Saturday,
2nd of June to Monday, 25th of June – On to McMinnville,
Oregon (with an excursion to Seattle, WA, and then the Forest Roads back to and
through the Washington & Oregon Cascades).
During
most of this past year, I have been surprisingly unmolested by insect pests,
for the most part; the following deals with those times that I did or are now
having run-ins with. The photographs are
of the journey through Oregon, from crossing the border in the Warner Mountains
to Yamhill County, and then the trip back from Seattle a couple days later.
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| Looking
back towards Mount Bidwell in California … one of those groves is where I camped. |
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| A mountain meadow in the Warners. |
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| Interesting
flowers … whatever they are. |
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| Beaver Dam & Lodge. |
Insects
While
setting up camp in Lodgepoles, I was soon greeted by High Desert Oregon
mosquitoes! Out came the repellent, and
up went the netting on all four side windows of the truck, and thus received
only a few kisses from the pesky greeting committee. So this brings onto the subject of
insects. Throughout my travels west, I
have been surprisingly untroubled by insect pests.
However, in the end I did not get away from
southern Utah scot free from the no-see-ums, you will remember that I mentioned
in my May 15th post. When
they first began to hover around, I looked them up online, and read an
extensive article about them. The author
said that they are a scourge from mid-May to mid-June, and that they always
seemed to go for his ears, and also left red marks the size of a pencil
eraser. Since the ones I was spotting
seemed to be just hovering about and not landing on my head or ears, I assumed
that I might escape the area unmolested, but then I noticed red pencil eraser
marks on my calves, which began to itch … they must have trickled up my loose
trousers, when I was sitting in my camp chair painting; I never felt a
bite. I zapped the marks with my first
aid cream, which helped relieve the itch for a time, and after a week to ten
days the itching ceased altogether, but the pencil-eraser marks lasted for over
three weeks. I am one who does not
scratch any insect bites; I rely on my hydro-cortisone cream. Mosquito bites last for a day or two … these
southern Utah gnats really take the cake.
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| Camas
Prairie where I camped during a snowfall in December, 2014 … after the “great road building incident.” |
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| Buffalo Prairie. |
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| On
the logs of a cabin above Buffalo Prairie. |
In
my first camp, after l left Great Basin National Park, below the Schell Creek
Mountains, I discovered a tick in a very difficult place to see, let alone
remove. I remembered that some years ago
I had purchased a “tick key,” by Coleman I believe. It works.
Even though I could have used a third hand I managed to get the little
blighted off. First tick I have seen
since I was a kid in the northern Wisconsin woods … we young boys would
sometimes find one wandering on our bodies, while sitting in church, of all
places, and pass it around. It was a
part of Northwoods life. Now days there
are tick-borne diseases you must worry about.
I looked up on line about them and determined that I probably need not
worry, but for two weeks afterwards I inspected the bite area (it had left no
mark at all), and applied triple antibiotic gel from my first aid kit. Lyme disease, although there are cases out in
the West, is still primarily an eastern and Great Lakes scourge. The longest it could have been attached,
would have been 24 hours. It probably
was resident in that valley below the Schell Creek Mountains, but could have
been picked up on my walk in Great Basin National Park, in which case it would
have been wandering about my truck for two days … possible I suppose.
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| Lakeview, Oregon’s sweet little town hall. |
And
now back in the Pacific Northwest I have mosquitoes to contend with. Some camps have them and some seem to be
mosquito free. They aren't as voracious
as Minnesota mosquitoes (reminiscent of Cobra Gunships), or the legendary
Alaskan denizens (similar to B-52s, I am reliably informed), but they do have
their moments in some camps. All three
nights, in two different camps in the Warner Mountains, had them, but the next
two nights, across the valley north of Lakeview, Oregon, were mosquito free;
enough about insects. I was in that camp
while I awaited my appointment to have my front brake pads replaced.
But enough about insect
pests … after camping in the Lodgepoles for two nights, my next camp was west
of Drake Peak, in the northern Warners, near Buffalo Prairie. While looking for a campsite, and driving
along the north rim of the Prairie, I spotted a doe in silhouette at the bottom
end of the screen of trees between the road and the open ground. I stopped to get a photo or three, when it
dashed off a few yards. I thought she
had finally decided I was a threat, even though my car was a hundred yards
distant, and then in front of her I glimpsed a flash of brown, which I took to
be a second deer, until it kept up into a tree!
The doe returned to where I had first seen it. By and by the beast in the tree dropped to
the ground and dashed away to the west.
The total time it had been in my sight was a maximum of two seconds …
not a lot of time for an identification.
I racked my brains as to what I had glimpsed, and settled on a
Fisher. These are almost the same as
Pine Martens, but a bit larger and huskier.
The doe, I believe, might have been protecting a fawn; this I surmised
by its actions, for the possible fawn remained hidden. I stopped into the Ranger Station at Lakeview
a few days later, to enquire as to what it might have been that I spotted. There are rumors of Fishers, in the Warner
Mountains, and further west there was Fisher DNA in the contents of an
autopsied Coyote’s stomach, but that was it.
Talking it over, we eliminated everything else, and left it open between
a Marten of a Fisher. Later I dug out my
mammals book, and now I definitely lean heavily towards the Fisher.
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| The protective doe. |
Brake
pads replaced, I made my way north on Hwy 131 from Lakeview, the “tallest town
in Oregon (meaning the highest altitude, at 4800 feet),” to Paisley. Here I climbed up into the mountains west of
town, on the forest roads, towards Winter Ridge, and found a campsite just off
the Slide Mountain Road, two thirds of the way up at the south end of the
Ridge. That evening and the next morning
were first class, although the wind picked up in the afternoon as I made my way
along Winter Ridge, to Fremont Point.
Here, at 3000' above Summer Lake below, I took photos, and then
proceeded north on a forest road. Back
in 2010, and at the same time of year, this road had been impassable, and it
almost was this time, but at two miles in, it improved, and there were two
campsites, each with picnic tables. Here
I stopped for the night and managed to prepare supper, in spite of the
wind. A possibility of rain was in the
forecast, and so there was … a light drizzle overnight, which turned to snow as
I finished breakfast and headed out … and this on June 9th! Well I was at 7000' here. I found huge trees downed another mile along;
Winter deadfalls. So I turned around and made my way the three miles back to
Fremont Point, needing 4-wheel drive now in a couple of muddy spots. Once on the main forest roads the going was
OK, and so I enjoyed a taste of Winter … on Winter Ridge … in June!!! A couple of inches fell as I drove along, and
it gradually petered out as I descended west towards Thomas Lake, 15 miles away
and a couple thousand feet below. I
asked people camping there if they had had any flurries, but only a bit of rain
had fallen there.
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| Wildflower hillside on the way up to Winter Ridge. |
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| Summer
Lake from the South, with Winter Ridge all the way along its western side … Winter Ridge is 3000’ above the lake. |
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| A lake while ascending Winter Ridge. |
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| Buttercups on Winter Ridge. |
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| Summer
Lake from Fremont Point. It was Fremont who gave the Ridge & Lake their names. |
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| My campsite the evening before … |
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| … the June 9th snowfall! |
(To be continued ...
