This post documents the afternoon and evening of our fourth day of five on our recent rafting trip down the Lower Owyhee River in far southeastern Oregon, four hours from our home in Bend.
When we landed at Pothole, I was in a haze of pain after dislocating my fibula getting into the raft at our lunch stop where we got to see a wonderful collection of petroglyphs etched into basalt boulders. I knew that I had not got my fibula back into its socket and that I was going to have to suck it up and address that immediately.
Fortunately, EMT Sara materialized seemingly out of nowhere to help. I have put it back in by myself on many occasions but it is one of the most painful things I have ever been through, shingles and eroded corneas included. I was glad to have her help in assisting me to straighten out my leg.
While she helped extend my leg, I was really concentrating on my breathing and managing my blood pressure as I was near to passing out from the pain. At one point, I may have nodded out for a second, because I vaguely recall telling her that I was dreaming. After a few minutes, she helped coax my leg straight out in front of me, and then when I lifted my knee just a tad came the pop heard around the camp, the joyous sound of the bone snapping back into its socket. Thank you Sara!
I cannot tell you how great the feeling is of resolving a dislocation, unless you have been there and done that. And I hope for your sake that you're clueless about this. It is night and day, the pain going from 10 down to 1 in an instant.
As I sat there, still in the raft, trying to collect my wits after an adrenaline dump, I was looking at the hill to the right in the photo above, the cone-shaped one with white sedimentary rock interspersed with strips of green vegetation. In my eyes, however, the white sedimentary rock was flashing purple, the hillside a pulsating purple and green, probably a side effect of the adrenaline.
Once the flashing abated and after some ibuprofen from my first aid kit, I was up and walking slowly and gingerly, but walking just the same. I wandered up the hillside to find Ann, who I asked to go away while we dealt with my leg, and Laird struggling to assemble the tent poles from which I had to remove the shock cord three days ago. The three of us managed to get it pitched in a beautiful location with rock towers visible out both sides.
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| Veiny Dock, Rumex venosus |
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| Rock, Fractured Like Sliced Ham |
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| Patch of Whitetop, Lepidium sp. |
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| Shadscale, Atriplex confertifolia |
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Oregon Sunshine, Eriophyllum lanatum, Blooms Blurry, Windy AF! |
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| Cockleburs, Xanthium strumarium |
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| Red Wing Blackbird in Sandbar Willow, Salix exigua |
I included the photo of the blackbird above, not because there is anything special about this most common of birds in these most common of willows, but because it is a reminder of the bird drama at this camp site. We watched this guy over a few hours, calling and preening and displaying his epaulets, all in a seemingly fraught attempt to get the nearby female to pay him some attention. She got close to him a few times, but it seemed that when he would try to get close, he'd end up chasing her across the river to no avail. Poor bastard.
There were two patches of willows framing our rafts on the shore, one each on the upstream and downstream side of the rafts. Not only did the blackbird make its way between the two patches, but so did a beautiful male Yellow Warbler in full breeding plumage. I walked down to the willows once and got close enough to see the orangish-red vertical stripes on his breast.
While we were observing (and if truth be told, narrating) the antics of the male blackbird trying in vain to score a little something, a real life nature drama played out across the river when one of a pair of Common Ravens dropped into a Black-billed Magpie nest in a hackberry, no doubt in search of eggs or chicks. We're not sure of the outcome, but it was quite the avian tussle as the two magpies fought off the hawk-sized raven. Nature is cruel.
Later on, everyone saw a bird, a strong flier, large and white with black wing tips, winging along the far bank and at times circling on wings held and flapped much like a gull. Laird asked me what it was and I had to admit that I did not know. I would figure it out tomorrow when I saw a bunch of White Pelicans, but a) I have seen very few White Pelicans in my life, and b) really, a pelican in the freaking desert was so out of context that I never considered it.
While Cliff Swallows had been everywhere during our trip down the river, tonight they were especially prevalent and chatty in overflying our camp in pursuit of bugs. They were joined by a good amount of Vaux's Swifts, small birds that alternately flap each wing, resembling bats on the wing. They put on a great acrobatics show for us as we were noshing our appetizers.
We were never far from the fire, which like the hot butternut squash soup for an appetizer, helped us stay warm. Again, I had on five upper layers against the wind which blew brutally until about 8:20 when it calmed for the night. These winds seemed to amuse the Turkey Vultures as many of them worked in lazy circles over both sides of the river.
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| Appetizers: Butternut Squash Soup and Crostini with Goat Cheese, Romesco, and Arugula |
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Amanda Grilling Bangers for Dinner
She Also Grilled What Looked Like a Tri-Tip That I Didn't Taste |
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| Grilled Sausage, Salad, Veggies, and Saffron Rice |
After dinner, we sat around the fire, Ann wrapped in a sleeping bag against the cold. We could already feel as the sun started to move to the east side of the river away from us that it was going to be a cold night. In fact, we would get frost in the low spots during the night.
After dinner, I saw Amanda pull out some bananas and a stick of butter, and that can only mean one thing: Bananas Foster. Serving it over ice cream is standard, but that's an awful big rabbit to pull out of a small hat out in the wilderness. Instead, she scooped the bananas over whipped cream and sprinkled them with mini chocolate drops.
As a professional chef, it was pretty amusing to see her toss part of the rum on the fire and drag the flame black into the banana pan. Typically in the restaurant, we'd pour the rum in the pan, let it vaporize for a second, then tilt the pan toward the flame on the stove to ignite the alcohol. Amanda's method offers a lot more show! Once again, we were so stuffed after dinner that we needed no dessert, but after the final-night show, we had to suck it up and dig in.
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| Bananas Foster |
After dessert, I ran to get my camera as the light got into that really sweet spot near sundown. Even once the sun went down, it still lit the clouds in glorious pink hues and then the moon made an appearance as well. What a glorious finale to our day!
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| Rain Shower Highlighted in Pink |
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