For the long weekend, we took a wee (6 hour) jaunt down to the Opal Creek Wilderness in Oregon to camp with Llamas at the Shady Cove campground. For those of you paying attention, the Opal Creek Wilderness area is about 25 miles east of Salem on the way to Bend. The campground was lovely, right alongside the North Santiam River. If the weather had been warmer, we would have been in the river all weekend-- our campground was next to some of the most gorgeous, clear, and perfectly accessible "swimmin' holes" I've ever seen.
We got there on Friday night and made camp with a few other people. The rest of our crowd-- 15 total-- showed up on Saturday. We headed up the back roads (some of us in the back of a pickup, Whee!) until we hit snowpack. The trail we were aiming for was still inaccessible due to blowdowns and snow, but we hiked to the Opal Lake instead. The lake hike wasn't as long or as scenic of a walk as I was craving, but the steep creek bed trail and alternately snowy and marshy lake basin presented a unique set of challenges for a party of 15.
Saturday night we enjoyed the best virtues of car camping: burgers, beer, and bonfire . Though we had brought many of the luxuries of home with us, the fact that we were 20 miles off a dirt road outside the ass end of nowhere and without a municipal water source made it easy to shake off some of the urban funk I've been under.
Sunday morning we pulled a classic camping maneuver: when it proved too wet to hike or sit around camp, we packed up and went home. The rest of the weekend was still a perfect memorial day-- movies, sleeping in, and when the weather improved Monday, a damned authentic bbq. I'm not looking forward to going back to the grind, but this was a much needed break.
Posted on May 28, 2007 @ 10:49 PM | 3 comments
Comments:
That camp ground looks splendid.
By 
running42k, at
4:24 AM, May 29, 2007
sounds like a lovely weekend. I'm craving a nice camping trip myself.
By Allie, at
2:02 PM, May 29, 2007
Heart heart & woop woop.
By 
Rachel, at
10:24 PM, May 29, 2007
