Raw Simplicity (John Day, 2015)

What the doctor ordered…

Raw simplicity—that’s what extended camping gives back…a chance to wonder at all that I’m grateful for – a loving fun, and easy-going marriage, great friends, amazing family, wonderful grand kids—a great time with son Randall and his family recently when they came to Oregon – and a chance to soften the blows of harsher times – like the sorrow of losing my Dad or the surrounding family intensities, and then the agony of untimely deaths of spouses in the lives of a dear friend and now also my sister.

When I get out in the wilderness—albeit in “spoiled” trailer camping style—I revel in the realization that only everything basic truly matters—eating, sleeping, loving, breathing, appreciating nature and true beauty—and nothing that I convinced myself as mattering—what people think of me, what I have “accomplished”—actually does.  Chris and I marvel at how our “world” of the trailer (our home) gets “transported” to other places so that, much like the holodeck on the Star Trek Enterprise, we have the same home wherever we go, but we open the door onto whole new worlds.

This year, Chris drew 2 tags in the John Day area—one of our favorite places to be—and it gave us an opportunity/excuse to disconnect for what turned out to be 4 weeks—longer than we had before. And although not a hunter myself, I’ve come to appreciate his brand of hunting, with the emphasis on respect, knowledge, and a love of being in touch with the surrounding wilderness.  He doesn’t like the kill but appreciates the gifts.  This activity that used to bring about an eye-roll has now commanded my respect.  I’ve learned a lot of life lessons from those unusual settings, including from a philosophical sniper…yes, you read that correctly.


Thursday, 9/24/15
We took off at about 8:30 (we being Chris, me, and Shoppie our campin’ cat), had lunch at Marion
Forks along the creek, then into the Clyde Holliday campsite by about 4:00.  Nice weather…we took a walk on the trail by the river while Shoppie scoped out the grounds from her window (“Kitty Television”).

Friday & Saturday, 9/25/15-9/26/15
Scouting Days--I love scouting days, especially when the weather’s perfect!  We get to drive, listen to audio tapes, stop and take walks, and of course look for wildlife and possible campsites.  We had some exciting spots—a nice 4-point on the East Northside area, then 2 big huge bucks on the West side which was thrilling—tried to film them but got too excited before getting them.  Found a perfect camp spot nearby—no people, no potential neighbors, great country for walking, scouting, hunting, AND right next to a perfect clear spring water source—wow!





Scouting day evenings involved cleaning up (showering), having supper, and crashing…this becomes kind of a common theme.





Sunday, 9/27/15
We decided to drive and film the John Day fossil beds today, thinking we would move to our chosen
campsite on Monday.  We had some fun hikes and got some good footage, and then Chris was anxious to get to the campsite before anyone else took it.  So we gassed up, hit the grocery store and left the full hook-ups of Clyde Holliday to head to our new wilderness (dry-camping) “home”!

Monday-Friday, 9/28/15-10/2/15 - Scouting
The week was filled up by scouting activities—lots of driving (occasionally on hideous roads), and lots of walking/hiking.  A few times I rose early with Chris but often he took off and I ended up sleeping in until about 7:00 then walking in our “back yard”—surrounded by beauty and migrating cranes—then reading back at camp, and feeding chipmunks to entertain Shoppie.

We’d meet up throughout the day and make various plans on where we’d go next.  Chris figures he walked an average of 10 miles per day most of the 3 weeks, much of it hiking the ridges around camp.  He loves this part of hunting trips—getting out in the woods and being surprised by the unexpected.  I do too, but prefer less bush-whacking when I hike than he enjoys.

At one point, we walked together along our road a couple of miles, then Chris went down to walk along the creek back to camp and I came back on the road with our camera to see what I could see and to film anything interesting.  By the end of my walk (almost back to camp), I was lulled into a relaxing walk outdoors, nothing more…hadn’t seen much but did get some good footage of a woodpecker.  All of a sudden, I heard something up the hill to my right (the creek Chris was walking was to my left), and looked up in time to see a huge buck start downhill, and then ANOTHER huge buck followed behind him.  I was excited and it took me a few precious seconds to fumble around with the camera.  They got down to the road about 50 feet in front of me and stopped, looking back at me—photo opportunity supreme!!!  I carefully zoomed in and was talking to Chris on camera—“Boy, I hope you’re going to see these guys pass in front of you, Honey…but at least I’m getting them on film!”  When the bucks continued on to the creek, I stopped the camera…or actually STARTED the camera…I did not have the flipping thing ON---AGHGHGHGHGH!!!!

Other highlights of the week:

• The cranes, the cranes, the cranes!!  Loved the blue-blue sky and the beautiful cranes flying and making their cooing noise above us.  They were with us the entire 3+ weeks we were at this place.  Just amazing!
  
• Chris found a bear paw and not much else in the remains of a small bear that SOME critter had eaten (either a bigger bear, or a cougar he figured)…made us a little wary for a while, looking over our shoulders for that “other” guy!!
  
• Watched and filmed a Great Gray Owl only 20 feet from us.
  
  
  
  
• Caught a coyote in the act of terrorizing cows.
  
• Talked a while with a rancher who was looking for some of their missing cattle; later the horses came through our camp to scout the road behind us and Shoppie let us know how impressed she was by those animals (flew under the covers and scuffled a big wad of bedding above her).
  
• Saw quite a few bucks from the car, but still nothing for the most part on-foot.
  

Saturday-Wednesday, 10/3/15-10/14/15 - The HuntThe hunt days mostly involved Chris rising early/at dark, and trying new strategies each day to find the bucks.  I stayed, slept in with Shoppie, and then did my own walking/hiking—with bright orange on!—followed by reading (sometimes at a secluded spot by the creek)/writing/chore-doing back at camp (which of course included being entertained by Shoppie)—enjoyed the sounds, the smells, the air.  We’d meet up and often do “drive-abouts” or various “walk-abouts” to see if we could spot some better places for Chris to try either on his evening prowl or the following day.

Other highlights:

• Met a pretty cool couple of characters up the hill from us.  Art’s a retired military sniper with a Native American mother who taught him a spiritual way of appreciating the hunt and honoring the animals.  He had a lot of interesting things to talk about, but his lifetime buddy, Herb, kind of cringed whenever Art started because he had a hard time stopping.  Herb was in the habit of carrying a book with him everywhere (including Chris’ book which he had given them) and read novels while Art expounded.
  
• Chris hanging his “Asshole!  Put Trash Here!” sign next to the water source where thoughtless ones had trashed their candy wrappers.  It’s a sore subject with him—litter bugs.  I was agreeing with the sentiment but questioning the wisdom of calling gun-toting folks assholes in the middle of the wilderness.  Ahhh, testosterone!  Someone later wrote in “AMEN!” underneath Chris’ note.  He also stopped next to some ATVers who had been powering down cans of beer while they drove about and asked if they had been the ones trashing their cans by the side of the road.  You could tell they were the ones, even though they answered “No”, by the way they blushed and looked so wide-eyed but someone did pick up the stuff later.  Cool.
  
• Chris missed a buck (a 4-point he’s pretty sure) because he had taken the cartridge out of his rifle and had to spend time getting it reloaded.  He was kicking himself for that one (“Well, if I’m not successful, I’ve only myself to blame—I had my chance!”).
  
• Chris had another chance with a buck later in the hunt but it was behind brush and his shot did not connect.  He decided it was almost laughable now—he had plenty of chances and was impressed by the simple fact that he HAD another chance.
  
• “Pity Parties” back at camp included fixing/eating amazing meals (as always, we enjoyed these a little bit too much—the scales ratted us out when we returned home), playing Scrabble, napping while listening to audio books, watching movies (Blue Bloods, Bonanza) as well as keeping up with Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune via satellite daily…rough life!
  
• Hilarious “successful hunts” to find lost glasses and gloves—one time Chris had gotten up out of his chair up on a hilltop and his glasses had fallen out of his lap (he had fun hunting/locating those) and then he located his gloves in the middle of the road where he had gotten out of the truck to investigate something.
  
• Beautiful back road hike looking for Art who had downed a 4-point in a remote canyon.
  
• Trips to town to do laundry, check phone messages, call my mom, gas up, dump garbage, and catch up on email at the library.

Buck Spot Tally:  12 big bucks, 3-pt or better (including 2 that we almost hit with our truck on the way out to go home!); 2 forked horns; 1 spike

Thursday-Saturday, 10/15/15-10/17/15
We spent the following days relaxing around camp, driving around to see if the deer would show up
again, and scouting any elk for Chris’ 2nd tag (he hadn’t seen much sign of them in the area yet).  We still had beautiful weather and enjoyed our drives and walks; the other camps had left, so we had the entire place to ourselves and that was neat.  We played Scrabble, watched movies, made brownies, ate brownies…roughin’ it…

Sunday, 10/18/15
Chris decided that there weren’t enough elk sign to make it worth staying for that tag, and we were ready to move on.  Got back to Clyde Holliday in the early afternoon and set up in time for a nap.
 
Monday, 10/19/15
After a nice restful night, we got cleaned up and dumped the tanks before leaving Clyde Holliday and John Day.

Drove into Prineville where we made use of their ladder/plank stall to wash the truck and trailer. Grabbed some burgers for lunch and picked up some salad kits and eggs at the Sisters grocery store, then got to Detroit Lake by about 2:00 (passes were uneventful so the driving wasn’t hard and Chris and I listened to audio books while Shoppie slept in her box between us).

Got set up at Detroit Lake State Park, complete with satellite.

Tuesday-Thursday, 10/20/15-10/22/15
Chris decided he might need his fishing pole, so we disconnected the truck and headed into Salem to pick that up.  Shopped and headed back to camp at Detroit Lake.

We took some eerie walks through what is now the dried up lake bottom of Detroit Lake—Chris has never seen it this low before (dry, dry, dry year here in the northwest)!  It was muddy and no fish to be found (they were jumping, but not biting).

Wound up watching Major League Baseball play-off games, eating popcorn, taking walks—and having the campsite pretty much to ourselves (nice!).

And in that way, we eased ourselves back into society, the real world, with its real stuff.  It was nice to disconnect for a while, which is how we ultimately measure our success (not by “tags”).

It is important to reconnect though…and so here we are, back home!