Early last Thursday morning we had kayaks loaded up and started off on what was suppose to be four days of kayaking the Warner Wetlands near Hart Mountain in Oregon. We have been going there in July the last few years, but with the ongoing drought we haven't been able to paddle because the low water conditions. This year we thought we would be smart and go a month early, thus taking advantage of the earlier conditions and get in a great few days of paddling in this 53,000 acre wetland. So without actually doing any research, or calling the BLM up there to get current information and conditions, off we went...Over 8 hours of driving and 400+ miles.
When we arrived, the wetlands looked like a Prairie! No lush wetlands, no birds or wildlife, no cool shoreline camps...just flies, gnats, and COWS!!
We sat down in the dust, had a beer, and decided to head back to Northern California and do a little exploring in the Medicine Lake Highlands below Lava beds national Monument. It turned out to be three GREAT days of overlanding, camping, rain, getting lost on old double track forest service roads, pin striping the Tundra (even more), finding lookouts we have seen on maps for years, and exploring glass mountains, lava flows, and wild lave tube caves, and the kayaks never came off the truck. Like always, we found sooooo much stuff we need to go back for it will be years before we can do it all.
Here is a sampler of how the weekend went...
Timber Mountain Lookout and circumnavigating Timber Mountain on single lane forest service roads.
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