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

Day 44 -- Moritz arrives!

Day 44 – July 8:  Today Moritz arrived from Germany.  He had a long flight over from Hannover to Amsterdam to Portland, but he did arrive in one piece.  I’m still amazed that his program would only allow him to bring one suitcase for the entire year.  I couldn’t pack like that!  He said that he was tired because he couldn’t sleep on the plane, but he was excited to be here.  We took him to lunch at Shari’s (again so David could have another piece of pie).  Moritz tried the chicken and waffles (which had an interesting combination of country gravy and maple syrup as sauces) and he said that it was quite good.  He polished off everything on his plate and then was happy to try some pie along with David.  This time David got the Northwest berry trio (marionberries, blueberries, and raspberries) and Moritz tried the marionberry pie since we said that marionberries were unique to Oregon (they are from Marion county where Salem is). 

After finishing lunch we started to drive to Union, OR.  We decided to take historic highway 30 along the waterfall route, rather than drive the freeway, so we could stop and see some of the waterfalls that you can’t get to from the freeway.  First stop we made was at Vista House on Crown Point which is on top of the ridge overlooking the Columbia River Gorge.  So we got to see how beautiful the gorge is.  Then we came down and stopped at Sheppard Glen where the water was tumbling down in an almost waterfall (closer to a water ride at a water park).  It was really pretty!  Then we stopped at Bridal Veil falls and hiked down to the bottom of it and then back up.  I think tired out Moritz because after that he started to doze off.  Once we passed Horsetail Falls and Multnomah Falls, he fell asleep in the car.  He slept the rest of the way up the gorge and missed seeing the temperature creep up.  Around The Dalles, OR it was 109 degrees. 

We haven’t quite made it to Union (we still have 155 miles), but I expect everything else to go smoothly.  Tomorrow morning we will head back up to Cornucopia and see if Daniel survived his 6 hour horse ride while we were gone (he was going to go up on Saturday to help Mark with the customers because Mark’s back was giving him trouble because he got bucked off his horse a few weeks ago). 

Note at 10:30 pm:  We did get to Union later that night after eating Chinese food in La Grande.  Prissy (the cat) is very attention-starved and so happy to see people.  Joey (the dog) also seems happy to see people.  We also started some laundry here, but plan to leave fairly early in the morning to get back up to the lodge.  Moritz is dead asleep -- he is very tired.

Days 41 to 43 -- Cornucopia and Portland, OR

Mom, Dad, Katlin, and Me on July 4 playing Pinochle and waiting for the fireworks

Katlin, Lisa, and Scout on the U-C mine tailings

Old mine cart at U-C Mine

July 5 we decided to go on a horse ride.  At first a few of Lisa's boys were going to go, but it ended up being just Lisa, Katlin, and me.  So all three sisters got to go on a ride together up to the Union-Companion Mine.  We rode up there and then got off our horses and went exploring.  We went over the side of the tailings (creating small rock slides as we went) and then went down by the ponds that were created by the water coming out of the mine.  We found all sorts of old metal and glass objects -- nails, spikes, a squashed mine car underneath the edge of the tailings pile, and even a metal gear which had to weigh 40 lbs.  Then we looked through the tailings pile to see if we could find any gold and Katlin and Lisa both found some.  We couldn't get into the mine itself because the entrance collapsed during the last major snowstorm a few years ago.  But, we could ride up to the old manager's house (what the mine workers referred to as the mansion).  Its foundation is still standing and you can see the chimneys which still reach 3 stories into the air.  We also looked at where the other old outbuildings used to be and found lots of historic debris (bedpans, springs, porcelain pieces, etc.).  Then Katlin took us down the mountain via another route which was in the trees and very pretty.

The next day Dad put us to work on the zip line.  He has been wanting to get the zip line up and running so that we can ride it before we leave.  There have been several major challenges though -- one of the most difficult to conquer has been trying to get it tight enough to not drag the person on the ground.  So, this time he was trying a location where it didn't matter if there was some slack -- over a large ravine.  Daniel, Katlin, Dad, and I worked for several hours to try to get this zip line to work.  We got the starting point finished (finally, after many attempts) and then tried to get it so the line would run to the end point.  Our problem was that the drop wasn't steep enough.  We tested the line using the fence post driver and heavy metal pipe and they would only go down about half way before they'd stop and we'd have to climb down the ravine to fetch it and bring it back.  Finally we though we had it about right for a person, so we sent Daniel down it.  Unfortunately he still didn't go far enough and I had to go pull him up.  The harness was also too tight on him and now he's slightly worried that we won't be able to have children (he said the ride down was "painful.").  So, I guess we need to put some more slack in it or tie it off on a lower tree.

Grandma Ream and Heidi

July 7 we headed to Portland to get Moritz.  We left Cornucopia after breakfast and gathered two loads of dirty laundry to do at my parents' house in Union and then drove to La Grande.  We stopped there to visit with my Grandma Ream.  When we stopped she had a project for me -- try to figure out where her camera was saving her pictures and where it was making new folders for those pictures.  I tried to figure it out, but I'm not sure I was successful.  We also got to see some of the old pictures from when my mom was a kid.  My Uncle Kenny had them stored in his attic and they were all on slides.  My grandfather had numbered and labeled every single slide in the box (all 480 of them), but they had gotten out of order.  So, David and I volunteered to help put them in order and then take them to Walmart to be put on a disc.  I was quite impressed that they would be able  put them on disc so quickly and that it would cost so little - around $15).  We ordered 6 discs so that all of the kids in the family could have one (Uncle Michael, Uncle Kenny, Aunt Diane, and my mom), she could keep one, and we could keep one.  There were pictures of when my mom was a kid, Yosemite (my grandma and grandpa climbing some of the exact trails we just climbed at Yosemite), and their big cross-country trip which is similar to ours.  The main differences is that they were much more careful in taking their pictures because film was much more expensive than digital.  I mean, I've taken nearly 7,000 pictures thus far on our trip.  Not all of them are great, but I can just hit the delete button if they don't turn out.  They didn't have that option back when my mom was little (or even when I was a kid)!  Daniel and Erin only know digital and have no concept of film cameras, much less slides and slide projectors.  My how the times have changed!

Rainbow colored soap at the car wash

Also when we were in  La Grande we got the car washed (it was filthy from the dirt roads in Cornucopia) and the oil changed (since we just passed the 7,000 mile mark).  They said everything else on the car looked fine, so I guess it is holding up on this trip!  After finishing up in La Grande and dropping off my Grandmother's slides to a Walmart person (who said they planned to pawn off the very tedious job of turning slides into digital photos to someone else), we drove over to Pendleton.  We stopped at the Pendleton Woolen Mill to look and see if there were any more wool socks that would fit Erin.  We found an outlet store in Seaside and had bought several pairs of socks for me, David, Daniel, and my mom, but Erin insisted that she'd never wear them because she didn't like long socks.  I still bought a pair for her and insisted that she take them to horse camp with her.  When I saw her at the 4th of July celebration I asked her if she had used the socks and she said that she had worn them several days and really liked them.  But, David and I came up dry -- no socks in her size.  After that detour we headed to Portland to meet up with my mom who had driven down earlier in the day to drop off horse camp girls.  By the time we made it down there she had finished up her Walmart run and was ready for dinner.  We went to Shari's because I know David loves their pies.  He got the last piece of blackberry lemon sour cream pie and was in 7th heaven!  It was a very good pie piece!  Mom and I shared a chocolate lava cake with ice cream which was also quite good.  Then we checked in to our seedy motel (a very cheap Travelodge) and went to bed.  Mom had to leave early in the morning to get two girls from an 8:15 flight and then leave Portland by 9:30.  We were going to be a bit later because Mortiz's flight wasn't scheduled until 11:25 am and he would have to go through customs which would taken even longer.

Also, we heard from the girls that were leaving horse camp today that they really liked Erin and that she had made several friends who planned to keep in touch with her.  So, it seems like she is having a really good time!

Lisa on Rex

Old building at Union-Companion Mine

Days 37-40 Cornucopia Lodge

Cornucopia Lodge

Days 37-40 (July 1 to July 4).  On July 1 (my birthday) we drove from Seattle to Cornucopia Lodge to visit my parents.  The drive was fairly uneventful, except that when we were just passed Snoqualmie Pass the car in front of us's cartop carrier popped open and all of their sleeping bags and tent came flying out.  David swerved to try and miss some of the stuff, but we still ran over one of their sleeping bags (it made a quiet "pop" as it went under the car in one piece and then opened and left the undercarriage of the car totally unrolled.  I hope it wasn't too badly damaged, but there wasn't much we could do about it.

David and me!

We got to Cornucopia around supper time (6:30 or so) and then immediately took Erin down to horse camp so she could begin to get to know the other girls who had arrived a few hours earlier.  Apparently she immediately volunteered to help out with the dishes and then sweeping the tack room, so everyone had a very positive impression of her right off.

Our cabin

We got the cabin nearest to the lodge for our own (two bedrooms -- one with two twin beds for Daniel and Moritz to share).  The cabin has electricity provided through a generator which charges a set of car batteries.  But, you want to save electricity as much as possible so you are encouraged to turn off the electricity when you leave your cabin.  This has been hard for David to learn and he has had to go back several times to turn off the electricity.

That night we helped to clean up the office upstairs and move Katlin's bed in so that she had somewhere to sleep.  The next day we did some more cleaning and switched Katlin's bed into the bedroom and moved Mom and Dad's bed into the office so they wouldn't wake her up in the morning.  After cleaning, I wandered around to the big creek and took lots of pictures of rocks, trees, flowers, etc.

Flower I saw on a hike

Cornucopia Mine

On July 3, Mom took us over to the old ghost town of Cornucopia.  It's a bit of misnomer that it is a ghost town because although there are many abandoned buildings which are old and falling down, there are also some new cabins and cabins that have been kept up by people for summer use.  No one lives up there year round anymore, but there were a fair number of people up there for the 4th of July holiday.  We took photos of some of the buildings and then went over to the mine shaft that is directly across from our property.  It is the Coulter shaft of the Union-Companion mine, but it was originally established as its own separate mine.  All of the tunnels in the mountain (all 32 miles of tunnels) are interconnected, so it is hard to tell one mine from another.  From what I've read, this mine shaft was originally started very low on the mountain (Cornucopia is only about 5000 ft. in elevation) and when the Union-Companion mine blasted down low enough to reach them (the U-C mine starts about 6800 ft. in elevation), it caused all of the water which had been collecting in the lower levels of the U-C mine to drain out.  So, they were very happy to have this lower outlet to let out a bunch of the water.  The mines were originally opened around 1889 and continued production until 1941 when the US government called a halt to all mining operations because of WWII.  They weren't reopened after that, except that in the 1980s, the lower shaft was mined for a few years.

Close-up picture of the mountain behind the lodge

We couldn't get into the mine because the main entrance had collapsed with the heavy snowfalls a few years ago.  But, we wandered around looking at the old outbuildings and saw some interesting ore cart tracks, an explosives box, and how far back the tunnel had collapsed into the mountain.  It was a lot of fun and will have to take Moritz over there when he arrives.  Moritz (for those of you who don't know) is our new exchange student from Germany.  He comes from a small town named Hermannsburg and he will arrive on July 8.  Although we are sorry to see Bow and Jayong go, we are very excited to welcome Moritz into our home.

Moon and clouds at night

On July 4 we headed to Haines, OR to watch the rodeo.  All of the horse camp kids went with my mom and Katlin, Dad, Daniel, David and I drove to Haines as well.  Lisa and her kids opted to go to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Baker City instead of sitting outside in the sun baking during the rodeo.  David, Daniel, and Erin had never been to a rodeo, so I was excited for them to see it.  Although it was not a very high quality rodeo (mainly amateurs not professional rodeo people), it was still fun to watch people try to ride bulls, ride bucking horses, run barrels, and rope steers.  They also had a number of events that I had not seen before, including the wild cow race where two participants had to catch a wild cow on foot, hold them, saddle them, mount them, and ride them across the arena to the other side.  I was amazed how fast people could do this!  They also had the cowhide race where an adult had to ride down to the end of the arena and pick up a little kids, swing them up onto their saddle, ride to the opposite end, drop them off, grab a rope handed to them by the kid that had a cowhide attached to the end of it, and then they had to drag the cowhide with the kid laying on it to the other end of the arena.  The kids ended up totally dirty and a number lost because the kids fell off the horse or didn't get pulled onto them correctly.  They also had mutton busting for the really little kids where they put a rope around the center of a sheep, put a helmet on the kid and tell them to hang on as long as possible.  The kids get dragged under the sheep, trampled, and run into the fence, but most hung on as long as possible.  The reward for this torture?  $1 for each kid who participates.  Katlin participated in this a lot when she was a kid (maybe that's why her brain is so scrambled?  Just kidding!).  The rodeo also brought with it lots of interesting food.  First there was the "tornado potato."  They put a skewer through a potato and then spiral cut it about 2/3 of the way through so it ends up like a big long curly fry and then dump it in the deep frier without any breading.  It was really good!  The corn dogs were also fried with their own batter which had corn and some other pepper type things in the breading, but it was really good.  The most unusual thing was the fried pop tarts.  Now, I expect to find that thing in the South, but I didn't expect someone in Oregon to be the one who took Pop Tarts and dropped them in the deep frier.  Daniel got a chocolate chip cookie dough one deep fried and it was really good!

Calf Roping

Mutton Busting

Barrel Racing

After the rodeo we drove back to Halfway for the parade (which didn't amount to much) and then headed out to the fairgrounds to watch the fireworks.  We got to listen to a guy sing and people danced to his music.  All of the horse camp kids -- including Erin -- were up there having a blast.  I finally got David up there with me for the very last song.  The fireworks were great and fun to watch.  All in all, it was a great 4th of July weekend! 

Creek I saw on a hike

Erin and other horse campers leaving on a ride

Days 35-36 -- Seattle

View of Astoria from Astoria Column

Astoria Column

Bow at Ft. Clatsop

Days 35-36 (June 29 & 30) -- This morning we work up to rain.  It was the first time it has rained in the morning on this trip.  It was gray and overcast and sort of dreary.  But, we showered quickly (all but Erin) and then loaded up the car in the rain.  We ate pancakes at the free pancake breakfast and then headed to Astoria to look around.  The first place we stopped is the Astoria Column.  It had over 400 steps to climb, but at the top there was quite a nice view.  By the time we got to the top it had stopped raining, so we got a better view, although it was still overcast.  After that we went to Ft. Clatsop where Lewis and Clark spent two years after arriving in Oregon.  We had fun looking around the old buildings and hearing about Lewis and Clark's time there.  We also got to sit on bear-skin and elk-skin rugs. 

Canoe at Ft. Clatsop

After walking around Ft. Clatsop for a time and getting our passports stamped, we started to drive North.  First we crossed the bridge from Oregon to Washington over the Columbia River (which is 4 miles wide at that point).  We followed Hwy 101 up the Western edge of Washington and then over to Olympia.  It was very interesting seeing all of the trees that grow there and how much logging there was there. One little town we went through had tons of steel sculptures that depicted different animals and people.  I took pictures of a few of them, but could not get them all.  It made for a very interesting drive through town.

Bridge from Astoria, OR to Washington

Bridge to Washington

After we got to Olympia, we hit traffic.  I really don't enjoy city traffic.  It took a while to get through the traffic by the Lewis-McCord air force base, but then it cleared out a bit.  We headed straight to Bellevue because it was getting close to dinner time. When we arrived we got to meet Katelyn for the first time (David's cousin's daughter).  She is three and is very quiet and laid back for a three-year-old.  We went to Zeke's Pizza for dinner and got to spend our last night with Bow.  After dinner we went back to Stephanie's house and worked on condensing all of Bow's stuff into three checked bags and one carry-on.  One of the funniest stories was that we had ordered some Amazon stuff for Bow (her mom wanted some vitamins and an SAT book for her sister) and had it shipped to Stephanie's house.  David also ordered a new Mark Schweizer book from the Liturgical Mystery Series - "The Treble Wore Trouble."  If anyone likes music, is an organist, likes old detective stories, or likes the combination of music and mystery, these are great books.  They are about a guy who is the police chief in a small town in North Carolina and is also the organist at an Episcopal Church.  Further, he fancies himself an amateur detective story writer (but he is terrible!).  There are always interesting little books.  Anyhow, Stephanie was so confused by all of these packages arriving at her house.  She works for Amazon and thought that someone was pranking her.  She told everyone at work about it and was so relieved when we told her it was our stuff (I thought I had texted her that I was sending it, but apparently it got lost in cyberspace).

Steel Animals

The following morning we had to take Bow to the airport to see her off.  Everyone was so sad to see her go.  But, she made her flight okay and made it home okay.  She is now back at school preparing for the 11th grade.

After dropping Bow off we headed to the Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch.  This is one of my favorite restaurants, and it did not disappoint.  The bread alone was wonderful.  I has Chicken Marsala and I loved the sauce.  After lunch we went to downtown Seattle to see some sights.  Unfortunately it was late afternoon, so we didn't get to see a lot before it closed.  We went to Pike's Market and got some smoked salmon and then to a fruit stand to get some fresh fruit.  The fruit was a whole lot more expensive to buy it from the fruit stand compared to buying it from the roadside stands.  It also wasn't quite as good as the fresh fruit, but it was still tasty.  We also went into a tea store and David got some Northwest Blend black tea.

Bow at the airport leaving for Thailand

Steel Animals

After seeing downtown we went over the the Space Needle and got to see it.  We didn't go up it because the line was too long and we had to get back to Stephanie's for dinner.  It would have been nice to have an extra day in Seattle to go to the MP museum and see some more things.

Steel Animals

At Astoria Column

At Astoria Column

Western Washington