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This trip started as a four day weekend with the goal of some relaxation and seeing Hells Canyon along the Snake River on the Oregon-Idaho border. Though it was a good trip, things didn't quite work out as planned. |
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| So things started okay. Dozer sure enjoyed the car seat. Lake was pretty. Next day, however, things went down hill. On a whim, we decided to check out the Ferguson Ridge ski area, which is about four miles off the main road outside of Joseph. We past a snow park, which turned out to be the ski area and headed up the road a little further until it got snow covered. At this point, not being prepared to drive in these conditions, I tried to back up. Bad idea. | ||||||
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| I ended up walked back down the road for about
twenty minutes and then humbling knocking on the door of the Watts family to
see if I could use their phone to call a tow truck. They were nice enough to
take the time to drive up in their truck and give me a pull out. Note that
this took two attempts, and shovels. Very nice family. After quickly heading back out of the snow zone, we took off to try to find a Hells Canyon overlook. Since we had lost a few hours, Lunch was in order so we stopped in Imnaha, OR. Nice little town with a nice little (emphasis on little) restaurant. After lunch, we headed up what was supposed to be a 24 mile long dirt road to Hat Point overlook. Nice viewpoint at five miles, but shortly there after, the road got snowed over in the shadow of the mountains and based on our experience earlier in the day, we decided to not risk it. (Also considering that we were in the middle of nowhere and a hike out would have been 6+ miles.) |
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| Okay, no Hells Canyon from that side. Time to try the main road that heads down to Halfway, OR. At the first summit, we hit a wall of snow. (No, not litterally.) No luck. Turns out in the early spring, you can't see Hells Canyon from this side of the Wallowa's. | ||||||
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| Okay, back to the cabin. We thought about taking the next day and heading up to Spokane to visit the Rausch family, but instead we just took it easy with some hiking, swimming and lounging around. | ||||||
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| Lily didn't like the swimming all that much, but she loved watching the snow and the deer through the window. | ||||||
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| We took an hour and a half hike up and down a short section of the East Fork of the Wallowa River trail. It was all snowy and quite beautiful. Only really odd thing is the set of padlocks that were grown into the tree. Apparently, they didn't want anyone to steal it. | ||||||
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| That was the end of our trip. Took a minute for a quick stop at the Deschutes River state park where the river meets the Columbia River. One of the best things we learned is that the tailgate is just the right height to change Lily. =) | ||||||
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