Spent 8 night sleeping under the stars in SE Oregon.

My 1990 Toyota pickup with 340,000 miles suffered a burnt valve and was in the shop for two 1/2 weeks and just got it out of the shop the day before we left.
I drove it off the lot brand new in April 1990 and have had it ever since.

When my mechanic first told me it was a burnt valve I just laughed. He says "Why are you laughing?" I say "I have had the truck for over 25 years and have over 340,000 miles on it and this is the first major problem I have ever had with the motor, I think I am getting my money worth out of it!" He laughed too!

My mechanic was worried when I told him I was going on my vacation with it. He told me to take it easy the first 500 miles and then drain the oil.

I drove the piss out of it!
Best damn truck I ever owned!
Ended up putting 1600 miles on it in nine days and half of those were 4x4 dirt roads.
And it ran like it was new with the new top end.

It was a hot, dusty, sunburned, bug bite, smoky trip but it was well worth it! One of the best camping trips I have ever had in my life. In fact, I got back on a Saturday and I was ready to back three days later. It was a fantastic trip and I will post pictures and commentary as time goes so it might be a long drawn out thread. Oh and we drank lot's of beer!

I heard about a crashed B-24 "Liberator" Bomber in the Pueblo Mountains when I was a kid and I have looked for on two other camping trips but had no luck on locating it.
The crash site is in one of the remotest place in Oregon. It is so remote that you have to drive into Nevada and then drive jeep trails back into Oregon.

I took over 800 pictures and will post some so please ask questions if you like.

My co-pilot, bartender, and gate opener was my brother in law Tracy. We have gone to the ends of Oregon together for years so you will see him in some of the photos for scale.

 

Our base camp was 4 Mile camp on the Chewaucan (Shoe-wa-can) River just outside of Paisley Oregon. Have been camping in this spot for many years.

The Chewaucan was loaded with crawdads this year and we ate good!
Bait: Two day old Micky D's breakfast burrito. They love it!

 

Only 5 cases of Corona?

Awesome you have had your truck so long, it is like a faithful dog

I never knew there was a B-24 crash in Oregon. That would be a cool trip.
Looking forward to the pics

 

The crawdads look awesome!! Got any favorite recipes to share?

I see your Coleman white gas stove and lantern.

Most people don't use them any more.

White gas stoves and lanterns are the only ones that will still function well no matter how cold it gets.

I would'nt camp with anything else.

I am a collector of Coleman white gas lanterns and stoves.

The older models made before about 1950 are, hands down better than the newer models.

Keep burning white gas!!

 

Actually we had Seven 18 packs of Corona. Two are hidden under all the camping gear.

 

LOL!
Funny you should mention that.
I have been a GPA (Gas Powered Appliance) collector for years.
I buy them and restore them.
Got over 250 lanterns alone plus stoves and the like.

 

This is a placed called Long Lake.
First time we have been here and I only knew about it by reading books over the years.

It was twelve mile in and it took over a hour to drive to the dry lake bed. Axle busting road.

It is a unbelievable place.
The dry lake is about two miles long with a rim rock cliff that runs on the south side of the lake.
Out in the middle of nowhere, limited access and with literally thousands of petroglyphs on the rim rock cliff.

We took a lot of pictures here.

 

Keep your eye on the on the rock face right behind the boulder and the yellow bush in the center of the photo.

 

 

 

 

Long Lake Petroglyphs are some of the oldest in North America.
The first two pictures of Petroglyphs below have been dated at 6,700 years old.
They are deeply chiseled into the basalt.

 

Some more that are deeply chiseled into the stone.

 

Like I mention before it took over a hour to drive the 12 miles into Long Lake because of the road. Most roads are like this in this region of Oregon. Not maintained and were probably Native Americans trails at first and then cowboys and their horses and then jeeps and 4x4 pickups.

Here are a few pictures on the Long Lake road which just like any other road out there.

 

We treated ourselves that night after the long trip to Long Lake to Eastern Oregon Rib Eye steaks. The best in all the land.
Stopped in Lakeview Oregon and found the local meat lockers and bought two $10 steaks.
Very Good Steaks!

 

Here is the story of the B-24 crash site and what happened.

http://www.opb.org/television/progra.../b-24-mystery/

 

I was the cook, driver, navigator and history teacher on the trip.

 

I am going to start to posting the pictures of the drive to the B-24

But before I do that I want to remind everybody reading this thread that 11 men gave their lives for this country while training to fight the enemy.

The crash site is a memorial for these men and it should be treated like that when visiting the site.
We went to pay tribute to these men. We were on a mission

I have had 12 american flags packed in my camping gear for the last five years to put up there on the meadow.

"Propeller Meadow" is what it is called and it is at the 7500 ft elevation on the west side of Pueblo Mountain and the mountain is 8632 ft, so is just about the peak of the mountain.

I cannot think of a more desolate place then Propeller Meadow but it is a beautiful place.
11 men met their fate on the side of the mountain, they gave their lives for this country so we could be free. I am free and I can go and pay homage to them.

Were they the greatest generation? YOU BET!

 

We drove from our camp 40 miles into Lakeview to gas up and then hit the road to Denio NV which is about 110 miles from Lakeview.

The dirt road to the bomber site is about 5 miles west of Denio off Hwy 140 that heads up into the Pueblo mountains.

A lot to see for such a desolate area. Not to many tree but many old abandon mines and many cool rock formations. Very smoky that day.
I think we clocked 16 miles one way to the site. Not a real bad road but I did have it in 4wd most of the way and many times I had to put it low range 1st and 2nd gear. Steep, yes.

 

The middle picture shows Pueblo Mountain in the background.