Things happen for a reason...

Despite its total irrationality, I subscribe to the belief that things happen for a reason. So, I believe our turning back on OTR-11 happened for a reason.  When I calculated the probabilities of things happening on the trip before I made the decision to return home, one the variables I used was the probability of something happening to the Defender. Even though it was in the best condition it has been in for years, I estimated that the odds were better than 50% of a Defender timeout. Factoring in the other probabilities, we turned around and headed home. 

 

Well, as it turns out, I was right. Tonight, as I was driving home, 3.4 miles from home the red check engine light came on and the vehicle stalled.  I started it up again, but I soon stalled again.  Fortunately, I was able to limp home driving very slowly with the flashers on, and will get it towed to my mechanic tomorrow.  Assuming that this glitch happened because of miles driven, my trip odometer, which I started at the beginning of OTR-11, read 1432.  Looking at Goggle maps, that would have placed us smack in the middle of Maxwell Nebraska, a hamlet of 257 people, on day 7 our trip, which would have been Friday, September 24^th. Lincoln Nebraska, the only sizeable city nearby, was 215 miles back along I-80. Since we would have driven 206 of the 279 miles we planned for that day, this would have happened around 2:30- in the afternoon. Downloading from Google Earth the photo of the spot where that breakdown would have occurred, below is what I get.  The temperature that night there was a nippy 46 degree, so sleeping in the Defender would not have been pleasant.

 

My guess is that we would have dealt with this the same way we dealt with the other such Defender timeouts in Newfoundland (2002), on the St Laurence River (2016), on the Alcan (2016), in Nevada and Utah (2016), and on desolate plains of western Kansas  (2019), but it would have been unwelcome nevertheless.  So, if anyone asks if I am saddened that we turned back, I think you now know the answer.

:

 

 

 

 

 

Day 3, Rhodadendrum

Not too much to report for today because not much took place. Lots of reading, a few walks with Donner, some contemplating the beauty of nature and wondering what nature will be like 100 years from now if current trends continue. Perhaps the highlight of the day was A drive to the nearby RV camp run by the state forest to take a well-deserved, if not much needed, shower.

This three-day stay here has been one of the longest of any of my road trips. I can probably count on one hand the number of campsites I stayed in for more than two days. I was afraid I would not be able to acclimate myself to it, but it seems that I did so quite nicely. The key is to get into a schedule, albeit one that can be broken if whim Or incident so demands.

Tomorrow, we must break camp and get on the road by 11 o'clock so I can make a swimming appointment for Donner in Potomac Maryland at four. Maybe I will stop off at the rest stop where I left those boots several weeks ago. Perhaps they are still there, waiting for their owner to reclaim them

Sent from my iPhone

Bear scat near camp site

It"s nice of the bears to leave a calling card. Thank God humans are not as nice.

28 years ago today

Day 2 , by the fite

Most of the time on the road, by the time I get into a new  camp.  set up the tent, and go through the rest of the evening chores, it is too late to start a fire. But every now and then I do get one going. When I do, it is always dark. After the fire is started, I sit down near it, start playing For Alina on my iPad, and begin to scroll through the several dozen photos I have of my dogs on my iPad, my favorite companions on these road trips. It takes about 11 minutes to do this. But those 11 minutes are probably the most enjoyable moments of all my trips.

The photo is of our fire tonight.

Day 2 rhododendron

As it turns out, we do not have the entire camp to ourselves. Slowly but surely, another 10 or so campsites were occupied by the time dark felll last night. But most of them are gone today, after having taken advantage of the three day weekend.

As it also turns out, I ended up with what is probably the worst site in the entire camp. On a quick drive through several weeks ago, I jotted down that there was a tent pad built for campsite three, so I figured that must be one of the best. So I reserved it. Well, the reason they built a tent pad was because the terrain in the site was generally steep and loaded with small rocks. So much for my guessing what goes on in someone's mind when they build a turn site. Nevertheless, we are making do, and I occasionally get up and circumnavigate The site for my daily exercise routine. And it helps with Donner's PT since one of the exercises is for him to walk over obstacles, and there are plenty of them here for him to walk over.

Ed and Donner


Sent from my iPhone

Day 2

Donner doing what he does best, resting and relaxing. He is a wholly different dog on this trip than he was on our On The Road-11. He is pretty much the dog he was before, but for his disability.

Day 1, mini otr 11

Our campsite at Rhododendron camp .


These campsites may all look the same to my readers, but they all have their distinct personalities. When I see a photo of one, I can recognize immediately which one it is, and I have camped in more than 400 of them on my trips.

I never cease to be amazed at how just sitting here amidst nature clears the mind. While it is a hassle preparing for these short trips, and then setting up camp, breaking camp, and the unpacking at home, they are worth it, at least doing it the way we do it I hope I remember that in two weeks when I hope to take another.

Ed and Donner

Mini-OTR-11 extended

Donner and I hope to  set  off for Rhododendron Camp in the West Virginia mountains for four days. Found a nice tent-only camp not too far from Coopers Rock camp, where we stayed on our way home two weeks ago.  It looks like we will have the entire camp to ourselves as no one seems to have reserved a site.  It is impossible to get a site for weekends, though.

 

I will continue Donner’s PT there twice a day. He continues to learn how to accommodate his disability and is even doing some walking on his  own. I still do not know if his problem is what the vet thinks it is, a torn iliopsoas muscle.

 

I thought preparing for this mini trip could be done in a matter of hours. I was wrong.  Scaling back preparing for a 45 day trip for a four day trip is not a matter of dividing the preparation time by 11.  I don’t know what the formula is, but it did to result in what I expected.

 

I am not too sure how I will react to two full days in a camp, considering that I am used to moving on every day. Perhaps I will get some reading done. Or Donner will get PT more than twice a day.

 

We will blog from the camp, depending on internet.

 

Ed and Donner

 

 

Donner's situation

Donner is learning how to get around with his disability, but can only walk a few feet, and poorly at that, before he has to sit down. The vet (specialist) believes it is an iliopsoas muscle tear and has recommended weeks, if not months, of physical therapy to deal with it.  I am not too sure that that is the problem, but it is worth a try since if it is not that, it is a neuro issues which I can do noting about, or a hip issue, which I may do something about, despite the risks, if it comes to that.  We will have four weeks before his wheelchair arrives, so it is worth trying in the meantime. In the meantime, we will continue to take our walks with him in his stroller. My concern is that he will rejected the wheelchair in favor of the stroller when the wheelchair arrives.  If that is his preference, so be it.

 

One of the reasons I am not too sure it is not Donner’s neuro situation acting up is what I learned in the tent as he slept right beside me.  Starting well into the night, he would try to shift his position every minute it seemed, and by doing so, wake me up.  He continues that at home.  That may be more of a sign it is a neuro issue, and not a muscle issue.  My guess is that it only starts well into the night as his meds from the previous morning wear off.  So, I will start to give him his meds at night to see if that changes his pattern.  I never noticed that he tries to change his position during the day so at least I know the meds are working.

 

Would-be Homeward bound OTR-11, Days 16-27,

Our outward bound journey accomplished, we would planning homeward bound  journey from cathedral-like Samuel Taylor State Park in California.  Had I not forgotten to renew my passport last year, we probably would he heading  north tomorrow (see red line on map), camping in the redwood forests and ocean-front camps on our way to Vancouver Island, where we would be pitching our tent for a few days right on the cusp of the beach on the western Pacific ocean beach at Wye Resort. But that journey would have been somewhat problematic, given the unpredictability of the weather crossing the northwestern and central states in October, which the Defender could have handled, but I might not have been able to with my haste to get home fast to deal with Donner’s situation. 

 

Would-be Day 16: So, given Donner’s situation, my guess is that we would be heading east (see blue line on map) from California, returned to Lake Tahoe,  and camped in Sugar Pines camp (if reopened after the Caldor fire). It was there in 2014 that a huge back bear tried to get to the containers on top of my Defender, five feet away from the tent (13-year old Erde, bless her heart, slept through the entire incident), but was stopped by my whistle. (See damage to Defender in photo below).

 

 

Would be Day 17: From Tahoe, we would have headed into the Nevada high desert, taking a roundtrip detour of 100 miles off route 50 to head to wonderful, isolated Berlin-Icythyosaur State Park, to enjoy the 360 degree panorama of the desert. We were alone, about 100 miles from civilization that night, which happened to be the night before the Defender took its third timeout at freezing Great Basin National Park.  But we were 100 miles from civilization the other way that night, so it did not matter.

 

 

 

Would be day 18: From Berlin- Icythyosaur, we would have headed back to route 50 and spent next night at  Petroglyph State Recreation area, were Leben and Erde and I camped in 2001 (and Donner and I in 2019) and where had and would have had the whole park to ourselves.  It was like camping in an old movie set from a 1950s John Wayne western.

 

Would be Day 19: From Petroglyph, we would have driven to Ely, Nevada, just to stop to give our regards to Dave, the mechanic who worked miracles on the Defender back in 2016 after its third timeout on that trip. and then driven up route 50 to Cave Lake, where on September 8, 2001, I was so mesmerized by the billions of stars overhead, I lay down ion the picnic table for hours, just staring into the sky, wondering about life out there.  I had never seen stars like that before, or seen them since, but I did see three stars in the DC sky last night.

 

This probably would be our camp at Cave Lake, as it was in 2019.

 

Would be Day 20: From Cave Lake, we would be traveling along route 50 through the desert to little Salina Utah, the site of our fourth and last Defender time-out in 2016, and probably staying at the Ranch Motel where we bivouacked for two weeks until I shipped the Defender back in 2016 and flew back home with Donner.

 

Would be day 21: From Salina, we might have attempted to head to the Moab area to try our luck at a campsite at a state park just outside of Arches National Park to enjoy the view (below) we had in 2018.

.

 

Would be day 22: From Arches, we would have travelled along I-70 with a stop at  Glenwood Canyon Camp right on the Colorado River (see photo).  Besides camping next to that great river, this camp had the added attraction of a railroad track right across the river, on of the great pleasure in my life. (I grew up in a community on the banks of the Hudson, with a railroad track on both sides of the river.)

 

 

Would be days 23-26: From Glenwood, to save time, we would probably would be overnighting on the east side of the Rockies in convenient motels for the rest of the trip in order to get home quickly to get Donner’s situation taken care of, 

Would be day 27: As our last stop, perhaps we would be staying at one of the quaint Lost River cabins or the Cheat River lodge in West Virginia, or maybe a cabin at the Savage River Lodge in western Maryland, all places we stayed before as the last stops on our journeys. My guess is that it would have taken 11 days to get home at 240 miles a day.

 

Unless there were unexcted interruptions, as have happened, that would have concluded OTR-11, but for my doing what was right and turning around to deal with Donner’s situation, of  which  I will write more  tomorrow. As for OTR-11, please stay tuned.

 

ED and Donner, from Basecamp in DC

 

 

 

What day 15 would have been like - Donner Lake to Fort Sutter to Samuel Taylor State Park

Unless we found another camp, we probably would have spent the night bivouacking in 26 degree temperature under a clear sky in a picnic grove (see below photo) where we bivouacked three years ago, not too far from the Donner’s Alder Creek Camp.  What a wonderful site that was.  A broad vista into the distance almost 200 degrees around. That’s Donner (my Donner) keeping his eyes on my every movement.

 

 

After breaking camp, we would have stopped off at the Alder Creek Camp where the Donners ended their journey,  just down highway 89  and then gotten on our way to Donner Lake, where the  rest of the Donner Party spent the next six months in abject misery, hoping, searching  for a rescue party.  

 

  TMy purpose with this blog is not to tell the story of what happened 175 years ago at Donner Lake, at the Alder Creek camp, or on the trail to Fort Sutter, so you might wish to delve into that horrific story yourself. A list of the names of the hapless souls stranded at those places is shown at the bottom of this posting.

 

After a brief visit to Donner Lake,  avoiding the water this time (remember what happened there in 2018?) we would be jumping onto I-80, heading eventually for the end of the line for the pioneers at Fort Sutter in Sacramento, 80 or so miles distant.  Our journey would be somewhat more relaxed than, say, the journey of the 14 souls who formed the Forlorn Hope group from the Donner Party trying to reach Fort Sutter back in 1846.  Most did not.

 

 

My guess is that we would not be trying to make it all the way to Fort Sutter, and then onto Samuel Taylor State Park, north of San Francisco, because that would involve a journey of 207 miles, without accounting for time lost for breaks at the sites in between.  So we probably would be bivouacking tonight about 50 miles down the highway in the Mineral Bar State Park (below) where Donner and I spent a night in solitude back in 2018.

 

 

You can visit my blog from 2018 to learn a little bit more about that one night we spent there, just feet away from a bubbling creek, just over the hill in back of our tent.

On The Road - 9 : Day 28, Friday, October 19; Mineral Bar State Park, California (otr9.blogspot.com)

 

After Mineral Bar camp, we would be taking some back roads to reach where Johnson’s Ranch had been located, now near Wheatland CA.  That site played a major role as the terminus of the Forlorn Hope saga.

 

From Johnson’s Ranch, we would be driving the final leg of the Donner Party’s journey on to Fort Sutter, but not spending much time there as they do not permit dogs in the museum.

 

And that would be .concluding our outward bound journey to retrace the Donner Party saga 175 years ago.   

 

We would then be moving on  97 miles to the Samuel Tailor State Park north of San Francisco where we had reservations in the same wonderful campsite (below)  in a cathedral-like redwood forest where we stayed  during several prior visits there.

 

 

Tomorrow, we would be plotting our homeward bound journey, which I never plan until I point the Defender east.  My guess is that we would first be heading off in the direction of the Nevada and Utah deserts to camp in several of the magnificent high desert camps we stayed in over our journeys and go wherever the Defender took us.

 My plan now is to continue this blog, probably reposting some of  photos of camps we stayed in before on our similar homeward bound journeys, and other miscellaneous topics as well (e.g., Donner’s situation, our local camping, the Defender), until we eventually pick it up when we get back on the road again on OTR-11.  For all I know now, OTR-11 might go on for perpetuity.  One can be certain of nothing these days.

Below is a list of the members of the Donner Party, and the numbers who survived and perished. Click on the names and you will go to an Xmission blog that lists the names and some background on each.

 

Family/Group	Number	Survived	Perished
Breen	9	9	0
George Donner	7	5	2
Jacob Donner	9	3	6
Eddy	4	1	3
Graves, Fosdick	12	8	4
Keseberg	4	2	2
McCutchen	3	2	1
Murphy, Foster, Pike	13	7	6
Reed, Keyes	7	6	1
Wolfinger	2	1	1
Teamsters and others	21	5	16
TOTAL	91	49	42