Daughter Erica stalks a slow moving snag in the uplands near Cougar Creek on Sutton Mountain. Dig the colors.
Earlier this year I set out to spend some special time with as many members of my family as possible. My goal was to have at least four days of uninterrupted "We time" with them sometime between May and September. Given that I have three children and four grandchildren, scheduling, organizing and conducting that many days of quality time turned out to be a major challenge. In the end I managed to get to all of them, except for Aaron, my son, and Jane - my youngest granddaughter. (We will make up for that next summer, date and locale to be determined.) In addition to spending time with the kids/grandkids, I also managed to get in some quality camping time with my wife, Kitty. Here are some photos and captions that will give you a sense of how wonderful it all turned out to be.
MAY - Erica (my oldest) and I spent a few glorious days at Muleshoe on the John Day River. Maybe the highlight of the trip was our hike up Cougar Creek - an intermittent stream that runs out of Sutton Mountain's northern foothill
The colors and textures in this area are wonderful.
We also spent some time in the Umatilla National Forest where we encountered this little beauty. I think it might be a variety of penstemon, but I'm not sure. It wasn't 4" tall! If someone could help me with a positive ID it would be deeply appreciated.
JUNE (early) - Mule Shoe again, but this time with my wife, Kitty. We had planned to go to Nehalem, one of our favorite beaches; but the weather there was so poor we decided at the last minute to look in on the John Day Basin.
It was Kitty's first trip, and I wasn't sure how she'd find it. The good news is she loved it and I am sure she will be back. Part of the draw will be the wildflowers.
JUNE (late) - My youngest daughter, Ellen, and I haven't been camping together since she was six or so. Mule Shoe seemed like a good choice because we had only a four day window. It was on this trip that she let me know (officially) that she is pregnant and due in Februrary. This is the greatest news any granddad can hear, of course, and it made my summer even better than I would ever have imagined it could be. Mostly we fished because morning sickness made serious hiking and eating a non-starter. So long as she didn't have to bait a hook or gut a fish, she was OK.
JULY (early) - Quinn, my oldest grandson is 8 years old and already a John Day veteran. He can handle the terrain and heat as well as anyone. But this year we decided to beat that heat, at least a little, and went to Newberry National Monument. What a great decision! Below, a shot of Quinn on the east slope (7900 foot level) on Paulina Peak.
These days we travel in style. Here's Q in his "quarters."
One of the coolest things we encountered on our various hikes was this tree. Look carefully at the crown - that's ice up there in the very top, believe it or not.
JULY (late) - For the last few years I've been able to have both Chloe and Jake (my son's kids) stay with me for a week during the summer. This year we hit a bad bubble in the weather - check out that hoody on Chloe...must have been in the mid 60s that day. Still, the flying was great!
When the weather improved we spent quality time looking for crawdads in Fanno Creek. They were so in-tune with this place that I wish we could have stayed all day.
AUGUST (early) - My sons-in-law (Craig and Matt) on their way back from a long hike up Little Indian Canyon on Steens Mountain. (For more photos of this trip GO HERE.)
I'm putting together a separate blog on that particular trip because it was such an amazing five days.
AUGUST (late) - Kitty and I finally made it to Nehalem. Just missed some good weather and ended up cutting it short for lack of sun and decent temps. Still, Nehalem on a bad day is generally better than most other places at their best.