Day 9
A Town Called Sisters
55 mph sign and motorbike on Lake of the Woods Highway, Oregon, USA
Fort Goff Campground to Scorpion Creek Campground
Summary
Instagram excerpt - See here
Journal
I wasn’t murdered by my incarcerated campground mate. I had nothing to worry about. He was pottering around 20 meters away from me when I got up. I boiled some water to make my oatmeal and coffee. I started packing up and carrying things to my motorbike by the road. He came up to greet me. He was anxious. I can’t remember exactly what he said but he asked for coffee. He hadn’t had any in a while. I was happy to oblidge. I had a whole container I would never finish. He said thank you and I asked if there was a way to the river to wash my cups. He guided my to under the bride.
Fort Goff Campground is great. Fort Goff Creek is cute and an easy place to wash your dished. The man returned my coffee.
I rode the highway to Medford. It was uneventful. I was looking forward to grabbing a coffee and working out my next steps. I was tired and got to a starbucks on the edge of town. I used the free wifi to do some FaceTime and social media updates. I noticed ‘Crater Lake National Park’ on Google Maps. It wasn’t far. I plugged it in as my destination.
I took the ‘Lake of the Woods’ Highway. The road lined with pine trees was spectacular. I stopped at the lake for lunch. It was a nice picturesque place. I had a museli bar and another round of cheese sandwiches. The rest of the road was uneventful until I got to Crater Lake. I was glad to get back to some mountains.
I didn’t know National Parks cost money to enter. There was a booth that charged me 20 or 30 dollars to get it. I was fuming. It was a week pass and I was only going to stay for an hour. I rode up to the rim and found a lookout. It was pretty incredible. I believe it was a volcano. Other than the view it was fairly uneventful. It would’ve been nice to hike around it.
The volcano created a rocky surface devoid of trees. It was flat and it looked like I could easily ride on it. I was wrong. I decided it would be a great idea to go off the road and ride on it. I turned off the tourist road and onto the rocks. The bike sank immediately like it was sand. It was deciving! The bike began to quickly fall to the right as I kicked my foot down to catch it. The bike wobbled as I tried to turn it back onto the road. It bounced and I somehow made it back up. A lady in a carpark saw my save and watched me go by. I wonder what she thought. That was embarrassing.
It was dead straight up to the town of Bend. I don’t know why I went this way. I should’ve stayed on the coast. I was trying to get to Portland. I did get the privlidge to travel through the town of Sisters. It’s a horse riding community that has three mountains overlooking it called the three sisters. It’s the only place I went that looked like something from a Western. The guy who ran the gas station was wearing a cowboy hat and a vest! It didn’t get much better than that. It reminded me of one of my favourite towns in the Victorian High Country called Omeo. It’s also known for horse riding.
It was late by the time I got to Sisters and the sun was falling. I looked for a campground and strugged to find one nearby. I found a place called Scorpion Creek Campground. It was far away. I decided to floor it out of Sisters. It was dangerous as it was likely a deer would fly out of the woods. The problem was the headlight on the DR was terrible. It was getting cold and I really didn’t want to ride or setup camp in the dark. I passed some mountains and ski fields in the area before I made it to Detroit.
It was almost dark. I rode up the road to where Scorpion Creek Campground was. I don’t think there was reception because I stuggled to find it. I keep an eye out for signs and the campground on my right. There were so many bugs. I could bearly see. I found it at night. There were no amneties. It was just a dirt patch with no mobile reception. I decided to double back and find a clearing where I could get reception. It was a huge asset. I remember getting angry that I couldn’t find a nice safe clearing within mobile tower range. I cursed as the bugs annoyed me as well. I continued back towards Detroit.
I remembered seeing a clearning that had ‘keep out’ signs. Large concrete boulders had been put in the path of the driveway into it. I could slip past it on the bike. So I did. It was a large lightly grassed paddock that was hidden from the row by trees. There were a couple of tracks that went up a hill and into the woods. It was dark and pretty scary. I rode the bike up so I could shine the headlight on it and see if there was a flat spot to pitch the tent. As I went up I lost my balance and fell.
Fuck. I scrambled off the bike as it went down. I bent over to pick it up. It was too heavy. I was tired and it was the last thing I wanted to happen. I had to leave the lights on the bike and it increased the chance that a passing car would see me. I was paranoid. How was I going to get this bike up in a place I wasn’t supposed to be? I got an idea. I unstrapped the two bags off the bike and a few heavy items from the panniers. It made it lighter. I tried again. I grabbed the handle bars and pushed. It moved further than before. I kept pushing. It was going to make it. I got it up.
I setup camp and cooked dinner on the ground of the paddock. It wasn’t the most comfortable and it was scary in the dark. Especially when you didn’t know what was up the hill. I thought some wolves were going to get me. I jumped in my tent and enjoyed having reception to communicate with the rest of the world.
