Thurs., Oct. 25th
Finally found a place to camp for the night.
When I left Lakeview, Or., there my about six inches of snow on the side of the roads and it was spitting snow off and on, so I just kept going until I finally ran out of snow, which put my in the Sprague River area, where checked out last summer, so I know a little about this place. I camped right at the junction of Sprague River Rd. and CR 599, which was a nice temp camp for the night. Fairly close to the road, but no one bothers you in this area.
Up in the morning.
I was tired from driving so much yesterday and the nice quiet spot reworded me with a restful night sleep. Turned on the heater for a bit to warm things up. Got going and heated some water for a bath and a shave. After that, I put a pot of coffee on, while I thought about what to do for the day.
The night brought a dusting of snow, but the sun was out and warming slightly. It was going to be a chilly type day, but a nice day. Below is my camp site in the morning, note the dusting of snow, not bad, considering where I just was.
Over a couple cups of coffee, I decided to check out the Sprague River and see if the weather would let me stay and kayak and camp.
No Question about staying on the river.
Of course, driving down the road, when I first saw the Sprague River, I knew I was going to have to do it. And of course, I had to drive around looking for the places I barely knew from the time before when I was here last summer and the mosquitoes where bad. They sure aren’t now. A real plus. :O)
Sprague River Camp, a day to slow down.
Here I am at the same launch area I used last summer. I launched my kayak here and went up stream last time, but camped down the river a little ways. This site looks good, sun most of the day, if the clouds don’t take it out. I will relax, slow down and likely go for a yak later today. The only draw back to this spot is it’s right next to the highway, which doesn’t get traveled much after dark. So, I might stay here tonight.
Right now, I’m enjoying a cup of coffee and made some just barely edible pan fried bread, just sitting here by the river in the warm sun shine.
At three PM it was time to kayak the Sprague River.
Enough of this sitting around, time to get things together and kayak the Sprague river, before the day was done. I got the boat off the van and all my gear in the boat and was away in a short time. The was a slight breeze and it wasn’t any too warm, but the sun was mostly out and I dressed warm for the occasion.
Reflections is what I should call this place. Going up the river for about a mile, this is what the river looked like.
There are lots of critter holes along the shore banks, so only a few hundred yards from the van, I saw this critter that I couldn’t really identify, however it reminded me of a river otter, only smaller. It didn’t stay around long. I saw several of these guys and some other guys I couldn’t get pics of. Lot’s of critters on this river.
I was traveling along when I came to this area of the mounds. Some kind of critters made them, maybe beaver? They seem to mark something, but I’m not sure what.
Here is a close up of the biggest one. It’s a pile of sticks and mud pushed up into this mound thing. Sure looks like some kind of marker.
Digital camera’s are good at shooting into the sun. This is a shot I took up the river this afternoon. Clouds, but no rain or snow, great. :O)
I only went up the river about a mile or so, went around the first island I ran into and returned to the van and went down the river a few hundred yards and just sat around waiting for sun set. Below is a picture of what I was watching from this spot. Lot’s of reflections.
Same spot, same time. Reflections in the river.
This is the last picture of the day, taken from the van after I got back from my kayak trip.
The Sprague River has been fun.
This is a real nice river to kayak. It moves so slow that it is easy to go up or down it. It has lots of little critters and bird life and lots of reflections this time of year. The launch camp spot is hard to pin point. It is on CR 600. There is a road, just across the river from here called Sunna Ln. which is the best I can do as far as telling you where it is.
Tomorrow, I plan to move down the river a couple miles to another spot similar to this one and spend the day and camp there if all goes well. So far the weather has been cooperating.
Time to get some dinner going and take it easy for the rest of the evening.