Was It Worth It?

Owyhee ~ Beautiful Oregon!!

 A trip in the planning for months, almost did not happen. The main purpose and itinerary was for Miko
and I ... to adventure the back country of Southeast Oregon. Areas of which I’ve enjoyed via my motorcycle, but with a street bike ~ the back-country ... does not happen. So … to capture the ‘Hart Mountains’, the ‘Steens’ and ‘Owyhee Canyon’, were our targets.

Only twenty miles south of home, we were struck with our first trip delay. Two hours of attempting to resolve a ‘Climate Control’ issue on the F150, were met with unsatisfactory results. With temperatures projected to have an unseasonably high forecast in the upper 80’s and lower 90’s … should we continue? With paragraph one above ~ absolutely! The manual windows will have to be sufficient. Ha!

It would be the first of three VERY potential setbacks. Though, the most favorable. This is due to the fact that later that very afternoon, the control spontaneously corrected itself, and wala … Cool air and AC were once again gratefully appreciated.

A second purpose to this trip was to capture some on our Oregon ABCity Tour list. Successfully, we enjoyed the likes of LaPine, Lakeview, Lime and Lawen. Likely, many have visited the first two ~ but Lime and Lawen. Where in the world is Waldo?

Hart Mtn Sunset

Visually, the majestic wonders of the ‘Hart Mountains’ and ‘Owyhee’ were more than can be imagined. The ‘Steens’, unfortunately must wait for another day. At over 9,000 feet, and with the heavy Pacific coast snowfall in 2023, yeah … the road was closed.

Our route then drove us along the most picturesque west side of the Steens. Always with phenomenal beauty. After a belly stuffing ‘Fields Station’ milkshake, we made our way to the ‘Alvord’ desert and a night at the Hot Springs. After a quick hike along ‘Pike’ creek, we returned to camp, where I enjoyed both the sunset, and the following morning, the sunrise from the hot springs. Cool indeed! Well, perhaps … ‘Hot’ indeed!

BTW … By the way … the Alvord Desert is home to the fastest women on four wheels. Jessi Combs reached 522.783 miles per hour in her Supersonic Speed Challenger. Said to be essentially a ‘F-104’ jet. Sadly, Jessi died obtaining that record four years ago today, on August 27, 2019. Doing so, she was able to break the previous record by Kitty O’Neil’s 1976 of 512 miles per hour. Yikes!

Alvord Desert

Our next stop was a brief, but well worth view of the ‘Pillars of Rome’. You haven’t heard, nor seen them, have you? Most have not! Yet, once again, a delightful site to see. After a wonderful burger at Rome Station, Miko and I were off to the highlight destination of the week …

Having driven along the ION (Idaho-Oregon-Nevada) Highway a couple times now, I greatly wanted to visit this place called ‘Owyhee’. Tom & I had made camp once along the Owyhee river, but not even the photos online were about to prepare me for what was in store. But first … our second trip delay would occur. Fifteen of twenty-five miles along gravel roads into the Canyon, I caught a glimpse of one of those unfortunate ‘idiot’ lights. Fortunately, this ‘idiot’ took heed to make a quick check. Only two weeks prior, had the same light, for the tire sensor, had illumined. For that one, a quick repair at Les Schwab, discovered that the value stem on the back right tire was the culprit. Much to my surprise … it was the same tire. But, ironically … a totally different problem. Nope, this time … a definite screw had found its home within that very tire. An hour change, that included videoing my endeavors, (for a future post) and we were rolling again.

The ‘Slocum Creek’ campground is nothing to write home about, but the drive into, the hiking around and two wonderful kayak adventures on the Lake/Reservoir … yeah, priceless! I kid you not, when I say that this may be the MOST beautiful place in Oregon. I know … that is saying a lot. For this State ~ oh baby, is simply the MOST beautiful State in the Union. This I know to be true. Indeed!

Early in the morning, Miko and I spent more than three hours heading southward on the lake, attempting to arrive at what I was told, a spectacular hot springs. Though with surprisingly strong intermittent winds ever increasing, this old dude decided that we should return. Arriving at the campsite, we discovered some new guest. With rambunctious … just having fun … kids, Miko decided that we should move on and discover more beauty. But … as we were quickly to discover … this would almost immediately bring about ‘trip delay’ numero tres. Ouch!!!

Less than ten minutes from our campsite, while enjoying the immense beauty of majestic rocks … and heading along a 1 ½ vehicle width area … someone, yes, someone … may have not been paying attention to the extremely very soft shoulder. Did I say very extreme … or, extremely very … does it matter? The result … a five hour delay of plans … a thirteen hundred dollar tow bill … yep, you read that correctly $1,300 … and a nights stay at the Motel Super 8. And why is it called ‘Super’? BUT ~~ thanks be to God … the F150 did not roll! Miko does not have PTSD, and ‘Code Red’ towing, masterfully pulled that puppy out of an otherwise non-apparent ditch.

The title of this blog … “Was it Worth the View”? I need to credit one of the ‘Super 8’ front desk ladies. And though … never … no, never … do I want that near roll experience, yes, it was worth the view! Ha!

Crane Hot Springs

But Oregon … as always, keeps providing more beauty. Such was the case for our last couple of nights. A stop at Crane Hot Springs and finally a lone stay on the shore of Delintment Lake, brought our most wonderful week trip to an end. A definitely wonderful site and three excursions in the kayak just continue to bring delightful beauty, rest and joy. And to think, only five minutes before, on our fifth kayak adventure of this week-long trip … I was surprisingly thinking how little Miko had not fallen into the water. Even then … someone might have missed part of his adventure. Glancing, I saw his head on the right side of the bow. It was his back paws … where were they? Oh … the little fella had slid off and his back paws were somehow tangled a tad, in the bungee-cord, which I had attached to the bow in order to hold a mat on top of the kayak. All week he had been amazingly successful to remain at top … at least until he wasn’t. Fortunately for the puppy, we were only twenty yards from the shore. The great news … for a dog at least … again, no apparent PTSD.

Delintment Lake

I believe that even with our trip delays and mishaps … Miko would say as well, if he could … Indeed, it was worth it!