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C1580
"Winter Aspens"
(Hart Mountain, Oregon High
Desert)
Oil Sketch on Ampersand Gesso Panel
5" x 7"
A
further dusting of snow overnight, but when I awoke at 03:40 I glimpsed Orion
blazing in the western sky through the snow covered Ponderosas, but after a
couple more hours of sleep, it had clouded over, and by 08:00 there were signs
of clearing seen through Warner Pass off to the northwest. It was now Saturday, 13th
December, and I determined to get out onto the open High Desert today. I did so after first taking a few snow photos
and looking at animal tracks , including a coyote that had come through after
the dusting of new snow had fallen during the night. I could see where he had rifled through
sagebrush clumps nosing for rodents; I did not detect whether he had been
successful.
I
studied the map trying to determine where I should go. I had it in mind to go up to Blizzard Gap on
Hwy 140, and do a painting where I had eaten my Thanksgiving ham sandwich on my
way to Oklahoma two years before, but I thought I might go towards the Hart
Mountain National Antelope Refuge, across the Warner Valley from the Warner
Mountains, where I now was. If I went
that way I might be able to find out in Plush (a small village on the way),
whether it was possible to get up there or not at this time of the year; I
thought it might be possible, since the gravel road was listed as a scenic byway, and thus possibly
maintained during the Winter. If not I
would have familiarized myself with the Warner Lakes area of the Warner Valley,
and could return from Plush to Adel on Hwy 140 by a more easterly road than the
road I was about to take to Plush, this latter being known as the Plush Cutoff Road. Less than a mile onto the cutoff, after
leaving Hwy 140, I had to stop for photos of Drake Peak and again for other
vistas opening up the 20 miles or so to Plush.
There was a general store open, and the owner thought I shouldn’t have
any trouble on the scenic byway through the Antelope Refuge, or a couple other
gravel roads that were maintained by the county, but should stay off the
two-lane tracks … thanks to my week long mud-fest I already knew that. He seemed to know nothing about the Refuge
Headquarters.
I
meandered north up the Warner Valley, with the wall of Hart Mountain rising on
my right, and viewing the dry beds of the Warner Lakes, some with small ponds
or puddles therein, thus giving one’s imagination a hint of what they might be
like in wetter years. Sixteen miles or
so out of Plush, I passed a campground at the depression era CCC hut,
determined that I could camp there at some point, and shortly thereafter,
started up the face of Hart Mountain. I
followed what looked like a recent snowplow track, and by the time I reached
the plateau behind, and 1500’ higher than Warner Valley, had this confirmed
when I passed the snowplow coming back down the mountain. In a few miles I arrived at the Antelope
Refuge HQ, with not a soul in sight, but with signs of occupation. I parked and began to study my map, when I
noticed a sign on a door across the way … Visitor’s Center – Open 24/7 … and it
was. It was a medium sized room, heated, and with information brochures, maps
and exhibits of the Refuge, and with an indoor loo. Here I found that there were two campgrounds
nominally open all year ‘round; one I had passed by at the base of the
mountain, and the other was 5 miles directly south of the HQ, at some hot
springs; a proviso stated that open all year weather permitting, which I took
to mean until the snow plow could get
there. I drove down to the Hot
Springs CG, determined I would stay there, and also that I should spend what
was left of the day to drive around and explore painting sights. Thus … I never did get to Blizzard Gap this
journey.
I
drove back to the HQ, signed the visitor’s book in the heated room, discovered
in there that a lady had spent 5 days hiking and taking photos hereabouts, and
had left about the time I was doing my laundry in Lakeview; the implication
being that if a single woman had spent 5 days here recently it was probably at
the Hot Springs, and that the CG was truly open in the Winter. I marked that I would be staying a couple of
days, and continued with my recon drive.
I drove 21 miles towards Steens Mountain, out the other side of the
Refuge for a couple of miles, thus determining the state of the Winter road,
and spotted several future painting possibilities, and retraced my steps past
the HQ and back to the Hot Springs CG.
Although the road was plowed to the CG, I made my own road through the
snow to my individual campsite. I was
alone … and happy about it. I prepared
supper in the gloaming, as the Winter stars winked on; they blazed fiercely in
a crisp dark sky by supper’s end, and I caught a few meteors of the Geminiids Shower,
that would reach its peak in the wee hours, and crawled into my sleeping bags,
to the hooting of Great Horned Owls away by the Hot Springs.
The
next morning, 50 yards from my campsite, I painted the above Oil Sketch, in the
morning light. The tire tracks in the
snow are mine from the evening before.
The snow is about 4 inched deep,
and would be 6 inches by the time I left a few days later.
Imprimatura: Venetian Red; the Pigments used the usual
Rublev Blue Ridge Yellow Ochre, Italian Burnt Sienna & Lead White #2, with
Winsor & Newton Venetian Red and Cobalt Blue.
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