My trip was shortened from one week and 115 miles to two days and 47 miles. We put in on the John Day at Service Creek.
The John Day is over 300 miles with no dams. It begins in the Ocheco Mountains and Blue Mountains. I drove up from the Columbia after visiting my grand children in Richland Wa. My son in law got off work and we drove the 4 hours to the take out. Pitching the tent in the dark desert was not a problem until at sunrise I realized the tent was swarmed with fire ants. Fortunatly the sewed in floor and bug nets did a very good job. Only 2 of the hundreds of ants made it into the tent. It was a more powerful wake up than an alarm clock. I jumped out of my sleeping bag and at 4:30 was ready to get on the river.
Sunrise at Clarno Bridge with my inverted SOTP shot.
We left one rig and drove to Service Creek at river mile 157.
I did a few experiments on this trip. I copied the images from Google Earth of the river I wanted to run. I could not figure how to print the entire river at the scale I wanted so using alt prntscreen I pasted the images to a Publisher file, with one image per page. Then I was able to put notes from two other river guides along with the river miles, powerlines, rapids and camp sites. I thought it would be great to have a photo from canoe level of the entrance to the major rapids.
Russo Rapids Class II from Google Earth. I was very pleased with my map. I could even tell where the main channel was from the arial photos.
This section is not as remote or steep as it is further down the river. It drops 8 feet per mile and 11 feet per mile further down. There were farms where the soil was not too steep or rocky. This horse ranch was beautiful with a large home overlooking his foals.
This little lizzard was along the shore but he would not pose with the big rocks in the background like I wanted.
There were thousands of swallow burrows in the soft cliffs. I noticed some even eroded the banks.
These poor ospreys were being bullied by the tiny red winged blackbird. It hit the nesting bird in the back while it sat on its eggs minding its own business. I also saw them chassing a blue heron and other ospreys.
As you descend the river you are going back in time, as the river cuts deeper into the painted desert. It was great to travel with my son in law the geologist. He had more information than I can recall about what time span we were seeing and where the bands of ash came from and what geological period.
I thought this looked like a cinder cone but Jake says it is erosion instead.
This is the entrance to Burnt Ranch Rapids Class III. I put a bolt in the end of a trecking pole and mounted my camera on the end before the trip. Then I lashed it to the stern and tied the camera to the hull just as a precaution in case of a capsize.
I let Jake scout this rapid while I made my camera mount. For a first attempt this worked ok. I put the camera a little too low. But the worst part was the best video I deleted hence I only have the smaller Lower Burnt Ranch Rapid Class II.
This was one of may unique un-named formations.
Our first camp site near Rattlesnake Creek mile 122. I was hoping to get a picture of a rattlesnake and brought my high top boots and trecking pole as a snake stick. Two miles of hiking and no live snakes I was a little disappointed. After 35 miles of paddling I was too tired to search longer. Before sunset I was asleep.
I liked this tiny flower tucked away between the sharp spines of a cacti.
There were several camp sites but we had the river this night all to ourself. I was very pleased that the previous users had left no garbage other than a few charred sticks. We left no trace for the next users.
Jake is fashionable dressed in a garbage bag instead of his London Fog.
Here is my SOTP shot. I looked at a lot of scenery to get this image.
I found these basalt columns impressive.
These ancient rock paintings are not easy to find as those that know where they are will not tell strangers that may damage them. I am not telling either.
I wish I could interpret these. I read that they were frequently next to a good food gathering site. It did look like a perfect spot for an ambush of animals going to the river to drink.
This one looked like a hand print that said I was here.
It looks like this was the paint sticks used.
This is a band of ash from the mountain that created Crater Lake according to Jake.
Sometimes you wonder who put that big rock in the middle of the river?
Jakes is wearing his sun protecting shirt and hat to beat the desert sun. Note my navigation table with compass on the the wet bag. I could tell from the color pictures on the map that matched the hills color.
We saw these caves and climbed up to see them closer.
This cave was only a few dozen yards deep. The floor was deep with sharp shards that had fallen from the ceiling. Since there were many more loose rocks above our heads we felt it prudent to not stay too long. I wonder what creatures were buried under our feet.
The coyotes had recently eaten a blue bird in one of the caves.
This colorful cliff was full of stones glued together with some sort of ash and mud flow.
There were numerous large families of geese and they were quite unafraid. I suspect they do not see much hunting pressure.
The painted desert with the growing thunderstorm made me pull over and get the video camera out of the river bag. While waiting for a big bolt of lightning I spied an osprey. It was a real challenge to keep it in the viewfinder. The auto-focus was confused by all the changes as I spun in circles. At one point I had to stop looking in the viewfinder to keep my balance.
This osprey was having a bad day. A pair of red winged black birds gave this osprey a rough time. Then when it caught the biggest fish of its life its eyes were bigger than its wings and it could not take off. Before and after it got airborne the black birds were on the attack again. Nature is such a trip.
Instead of driving back the Columbia river I wanted to see the headwaters in the Ochoco Mountains where there is more painted desert.
John Day Fossil Beds National Park has three separate sections one is the painted desert.
As I climbed up the mountains you change from desert to lush green big pine forests.
It was a short trip but a great way to spend two days seeing a different side of Oregon.
The John Day is over 300 miles with no dams. It begins in the Ocheco Mountains and Blue Mountains. I drove up from the Columbia after visiting my grand children in Richland Wa. My son in law got off work and we drove the 4 hours to the take out. Pitching the tent in the dark desert was not a problem until at sunrise I realized the tent was swarmed with fire ants. Fortunatly the sewed in floor and bug nets did a very good job. Only 2 of the hundreds of ants made it into the tent. It was a more powerful wake up than an alarm clock. I jumped out of my sleeping bag and at 4:30 was ready to get on the river.
Sunrise at Clarno Bridge with my inverted SOTP shot.
We left one rig and drove to Service Creek at river mile 157.
I did a few experiments on this trip. I copied the images from Google Earth of the river I wanted to run. I could not figure how to print the entire river at the scale I wanted so using alt prntscreen I pasted the images to a Publisher file, with one image per page. Then I was able to put notes from two other river guides along with the river miles, powerlines, rapids and camp sites. I thought it would be great to have a photo from canoe level of the entrance to the major rapids.
Russo Rapids Class II from Google Earth. I was very pleased with my map. I could even tell where the main channel was from the arial photos.
This section is not as remote or steep as it is further down the river. It drops 8 feet per mile and 11 feet per mile further down. There were farms where the soil was not too steep or rocky. This horse ranch was beautiful with a large home overlooking his foals.
This little lizzard was along the shore but he would not pose with the big rocks in the background like I wanted.
There were thousands of swallow burrows in the soft cliffs. I noticed some even eroded the banks.
These poor ospreys were being bullied by the tiny red winged blackbird. It hit the nesting bird in the back while it sat on its eggs minding its own business. I also saw them chassing a blue heron and other ospreys.
As you descend the river you are going back in time, as the river cuts deeper into the painted desert. It was great to travel with my son in law the geologist. He had more information than I can recall about what time span we were seeing and where the bands of ash came from and what geological period.
I thought this looked like a cinder cone but Jake says it is erosion instead.
This is the entrance to Burnt Ranch Rapids Class III. I put a bolt in the end of a trecking pole and mounted my camera on the end before the trip. Then I lashed it to the stern and tied the camera to the hull just as a precaution in case of a capsize.
I let Jake scout this rapid while I made my camera mount. For a first attempt this worked ok. I put the camera a little too low. But the worst part was the best video I deleted hence I only have the smaller Lower Burnt Ranch Rapid Class II.
This was one of may unique un-named formations.
Our first camp site near Rattlesnake Creek mile 122. I was hoping to get a picture of a rattlesnake and brought my high top boots and trecking pole as a snake stick. Two miles of hiking and no live snakes I was a little disappointed. After 35 miles of paddling I was too tired to search longer. Before sunset I was asleep.
I liked this tiny flower tucked away between the sharp spines of a cacti.
There were several camp sites but we had the river this night all to ourself. I was very pleased that the previous users had left no garbage other than a few charred sticks. We left no trace for the next users.
Jake is fashionable dressed in a garbage bag instead of his London Fog.
Here is my SOTP shot. I looked at a lot of scenery to get this image.
I found these basalt columns impressive.
These ancient rock paintings are not easy to find as those that know where they are will not tell strangers that may damage them. I am not telling either.
I wish I could interpret these. I read that they were frequently next to a good food gathering site. It did look like a perfect spot for an ambush of animals going to the river to drink.
This one looked like a hand print that said I was here.
It looks like this was the paint sticks used.
This is a band of ash from the mountain that created Crater Lake according to Jake.
Sometimes you wonder who put that big rock in the middle of the river?
Jakes is wearing his sun protecting shirt and hat to beat the desert sun. Note my navigation table with compass on the the wet bag. I could tell from the color pictures on the map that matched the hills color.
We saw these caves and climbed up to see them closer.
This cave was only a few dozen yards deep. The floor was deep with sharp shards that had fallen from the ceiling. Since there were many more loose rocks above our heads we felt it prudent to not stay too long. I wonder what creatures were buried under our feet.
The coyotes had recently eaten a blue bird in one of the caves.
This colorful cliff was full of stones glued together with some sort of ash and mud flow.
There were numerous large families of geese and they were quite unafraid. I suspect they do not see much hunting pressure.
The painted desert with the growing thunderstorm made me pull over and get the video camera out of the river bag. While waiting for a big bolt of lightning I spied an osprey. It was a real challenge to keep it in the viewfinder. The auto-focus was confused by all the changes as I spun in circles. At one point I had to stop looking in the viewfinder to keep my balance.
This osprey was having a bad day. A pair of red winged black birds gave this osprey a rough time. Then when it caught the biggest fish of its life its eyes were bigger than its wings and it could not take off. Before and after it got airborne the black birds were on the attack again. Nature is such a trip.
Instead of driving back the Columbia river I wanted to see the headwaters in the Ochoco Mountains where there is more painted desert.
John Day Fossil Beds National Park has three separate sections one is the painted desert.
As I climbed up the mountains you change from desert to lush green big pine forests.
It was a short trip but a great way to spend two days seeing a different side of Oregon.
Now the big question who wants to go paddle a canoe?
Dr. Joe
