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Good afternoon Oregon and everyone everywhere else. Up to 43° and still overcast here in Sheridan. Came down the mountain to Alpha yesterday to take care of insurance issues with the house here, pay taxes and take care of some other errands. Came down in the Wardens Mazda. She'll take it back to Bravo and I'm going to take the MkZ back up. The MkZ is AWD and will most likely be needed up there in the coming ice and snow.
Got the camper loaded on the pickup Sunday night and thought we would pull out of elk and deer camp along Hwy 3, 25 miles out of Enterprise, around 0730 Monday morning to make the drive back to Gilchrist. Had problems within about. The plan was to "convoy" from camp to Biggs Jct. where I break off and head south on 97. Well, that plan worked for about 50 feet.
There had been some serious rain, followed by some warm dry weather followed by snow and ice. Then things started to thaw and we had another 3 days of rain. The ground in the meadow acted like it was going into liquefaction. We were driving in and out of the camp site with the pickups and, while it was muddy, not too much of a noticeable problem. With the exception of about a week, I had been driving in and out of the camp site since the end of September. Monday morning when I pulled out with 5,000 #'s of camper on the pickup, we found out that there was no base for a heavy rig. I made it about 50' and sunk. 4-wheel low range did not resolve the issue. Partners didn't have enough truck or horsepower to pull me out.
So, my partners drove me up to the cell tower where I could arrange for a tow truck, that had to come out of Joseph. So, that delayed departure until about 1300 in the afternoon. The other guys departed when the tow truck arrived. It took a couple of hours to get the truck and camper out and it was only a 100' or so down the driveway into the camp sites. Even the tow truck got stuck and it took both of their big winches to extract themselves. So, then they anchored off to trees and winched the truck out with some minor help for the pickup in 4-wheel low range.
Anyway, made it home (Bravo Compound) around 2205 Monday night.
A couple of errands to finish here today, including a trip to the tax office and then we head back to Bravo for a few days to clean up the gear. We also have a 6 hour planned power outage up there on Sunday so the Coop can upgrade and replace some equipment. Next Monday we will head back here for other planned and unplanned events.
So, while I'm 400 miles away looking for a big elk.....meantime, This guy visits 'Bravo' Compound. These branch bulls that visit on a rather frequent basis always visit at night during closed hunting hours.
Good morning Oregon and everyone everywhere else.
Got the errands run yesterday that needed to be run. Checked a couple of stores, including Lowe's for a property - house numbering system for Bravo Compound. I may have to get out the router and make my own. We have the Fire Department system out at the highway with a big red arrow, but apparently that is insufficient. Fed Ex dropped a package for me off in the middle of the driveway near the locked gate on the Power Coop right of way because he couldn't figure out that the only house on or along the driveway was probably the one he was looking for. Amazon drove right past the house and down to the pole barn/garage and was trying to figure out how to get past the pole barn so he could go to the rec / guest house. A few days ago a Fed Ex driver drove right by the house, stopped at the locked gate on the Power Coop right of way and leaned a cardboard box up against the locked gate on the 'power line' road. A cardboard box leaned up against the gate during a rainstorm which contained the 10' X 10' area rug the Warden had ordered for the living room.
Originally Posted by 892504x4
Good Evening Ford Drivers'.
Jim welcome home.
Jim I get people asking me to back in to stuff like that to drop their deliveries.
We would have never set up a camp in that camp site had we known there was going to be that perfect combination of weather to cause the ground to do that. Roger and family had been camping for family reunions, elk and deer hunting there for 30 years and had never seen that before. At times they had had between 30 and 50 people and 20 plus rigs. Rain, snow and ice. It really wasn't until that last rain storm that hit us pretty heavy on Thurs thru Sat. that I started noticing any potential problems, although empty or lightly - camping gear loaded pickups were having no problem coming and going. I think the tow truck and I probably changed that up with our heavier rigs.
It even got Mike and his helper. When they got there, they surveyed the site and thought they could drive in and get fairly close to my pickup. They did OK right up until they started winching on my truck. The more they pulled, the more my truck 'plowed' and the more their truck sunk. So they had to winch out to the gravel shoulder / pavement at the end of the dirt roadway, use extenders, and work from there.
Good morning Oregon and everyone everywhere else. Got back to Bravo around 1800 last night. Up to 33 and the ground fog has burned off leaving blue skies.
Some haze from controlled & slash burns and clouds on the western horizon.
Happy Veterans Day celebrated today and Veterans Day Actual tomorrow.
Good evening Oregon and everyone everywhere else.
Ran into La Pine today and got some supplies at Bi-Mart. Got the camper winterized this afternoon. Had it drained and blown out and wasn't going to put antifreeze in it as we'll be using it again in December. Decided to error on the safe side as it does get very cold around this neck of the woods.
Hunted on Thursday and eating tag soup this weekend. haha. Saw 5 does and a spike. Spike was maybe 1.5" tall. So that was the season. Decided I had enough and called so didn't head out yesterday. I got 5 or 6 days in which was 4 or 5 days more than what I had been getting to that was good.
Paid my property taxes as well so at least that is done.
Jim - looked like a good stuck for sure. I've always wanted a winch and there is a perfect example of why if a guy does that sort of thing. Glad you made out and back home.
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