Nehalem Bay State Park - Oregon

Morning on Rockaway Beach

Ari & Lennox on the beach

Mercutio relaxing in his corral

Our campsite is at a slant, so we used these levels to help get the trailer more level. 

When we went into town yesterday, Ari put this lock on our trailer. It prevents thieves from hooking up your trailer and taking off with it.

The horses' new digs at Nehalem Bay State Park

I wanted to book a campsite on the beach at least once before we headed into Washington and the inner states, so here we are at Nehalem Bay State Park. The drive in was full of twists and turns, but once we got here we inhaled the sea air and relaxed.

The campground is pretty crowded, but the trails are empty and we have had the beach all to ourselves every time we have gone down there.

The horses continue to behave well.

This was the first time I had taken Mercy to the beach and I was a bit nervous, but he was fine. Beaches can be stressful on horses due to the noisy waves. We didn't take the horses into the water, but rode on the sand.

Lennox has been to Muir Beach and other beaches, so he was fine.

The trails are wide in most places and not rocky, mostly flat. It's an easy ride.

It's cold and breezy here, so quite different from our last stop. We are down to our last few days in Oregon before we cross the border into Washington state.

Silver Falls State Park - Oregon

The trails here are amazing. They are in excellent condition. Nice footing, not that narrow. It feels like you are riding through a botanical garden. Lots of wild flowers on either side of the trail.

Lots of shade on the trails.

These wild hollyhocks can be seen throughout the park and you can smell them as you ride past.

Ari and Lennox crossing a bridge

The foliage is so lush!

The temps here are in the high 80s in the middle of the day, so we ride right after breakfast. We got back from our ride around noon and ate lunch. Then, we went into town to do laundry and buy gas and groceries. 

It broke 100 degrees while we were in town. 

The horses were waiting in their corrals when we got back and hungry for dinner, so they got fed first thing.

We hope to do another ride in the morning.

This park has an RV dump, so before we leave we will make a stop to empty our black and gray water tanks. 

Tomorrow night we will be at Nehalem State Park.

Silver Falls State Park - Oregon

Sunday July 19 - after riding the Big Meadow trail up to the waterfall again, we left for our next campsite - Silver Falls State Park.

The road into the park was nice and wide. There was signage directing us into our reserved campsite. We had to back into the site, but Ari is starting to feel a little more comfortable with it.

The corrals here are pretty nice - about twice the size as the corrals at Big Meadows. The water is easily accessible. The manure dump is across from our site and the vault toilet is down the road.

We are spending two nights here. It looks like there are lots of trails to explore and the park looks well maintained.

Quinn Meadow Horse Camp - Deschutes National Forest Bend, Oregon

As we took our trail ride this morning, I started to notice monarch butterflies. They were fluttering around us, diving and dodging us...all around us.  Are we on the migratory route the butterflies take every summer I wondered?

It turns out that a Land Trust working with local conservationists are raising these butterflies and releasing them into the forest hoping to replenish the butterfly population. The Monarch Butterfly population has been seriously diminished due to deforestation in Mexico and South America.

Mercy picked up a hitchhiking butterfly during our ride. 

Crossing the creek

The trails were fairly easy, a little bit rocky, but not enough to require boots. We rode the trail up to the ridge and then came down the Appaloosa Trail back to camp.

Saddled up and ready to go

There is a single hand pump that provides water to the entire camp. We have a blue bucket on wheels we use for hauling water. Russ and Nellie gave us a great tip for hauling water. Put a large garbage bag in the bucket and then close the bag while hauling to reduce water from sloshing out.

Here's the bucket filled with water and tied closed for transport in a wheel barrow.

There are vault toilets, a manure pile with wheel barrow, picnic tables, and BBQ pits.

Overall, it's a nice campground and we may return if we have to stick around Bend while we get the trailer repaired.

Onward to Quinn Meadow Horse Camp

Thursday morning we departed Quinn Meadow Horse Camp. As I was washing the breakfast dishes, we ran out of clean water...well, now we know - the water tank holds about three days water supply - without taking showers - unless we tap the spare water tank we have in the tack room. But, in order to do that, we need a transfer pump.

Thursday morning felt like a scavenger hunt. We were out of fresh water, our black tank showed as full, and Ari wanted to top off the propane for the generator. We also were low on groceries and needed to re-stock.

Kaylene had recommended we stop at the RV Camp called Lake of Woods Resort. It was along the way to Quinn Meadow and had a dump station, a general store, and a diner. Russ and Nellie had recommended the Pilot gas station in Chemult, claiming they had a dump station. Guess what? They had gas and it was a large station for truckers, but no dump station.

We stopped at the Pilot gas station (where all gas stations are full service) and the attendant filled our gas tank and the transfer tank.

As we were driving up Hwy 97, I saw a station that was selling propane, so we stopped there to top off the propane. The nice cashier offered that we could also fill up our water tank from their hose.
Gas may be full service, but propane is not. Ari was required to take the tanks off the LQ trailer and haul them over to be filled and then haul them back to the trailer and re-mount them.

OK, gas - check, propane - check, water - check. But, still no groceries and we still needed to empty our black water tank.

Folks at the gas station recommended we stop at Walt Haring Sno-Park as they have a dump station. The campsite was completely deserted, but we were able to locate the dump station and empty the black water tank. The dump station operates on the honor system with envelopes to pay $5 for usage. I wrote a check and deposited it into the ranger box.

Immediately after emptying the black water tank, I checked the indicator which said the tank is 2/3 full.

Next, we stopped for groceries at a Ray's market along the way.

We finally reached the Quinn Meadows Horse Camp around 3:30 pm.

But, hurrah and what a pleasant surprise! We have internet...we can play on our computers and catch up with the world.

Tomorrow we look forward to a most excellent ride.

Willow Prairie Horse Camp

We left the Double H ranch and headed to the Willow PrairieHorse Camp in the Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest. I was surprised that there was no border crossing going into Oregon, so we didn’t have to stop and show the certification papers for our horses.  Normally when we cross state lines, we have to go through a border station where the personnel check our driver licenses and ask for the health certificates for the horses. They normally fill out a form with the license plate number for our trailer and a description of the horses in case they have been reported stolen.

Google Maps has proven to be a major headache so far as it has only gotten the entrance correct for one of our stops.  This campsite was no different. We were instructed to turn left instead of right and ended up having a six mile detour before we found a spot where we could safely turn The Behomoth around.

Once we arrived at the campsite, we were greeted by our Camp Hosts, Russ and Nellie. Russ helped Ari park the trailer. The road in and out is plenty wide and we are in a nice long trailer pad.

The horses are in log corrals which are on the smallish side – especially after leaving a 2 acre pasture. There is no water except for the horses and that has to be hauled using buckets. We forgot to pack a pail, but Russ loaned us one of his buckets. We carry large tubs for water for the horses as most campsites don’t supply that.

Mercy relaxing in his corral...he spread out his hay so all he has to do is lean over a little bit to nibble on some food.

The trail map for Willow Prairie Horse Camp

The trails at this campsite are extensive and it is easy to get lost, so Russ offered to show Ari the trails. I let Russ use my horse. He and Ari went for a ride while I prepped dinner and relaxed.

The next morning, Ari led us on a ride to an area called Porcupine Flats. The trails are nice, not too rocky, pretty flat and easy to ride. 

Riding through Porcupine Flats - but didn't see any porcupines

Our next stop was supposed to be at Fourmile Horse Camp, but Russ and Nellie advised us not to stay there. Apparently, the road is in really bad shape and the campsites are very bad. So, we opted to spend an extra two days here at Willow Prairie. Luckily, the campsite we booked is free until next weekend. It costs us $7.50 per night to stay here, so it is quite the bargain.

Ari making friends with Russ & Nellie's rat terrior

Cell service is spotty as I expected and we aren’t able to reply to emails or texts. I had posted to my horse facebook group asking for recommendations for internet in remote places. Several horse people were a bit accusatory in their response. After all, isn’t the point of camping with horses to get away from the hustle and bustle? Well, yeah, but people seem to feel they should be able to get ahold of us – even when we tell them we are not going to be able to get calls or emails for several days.

My claims adjuster has been trying to get ahold of me for more than a week now. I emailed him a few days ago explaining that we are camping with horses and I will be hard to reach. His response was to send me an email and ask me to respond to that. I can receive emails – intermittently – but sending them is iffy.

Tuesday morning, a fellow camper named Kaylene offered to guide us up to The Enchanted Forest.  It’s a stand of old growth trees – reachable only if you are on horseback or are an avid hiker. Kaylene has a beautiful Paint named Chisholm. Chisholm is 18 yo, overweight, and out of shape. Ari & I were skeptical that Chisholm would be able to ride with us since our horses are Tennessee Walkers and are in optimal shape.  Sure enough, Chisholm struggled the entire ride. We had to stop multiple times to let Chisholm rest and catch his breath. 

Kaylene on Chisholm in a field of Shasta daisies

The Enchanted Forest is indeed quite beautiful. Kaylene told us that she calls the area Huckleberry Flats because there are multiple huckleberry bushes in the undergrowth. She says in August and September the place is a popular spot with bears who chow down on the huckleberries, so she avoids the area during those months.

Kaylene in the Enchanted Forest - took the picture over my shoulder

The Behemoth - at our campsite

We let Chisholm lead us back into camp at the end of the ride and he did better when he was in the lead and heading home. It was a two and a half ride from start to finish.

Tomorrow morning we plan to do another ride with Kaylene & Chisholm to a canyon.

We leave for the Quinn Meadow Horse Camp on Thursday.  This stop will be the longest we have ever camped in one place with the horses. In the past, we have never stayed anywhere for more than a couple of days because we only had so much time off work. Now that we are retired, we can stop and really enjoy each campsite. I may start reserving extra days on the front and rear end of our campsite reservations to give us a little more flexibility to stay longer at each place if we like.

Adjusting to retirement can be challenging simply because we are used to doing things in ways to accommodate our jobs. So, we are figuring things out as we go.