So, according to the Espalin school calendar, Karen and the boys had a week off of school, Spring Break. I chose to take a week of vacation during that same week. So instead of going to Daytona Beach like we usually do (yeah right), the boys and I had planned to go camping; camping trips are becoming very elusive now that we have animals to take care of. Our camping trip would accomplish two things: 1) Give the boys a multi-day camping trip to a new area, 2) Give Karen a few days to do her cooking and school planning without us boys causing distractions.
Last winter the boys and I went camping in the Painted Hills of Eastern Oregon. This year we decided to visit the Crooked River National Grassland, which is in central Oregon, just Southeast of Madras and Northeast of Bend. Here is a little map of the location:
Where we camped is in the High Desert region of Central Oregon; lots of sagebrush and juniper, mixed with grasslands and medium sized buttes and canyons. The big advantage of this location is the lack of precipitation. The weather was great, and while it rained pretty good a home, we barely got any rain at all.
Here are a few pics around the campsite.
We took the boys Doodlebug and the dirt bike my brother loaned us, and had the freedom to ride trails all day long; miles and miles of dirt roads. Here is Nicholas after getting a little muddy in a rut. Yeah Mud!!!
Below is a video of the boys riding their doodlebug on a little dirt track we found just right up the road from the campsite. Boy did they have fun. I must admit it was a lot of fun for me as well.
One day we rode the bikes about 6 miles down the road to find a canyon that was rumored to have feral hogs. We didn’t find any hogs to shoot, but as usual the terrain was beautiful.
And no camping trip would be complete without good food. Of course there is the aftermath of this great camping food, which are dishes. Fortunately my boys were big helpers and willingly volunteered to do all the dishes after I told them they had to.
The last day we were there, which was Thursday, we found a great place to set up our steel target and practice some long distance shooting. We first shot at 475 yards, and then moved back to 600 yards. We did awesome, and both of my boys (me too) hit the 12″ steel target consistently at both distances. At the 600 yard distance we adjusted the scope 15.25 MOA, to account for the 91.5 inches the bullet would drop travelling that distance.
This is from the target area looking downhill towards our shooting positions. The 600 yards position is almost to the two green trees at the far end of the clearing.
And this is looking uphill towards the target area, which is about halfway up the hill.
Here are a few more pictures of things we saw on the trip. It really is amazing what God has put out here for us to enjoy.
Thanks for following along,
Michael
Looks like a ton of fun! What, no Daytona? HA. Lots of boys at our house that love to camp…great memories you are making.
It is amazing the memories that are created during camping trips. Some of my best memories still are camping when I was a young boy. Thanks for commenting Allie.
Dear Michael and Karen,
The boys are undoubtedly going to grow up being so well equipped for life skills (and cool too)! You are amazing parents.
Saundra, the boys are really good kids, and I hope this lifestyle will give them the skills and mindset to be willing to tackle anything. It is always nice to hear from you, I hope you and Mr Stebbing and doing great.
You had such a great time riding the scooter, shooting, enjoying the scenery. And you took some amazing photos. What a nice and restful break from school and home routine.
You are such a nice family!
Kimberly
Thanks Kimberly. Karen has been reading up on how to take better photos, maybe some of it has been rubbing off on me too! Really appreciate you following along, and your encouraging comments.