Elkton to Chiloquin - the trek south begins

I left Elkton, OR and headed west along Hwy 138 to the Toketee Falls area. I found a nice, long, pull-thru spot at the National Forest Toketee Campground. By 4pm there were 4 out of the 30 spots occupied. I picked the only spot anywhere near the frat boys party. They blasted their rap music until after 7pm and threw their football into my camp site several times. Luckily I got a good nights sleep, but it was raining the next morning so I scraped my plans to ride my 4-wheeler to the Umpqua Hot Spring - the main reason I stopped in the area. Check out the Hot Spring at:
http://oregonhotsprings.immunenet.com/umpqua.htm
http://members.tripod.com/~rexs13/umhotsp.htm
http://www.nwhotsprings.net/umpqua.htm
It looks like a great place for a great soak, but I'll have to save it for another time.

Around 10:00 AM I hit the road, in the rain, and headed toward Crater Lake. I found the wonderful 1000 Springs Sno-Park on Hwy. 62 my friend Diana told me about. We had a visit by a young deer who seemed quite smitten with my truck. He kept staring at it. I tried to take a picture of him through a window, but it didn't turn out. When I opened the trailer door, the deer was scared off. Murphy went out to play with him, but the deer wanted nothing to do with that!! I saw him again the next morning, but he still wanted nothing to do with playing with Murphy.

After a whole day of depressing rain on Monday, Tuesday I awoke to a beautiful sunny day. As I got ready for my day, someone knocked on my door. I hoped it wasn't someone of authority telling me I couldn't park there, or thought maybe it was another camper asking if it IS OK to park there. Well, lo and behold it was a fellow WIN RV club member, Marty O. He spotted my WIN decal and wanted to say HI. I didn't recognize him at first. His mouth and voice were familiar, but he recently shaved his beard and I'm pretty he sure he lost more than just a few pounds. You're looking good Marty!!

I unloaded my Harley and headed out on my 100 mile ride. I stopped at the gate to pay my $5 fee to enter Crater Lake National Park. It was my first visit there and I wasn't disappointed at all. I did have to remind the cashier that I gave her a $10 as she attempted to give me change for a $20. She was appreciative of my honesty. I assured her I wasn't always so honest. I left feeling I'd done my one good deed for the day.





This is the Crater Lake Lodge. It has had quite an interesting life. It's amazing it never collapsed during it's early days. It was considered a fire trap for many years, and was finally totally refurbished in the early 1990's. It's beautiful!!!

Click here for the interesting history of the Lodge: http://www.nps.gov/archive/crla/brochures/lodge.htm



Wizard Island http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/EOSslides/slides-txt/slide8.html



There's a fire lookout on top of this mountain. Other people hiked up there so I felt I didn't have to. http://www.forestlookout.com/watchman/Watchman.html

A misplaced seal balances a bird on his nose.

I shared my lunch with this friendly Jay.

A friendly tourist insisted on taking my picture. She was very patient while I deleted some unwanted pictures from my full digital camera card. Then she insisted she take two, just in case the first didn't turn out. Boy was she thorough!!

Earlier another tourist asked if all the pins on my leather Harley vest were for all the hikes I've been on. I almost choked laughing. I told her they for all my years of love and dedication to Harley-Davidson.

Here's a link to read all about the history and geology of Crater Lake: http://www.southernoregon.org/fun/crater_lake.html

After my wonderful ride I loaded up my bike and continued on my journey down Hwy. 62 to the Kla-Mo-Ya Casino south of Chiloquin.
http://www.klamoyacasino.com/