First Weekend at Hog Lake BLM Dispersed Camping.

Saturday, May 20

Armed Forces Day

Spent the day just relaxing and listening to an audio book centered on the experiences of a young Royal Navy officer who commands a small Minesweeper Flotilla out of Capetown, South Africa in the early months of 1941 after a traumatic experience while serving on a Destroyer while evacuating troops at Dunkirk.  

The Colors flew, of course, at camp:

It was a hot day!  

Sunday, May 21

A cooler day today, even felt a bit of chilly wind at times!  Still, pretty good weather overall.

Made a grocery run to the nearby town of Cheney, WA to give Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol, some exercise.

Once back at camp, it was more rest and relaxation while listening to a new audio book.  It's OK, about yet another Vatican Conspiracy a la The Da Vinci Code.  

After 5PM, the sun still pretty high in the sky, I decided to check out the 1.3 mile trail to the north end of Hog Lake.  You can get some nice views of this narrow lake, but I got a nice surprise when I spotted waterfalls!

Google Maps shows a road/trail that might let me make my way closer to these waterfalls.  I plan to check it out tomorrow with Yagi.  Stay tuned.   Update: The Hog Lake Falls are on private lands and not accessible.  Bummer.

Here's some views of the lake as I walked away from the falls and back towards my campsite:

A small pond to the west of the lake

Tonight's sunset wasn't bad:

Easy Last Couple of Days....with some annoyance.

Thursday, May 18

Warm day with gentle breezes.

The morning went well, with me just hanging under the shade of the VRRV's awning, enjoying an audio book.

Shortly after Noon, these two assholes show up, park in my campsite, and proceed to carry nets and tape wheels past my VRRV and into the woods!

Apparently, biology or something similar pukes, who spent time measuring the edges of a water hole about 1/4 mile into the woods.   Never a greeting or explanation, just parked and walked away.

They came back a while later, again not even casting their eyes in my direction, as if to avoid me.  I did not confront them, I'm afraid I would have come across as angry and aggressive.

The two assholes finally finished up, apparently killed and collected some small snakes which I spied in a plastic bag as they removed their waders.  

Again, never even acknowledging their intrusion, they buggered off finally.  Needless to say, Thursday was pretty much ruined in terms of peace and quiet.

Measures have been taken now to prevent further idiots thinking they can park at the campsite I'm using.  Apparently, an RV set up isn't enough of a clue to tell them to park their POS car somewhere else.

Friday, May 19

A short ride to Folsom Farm before things got too hot.  Not much there, a small shed-like building and a big dilapidated barn.  It was apparently a sheep farm back in the day.

Near the farm, restored wetlands for wildlife

Later in the afternoon, I made another visit to Hog Lake (which remains closed to vehicles):

The gravel road to the right is the small dam 

which forms Hog Lake.

I also added a sign to the VRRV.

Yes...very anti-social, but then again, that's what I am.  Perhaps this will keep further assholes away from the campsite.

Boondocking Near Spokane, WA for a bit

I left the Squaw Creek Overlook site soon after 7AM this morning, the sunrise wasn't too bad:

I crossed the might Columbia River and into Washington state around 9:30 I believe.  Another hour or so and I was exploring the iOverlander listed campsites around Fishtrap Lake, near Sprague, WA.

I ended up finding a nice spot (it was one of two remaining open spots, all others had campers already!) in the Hog Lake BLM Camping area.

Hog Lake itself is part of the WA State Park system and remains closed for the season.  I think they'll open up in time for the Memorial Day Weekend.  The gate was closed but one can walk in with no issues:

I will do more exploration of the lake later on this week I think.  There's also an old abandoned? farm site called Folsom Farm that one can tour nearby.

I like the site I got, no other campers within line of sight:

I was surprised at how full the camping area was already!  For the Memorial Day Weekend? Sure, but almost two weeks before that?

I'll be in this area till the end of the month, more to follow as I explore the area.  Martha flies into Spokane at the end of the month and I'll pick her up for some more camping.

Enroute to Spokane, now boondocking at the Squaw Creek Overlook

Long day of driving.

Left the vicinity of Burns, OR and continued north mostly on US 395.  I checked out two sites listed in iOverlander but neither worked out for me.

The first was OK in terms of scenery (picture grass covered hills) but you basically were camping by the side of a county road:

Elk Meadows

The second one was advertised as a large parking lot for a recreation area.  It turned out to be a medium sized lot, next to the Pendleton, OR airport.  Not great, camping within an industrial area.

There wasn't much within easy reach to the north so I decided to try a site called Viewpoint.  Turns out to be a small overlook area called Squaw Creek Overlook.  There were a couple of spots where Uma could camp, I picked the one furthest away from the parking lot.

Though not very busy, there were cars coming and going all afternoon as I rested.

One of the views from the Overlook:

This spot will work for one night.  Tomorrow I drive into the state of Washington and hopefully find a nice spot to hang out within easy drive of the Spokane airport.