Hey Guys. Have you ever had your sweetie pick up a glossy travel flyer and say, “Hon’ look! There is this really neat loop drive through the forest along the Rogue River. Its only 30 miles long. You just get off at exit 61 and drive through the back country for a little ways and then you get right back on the Interstate at Wolf Creek. Its just a little way out of our way. You aren’t afraid to drive this little bitty ol’ motor home through the beautiful forest are you? Huh, sugar plum daddy, boop boop de boop!” Well maybe Judy didn’t use words quite that way, but the result was the same. We drove about seven miles out on the Rogue River and stayed overnight at “Indian Mary County Park” The flyer pegged it as “voted among the top ten campgrounds.” It didn’t say by whom or when. It was very quaint and since there were only two other rigs in the park we had no trouble selecting a spot that we would fit in. The real problem was snaking our 53 foot rig around the 35 foot corners, but hey “I’m Big Joe, Manly Man, I can put this rig anywhere I want it!” (And I didn’t dent anything either)
Next morning we snaked our way back out and with a little “backing and filling” got around to the dump station and then out to the highway. Well I asked if we were really going to try the whole loop. The first seven miles were a little crooked but no problem for us. We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and decided “O what the heck.” We looked at the little two inch square map on the slick flyer and decided we were nearly to the point where the road looped back to Wolf Creek anyway. Each mile the GPS showed us going directly away from I-5. Each mile the road got narrower and more crooked. After about six miles we found a sign that said, “End of County Maintenance.” And then the road got really narrow and crooked.
At about ten miles we finally came to the turn-off to Wolf Creek and I-5. It said “Wolf Creek 15 miles.” The other direction continued toward the coast but was marked “Closed for Construction.” So with some trepidation we set out along Lower Grave Creek Road. Very shortly we found a sign that said, “One lane road with turnouts next 9 miles.” Now I am not complaining, mind you. This road was paved and relatively smooth. The tree branches were well trimmed back, indicating that logging trucks passed through there with fair regularity. At least the coach wasn’t getting scratched up. The thought of meeting a fully loaded logging truck on this twisty narrow road did keep me .apprehensive. We did meet a pickup truck and he chose to back up about 400 ft to a convenient side road. I was disappointed that he didn’t lean out his window and ask me what the heck I though I was doing. If fact he even looked like “Oh, another one of those.” Other than that the trip was a quiet, scenic, sedate, meandering through some wild back country. I stopped at one point. Yes, right in the middle of the road. I got out and took a picture of the motor home with the white line just outside of the tires on both sides of the coach. It will be posted on our web page by the time you get this.
To think that we thought getting this big motor home would keep us from driving on the scenic byways. Fiddlesticks! No problem.
Just to warn everyone, we are back in the Portland Oregon area. We will be hanging out around Scappoose, St. Helens or Hillsboro for the next four weeks.
We send all our love to our friends and relatives. Many of you can even get your hugs in person.
Gary and Judy
