Hidden Prezzie

I excused myself Saturday to go to the dam.....and ended up crossing the highway to take a county road turned gravel, turned to a well hidden state wildlife management park.

I say well hidden cuz it's 20 years undiscovered by ME. Talk about a prezzie! I was excited--and a bit bummed. Pretty convinced I shouldn't even TRY that level 'B' road with my little car....so I didn't. But BOY did it look promising and BOY was it gorgeous back there....

Yesterday I promised--PROMISED multiple times that I wouldn't take off for parts unknown and head back there.

"Someone got killed in Oregon simply going for a walk at the park--shot by a hunter."
"You promise--no returning. We'll go another day."

Musta made him nervous that I promised....even though it's off-season. LOL
The heck of it is, I meant it! Seriously.....I was into transferring summer clothes for winter clothes when he returned, 15 minutes after he left to go to a 'doings' an hour away.

Yup--got in the Jeep....crossed the highway....down the gravel road......to the 'well kept secret' park.
There were two places of entry......he chose the first against my advisement.

Ummm.....this is the hunting area, Mr.-'someone-got-shot-in-Oregon-by-a-hunter'.

"Off season, you said."

Yeah, well.....I mighta lied....

"You were going to go--weren't you?"

"Ohhhhhh......look! How pretty is THAT?!"

And down the dirt, rutted road we went in the Jeep.
And down......and down some more. I was holding my breath, hoping stuck didn't happen....

We're talking rutted and scary--himself didn't think so but he drove tanks in the military. I reminded him this was a JEEP.

"Exactly. No point in having one if you're just going to use it to get groceries."
And so down we went....and down.....
HOLY moly......to this bitty valley with a wee stream where the eagles were hangin'.

"Did you see the sign with all the bullet holes........"

Nope--missed it. Too busy watching the eagle and wandering along the bitty stream.

"Up? Keep going?"

Yes, please....I think...
And then up.

Oh my gosh......it was gorgeous.
And it was treacherous.

And gorgeous.

And then we got to the end, turned around and went down......and down, crossed the wee bridge...and then up and up and up again and out. And then to the second park road and down again.
We landed at the river. And we watched a family of eagles doing what eagles do.....soar. The juveniles were playful and talkative. I think I sat on that beached tree trunk for an hour or so, just BEING while he wandered about the shoreline.

It was a lovely adventure.
And shame on the hunters who left a box of Winchester shells on the ground.
And shame on me for not reading the sign that I took a photo of when we returned to the valley from the first park road.
Seriously took the photo and didn't READ THE DARN SIGN.

Ummmmmmm.......yeah.....
I think he read it. I'm pretty sure he read it and ignored it, Mr. 'Someone-got- shot-by-a-hunter-in-Oregon'
We were in a Jeep dontchaknow--

Apparently it doesn't apply to Jeeps.