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<\/a><\/p>\nAfter I left my friends in Yachats on the Oregon coast, I made my way to Bend and visited some volcanos.
\nThat was pretty damn cool. <\/p>\n
But first I had a spooky afternoon and over the next few days a reminder of why it’s good to listen to your gut. Oh, nothing exciting happened, but that’s a good thing.
\nI found this lovely spot to boondock just outside of Sisters, OR., not far from Bend. <\/p>\n
I wish I’d gotten a photo of the carnage because after I got popped up, I found that I was parked in the middle of a semi-circle of what appeared to be a deer massacre. I did get a photo of a hoof, but I’m not gonna post it because some of you might be squeamish. I took the dogs for a walk, ate lunch, and read for a while, trying not to let it bother me. But it did. It was weird. There was no other location that I saw near by that had any similar ring of carcasses. Did I stumble into some location where rituals took place? Would scary night creatures appear once the sun went down? (at this point I should ask for you readers to pretty, pretty please not comment on these ideas. I can’t watch ads for scary movies, so I’d appreciate if you refrained from giving my overactive imagination more fodder.) <\/em>If I write more on that, I’ll scare myself, so suffice it to say that I was creeped out. As early evening and sun down approached, I knew that I wouldn’t get a good night sleep there so I decided to move location. It’s okay to listen to that little internal voice, even if you think it’s kinda silly.<\/p>\n I decided to go down to camp at Paulina Lake – part of the Newberry Volcano<\/a>, but as I drove south on highway 97 it got smokier and smokier. I turned around and found this pretty spot in the forest just south of Bend and got popped up before dark. <\/p>\n In the morning, I went to the Newberry National Volcanic Monument Lava Butte<\/a> and walked through a lava field with the dogs. <\/p>\n After we walked around there, checked out the Visitor’s Center and stared at the Cone, I decided to try my luck south again as the day seemed pretty clear. I headed to the Big Obsidian Flow and Paulina Lake<\/a>, also part of the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. <\/p>\n The hike around the Big Obsidian Flow<\/a> hike is a little less than a mile, and while dogs are allowed, it’s definitely not recommended since you are basically walking around on obsidian pieces which can be sharper than a scalpel. <\/p>\n At the top of the short paved part, you get a great view of this frozen lake. I haven’t been able to find much information about this, except for it’s name, “Lost Lake”. <\/p>\n It’s huge and shiny and sharp!<\/p>\n Walking around that Big Obsidian Flow was rather other-worldly and well worth the hike, but I didn’t linger too much and went back for the dogs. I took them to this beautiful 80′ side by side falls created by the Newberry volcano eruption. The last eruption was 1,300 years ago!<\/p>\n After a comfortable sleep in a Sno-Park<\/a>, I drove to Smith Rock State Park and popped up for lunch. <\/p>\n I was too tired to do any hiking, so I found a remote-ish horse camp on my map and made my way there. I got set up and spent the afternoon reading. <\/p>\n While I was there, a beat sedan pulled up near the outhouses, used the toilet, sat for about half an hour, then left. A couple of hours later, a hatchback car pulled in near the outhouses and sat for a long while. Mid-afternoon, a man on a four-wheeler emerged from the trail, rode around the campground and seemingly disappeared. The hatchback eventually left, but all this non-campery activity made me feel uneasy. <\/p>\n Early evening I decided that the day-activity was enough to make me not sleep well, so I moved to Skull Hollow Campground, which is just a few miles from Smith Rock State Park. The very nice camp host came by and we chatted for a while. I told him about my misgivings of staying at the lovely horse camp and he said there’d been some drug-related activity in the area and that it was a good choice that I came to the campground. Good to trust the gut feelings.<\/p>\n It was a lovely sunset, and I slept well. <\/p>\n The next day, I drove up to visit newer friends in Northeastern Oregon. We met two years ago in a middle-of-nowhere campground in Cathedral Valley, Utah and stayed in touch. I figured that since I’m in the area, I’d stop in for a visit. <\/p>\n They have beautiful views of the Wallowa Mountains<\/a> from their living room. <\/p>\n While I was visiting I met an Alpaca named Hercules<\/p>\n at the farm and groomers home that had been recommended to get a very shaggy Sully groomed. I spent some time lounging in a field that is my friend’s side-yard watching deer<\/p>\n Went to a lake and hiked around with my friends, ate some fantastic food, including my friend’s homemade sourdough bread. <\/p>\n I have been here for a few days now, having a most excellent visit, and tomorrow I leave for new adventures. I am extraordinarily grateful for all of these remarkable people (and critters!) I have in my life. <\/p>\n I know I wrote about this some in my previous post, but I’m so overwhelmed by the kindness of people that I feel a need to write more. In the past couple of months, people I hadn’t met before, old friends I hadn’t seen in 20+ years, old friends I last saw two years ago, and newer friends I’d only met once before all took me in to their homes, welcomed me with open arms, were most gracious and generous…<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nShe did a great job! <\/p>\n
\nThe generosity of my new friends has been heartening, to say the least.<\/p>\n<\/a>
\n(one of my friend’s kitties!)<\/span><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"