Once a year my friend Jim Hay goes on a week long exploration of the forest back roads. This year it was to see the wild flowers in the high mountain meadows around John Day. I tagged along as the camera man. I was more interested in the trees than the flowers.
We took an extremely rutted road to an abandoned fire lookout tower.
On the way back down the mountain I was afraid the vehicle would high center so I encouraged Jim to cut across the hill. After studying the situation Jim said "No, we are going to do the right thing and stay on the road." We didn't high center and I was proud of him for obeying the rules of staying on the road.I got sunburned on day one, so thereafter I wore a red bandana in foreign legion style. This worked great except for the tip of my long nose.
The weather was great and the sky was magnificent at the mile high altitude. It was easy to get GPS fixes at that altitude with 5 or more satellites overhead. 
I love the bark patterns of the ponderosa pine which often has a reddish tinge.
Jim enjoyed fishing.
4 comments:
Looks like fun. What a great friend.
I'm amazed and impressed you still want to rough it especially nights - well I guess you could have easily provided a comfortable accommodation but then I can't picture your "van" on rutted roads. So what did your spouse do to entertain herself while you were gone? :)
I think separate vacations are good for the marriage. It's great you and Jim have each other and that he is still up for his walk-abouts.
You sure got some nice photos!
Beautiful pictures! Looks like you had a fun trip.
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