Sunday, August 12, 2007

More From The Prairie

Sunday: I relaxed in camp while Lou and Dawn took a few short excursions including a visit to Orick’s shops.


We went to the evening campfire program which was about birds here in the park.

Monday: Just relaxing around camp and the prairie today. We enjoyed a nice campfire of our own this evening.


Our campsite on the prairie.

Tuesday: I got up early to hike around the prairie. The elk heard was seen in the orchard South of the ranger housing. They hang out there a lot. We haven’t seen them on the prairie yet. I walked the road because the Elk were up by the trial as it passes behind the ranger housing. I don’t need another close encounter.

At the South end of the prairie on the hillside, a couple of male elk jousted in the morning. The sun through the fog on the prairie provides a differnt look for the park than the sunny days.


Lots of wildlife still around early in the morning. The deer on the left above were hanging around the prairie near the entrance kiosk. The quail on the right enjoyed the last of the morning quiet as the fog was lifting.


The heavy morning fog left all the spider webs dripping wet so they are quite visible in the morning light.


Elk Prairie Trail is a nice varied trail some in the trees, some along the creek, some through the prairie.


A bridge on Elk Prairie trail. On the right, our campsite is just across the prairie at the far tree line in the center of the picture.
At the South end of the prairie where the Elk Prairie Trail crosses, there is a power pole. As I was approaching, I saw a large light brown bird flying from the top away from me into the forest. I thought, owl! When I was closer, I was rewarded with the hoot-hoot as proof, it was. It was just daylight and I guess it was enjoying a rest before heading in for the day. I continued on around the end of the prairie on the trail back to camp.

We enjoyed our breakfast of cereal and then Lou headed off to get us checked in for another day. We then proceeded as usual with doing nothing, flying the planes, watching all the campers come and go etc. Real hard work.


Later in the afternoon, we went out to the beach on Davison Road to Fern Canyon. The march above is on the ocean side of the road.

We met an interesting couple as we entered the canyon and hiked with them as we chatted. They were nice enough to take our picture as we did for them. That's one of the rare pictures you'll find of us in the blog. As the sun was setting we headed back and went in to Orick to the Palms Café for dinner. They make most items from scratch and everything was great. Lou had baked pork ribs in home made saurkraught wit baked beans. I had the usual chicken fried steak and baked potato. Dawn had a bowl of chicken soup and a slice of coconut cream pie.

Wednesday: Up early again to hike around the prairie. We got checked in for another night.


After morning tea, we started with our morning flights. Dawn is being buzzed by Lou's plane.
My morning flight was shared with an eight year old boy in the camp next to ours. He’d been popping out each time we flew and was real excited by each flight and crash. I gave him a chance at the stick. Toward the end of the flight time, before the battery went dead, we also shared with a couple of girls from another camp who had come out. Martha was about five and her cousin was older. They both flew well and enjoyed their flight before the battery died. Luckily, the plane survived and wasn’t in the top of the trees or middle of the prairie thanks to their good flying abilities.

Breakfast was Lou’s famous breakfast burritos.

We headed off North for the day. We stopped at the Little Lagoon North of Klamath. We continued on to Crescent City.

We stopped at a couple of thrift shops downtown. One had lots of musicasl instruments and interesting books. The proprietor was named Don and evidently didn’t have many visitors to the shop because he really like to chat. We left knowing his life history. It was all interesting though.. Dawn left with a pile of books.

Of course, we had lunch at the Chart Room. Oddly, it was much the same as a couple of days ago, two fish and chip lunches shared after an appetizer of a couple of slices of home made pie.

Lou and Dawn needed to return to one of the thrift shops visited last time. We then continued North to the Lucky 7 Casino for a very short visit. Neither Lou nor Dawn did well here. I did as usual since I didn’t gamble.

On we went arriving in Brookings Oregon. We filled the gas tank with the wonderfully cheaper gas here. 36 cents cheaper than in Crescent City. Dawn visited a nice books store and We also Stopped by Fred Meyers. We did our grocery shopping before leaving. We arrived home about 9:30 pm.

Thursday: We enjoyed the usual watching of departing campers. Flew the planes again. I was assisted again this morning by the little girl, Martha. Martha mentioned that her mother was a girl scout and had cooked biscuits on the campfire this morning. That did sound tasty. As it happens, Lou was doing a slightly more modern version in the RV with canned biscuits and her sausage gravy.

Crafts, reading, short walks, and computer time filled the day. Vacation is nice.
This evening I was chief cook. I fired up the oven and cooked a pork loin roast and the 18 bratwurst sausages. I also prepared my special spaghetti. I did a huge batch of it. We had it for dinner and put away the other 2/3rds. Now we're restocked for quick and easy meals the rest of the way home and then some. It's much easier to do a bunch than a smidgen and firing up the oven is done sparingly in the summer time.

We leave tomorrow and haven't even taken a real hike during the entire visit, unlike most stays here. They have the best hiking available so it is unusual. I usually have severe blisters on my feet after the first day. We've all been so busy before this trip that we all opted to relax rather than wear ourselves out.


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