New Shoes, a Second Kayak Adventure, and Murphy Meets MacGyver

We made our date with the tire folks in Klamath Falls, pulling in right on time at noon on Friday, 7/31. They said it would take a few hours, so we loaded up Riley, grabbed some burritos for a picnic lunch, and drove to Williamson River Campground to claim our spot. That turned out to be a smart move because the tire place closed at 5pm and they didn’t finish until 4:45pm. It would have been slim pickings in the campground if we’d waited in town. 

We had fun watching the acrobatic chippies harvest seeds near our campsite.

We had our lunch at the Spring Creek Day Use area, about 2 miles from the campground. The water is shallow and crystal clear and we noticed a lot of kayak traffic. Hmmmm… we’d hiked here once before, but looking at it with a new eye, we decided it would be perfect for Riley’s second kayak adventure! Since it took us so long to reclaim the rig and get settled, we chose to stay a second night and enjoy a relaxed day hiking and playing on the water. 

Riley in Spring Creek. 
Shallow, clear and beautiful - looks like our next kayak adventure!

On Saturday, we hiked the campground trail, about 2 miles roundtrip along the Williamson River. We figured it was a good idea to tire Riley out before putting him in the kayak. He enjoyed the walk and did his crazy dog routine as well as another favorite game, hike-and-seek. Silly boy.

Riley does crazy dog.                                                 Can you see me?

The trail goes through big pines along the Williamson River. 

After lunch we headed over to Spring Creek and set up the kayak. Normally the bottom of our inflatable is rigid, but a seam on the floor insert that Rog had repaired started leaking again. It made footing more uncertain for Riley, sort of like standing on a waterbed. Even so, he did great. This time we spent about 2 hours on the water with a short break midway so he could potty and stretch his legs.

We're ready to go!

We picked what looked like an easy spot to get in and out of the kayak and pulled up to the bank. I hopped out into the water to hold the kayak steady while Riley exited. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize that the creek bottom at that spot was thick, soft mud.  I immediately sank to my ankles with both feet firmly stuck in the mud. When Riley exited, he pushed the kayak into me, I windmilled frantically then fell backwards into the creek. Nothing hurt but my pride. Although it did take some effort to extricate myself from the mud. Ick. Luckily, there was no video of that little maneuver. 😊 All in all, we are declaring Riley’s second kayak adventure another unqualified success. Yay Riley!

Such a good boy. 
Now if we could just teach him to paddle!

The spring fed creek is crystal clear.

On the way back we dunked Riley's hat to help keep him cool.

On Sunday, we returned to our boondocking spot at Horse Ridge Trailhead. It did not disappoint. Which is more than I can say for Google maps which took us a back way there, including 2 miles of gravel washboard road. Really?? Not amused. After dinner, we drove into Bend (on the paved road, thank you very much) and, although it was hard to pass up Crux, we tried something new. I was interested in the ciders at Avid and Rog picked up two hazy IPA’s at Immersion Brewery nextdoor. Both were excellent and we grabbed extras for the trip home. (Happy Hour at our place!)

The cider flight at Avid is beautiful and tasty!

I mentioned before that the night sky is just amazing at Horse Ridge, this time we were treated to a gorgeous full moon. It was pumpkin yellow low on the horizon and then got brighter as it rose higher in the sky.

Three shots of the full moon because I couldn't pick a favorite. :) 

We did try out a slightly different route on the way home and a new campground. From Hwy 97, we took WA 821 through the Yakima Canyon. It’s an area we hadn’t visited before and Rog was interested in a BLM campground right on the Yakima River. We pulled into Big Pines campground around 2pm and snagged an open spot close to the river. We thought the whole campground was first come/first served, but it turned out that all but four sites are reservable. Floating the river is very popular and I imagine we wouldn’t have been so lucky on a weekend.  We thought hard about staying longer to kayak, but finally decided it would have to wait until next time. We need to get the kayak repaired and we’ve extended our journey long enough. The to-do list awaiting us at home is daunting already. Sigh.

Not much shade, but we're close to the river. 
(Check out the reflection in the windshield. Cool.)

Big horn sheep on the slopes.

Early morning light on the hills.

By 9am we were nearly ready to leave when Murphy struck. Rog went to pull in the bedroom slide. It retracted about 4 inches then stopped dead. Repeated tries met with the same result. Uh oh. There is no way we could drive the 3 hours home with the rear slide hanging out. We pushed and shoved and solicited the help of our neighbor. No love. Rog checked the manual, and found instructions to manually retract the front slide but not the rear slide. Unlike the front slide, the mechanism wasn’t accessible from outside but totally hidden under the closet in the coach. Rog went to work tearing out the trim pieces in the bedroom. He found a slack cable and after conferring with the techs from Coachnet, took at shot at fixing it. Still no love. It would go out, but only come in about 4 inches and then come to dead stop. He tried bypassing the motor and winching it in, but that broke the chain that operates the slide. Now we were totally toast. After 3 hours of hot, sweaty, frustrating labor we finally managed to get the slide shoved in. Now how to secure it, so it wouldn’t fall out going down the road? Rog went into MacGyver mode and came up with a solution - wooden blocks and duct tape. Lol. Hey, it wasn’t pretty but it worked! We made it home and have an appointment with a highly recommended repair facility later this month. Not what we were anticipating on the final day of our trip, but it could have been worse.

Rog takes his cues from the origami mastiff to work on the slide. Lol.

Disassembly in progress and our MacGyver fix. 

Oh, and for the record, I put in some more time behind the wheel on Hwy 97, bringing my total to 150 miles this trip. Rog admits the perspective is quite different from the passenger seat. Especially since I have a tendency to crowd the white line (his side!) and give the yellow line (my side!) plenty of room. At one point he started chucking because I was correcting, then overcorrecting, then correcting, then overcorrecting…to the point where it felt like we were a giant pinball zig-zagging down the road. Relax, he says. Someday…maybe. Lol.

The remainder of the drive home was uneventful (with Rog behind the wheel), and we pulled into home several hours later than anticipated. We clocked 32 days and 1889 miles on the road. A bit more than we’d planned, but totally worthwhile. We’re so glad we were able to be there to help with Grandma Ardys’ move. We talked to her and she was in good spirits and very happy with her new apartment. 

Barring any unforeseen changes to our plans, our next big adventure will be the river rafting trip through the Grand Canyon in September. We’re looking forward to that! I hope we’ll have some great pictures and fun stories to share.