Williamson River - Riley is the Kayak King.

We left Lincoln Rock on Friday, 7/17, and instead of heading home, turned south to visit Grandma in St. Helena, CA. We spent the first night at the Sherman Co. RV Park in Moro, OR. We’ve stayed here before and it’s a screaming deal. Full hook-ups with 50amp service, a large pull-through spot so we didn’t have to unhitch the toad, access to the fairgrounds for puppy playtime, and a nice view of Mt. Hood – all for $25 a night. Oh, and best of all, excellent wifi so I was able to upload the last blog post without chewing through our data plan. Whoohoo!

Mt. Hood from the campground.
(Borrowed this pic from our last stay because I forgot to take one this time.)

Our plan for our second night was a BLM boondocking spot outside Bend, OR called Badlands Rock. Along the way Rog decided he needed more adventure in his life and had me take the wheel for awhile. Hwy 97 is easy driving, so I put another 50 miles or so under my belt. Gotta do it every now and then to remember which pedal is go and which is stop. Riley, being the helper dog that he is, even assisted by leaning against the power seat controls to adjust my seat while I was driving. Feeling your seat tilt away from the wheel as you’re driving the short bus at 60mph - now that’s exciting! Lol.

Momma takes the wheel.

We pulled in at Badlands Rock on Saturday, 7/18, and took the Acadia scouting. There were several perfectly acceptable sites, but we found an even sweeter spot just up the road at the Horse Ridge Trailhead. The BLM trailhead did not prohibit overnight camping and this one was spacious, shady and totally empty. Score!

Horse Ridge Trailhead, a quiet spot for a night.

We set up camp and whiled away the afternoon reading, eating, and playing with Riley. Around dinnertime we loaded up the boy and headed into Bend for a stop at one of our favorite breweries, Crux. We opted not to take the bike rack off the back of the Acadia, so Riley got to ride in the back seat. He doesn’t usually get a chance to hang out the open window and he certainly enjoyed the ride.

Riley enjoys the breeze.

Crux’s “sundowner” is quite popular and with social distancing in affect we had to wait in line a bit to get in. In addition to their excellent taps and menu, Crux has a huge outdoor area with picnic tables, food trucks, and circles chalked on the ground with the requisite 6ft of distance. Totally worth the wait. We had dinner, enjoyed a few brews and Riley even negotiated a sip. Hey, he’s 3 years old now (21 in dog years) and at a 190 lbs, I assure you a lap of my sour did not affect his sobriety. Lol.

Crux Sundowner.

Riley is a Crux fan too.
He may be old enough, but from now on he has to buy his own. Lol.

Back at camp, we sat outside as the evening cooled. The sky was absolutely filled with stars, you could see the Milky Way and several planets. It was a real treat. At home the light pollution drowns out half the show. Rog was even able to pick out the comet NEOWISE. We could see it without the binoculars, but it was even more impressive with a little magnification. Very cool! One of these days I’m going to get the right equipment and learn how to do night sky photography.

Our next stop was another repeat, the Williamson River NFS campground near Chiloquin, OR. The neighboring campground which we also really like, Collier State Park, has hookups and takes reservations and was completely full. Luckily Williamson River is all first come/first serve and, arriving in the early afternoon on Sunday, 7/19, we scored an excellent spot to stay for a couple nights. You see, I have a plan. 😊

Williamson River.

We’ve kayaked the Williamson River before and I had high hopes for Riley. The river is pretty shallow and slow moving, so if things go sideways a dump in the drink wouldn’t be a catastrophe. We checked out the water access at our campground, but the river was too shallow even for our inflatable kayak. So we scoped out the nearby state park day use area. The swift running Spring Creek joins the Williamson at the day use area, which meant the first thing we had to do was navigate across the stronger current to get to the slower-moving Williamson. We parked and Riley waited patiently while we prepped the kayak and toted it to the water. He got in without an issue and we were off.

Ready and waiting for his big adventure.

Hoofing it down to the water.

And we're off!

We are so proud of Riley. He is the Kayak King! He was calm and sat up looking around, interested in the birds and scenery. He was comfortable enough to lay down and rest his chin on the side of boat just watching the riverbank go by as we paddled along. What a good boy! We didn’t want to push our luck, so limited our excursion to about an hour on the water. We were so impressed and are happy to report Riley’s kayaking debut was a total success. Yay Riley!

Doesn't he look like a natural?

Chillin' in the kayak.

Happy kayakers!
The best family shot we got. 

Proud Momma and Riley the Kayak King! Lol. 

We had planned to spend a night at a new to us boondocking spot, Deer Park Snow Park near Weed, CA. But Rog’s mom is eager for us to get to grandma’s. So we decided to skip Deer Park and drive straight through to Redding, for a few nights at Rog’s mom’s ultimate moochdock.