Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2017 11:39:48 -0700
Reply-To: David McNeely <davmcneely40@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David McNeely <davmcneely40@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: trip report, eclipse
In-Reply-To: <B1790C0C-EEC7-405E-92DF-176FEBB094F8@uoregon.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Actually, we were in a cabin S of John Day, off of FS Road 24 (Deer Creek
Road). We elected for what we thought would be a better site for the
number of people and cars we had, though we had a little shorter totality
time for the eclipse. But we could have seen you any number of places. We
saw several vans that might fit your description, including bikes. Ours is
a 1991 silver-tan Vanagon camper with white top. Our friends from
California were in a blue Eurovan camper, and a 1990 white Vanagon camper.
Our daughter and family were in a Prius. They were fine on the FS roads,
but they definitely would not have been on the western leg of FS Rd 24 that
I took to fish the S. Fork.
We stayed a week, botanizing, birding, and just relaxing.
When the light started to dim like at dusk, a huge number of Greater Night
Hawks (not actually hawks, but members of the goatsucker family along with
Whipporwills, Poorwills, and Chuck Will's Widows) began flying. As it
brightened again, they disappeared, presumably settling back to their
daytime roosts.
Camping in the forest was quite available along the roads we drove. We
actually saw only a small handful of folks camped in open camping areas,
and two campgrounds we saw were only partially filled. I suspect that the
campgrounds to the N of U.S. 26 were jammed, however. A big one, Magone
Lake, is right on the center line of the eclipse, and has all the full
services of the more developed NF campgrounds, including RV hookups,
showers, dump stations.
David
On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 9:32 AM, Toomey Douglas <drt@uoregon.edu> wrote:
> It is a small world when eyes are peeled for vanagons. I think I saw both
> of you. Jeff was parked in John Day just next to the DQ as we were pulling
> out of there and heading south toward NFS 21; ours is a grey 87 westy with
> bikes on back. I think David may have been in a cabin that had 3 vanagons
> parked outside of it. In both cases, the vans looked great; nice to see. We
> also saw quite a few on the road for the eclipse; more than usual.
>
> We came to John Day to have a tire fixed. In 30 years of having the van,
> I’ve had only two flats, both within a week! Nevertheless, the van ran
> great. I recently converted the AC to R134 and left off the plenum above
> the rear seat. It cools much better without the plenum. The compressor
> makes a bit of noise… probably need to replace?
>
> We camped for several nights in different locations within the Malheur.
> Good roads and trails for mountain biking, nice forests (that weren’t
> burning) and beautiful stars. Saw a few sandhill cranes too and heard them
> in the evening as we camped near meadows.
>
>
> > On Aug 27, 2017, at 2:00 PM, Jeffrey Vickers <jeffrey@VICKERSDESIGN.COM>
> wrote:
> >
> > Small world - I was in the Mahleur as well. If you saw a Blue Syncro
> with black wheels, that was us.
> >
> > We drove up from the Bay Area and arrived in John Day on Saturday
> afternoon. The town was swarming with eclipsers.
> >
> > Camped about 10 miles off of FS Route 18, which is east of John Day on
> highway 26 about 15 miles. We found a really nice spot with an east-facing
> view on a very good dirt road. Saw maybe 3 cars pass by in the two days we
> camped there. Elevation was 6000 ft so it was cool in the shade. Perfect
> weather on the morning of the eclipse.
> >
> > We headed south on Tuesday and missed all the traffic. Hit a rain and
> lightning storm on the way to Susanville CA and saw two fires burning in
> the desert shortly thereafter.
> >
> > Lots of smoke near the Oregon border just north of Alturas. We assumed
> that the smoke was from the fires near Bend.
> >
> > Van ran like a champ. First long trip (1300 miles) with the new 1.8T.
> Wanted to get the Smallcar dash A/C installed before we left but ran out of
> time. It was HOT in the van. Two 12V fans suctioned-cupped to the dash
> helped - along with a spray bottle filled with cold water from the cooler.
> Poor man’s A/C, LOL
> >
> > Jeff in Marin
> >
> >> On Aug 26, 2017, at 9:00 PM, Automatic digest processor <
> LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> wrote:
> >>
> >> Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2017 11:53:53 -0700
> >> From: David McNeely <davmcneely40@GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject: trip report, eclipse
> >>
> >> We got back last night from our trip to the vicinity of John Day, Oregon
> >> for the eclipse. We drove down from Spokane in the camper on Friday,
> the
> >> 18th, to a cabin in Malheur National Forest, where we ensconced
> ourselves
> >> for a week, meeting our daughter and her family, and some friends from
> >> California.
> >>
> >> The drive down was uneventful, with far less traffic than we expected.
> In
> >> fact, traffic was minimal. The van (1991 Volkswagen Vanagon GL
> Campmobile,
> >> silver-tan, white top, full camper) did well, and got 19.6 mpg on its
> 2.1
> >> with 182K miles.
> >>
> >> We navigated the FS roads well, though when I drove out 14 miles to the
> S.
> >> Fork of the John Day River, that road was exceedingly rough, and would
> have
> >> been classified for 4WD only if in a NP. Lots of boulders and wash
> outs.
> >> But I did ok. The trick is to take it slow and easy. Thank goodness
> for
> >> high clearance. The 14 miles took me 2 hours, and I elected after
> fishing
> >> for a couple of hours to drive around 60 miles rather than drive that
> road
> >> again. That actually took less time.
> >>
> >> The eclipse was fantastic, and we had the area completely to ourselves.
> >>
> >> The cabin we had reserved has sleeping for six, and two kids slept on
> the
> >> floor. The rest of us slept in our campers. We also saw wild horses,
> >> though none of the bears and mountain lions that the FS warned us about.
> >> Hiked to the southernmost Alaskan Cedar grove in the U.S., to find that
> it
> >> had been greatly impacted by fire and drought, but we found many
> seedlings
> >> and young trees in the undergrowth. Our grandson (8 yrs) said that we
> >> found a cedar graveyard, but then a cedar nursery.
> >>
> >> We also went to John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Marvelous
> place.
> >> However, the staff at the visitor's center was overwhelmed, having
> staffed
> >> up for heavy visitation for the days before, but not the days after the
> >> eclipse. Beautiful, brightly colored volcanic ash and tuff deposits
> (the
> >> reason for many of the fossil mammals discovered there).
> >>
> >> On the day I drove out to fish, saw a tiny town (Dayville) overwhelmed
> by
> >> the visitors. Many, many people camped in pastures and so on, which
> were
> >> going for around $75 - $100 per night for a dry campsite with others
> jammed
> >> in with you. Was sure glad we planned ahead and got the cabin.
> >>
> >> Drive home was also uneventful. Saw numerous (perhaps 15) Vanagon
> campers
> >> on the trip, including two others in the back country.
> >>
> >> mcneely
> >
>
> _______________________
> Prof. Douglas Toomey
> 1272 Earth Sciences
> University of Oregon
> Eugene, OR 97403-1272
>
> https://blogs.uoregon.edu/dougtoomey/
> http://geophysics.uoregon.edu
> (541) 346 5576 (tel)
> (541) 346 4692 (fax)
> ________________________
>
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