Wednesday August 17, Ollalie Forest Camp on the McKenzie River, OR

Worked out this morning that we have had 5 ½ weeks without rain, and interestingly the forest fire risk is only classed as medium. And I think that all bar one day has been blue skies with the odd cloud. Jim was saying that in Bend they average 7 inches a year rainfall, mind you they also get snow! People know that if they want to grow a lawn or garden they just need to water it.

The best thing about the camp last night was the amount of firewood around. Ever the hunter and gatherer Ian battled the mosquitoes this morning and loaded the bin and the rack on the back with wood…..guess we look a bit like the Hillbillies carting our wood around but have enjoyed having a fire in the evenings as the temperatures do drop to single figures (Celsius) overnight.

We dropped 4500 feet very quickly this morning before arriving in the smallish town of Oakridge, fuelled up, topped up on supplies and went online to ring grand daughter Keely for her 7th birthday…this is the 4th year we have been away for her birthday!

Then it was back into the mountains to take the very scenic Robert Aufderheide Memorial Drive North. Just out of town was a covered bridge built in the 1940’s to get workers across the river to the timber mill. The mill has long gone but the bridge has been maintained for vehicles to drive across to a park.

The road north is just spectacular and with many deciduous trees must be stunning in the autumn. It wound up into the hills following the North Fork of the Willamette River, a very pretty river and so clear. In many places the road was like a tunnel going through the trees, and very little traffic.

There were many little riverside forest service campgrounds all the way through and in many of them, the choice riverside spots had been taken, but finally found a really nice one on the swift moving McKenzie River and slept really well to the sound of the water