Day 23: Summer Lake, OR to Hancock Field Station, Clarno, OR

Posted on August 30, 2013 by Ben

After getting a few hours less sleep than I’d like, we headed North towards La Pine. It’s a lonely road, but in the end we reached Bend where we picked up a few things at my first ever visit to Harbor Freight.

Once we turned onto 218, it was pretty lonely, and we soon reached Antelope, that dying town with its tragic history.

At last we reached the sign that I had been waiting 20 years to see again:

I had staffed here for three summers in the 90s, and attended programs as a student for a half dozen years before that. It was good to be back!

After getting everything set up, I went for a quick ride. On the way, I passed through the town of Clarno, population 2 or so. The abandoned grange hall had been repainted and fixed up. There were a number of RVs parked there, so I asked what was going on. Turns out it was a Clarno family reunion, and Grandma Clarno had purchased the grange hall from the BLM and turned it into a family museum.

Crossing the John Day river:

The climb out of the John Day River valley was brutal, here are the stats:

I’ll be doing some Photography and Astronomy instruction this weekend. It really is great to be back!

We drove 193 miles today. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 22: Gardnerville, NV to Summer Lake, OR

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Ben

By the time we woke up, the smoke from the Rim Fire had cleared. We drove North to Reno where Trish did the laundry and I surprised the kids by taking them to their first visit to the midway at Circus Circus. They won a few stuffed animals and had a great time:

From Reno, we continued North. We nearly ran out of gas on the desolate road to Alturas, running 219 miles on one tank, a record for us. We had dinner at a park in Alturas and continued on, stopping for the night at a rest stop in Summer Lake, OR.

We drove 344 miles today. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 21: Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite NP, CA to Gardnerville, NV

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Ben

Although we have our campsite until Thursday, we decided to leave a day early. The smoke from the Rim Fire is pretty oppressive.

We drove up to Olmstead Point:

The kids got their junior ranger badges, and we hitched up the RV, dumped tanks, filled water, got some gas at hit the road. We were sad to go! Descending Tioga road was a bit scary but doable, coasting down in 1st gear. We drove through the smoke for over 110 miles and stayed at the Walmart of Gardnerville, NV. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 20: Young Lakes backpack, Day 3

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Ben

Another beautiful morning:

We broke camp and prepared to return to the RV:

So long, Young Lakes:

Now that’s a hike with a view:

We went up via the Glen Aulin trail, and came down via the Dog Lake trail. We stopped at Dog Lake for lunch. Again, the Rim Fire smoke suddenly moved in and dramatically reduced visibility:

From Dog Lake, it was a couple miles of hiking back to the RV. We had a great time on our backpack, but it was really nice to take a hot shower when we got back.

Our first family backpack was a tremendous success! We can’t wait to do another one soon!

Day 19: Young Lakes backpack, Day 2

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Ben

Monday dawned cold and crisp. Although it would be quite warm by mid-day, at 10,000 feet the thin atmosphere surrenders much of its heat overnight.

M tried unsuccessfully to catch our breakfast:

We set out fairly early and hiked East from our tent at Lower Young Lake to Middle Young Lake:

We then hiked up a steep draw and looked back at Middle Young Lake:

We then made our way higher up to Upper Young Lake:

Upper Young lake is at 10,400 feet, and is above treeline. Its surrounding ridge is stark and steep:

From Upper Young Lake, we worked our way Northeast into an alpine valley:

At 10,200 feet, we hiked South out of the valley towards the ridge. Trish and the kids stopped when the climb became steep enough to demand using handholds, at about 10,800 feet. I summited the ridge at about 11,100 feet. Here’s the view from the ridge to the South. I believe that’s Lembert Dome at the right side of the frame:

Looking along the ridge:

The views back towards the valley from which we climbed were spectacular:

Family photo on the way down:

We stopped in the valley to fill our water bottles in the alpine stream. We used a filtration pump to get rid of any nasties in the water:

We did a bit of fishing at Upper Young Lake on the way back to camp:

Once the fish started biting, it was a frenzy. Our son pulled in a fish on every 6th cast or so. We caught and kept four fish, which made a wonderful addition to our dinner: