Oregon

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Oregon

Just got back from a week of flying in far southeastern Oregon, one of the most desolate parts of the lower 48. We had rain, snow, hail, wind and sun, and some unforgettable flying. Here are a couple pics from the Owyhee River area. In the one shot I'm entering a slalom course of rocks in Leslie Gulch. Some places are so narrow that two PPCs couldn't pass each other without touching the walls. I was too busy flying to get pictures of the narrow spots. Awesome. The other pic is along the river where there are plenty of landing spots. 8 machines and 11 people were along for various parts of the trip, and 5 of Q

 

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Accommodations were everything from a tent that fit on a pickup box to a 40' motor home (which got stuck, had a flat tire, and other problems.) I had my little cab-over camper on my Toyota pickup, with a heater. There were no motels or restaurants and some guys even shot a rabbit for dinner (see pic). Roads were terrible with big rocks and mud where I got stuck once. We spent a lot of time sitting around the camp fire made from wood we brought along, some old fence posts brought to us by a rancher, and dead sage brush. Flying temps ranged from 19 F to 55 F. It was a real wilderness type fun adventure for all. That part of Oregon gets only 3 or 4 inches of precip per year. The water comes from snow melt on the mountain peaks. Occasionally you find a juniper tree growing in a draw, or a cottonwood planted by a homesteader, otherwise it's sage brush which smells wonderful BTW. Animals include coyote, chuckers and other birds, big horn sheep, pronghorn antelope, jack rabbits. Geology of the rocks in the photos are volcanic tuff, volcanic ash welded together with heat from steam vents, eroded by wind. There were also many square miles of lava, and dry lake beds. This trip was only for the most adventurous of flyers. Many times we were flying over terrain that would be inaccessible except by a helicopter with a long rope to reach into the narrow canyons. I had to land once due to carb ice and my friend Dave blew a lower rod bearing on his 582 shortly after flying the Leslie Gulch slalom flight. Fortunately it quit only yards from camp just after crossing the river, very lucky guy. Q

 

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rabbit