Days 45 to 48 -- Cornucopia Lodge

Day 45 (July 9) - We left Union on Monday morning to drive to Cornucopia.  We took all of the backroads so Moritz could see how truly desolate Eastern Oregon is.  We arrived in Cornucopia around lunch time and took Moritz down to the horse corral to meet Erin after lunch.  Then we decided to take a 4 mile (round trip) hike up the valley along an old wagon road that followed Pine Creek up toward the Queen of the West mill.  I wore sandals and waded through the creek several times to cool off!  We got to walk across four different types of bridges in the valley and it was really interesting.  I also found some pretty green rocks with quartz in them that I packed back in my pant's pocket.  We also ran into Mark while he was leading a horse and mule down the trail after taking someone up to Pine Lake.


When we got back it was close to dinner time, but we still  headed out to try out the zip-line that Daniel and Dad had fixed while we were gone.  All of the horse-camp kids (including Erin) had gone on it already and trampled down all of the bushes at the end and so there was no threat of getting stung by stinging nettles (like I had when I was working to set up the zip-line).  We all rode on it (including my mom) and had great fun!  Katlin even has video somewhere of Erin riding it upside down with the other horse-campers.

After my mom and dad went back to the lodge to fix dinner, we decided to see if Scout (Katlin's dog) could zip-line.  I had taken him down on the toboggan (wooden sled) in the winter when we were there for Christmas and he seemed to like it.  So, we decided to try to fit the harness on him and send him down the zip line.  Daniel and I tried to get the harness on him, but he wouldn't stand still.  When Katlin tried it he stood perfectly still and was very patient.  She finally got it on him, but we had to do some jerry-rigging to get it to distribute his weight evenly.  We then got him on the small little line to the side of the main line to see if it would hold his weight or hurt him.  At first he was scared when we dropped him off the platform and he tried to grab onto the ladder with his paw.  But, once he figured out we weren't going to hurt him, he seemed okay with it.  Next, we strapped him to the main line and dropped him over the edge and he seemed to be happy to go down the line.  Moritz shot a video of it from the end of the line and you can see it here:

http://backcountrykatlin.blogspot.com/2012/07/scout-zip-lining-dog.html
She submitted it to the YouTube Purina Contest -- How Great is Your Dog?

After dinner Moritz was tired.  He was ready for bed by 8:00 because he had woken up at 4:45 am that morning because his body was still adjusting to the time change).

Day 46 (July 10) - Today we went on a horseback ride up to the Union-Companion mine.  Katlin and I had ridden up there with Lisa, but the boys missed out and really wanted to go up there.  So, we rode up and searched for gold.  We found a lot of fool's gold, but we did find some copper and silver.  So we packed these rocks back home in our pockets.

Day 47 (July 11) - Today we all went down to Halfway to run errands and do laundry.  Katlin got me all of Erin's laundry so I could do it before we headed out again.  I washed everything in her bag because it was so dirty!  Moritz and I kept watch over the dryers while David and Daniel got their hair cut.  Katlin thought they were crazy for trusting someone in Halfway to cut their hair, but it looks fine to me.  After the clothes were dry, we checked out two stores that my mom said we should look at.  One was a thrift store and we bought 3 games for 50 cents each.  We got Tripoli (which I played as a kid -- it's a card game that combines Hearts, Poker, and Michigan rummy), a junior Trivial Pursuit deck (which we asked questions of all the kids in the car), and TwixT (a really old strategy game).  Then we went into a local craft store next door and ended up buying rugs.  They are handmade by a local guy and one was a silk rug and one was a wool rug.  They are both really pretty and will fit well in our house.  When we got back to the lodge we had to work on packing the car again.  You'd think that we would have a lot more room, but Katlin had a whole sack of clothes and shoes for Erin and that took up most of the extra space in the back seat with her.  That, plus Moritz's suitcase pretty much filled the car up to the level it was when Bow and Jaeyong were with us.  After packing everything we had one last go on the zip-line because it was so much fun.

Zonked out!

Playing cribbage and grading while Moritz sleeps

David being silly

Day 48 (July 12) - Katlin went and got Erin for us in the morning right after breakfast so we could get ready to go.  We packed the rest of our things into the car, said our goodbyes, and headed out bright and early (11 am).  Then we made it as far as Halfway before we hit road construction and had to wait 20 minutes for the pilot car.  We traveled through Hells Canyon and then through Idaho where we got to see several wildfires smoldering on the side of the road.  Finally, after 9 hours of traveling we pulled into Logan.  The best thing we discovered that night was that we had two separate bedrooms in our Holiday Inn Express and two bathrooms.  That made it so much easier for showering and getting ready!

Leaving Cornucopia Lodge

Reservoir in Hells Canyon