Friday, July 28, 2017
I walked down to the Williamson River below the campground and took some pictures. I found a huge Black Huckleberry bush that was loaded with berries. There were also bushes everywhere with Red Currants. I quickly filled a water bottle with them. The Ponderosa Pines are so pretty. I can only imagine what they looked like 150 years ago. Across the street at the Logging Museum, there is a section of a tree taken from 38′ above ground. By the rings on the tree, it was determined to be 702 years old, 50 years before Marco Polo left for his first trip to China.
I fished Spring Creek pretty hard all morning, throwing everything I had, but never moved a fish. Others were doing the same with the same results. I never know if there aren’t any fish, whether they are well-educated or well-fed. A hatch came off of little teeny things I didn’t recognize, so I tried a couple that looked similar. Nothing.
After eating lunch I drove north to Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, which was established with Duck Stamp funds. It is a huge, high plains, wetland marsh. There are canoe trails through the marsh that would be great to take. No one was at the park office, and I could see there were no canoes to rent, so I went on…..the long way. I think of Oregon as being wet with rain all the time. I haven’t seen rain in two weeks, and forests are dry as a bone. Driving north in the center of Oregon, it looks much like northern Nevada with hot, dry plains of sage grass.
Once I got back to Rt. 97 heading south, I filled with gas. You can drive all day and not see a gas station. I had a half tank, but I filled it. I drove a gravel road for 6 miles to Crescent Lake, which is supposed to be pretty. I did cross a beautiful stream that had a special regulations sign next to it. Arriving a half mile from Crescent Lake, cars were parked along the dirt road, so I pulled over. I was in the middle of a huge summer camp, one bit boy scout camp and one that looked like a girls’ camp. Walking down to the lake, I passed through all sorts of scouting projects, railings, crosswalks, shelters and rope swings. I heard lots of shouting down the lake where there were probably 100 kids doing something next to the lake. Wasn’t quite what I had imagined.
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