Oregon

Our experience in Oregon was guided by our new friends Pat & Trish who introduced us to the joys of Mountain Man rendezvous. After getting out fill of picking huckleberries in Idaho we followed them to a Mountain Man Rendezvous near Le Grande, Oregon. The event was being held at the shooting range a short distance from town. We were real green horns to the rendezvous and quickly began to learn what they were all about.

These events are meant to be done in the spirit of the real pioneers of the west where participants try to recreate the gathering as they would have been done a hundred or more years ago.    Participants are given extra points for costume and authenticity.  Different rendezvous have different rules and levels of participation. This one in Le Grande was flexible enough to allow many different levels of participation so that even folks wet behind the ears like us could get in on the fun. And fun it is! Here is where we were introduced to black powder shooting by Pat and Trish. Here they are wearing their capotes while firing their black powder pistols. What a hoot! Pat let me borrow one of his rifles and even join in the competition. Black powder shooting was only part of the skills a real mountain man had to learn. More points were awarded for skills in throwing a tomahawk and large knife into selected targets. Each family member had different expertise and skills that were needed in those days so all could participate. The closer to authentic use and reproduction of the weapons the better. Camps were divided into primitive authentic and regular camping areas. The more authentic the camp, clothes and so forth the more points were awarded. It all boiled down into some real fun!

There were authentic vendors who set up tents for trade and barter. Many types of food was in abundance. Here are some of the private camps.   Pat & Trish specialized in deep fried turkey. Yum! Kettle popcorn and all sorts of fried bread were available to satisfy a hungry crowd. At the end of each Rendezvous there is an awards ceremony where prizes are given out for the best shot, hawk throw, knife throw and so on. Almost everybody won a little something as all participants were obliged to donate a prize when entering. I was real impressed at how many young people were there and how good they were!

All too soon the festivities were over. We found a great campsite overlooking the Grande Ronde River. Pat & Trish invited us to tag along with them for awhile longer as they were heading out for a black powder elk hunt. They had a elk tag for a near by area so we went along to learn about elk hunting. There are numerous books on hunting elk but nothing is as good as seeing it first hand. And, this was with a single shot black power rifle. One shot is all you get so it has to hit its mark the first time.! Wow! What and adventure! Stalking the elk through the woods and mountainous terrain, listening to their calls and learning how to call them in. This was one of the most interesting experiences we have had on our journey so far. We sure enjoyed learning how to hunt and prepare fresh game. Wild turkeys were abundant. We tracked several for a quite a distance. There were more bear sighted and I was lucky enough to get a glimpse of a great gray owl.  We found several other bird nests in the tall grass near our camp.

                             Judy made a bead hat band for Pat.   Mary is proud of her real fox skin.  

We were invited to visit another new friend we met at one of the Mountain Man rendezvous. Janet was kind enough to let us stay at her place near Bend. There we explored the area to find beautiful volcanic craters with a lake called Newberry Crater National Monument.

The view was spectacular and from the rim. We could see the lava fields and cinder cones in the surrounding valleys. Living with volcanoes is a way of life here. Where will you go when the volcano blows?

Of course, our time there was too short as well. It is amazing how quickly a new friendship blooms with some people. We sure enjoyed our time with Janet and are lucky to have met her. Our time was cut short. Winter was letting us know it was on the way. It was getting pretty cool at night being October 2002 so we headed out before it was too cold to enjoy seeing some of the Oregon coast. We had not made it all the way to the Pacific coast in a long time. It was Mary's first look at the Pacific ocean. The sand dunes were fabulous. There were all kinds of animal life to be seen.   We stopped to gather some sand from Gold Beach as a souvenir. 

We followed the Oregon coast down to California and then cut over to Nevada from there. Picture postcard views were the order of the day. We soon had to leave the coast and head inland.

Northern California has a few volcanoes too like this one near Lassen Volcanic National Park. But, that's another story.