K to L to M to N: Government Camp, OR to Portland, OR to Dundee, OR to campspot near Sisters, OR

July 29, 2011 to July 31, 2011

We woke up and waited for our tow truck driver to arrive to pull us forward five feet. It felt a little silly, maybe we should have tried harder? The bunny nearby seemed to be mocking us. Nevermind, at least Joe, the driver, agreed that we had found a nice place to camp and told us how we could make a ramp out of sticks to slowly build a bridge to get out of mud. He still opted to use his winch. Joe was great and had good stories about winter when he works around the clock rescuing people stuck out in the snow, he was not as used to rescuing dispersed campers with their two-wheel drive 1988 Ford Econoline buried to the exhaust pipe in mud. He had us out of there and on our way to Portland before noon.We have great friends in Portland, and they were there, so we visited them. We left Portland with them and hung out with more of their friends while they all performed at a private palooza outside of Portland. Emily tried to join in on a sing-a-long of Spanish Pipedream but forgot most of the lyrics. We also got to go swimming in a pond. Although we were tempted to hang out with our friends more, even truly considering driving way out of the way up to Astoria (although that would be allowed on this trip), we decided to keep moving and visit them on another trip. Eugene Carsey knew of a good spot to camp along Jack Creek just outside of Sisters, OR. That seemed to be a doable distance, even though we didn't leave Dundee until just about 4pm. We headed west along US 22 and the Santiam River noticing that its a popular place for picnics and fishing parties. We stopped along the way to split a gigantic meatball sub at Giovanni Mountain Pizza where we also played pinball. The camp spot was just as Eugene described it, and there was plenty of firewood in the area to have a small fire and relax as the sun went down. Max was able to tune in KPOV, a community radio station in Bend, that had some great programming.


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