Camping in Paradise, July 17-19

A small video of the McKenzie river. It's fast and cold, but crystal clear. It's very popular with rafters. Paradise campground is right of the McKenzie river.

Just a few pics of the river.

Of course there are big trees too.

We hit the trails Saturday morning while my friend Doug was sleeping in. For the record he was up before me Sunday morning.




The trails were well maintained and had the usual great scenery like this huge plant, they look like they belong in a dinosaur movie. I usually find then in small marshy areas, not sure what they are.

This little guy was right next to the trail and kindly stood there so I could take his picture.


After hitting the trails for a couple of hours we headed back to the campground and Doug was up. Doug and I had planned to head up Buck mountain and visit the mine with the cabin above. We also figured we could pick up some firewood up on the mountain, since the campground's $6.00 firewood bundles were more like kindling. We went in Doug's rig so Julie could use mine to run to the small store about 20 minutes down the highway for more ice for the cooler. It was in the 90's so we wanted to make sure the food stayed safe.

So up Buck mountain we go, it's pretty hot and dry. We are about 4600 to 4700 feet.


We make it to the mine and are happy to see no tweekers in the area. As we start to head into the mine I realize Oh crap! My maglite is in my truck. Undaunted to head inside I would take two steps and take a picture with flash and then take two more steps.

This worked until we were about to ran into beams partly fallen across the mine, so we decide to back out and head up to the cabin. Doug had never seen the cabin.

The cabin has also been propped up to keep the one side from falling down with new beams.


It looks like someone has stood back up the old cast iron stove and connected the stove pipe. Also you can see new plastic covering a window.


The table has been patched up and is upright.


Does not look like much has been done to the floor though.

Here is the crapper.

I think this is called Indian Paintbrush, it was near the cabin.

We head back and I stop to take a pic of the Three Sisters across the way.

Now Doug and I really start the firewood search. We find some from wood along the main road, but head down some side roads in search of wood. We go down this one spur road and the winter snow melt and rain has not been kind to it. We continue down to the end of the road and find some nice chunks of firewood. We head back up the road figuring that we have enough firewood now. Part way up things sound different, we get to the top and I tell Doug "I think we have a flat tire". He hops out from behind the steering wheel, he says "Oh yeah..." I get out and look, holy crap there is a 5 inch tear in the side of the tire. I wish I would have thought to take a picture of it, but I didn't. So out comes the jack and off with the lug nuts, but the damn tire will not come off. Doug jacks it up a bit higher, but the jack and rig take a tilt backwards. This is still not the best spot to do this. Better put the lug nuts back on and pull ahead about 10 feet or so. So Doug pulls his rig over to a better spot and jacks it back up. Off with the lug nuts and still the tire will not come off. Doug uses a big rock with the floor mats as cushioning to pound on the wheel. We try kicking it and wiggling the tire and wheel. Finally it breaks loose and we can see that there was a bit of rust that had bonded it on. We are relieved now that we have it off. We are 15 miles from the nearest pavement. We put on the spare and make tracks down the mountain. We make it to the pavement at the bottom of the mountain and we hear a faint sound that does not sound right. We get out and check the spare, holy crap again... a few of the lug nuts are loose to the touch and they are hot! Looks like did not get tight enough or worked their way loose. We would never have heard the noise of felt any vibration while we were on the gravel road on the way down the mountain. Most of the ways down the mountain if you were to go off the road; you’re not going to stop before going a few hundred feet down. Doug tightens up the lug nuts we drive 50 feet and tighten them again just to be sure. Doug says "Okay, no more weird shit". We made it back to camp with a story to tell.

Our biggest piece of found wood burning nicely. Not sure it was worth a tire though... Fire good!