My Camping Trip [Archive] - xjtalk - A Jeep Cherokee Forum

Melissa

09-23-2009, 01:54 AM

I had it all planned out, a girlfriend and I took a long weekend to head out and get a short vacation, kick back, relax, do some fishing, and shoot the breeze.

I packed the Jeep to the hilt with all our supplies and we took off around 5 pm, 2 hours later we stopped in LaGrande and had dinner at #1 china buffet (:thumbsup:) and continued on to our destination ( Thief Valley Reservoir ), upon arriving it was well after dark, so we pitched our tents and went to bed. Well no one warned us that a farmer had turned out around 300 cows right into the campground, or that it was going to get below freezing, or even the fact that the coyotes were going to be less than 100 yards aways howling and keeping the cows nervous so that they would beller all night.
Getting up the next morning after a night of praying for the sun to rise and warm our frozen bodies, we were very unimpressed with our surroundings

http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/melreese83/vacation%202009%20pics/HPIM0798.jpg

http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/melreese83/vacation%202009%20pics/HPIM0800-1.jpg

http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/melreese83/vacation%202009%20pics/HPIM0801-1.jpg

Determined to have a good time yet, we ran the 30 minutes into Baker City to get more sleeping bags to stay warm the next night. We got back and now not only was it hot and the wind was blowing hard, we got swarmed with wasps. Now I am deathly allergic to yellow jackets and wasps, but forgot my epi-pen (:smiley-scared002:), so after I got bit, we decided to pack it all up and find another place to go.

We wandered up to Hunnington, right on the snake river, stayed the night there and decided to head up to Malheur Reservoir ( I was there the same time the year before), So after a hour of crappy gravel roads we got there only to find it only had a 1/4 of the water it had last year ( no fishing there ). Again dissapointed we headed back down and for kicks drove over into Idaho. We found Stek Park, it was beautiful, but we could not fish the Snake from that side since we only had Oregon fishing licenses.

Here is pictures from Idaho, looking back over the Snake river at Oregon

http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/melreese83/vacation%202009%20pics/HPIM0804.jpg

http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/melreese83/vacation%202009%20pics/HPIM0806.jpg

So yet again we loaded up and went back to Hunnington. We went down to Snake and finally after two days got to put our poles in the water. After fishing for 30min I was able to catch a fair sized catfish, but turned him loose.

http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/melreese83/vacation%202009%20pics/HPIM0802.jpg

We stayed for a second night in Hunnington, then took off for Unity Reservoir after hearing that the fishing was still good over there. Upon arriving at Unity Reservoir and seeing how low the water was, we said F**K it and made the call to head home. So after 700 miles and numerous tanks of fuel, we ended up here at Penland Lake 30 miles and 45 minutes from my house :smiley-laughing021:

http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/melreese83/vacation%202009%20pics/HPIM0817.jpg

http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/melreese83/vacation%202009%20pics/HPIM0816.jpg

This was a neat looking old round house on the road up to Penland Lake

http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww305/melreese83/vacation%202009%20pics/HPIM0815.jpg

Next time, I'm just going to stay closer to home to fish!!!!

muddeprived

09-23-2009, 08:36 AM

Mudderoy

09-23-2009, 12:33 PM

But no Jeep problems? If so I'd say that was a major highlight of your trip. :patriot:

cherok

09-23-2009, 12:48 PM

Thanks Melissa for this outdoor story. Too bad it was not to your espectations.
Nice picture of your XJ in a sort of habitat for this type of car.

jugbutt

09-23-2009, 01:59 PM

Yes thanks for the story! That still sounded like a great trip.
Was that a dog in that one pix?
Thanx again!!

warrpath4x4

09-23-2009, 02:20 PM

Sorry to hear about your busted camping trip, my camping/hunting trip this last weekend was a bust also but I didn't even make it out of town. Plans changed from hunting to getting cattle... And then there was no cattle to get.

2000XJ

09-23-2009, 03:43 PM

Nice pics, I hate those high-expectation low-outcome trips. I've had a few of them myself this summer.

Melissa

09-23-2009, 04:08 PM

You stopped and ate chinese food and then you caught a live fish. I think you are getting closer to eating sushi....:smiley-laughing021:

How come no pictures of you and said "girlfriend"??? :D

That first cow looks lonely.......

The 2nd group of cows look like they are having a BBQ....

That's a neat lookin house. You should've slapped on a XJTalk sticker! :thumbsup:

Cool pictures melissa. :cheerleader:

I had planned to take 943 pictures (thats as many pictures my camera card will hold), but during our "camp put" we spend so much time driving, I never had the opourtunity :mad: and after the second day I just became to much of a bi*** to really care if I took many :shocker:

But no Jeep problems? If so I'd say that was a major highlight of your trip. :patriot:

Only had one Jeep issue, as we crossed over into Idaho, somehow the bottom of my fan shroud broke loose and I had the fan hitting it, so I stopped in Weiser, bought some zip ties, and zip tied the shroud away from the moving fan, that worked great as a temp fix until I got home to fix it. Other than that my Jeep ran excellent :driving::thumbsup:

Yes thanks for the story! That still sounded like a great trip.
Was that a dog in that one pix?
Thanx again!!

Yup, I had brought both my dogs along for the adventure, they had the most fun :rotfl2:
That is my bird dog in the picture and he was right in the middle of "pointing" a butterfly for me :smiley-laughing021:

4.3LXJ

09-25-2009, 10:33 AM

The last time I camped outside Baker City, the ground was covered with black widows. I have no idea where they all came from, but they were crawling through the sage brush and up the tent walls.

Mudderoy

09-25-2009, 11:02 AM

The last time I camped outside Baker City, the ground was covered with black widows. I have no idea where they all came from, but they were crawling through the sage brush and up the tent walls.

I remember that movie. It was a made for TV if I remember correctly. :smiley-laughing021:

Melissa

09-26-2009, 12:37 AM

The last time I camped outside Baker City, the ground was covered with black widows. I have no idea where they all came from, but they were crawling through the sage brush and up the tent walls.

I hate black widows :smiley-scared002:

That would have just topped my trip right off!

BlueXJ

09-26-2009, 07:50 AM

Well you need to look for the silver lining. You got to spend time with your friend and dogs. Something different than home to look at and no major problems occured.