Morning at the hot springs was very nice.  I have not lived in this van in hot weather yet – I got it in December, so today was my first morning waking in an open field to a cloudless sky on a hot day.  It got pretty warm pretty quick in there.  As soon as I opened the big door all was well – it is it’s own shade structure, and there was a little breeze and it was very pleasant.  But it is a little preview of what B-man or Coachella will be like should I get it together to go.

Hit the tubs one more time, then hit the road.  Because of the wet spring, the landscape is still green-ish instead of brownish and extra-lovely for it.  Late (1:30) breakfast at Jerry’s in Lakeview, where I think I’ve stopped and eaten every one of the four times I’ve ever passed through Lakeview in my life.

After Lakeview is the huge but very shallow Goose Lake on the right and the Warner Mountains on the left.  The Warners are a pretty substantial mountain range – 8-9000′, with the pass across at 6200′.  I pass through Alturas on the way to the Alturas Wildlife Refuge Auto Tour, one of my favorite little things in this corner of the state.

Most of these little California towns are getting gentrified to some extent, but Alturas seems to be the same slightly grimy unappealing little cow town it’s been forever.  If there’s anything nice about the place I haven’t found it.  Gas is way more expensive than it needs to be, this time and every time, you can depend on it. I have not found edible food there, and the motels are disreputable.  But the wildlife refuge is exquisite.

Drive over the hill to Cedarville, which I find to be the esthetic opposite of Alturas.  It is quite a bit more isolated, but gas turns out to be the same price over here and the station is cleaner.  But its main attraction to me is this cool little restaurant with wifi(!) and good food that has become my goto spot in this remote part of the world (called Surprise!, I think, as in the Surprise Valley).  I zoom in there to research the local campgrounds.  I had missed my lovely campground on the way over, and wanted to check the internet, which confirmed it’s existence for me.

Yet I STILL cannot find it, so I aim for the other campground on this highway – Stough CG.  But this little c.g. turns out to be stuffed full of cars and people – some kind of extended family gathering it appears, so I head on up the gravel road and find a perfect little meadow about a mile onward, not much in the way of scenic beauty, but it’s level and quiet and it’s almost dark anyway, so it’s a great place to overnight.

My first real night of dispersed camping, which is what the rangers call it when you don’t stay in an official campground.

last day

Back to Cedarville, to visit the BLM office and the Forest Service office and of course the excellent internet cafe.  Turns out the Forest Service website is out of date – beautiful little creekside campground was closed, because of “danger of falling trees” if you can believe that.  I guess I do believe it; the lady was quite sincere, but what a crock.  So the good news is that I am not losing my mind, there was a campground, but it is no longer.

I took the slightly longer but quite fun and of course nearly deserted back way home, through Gerlach and around Pyramid Lake.  Lovely day for that drive.  Above Gerlach the terrain seems quite a bit less harsh than on the B-man run – I-80 north to Gerlach.  There is even a little lake called Squaw Reservoir that looked like a cool place to stop someday.

I drove through Bend, and it was every bit the happenin, hipster-rich nexus of self-satisfied outdoorsy coolness that always is, and … it just didn’t float my boat (I seem to have issues with Bend…).

It was 3pm, and one path would have been to park the van; eat, drink, walk around the river, then lo-pro it for the night in “Old Bend”, the official name of the upscale neighborhood south of downtown.  Oh, and spend a few hours in the very nice Bend library web-surfing.

But that was the path not taken.  Instead I drove through town without stopping and just kept going on down that long road to the Summer Lake Hot Springs resort.  And now that I’m here, typing and looking out at about a 40-mile view, I feel pretty darned good about it.   But the last half-hour was stressful.  Not heart-attack stressful, just “I wish this was over” stressful.  I got to the north end of Summer Lake (part lake, part playa, part rolling fields of something, part sagebrush, but all in all, one really big, really flat valley), and kinda went into happy, “oh I’m here” mode, but alas, it was another 25-30 miles of a really scenic drive, that sadly I didn’t pay much attention to, because I wanted to GET THERE!

But now I’m here, $15 for the run of the place, got my van positioned just right with the big door pointed towards the maximum view, and I’m ready to hurry up and relax!

A nice Daddy’s Day call from Martha, then I head back around the beltway to Oregon City, to check out Willamette Falls.  The falls and the little bridge from which to view them were excellent, even though I never heard of them until two days ago.  Oregon has a slew of really cool 30’s bridges, and there is another one here, which I found very photogenic.  I got a little lost, got a little well-priced diesel, got un-lost, got to Safeway where I bought way too much food, then stumbled forward through the intermittent rain to this excellent campground for $14.  A quick decision to stop at a ranger station even though it was way past closing time showed me a map of the area with lots of semi-wilderness down this little side road.

Little North Fork Santiam Recreation Area

This was another night to lose some of that idea of not going to campgrounds.  One factor is that this tall skinny van is really not too great on rough roads, kinda top-heavy and wobbles alarmingly sometimes.  So the off-road places I can get to are limited by how willing I am to endure the road to get there.

Tonight for instance, I did park just off a gravel road that ended at a closed bridge over the Little Santiam River.  I ate my Safeway dinner there, then walked around and saw the No Camping sign and had a failure of will on the whole idea.  I hit the paved road again, cruised around for awhile, and ended up at the BLM campground 1/2 mile down the road.

I am finding that BLM camps are either obscure and ignored, or unusually delux.  This is one of the latter sort, well-built, well laid out, well-maintained.  Each site comes with its own recycling box!  On a lovely little river full of green pools and rapids, classic Oregon piney woods setting.

Two days ago in my rush to make the NBA seventh game I drove past an overlook for the Falls of the Willamette River, and it bugged me to not stop, so I’ve decided that I want to go back ant stop at that overlook on my way home.  That means I will be going back towards Portland,  back past the Edgefield, which I can never get enough of, so there ya go, that’s the plan!  I will do some kind of Gorge hike today (of which there are many excellent choices) and end up back at the good ole Edgefield for Saturday night.

I end up taking the Multnomah Falls loop hike, 6.2 miles and 1540′ elevation change.  That wore me out!  But it was fun and quite beautiful – four really nice falls, two excellent rushing streams (one up, one down), panoramic river views, and lots of people. And I got righteously tired.  Normally lots of people is a defect rather than an asset, but there was such a June-weekend variety that it was kind of interesting today – like being amazed at how far that cranky-looking lady had come in those uncomfortable-looking shoes … that kind of thing.  A great hike.

A nice thing about resigning yourself to the dormitory at Edgefield is that you don’t have to worry too much about getting a room.  The place was stuffed to the gills – at least three separate wedding parties (oh June!), but still, only 5 of the 12 available beds were taken.  Since the beds are bunks, I imagine the place starts feeling crowded after six guys, since somebody will have to be sleeping on top of somebody else, but that did not happen tonight, so all was well.

Since it was my second visit on three days I wasn’t so manic about partying — I hit the soaking pools and read and web-surfed until 10pm, at which time the happy hour food and drink specials kick in, so I dined and drank in a moderate fashion (see I can do it!) in a crowded and noisy bar and went back to my dorm and slept the pleasant sleep of the well-behaved for a change.

rank-order of the features I need

In typical 80-20 fashion, the first four (well, let’s make five) items give me at least 80% of my joy, and everything else is expensive gravy.

1. shelter – It is a cold, rainy day here in the Columbia Gorge.  Shocking, I know.  In my truck, I would be having a miserable time, or more likely I would have chickened out and would be watching cable tv on a motel bed.  One can spend only so much time huddled in a camper shell.  A spacious, well-cushioned interior space in which I can stand up is the number one thing I’m glad to have every day.
2. power – That is, functionally endless electricity, from my marine battery powered by my solar panel.  Being able to do what I’m doing right now (typing this post) is the cherry on the sundae of my hanging in the wilds on a rainy day.
3. solar panel – Without this I would be wedded to annoying campground RV hookups every couple of days.  With this adequate power is always there … providing I remember to turn everything off when I should (see my post on lists).
4. heat – When you need it you need it.   The fan on my propane heater is very noisy and wakes me up every time it kicks in, but if it’s 30’s or less outside it’s a big comfort feature.  It got down into the high 30’s in Sisters the other night, and it was pretty sweet to just set the thermostat on the heater to take the edge off of it.
5. running the sound system off the aux battery – A small thing, but listening to NPR or a Giants game at the campsite without worrying about running the battery down is pretty nice.  I’ve lately taken to leaving the radio on when I’m running errands around town – why?  because I can!
6. refrigerator – I would be ok with good ole cooler technology for keeping things cold, but the fridge is pretty darn user-friendly.  Because of the battery and solar panel, I just turn the fridge on when I start a trip and turn it off when I get home, and that’s as complicated as it gets.
7. microwave – It’s quite a drain on the battery, and it’s a pretty wimpy nuker compared to my home model, but it’s awfully handy for the leftovers a thrifty guy like me accumulates.
8. stove – So far all I’ve used it for is boiling water, but hot tea at night and hot coffee in the morning are essential to quality civilized living, yes?
9. sink + hot water – this is the first night I’ve had a functioning sink.  I think it will be handy – brushing teeth, rinsing plates, and face it, grimy hands are a bore after a hard night of tending the campfire, so washing them in hot water is nice.
10. rest of the water system (shower), rest of the propane system (outside bbq hookup) – have not used these yet
11. awning – just used it today for the first time because it’s raining, to give myself a little dry area.  I’m missing something on it because the struts done fit into their brackets the way they did at the shop, but if I ever do use this for festival going, Burning Man or Coachella or such things, I will be glad I have it.

oh yeah, today’s camping report:

Campsite #1 here offers a really choice panorama of the Columbia River through the trees, and at the back end of the campground is a spur trail to access the extensive web of trails (including PCT) that run along the gorge.  And it’s only $10, which is a pretty good deal for right on the Gorge, I think.  But despite all the ingredients for happiness being present, something is missing.  Whether it is me or it is unclear (Edgefield hangover?), but I am not very charmed by the place and not real excited to be here … I think it’s the rain …

So after fighting the freeways to get here – suburban Portland traffic really is quite sucky – I arrive, book a room in the men’s dormitory ($34 incl tax), take a full fifteen minutes(!) of time to chill out, then headache be damned, I’m off to find the fun!

Out of all their 10 or so bars, only one has teevees, the basement pool hall..  Normally a good thing, but not on game seven night!  But anyway, that bar is only a coupla hundred yards from the band, so my early evening is taken care of nicely.

This being grown-up Disneyland, you can walk around with your drink anywhere on the grounds (except the soaking pools), so I could blow off the game at a commercial break or halftime, and I could blow off the band at a set break or boring song, walk 80 yards and maximize my fun!  The band was pretty good; the game was torture.   I blew off the game with about two minutes left to catch the last set of the band, and the fact that when the set ended there was still about 20 seconds left in the game tells you a lot about the modern NBA’s enslavement to the needs of television.

Grab a bathrobe at the desk (love those bathrobes!) then off to the soaking pools.  Then … oh my goodness it’s happy hour again!   On of the more charming traditions of the McMenamin’s empire is the second happy hour from 10pm to closing in all their many, many bars.   For some reason, probably just the sheer excitement of being in adult Disneyland, I have three more beers, which made the grand total for the evening way too many for me.

But I did sleep well in the men’s dorm.

1. I am awakened 8-ish by the van guys coming to work.  I hand over the keys and clear out.  I did not sleep well at all; I kept turning over and wondering if it was time to get up – I hate that.
2. They check out my water system, the water heater seems to be working just fine.  They pressure-tests the whole system, so woo hoo, I am good to go!
3. Off to Upscale Auto to get my swivel seat installed (they are about $70 cheaper than Specialty). On the way over I notice water seeping out of the reservoir area of the van, sigh…. Upscale does install my swivel seat, but it’s f—ed up in a way that mystifies them – the sharp metal corner of the base needs to take a chunk out of my door post just to complete the swivel. But I decide to live with, and pay up.
4. Sigh… back to Specialty to show them the water on the floor. My guy is not amused, but I clear all my stuff out of the back half of the van and he tears into it and does find a leak, a little crack in the PVC that runs from the tank to the pump (I think…), which is not part of the pressurized system, so that’s why he didn’t find it earlier.
   Did I mention that I have a raging headache by now? I partied a little too much with the Idaho Chardonnay last night (really … Chardonnay from Idaho, marked down to $2.97 at the Susanville grocery), and I’ve felt pretty crappy all day.
5. While moping around the shop I ask Rob if he has any theories on why my swivel seat is screwy, and he tears right into that, even though it’s not even his shop who did the work.  These guys are really very great. He looks at it, and immediately diagnoses that they’ve installed a driver’s side swivel on the passenger side. The center of the swivel – the pivot point, is offset from dead center so the thing won’t bang into the door, so installing the opposite one bangs into the door really badly.
6. So … my water system really is fixed, I am done with Specialty.  I am re-packing all my stuff in the back of the van with one hand while yakking on the phone with the shop foreman at shop #2.
7. I return to Upscale, where they do have the correct unit in stock (thank goodness), and replace it in about 20 minutes. In their defense, the box was mislabeled, the screw-up was back in Slovakia or wherever the heck the thing was made, where they put a driver’s swivel in a passenger’s box.

So … that’s two trips to two different repair shops.  Wearing a groove in the route from the little industrial park in Lake Oswego to the little industrial park in Tualatin and back, and forth, and back… I am done.  Seems like a lifetime, but it’s only 4pm!   Boy there sure is a lot of day when you get up at 8, haha.

My plan has been to treat myself to a night at Edgefield, and since this is game 7 of the NBA Finals tonight, my extra point of emphasis has been to be settled there and ready to watch tv by tip-off time at 6pm.  So I insert myself into the brutal Portland freeway traffic and am off to adult Disneyland!

The six months I’ve owned the van have been winter and this unusual cold, wet spring, so it has mostly been parked by the river outside my condo, and I have mostly been not using it.  But today, I have embarked on a road trip to Oregon, to the shop that built it, and I will finally be using it for what I bought it for, hanging out in a sweet little deserted campground.  Really, I’m just doing what I used to do with my truck, but at a much, much higher level of the game!

This is my first night out of Reno, and I decided to stop at one of the modest campgrounds which I have zoomed past so many times before on the Reno-to-Klamath run.  Modoc NF, Howard’s Gulch CG, about 8 miles east of Canby on SR399 — $6 per night!   It turns out that this campground got a major facelift over the winter — they can’t do this for every campground every winter can they?

A huge old pine tree had fallen, plus the rangers had thinned small trees all around, so there was a four foot stack of firewood at every site!  Extremely green, sappy, smokey, hard-to-burn Ponderosa Pine firewood, but it sure looks good and imparts a feeling of plenitude, and helps me inaugurate that road trip feeling by getting my hoodie to smell like campfire smoke, first night out!.

The sweet little 1.5 mile loop trail had been cleared and re-marked over the winter.  Everything was in perfect condition and not a single other human in the whole campground!  I was able to open all the doors, crank my music, just me and the mosquitoes, partying down. If it wasn’t for the semis letting out their airbrakes right over the hill on 299 I coulda pretended to be away from it all.

Tuesday

This really is a new style of living for me.  Heck, let’s call it a lifestyle! So far I like it very much.

The plan was to look for a spot in the National Forest on the other side of Sisters OR, but as I entered Sisters I saw this sweet little city-run campground in the pines right on the river, right on the outskirts of town.  $13, for a no-hookups site, senior discount.  Why, that even works for me!

In the mythology I had built up about the van, I would mostly be outside the campground system, just setting up “anywhere”.  But as it turns out, I’m pretty happy paying $15-ish for that sense of belonging, of not worrying about being told to move.  Oh, and having a proper pooper is pretty nice …  that particular piece of equipment being the most notable thing I chose not to have.  And this one has a nice shower!

So, park it, cruise the town, watch the sunset, look for a plausible bar and not find one (all bars in town seemed to be in the back of Mexican restaurants), return to the campground, get the combo to the shower door lock from the host, and all is good in Sisters.

Wednesday

There really is not much to Sisters other than faux-Western store fronts and high-end shopping opportunities – kinda like downtown Truckee, except even more useless.  The designer footwear store has a little counter for coffee drinks and muffins in the front of the store … so that’s breakfast.

I am supposed to get my ass to Speciality Vans by this early afternoon, so I am starting the day with a very un-vacation-like feeling of needing to be somewhere at a particular time.  The weather helps by being crappy, so I can speed through the presumably beautiful mountain scenery without feeling like I’m missing anything.

I actually do pretty well on the timing – I’d forgotten that the shop is right at an I-5 interchange, so I was there before I knew it … so to speak.  The shop brain trust listens to my story of not quite draining my water system before the hard freeze, the water seepage and such, and decide the best way to go would be to start tomorrow morning.  They suggest sleeping right there in the parking lot.  Works for me.

So I kill the rest of the afternoon trying to go places, but mostly being defeated by the truly horrible evening rush traffic in these well-to-do suburbs of Portland.   I spend a couple of pleasant hours out of the hurly-burly in the Tualatin Library, then the rest of the evening in the Borders at the upscale shopping center reading WordPress and JQuery books, basically just killin’ time.

I tuck myself in at the parking lot about 11pm – yes I can get the shop’s wifi!  But sadly for me I drink too much crappy white wine so that I feel quite haggard all through my busy day tomorrow.

day 7 – meet Erik and start the exhausting process of configuring my van.  After months of thinking about Sprinters and looking for Sprinters to buy on the web, setting Carfax alerts and such, here is the van that is to be mine!  Big and blue, and already nicknamed “Papa Smurf” … it’s fate!  Erik gives every van a code name – makes sense to me, I imagine it helps with their internal tracking.  Papa Smurf seems perfect for it … and for me :).  I love the smurfs, I love blue … I could do a lot worse than being Papa Smurf!

1. We agree on a set of features, he comes up with a number, we waffle and wrangle and annoy each other for a while, but in the end come to an agreement.
2. He drives me to the dealer through which he sells the vans. I write a big fat check to buy the van outright.  woo hoo … I guess … I am now the proud owner of a pickup truck and a delivery van.
3. We drive back to the shop and talk details some more.
4. I write a smaller, but still pretty large check for 1/2 of the customizations we agreed upon.
5. I loved my McMenamin’s experience so much that I am going to stay at Edgefield tonight.  As part of the plan for going there I get in the my truck and follow Erik to StereoKing, where Dave the Stereo guy pleasures me with electronic fantasies about all the expensive electronics things he can do for me, then I come to my senses and buy about 1/3 of what we talked about.
6. I write my third and final hefty check of the day, for 1/2 of the electronics.  I have spent $48K-ish today, no wonder I am stressed.
7. I follow Erik around the Portland beltway, right on the Columbia Gorge freeway to Troutdale, where he guides me to Edgefield.

night 7 – ahh Edgefield!  There are so many fun things to do I can’t do them fast enough.  I don’t remember the details, but I drink beer, hit the soaking pools, hit that fatal late night happy hour, then pass out after my busy day.

morning 8 – vile hangover, ameliorated somewhat by free coffee and a very tasty danish on the veranda.

day 8 – On Erik’s suggestion I take the Mt Hood loop as the long way to get to Hood River, where I am to meet him tomorrow for yet more hashing out of details.   so many details … propane heat or diesel heat?  microwave?  toilet?  water filter?  sideways sofa bed or cross-ways sofa bed?  swivel seat?  removable table?  what size refrigerator? awning?

But I jump ahead … The Hood River loop was quite enjoyable.  I drove to the end of the road to the CCC-era ski lodge.  By the time I got there I was feeling almost human again, and took my time enjoying the amazing stonework and woodwork.  Then around the corner I stopped for a nice 3-4 mile hike up the creek to a waterfall.

evening 8 – meet Erik, eat pizza and drink beer and find a motel (the Vagabond Lodge) and crash.

day 9 – go to Erik’s house and meed Sonja, the other half of the Outsidevan team.  One more day of yakking about the details, and I am off to Portland!