes it easier to backpack into the hunting area. This will be a good gun to have for hunting when he goes to Alaska. He wanted to try out some different ammo.
So I do not have a lot of experience shooting and a case of the flinches and gopher head (looking up right after you pull the trigger) every time I pulled the trigger. But I had a good instructor and with some work I started to get the hang of it. Sort of. We started a 100 yards and worked our way up to 500 yards. I did manage to hit the metal target at 500 yards after a couple of attempts. Chris said jokingly that is good for someone from the East. 😁
A happy camper.
TTFN,
Doug and Nancy
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