Enroute to Spokane, now boondocking near Burns, OR

Sunday, May 14

The Z's and I took a rest day after the recovery efforts on Saturday.  We needed the downtime for sure.  We stayed at the Modoc District Fairgrounds in the town of Cedarville.  Nice place, good views of mountains, lots of shade trees.

The fairgrounds also had old buildings from the pioneer days of the area, arranged for viewing by fairground visitors.

After lunch at Whalen's Pub, where pizza with way too much cheese on it is served, I left for Cedar Pass on CA State Hwy 299 while Chris and Lori ambled about the town on their e-bikes.

The best view turned out to be at the entrance to the forest road where Stewie got stuck before!

A little further east down from Cedar Pass, there's a trailhead and small ski facility:

Heading back and staying on State Hwy 299, I reached the lake? area to the east of town.  Some nice reflections were evident:

I returned to the fairgrounds and did not much of anything.  I found the Z's relaxing in the shade of trees next to their Overlander: Stewie.

Monday, May 15

This morning it was time to get some miles in towards Spokane where I'm picking up my lovely wife Martha at the end of the month.

As Chris and Lori Z. have appointments for stuff to be done to Stewie, they headed northwest from Cedarville while I headed northeast to secure a good spot for camping; prior to the amateurs showing up for the Memorial Day weekend!

Made it about three hours or so, ending up in some BLM land near the town of Burns, Oregon.  I decided to stop early and get some more rest, another long drive tomorrow I'm sure.

I unloaded Yagi, my recently repaired TW200, to check out the local area.  Came across two unexpected things.  One was a Ford Explorer, Oregon Plate: 250 JPK, with a BLM warning note on the driver's window.  You can see it's loaded with stuff, typical of a car camper.  The warning was dated May 8.  I wonder where the owner is, the car has a flat front tire so he/she probably went for help?

The second thing, as I crested a small hill:

See the tower in the center?

At first, I thought it was a Fire Watch Tower.  But when I used the telephoto lens, it obviously was something else.  Not sure what, but below is a closeup of the tower.

Otherwise, the scenery was farmlands, rolling hills with sagebrush covering most of them, pretty tame.  The best part of course was I had the place to myself, assuming the owner of the Ford Explorer doesn't return of course.  

8pm: A couple, in a ratty looking gray with black patches paint drive by and did something at the broken down Explorer.  They didn't stay long then left heading south.  They may have come to retrieve something perhaps?