B & D's USA Hideout: Eastern Oregon

Well, my solo travel time was short-lived but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute I had out on the coast. I headed right for Nehalem Bay as Brian charted his way through the Gulf. I spent two weeks hopping from different state parks until I landed in Newport, Oregon where I decided to reside for a month or so. No sooner had I reserved a site, I got a call about a job with Fish and Wildlife in eastern Oregon. I jumped on the opportunity and packed the camper up for the 6 hour trek east to the high desert and the Blue Mountains. The job even came with a full hook-up trailer site at the Umatilla Fish Hatchery. The view of the mighty Columbia River filled each window of the camper.

I absolutely loved working for Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. It was the perfect combination of full-time field work with the perk of going home to my own bed at night. Monday through Thursday I would drive 20 minutes from Irrigon to Umatilla to the office to pick up the work truck and then drive another 40 minutes to Pendleton to pick up my work partner, Jake. Our job was to don on our waders and hike sections of tributaries of the Umatilla River to look for live steelhead and their redds. Redds are the nest that salmon and steelhead make to lay their eggs. The females clean the rocks with their tail and arrange them in a pile usually along the side of the river with the right amount of flow. The males kept away other encroaching steelhead males and rainbow trout. Some of our surveys took us through private property and close to town while others brought us into the abyss of the Blue Mountains. Some creeks were no more than three feet wide and others steep and loaded with log jams and rock piles and thick brush. But the best ones were wide and open and speckled with mossy rocks and lined with Cottonwood trees. We saw a ton of wildlife and mostly things that seem common but was very cool and unusual to witness them in their natural habitat. For instance, Canada geese on their nests, beavers building dams and snakes basking on sun kissed rocks. We also saw elk, whitetail deer, mule deer, river otters, mink, coyotes, fox, a baby bear cub, and a bat. Brian was a bit surprised to come home and discover that I have become somewhat of a birder. In truth, I bought a really cool bird ID book which has made birding much more fun. Highlights in bird sightings were two great-horned owls, a great gray owl, American dippers (aka water oozles), white pelicans, yellow-headed blackbirds, red-winged blackbirds, turkey vultures, turkeys, osprey, harlequin ducks and mergansers.

I really got back to my country roots here in the west. After I dropped Jake off at his car in Pendleton at the end of the day, I'd crank down the windows in our work truck, an '02 Dodge Ram white pickup, tie a bandana in my hair and blare the sounds of classic country music on the radio from the local station called Hank FM. I'd cruise east on HWY 84 at 70mph back to the office all the while spitting sunflower seed shells into my klean canteen that still had remnants of my morning coffee. The songs brought me back to the time in my life growing up that I heard them for the first time on the dirt roads in northeast Vermont, where I spent many summers as a child. Since the Dodge was only equipped with a tape deck, I went to the local Goodwill and found some classic cassettes on the bottom rack in the back corner of the store. One gem in particular was a local artist named Billy Nichols with his music entitled "Blue Mountain Lullaby". We listened to it every time we drove up to the Blues for a survey.

Having three day weekends was also quite nice. During my stay in eastern Oregon, I made a trip back to Ashland to hang with my best girls. We paddle boarded and hit up all the good spots of my old stomping grounds. My friend Pam and I went camping twice in Mt. Hood which was so fun and beautiful. I also did a couple of solo camp trips which was a first for me. I’m aware that my life is generally camping all the time but to spend a weekend with just me, the tent, my camera and a trail yet to be hiked was bliss.

I can see how this all sounds a little too perfect, which it was, but don’t worry I of course had some bouts with the camper including leaks in the slide-out roof, a mice problem, a broken oven (yes, again) and no AC. #trailerlife

Brian flew home just in time for us to celebrate his 30th birthday. I planned a weekend for us in the wine country of the Northwest, Walla Walla, Washington. We stayed at a super cute guest house close to the downtown area and had a great weekend sipping wine and exploring. Brian flew back to Florida for a required Coast Guard class and I finished up my last week of work and got everything ready to go for our next grand adventure, ALASKA. Stay with us as we drive to the most beautiful, vast, wild and magical place in our country, the last frontier.