10/12 LePage Campground, Columbia River, OR

I've spent the last two weeks at this campground along the John Day River where it empties into the Columbia River.  I cannot directly see the Columbia River unless I walk to the entrance, but this is a scenic place I have been to several times before.  I enjoy the fact that it is out of the way and is very quiet this time of year--its been filled from 20% to 50% the entire time I have been here, so not a lot of people, but I like the smallness of the campsite and the views.  

Tomorrow I head to a more central city in the Willamette Valley, and have appointments to get my water tank fixed or replaced.  I also am pretty sure I need brakes and have not been able to get anyone near here to look at them, let along fix them, but I have an appointment next week to get them looked at, so it will be a very busy week.  

Driving west on I-84, it is pretty hard to miss Mount Hood, a good 50 miles in the distance.

LePage Park can be easily found because of the bridge over the John Day River.  John Day, after whom two cities, river, fossil beds, and a dam were named, was a fur trader in 1810.   The area closest to the bridge is a day-use area that is also used by local native Americans as a fishing staging area.  

The John Day River empties into the Columbia River just east of the John Day Dam.  When the dam was completed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers and closed, I was told the widened river here filled within hours, making a nice lake for boaters when winds were too strong for boating or fishing on the Columbia.  

Because this campground was built and is managed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers, there is a 50% discount in cost by any seniors having a federal National Park Pass.  The pass costs $20 annually or $80 for the lifetime of any citizen of the U.S. who is at least 62 years old.  Not only do we seniors get the discount on camping, but we also get free admission at any national park, which is a real bargain since places like Yellowstone have raised their entrance prices over the last few years.  

In the next photo, you can see my motorhome at the northern end of this small campground, along with two other rigs.  I had a good view, but would have preferred to be father back from the highway, as vehicles going over the bridge made a thumping sound as they hit cracks in the pavement. There is also a very busy trail track just behind the bridge, but trains do not bother me.   Unfortunately, they had to move me from my reserved space because there were electrical problems in some sites. 

This campground will close on Monday, and it has not been very busy because of the time of year and the chilly weather.  However, there were lots of people fishing and many of the campers brought boats along with them.

The western end of the Columbia River is full of big trees, but as you head west, you get into a drier and less-treed plains area.  This view is looking up the river. Small boats with motors can go up the river about 6-7 miles, but then it becomes narrower and more shallow.  A few more miles up the river was a crossing for the Oregon Trail, though the river was a lot narrower before the John Day Dam was built. 

Nice that the campground planners set up campsites so that the ones along the John Day River had their side doors facing the river.  Each site has water and electric, with a dump station near the entrance. 

One sunny day, I decided to go for a walk to the day use area.

It was impossible to take a clear photo of this sign because it was so close to the chain-link fence, but this sign explains why the native tribes have permanent access to this site to store their nets and fishing equipment.  They also can camp here as needed. 

Most of these trash bags are filled with fishing nets, not trash, although I did see a couple of bags with recyclables. 

No one is around, but this is a pile of fishing nets that were dry.

And these nets are drying after being used.  The tribes fish in the Columbia River, by the way, not the John Day River, but this area has a boat ramp and makes it easy to keep their nets here since they have a private area. 

A sign noting that Lewis and Clark passed through this area, and named the river after one of their men.  Of course, while the park retains the name "LePage," the river does not. 

Just the kind of campground I like--almost empty!

More views of the campground.

A view of my motorhome from a roadway above the campground. 

Most campgrounds these days offer free use of life vests in various child sizes. 

9/30 Tip on New Mexico Potential State Park Fee Increases

I am now in Oregon and will post something about where I am in a few days, but in the meantime, I thought I would point out to all of you about something I read about a couple of months ago.  

As some of you might know, New Mexico has some of the cheapest state parks in the country.  They are a real bargain:  non-electric sites are $10 per night and electric hookup sites are $14 per night in almost all state parks.  Now, admittedly, some of the state parks could use some improvement in park roads, and even camp sites, being paved.  A few years ago, I had a dusty experience in one state park where the only five electric hookup sites were along the entrance road, and in fact, on the eastern side of the entrance road, so whenever a vehicle drove in, a cloud of dust rolled in to the point where I could not leave any windows or vents open. 

However, there are a handful of New Mexico State Parks that are on my favorites list.  For example, I love Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, which is located just south of Alamagordo, NM.  It is on the slope on a mountain and has a terrific distant view of the valley where White Sands National Monument is located.  Another favorite of mine is Rockhound SP, which is a very small campground near Deming, NM.  The thing I like about this place is that it is small, and with only a few sites is very quiet and also has great views.  Ditto for the Monticello Campground at Elephant Butte State Park.  Note that I tend to like scenic places that are quiet and peaceful, but do not necessarily have a lot of things to do like boating or swimming.  

Now, here is what is happening with New Mexico State Parks you might want to know about, especially if you are a camper on a tight budget.  In the past, New Mexico offered an annual camping pass for residents and non-residents.  The non-resident camping pass was good for 12 months after purchase and cost $225. It covers the basic camping fee of $10 per night.  If you want to add electrical service, you will need to pay only that extra $4 per night--a serious bargain!!  

Here are sites that provide more detailed information on these camping passes:

• Fees, Permits & Rentals - https://www.emnrd.nm.gov/spd/fees-permits/
• Know Before You Go - FAQs -  https://www.emnrd.nm.gov/spd/know-before-you-go-faqs
  

What is happening is that that state of New Mexico is seriously considering increasing their camping fees, in most cases doubling or tripling them, but after reading several articles, as best as I can understand, they are going to wait until the first of 2025 to make a final decision on this.  For example, one proposal is to raise the cost of the non-resident annual camping pass to $600 and day rates to $40-$150 for non-residents.  (I am guessing the $150 might be for groups??)

Here are some articles I found, but please do your own research to get more updated information:

• New Mexico State Parks seeking feedback on increases to visit public lands
• Fees for state parks may be going up soon in New Mexico
• State Park Regulation Changes  (From state park commission. Fee increases for non-resident camping passes suggested to be $338 in this document.)   
  

The fees are expected to go into effect in January, 2025, but it could be sooner.  Since I plan to visit some parks in NM this coming winter and spring, I already bought my annual pass for $225.  The problem with my doing that is that I am not going to get to use it for the entire 12 months, but I figure it is worth it because I won't use it next summer anyways. 

Anyway, no one knows for sure what the final decisions on these cost increases will be, but for now, the reservation system is accepting reservations at the old rates.  Ditto for now on the sale of annual camping passes.  

Just thought you might want to know so you can do your own research and make plans for 2025.  You can buy your pass through the NM reservation system, and they will send you an email with your pass number on it, which enables you to make reservations while you wait for the paper pass to arrive. 

9/22 Not Much Happening in Athol, Idaho

I have not posted in a few days, so to let you know I am still around, I want to explain what has happened over the last week.  I was in Lake Louise, Canada until the morning of September 13, but what I did not post about was the motorhome trouble I had been having.  I had been taking shuttles to the actual Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, and to the little shopping area for groceries and postcards and such.  On Friday, Sept 13, I had made a reservation to go up to the Columbia Ice Fields, about 80 miles north, towards Jasper.  But of course, I could not go all the way to Jasper because they had had a big fire a few months ago and the national park and most of the town was closed while they fixed things.  In fact, it will be closed until next spring, and I got five nights reservations in Jasper cancelled.  

Anyway, as I was making the 80 mile incredibly scenic drive to the ice fields, my motorhome engine started to miss badly and the check engine light came on.  Not only did it come on and stay on, but it would flash going up mountains, and that entire drive is mountains, up and down!!  So, I did see the ice fields and made it back to the campground in Lake Louise.  

I was originally going to drive to Waterton National Park for a few days, but decided that with my badly missing engine, I had better skip it and get into a larger town in the U.S. where there were more repair places and where I had a specialized road service company called CoachNet.  CoachNet is worth every penny I pay for it, and they have saved me many times when I have had RV problems.  

So, I limped slowly back to the border, staying one more night in Canada just before I got there. (I was afraid of damaging my engine, so I was driving about 50 mph, which no doubt irritated a lot of drivers.)  Stocked up on groceries and gas, just in case.  (By the way, U.S. customs took my lemons, tomatoes, and eggs.  Eggs would have been OK, but I had bought these in Ontario, which apparently has a bird flu problem. The lady who inspected my fruit and vegetables was extremely nice, by the way.)  I made another stop to replace those items because I really needed them.

After a few hours drive on Sunday, I arrived in Athol, Idaho, and lucked out in finding a terrific full-hookup campground that was almost empty, and extremely nice.  I was worn out, so on Monday, I mostly just crashed and caught up on sleep.  On Tuesday, I started making calls to truck service places to no avail.  Basically, my motorhome is 32' long and built on a Ford e-450 chassis, which is what most medium duty delivery trucks are built on.  Getting it worked on is always a problem.  Ford truck dealers will often not touch motorhomes, and other service places for trucks will only work on diesel trucks.  Athol, by the way, is about 15 miles north of Coeur d'Alene and about 40 miles from Spokane. 

Finally, I gave up and called my trusty CoachNet, which while it is a towing company, it also offers technical advice on the phone, and if needed and your vehicle is driveable, it will find someone who will work on it immediately and will set up an appointment for you.  Within a couple of hours, they found a place only 10 miles away for late the next morning, so I could drive that distance, I was told.  

Lucked out again, because the service place had only agreed to diagnose the problem and could not do the work until the following week, but a mechanic unexpectedly finished a job early, so he not only diagnosed my problem, but was able to remove the bad coil that was causing all my problems.  Not only that, but three hours of labor and one new coil later, I was on the road with a non-missing engine and a much smaller bill than I had expected.  Plus, I was able to sit in my rig inside the garage while he worked on my rig!!  Not bad to have your own recliner, refrigerator, bathroom, and cell/internet service while waiting for a repair!!

Here is the view from my recliner!!

So, since I am very comfortable in this RV park, I decided to get some overdue tasks done.  Since RV dealers are typically booked up for weeks for service, I have called a mobile RV technician who will be coming on Wednesday morning to try to fix what he can.  I have had several things inside my motorhome that need to be fixed, and how long they have been broken:  

• Front furnace does not ignite. I just discovered this because I have not used it over the summer and since last winter. It should be an easy fix. Using rear furnace and a small electric heater at night in the meantime.
  
• Only one burner of my three-burner stoves is working. The one I use most often in the front seems to have the knob gummed up with grease. I am going to try to fix this myself by taking off the top of the stove and seeing if I can clean it.  (Right back burner has been not working for a year, but front burner has been causing problems for only about a week.)
• I have storage under my bed that is accessed my lifting up the bed.  The mattress is heavy, so there are two little gas struts, one on each side, that assist in lifting it up, but one or more is not working. This just happened about a week ago. I have some 2' long boards I use to park on to level my vehicle, so I got one out, scrubbed it off outside, dried in and am temporarily using it as a prop when I need to get someone out.  In the meantime, I took photos of the struts and have been calling all over trying to get replacement parts because it will take the mobile repair guy too long to order them.  Left message with Camping World, and they are checking parts.  Will call them back tomorrow.  
• Huge problem!!!  My front TV is not working. The satellite dish equipment, the receiver, and the back TVs are fine, but the big front one is not getting power for last few days.  I crawled up on the front bunk where all the wiring is and cannot find any broken wires or things not plugged in, so I am hoping technician can solve problem.  Might need to buy new TV.  

So, what have I been doing while waiting for the mobile service guy to come?  I have been putting things away, cooking, doing a bit of cleaning, defrosted my freezer, paid some bills and mailed them away, ordered prescriptions refilled, and worked on some tasks I have as an executor for my aunt's estate.  Also, I found out that this RV park lets you wash your vehicle, so I got out my bucket and extending brush and spent a couple of hours washing it--not easy when your vehicle is over 12' high, 32' long, and you are only 5' tall with a bad left shoulder, but I managed with a couple of rest breaks. Tomorrow, I will go out with some mineral spirits and get some of the sticky road grease off some lower panels, but it looks 100% better!!  

Tomorrow, I am also going to try to replace my front thermostat.  It is an exact replacement I bought about 6 years ago when my old one was acting funny.  It seemed to work fine after that, so I have been carrying it around all these years.  Might as well put it in.  Hopefully, it is not too hard.

I also need to go to the post office tomorrow to pick up my mail and to try to get a haircut somewhere.  Plus, time to back up the photos I have taken over the last three months.  I back things up on a couple of external hard drives I have, and then keep one stored in a safety deposit box so I never lose all my files.  I have to be at my next RV park by Friday, Sept 27 and then on two days later to another one I plan to stay at for two weeks, so I am hoping to get as many of my undone things done by then.   

Much of the country has been extremely hot, but in Canada and here in the Pacific Northwest, it has been cold, cold, cold.  Daytimes here have been in upper 60s and lower 70s, but last night, it dropped down to 39 degrees.  As I move south, it is supposed to get a bit warmer, but I am glad it is a little cool here, especially at night.  Got two little heaters running right now. 

9/14 Lake Louise Hard-Sided Campground

There are only two campgrounds in Lake Louise:  one is for hard-sided RV, such as motorhomes and trailers that have hard sides and roof to protect the campers from bears and other predators.  This is because Lake Louise has not only black bears, but much more aggressive grizzly bears.  You cannot camp here if your camper has any canvas sides or roof.  You also cannot leave any food out, or even leave out a tablecloth that you have used to eat on because it might have food smells or scraps on it.  You also must use only small cooking grills and wrap them up and store them in a provided bear-proof container or clean them and put them inside your RV.  This campground has electrical hookups but you must use a central dump and water fill station.  

The other campground is for tents and RVs that have canvas popups or bump outs.  Because of the bear problem, this campground is surrounded by an electric fence and has an entrance platform that bears will not go over.  (There is a small pedestrian gate for humans to go through, and vehicles can drive over the bear-proof entrance platform.)  In this campground, there are strict rules for food storage in bear-proof containers.  

For obvious reasons, I stayed in the hard-sided campground, shown here:

However, as seems to be common in a lot of older Canadian campgrounds, all the sites here are double sites, which presents some problems.  A double site means that you and another set of campers are sharing one site.  There are individual electric boxes and picnic tables on each side, but there is not a lot of privacy when your rig is only a few feet away from your next-door neighbor.   

Also, every RV has the hookups on the driver's side and the entrance on the passenger's side. So, you have two choices here:  You can park as my neighbor did here on the left, with your hookups close to the electric box, but this means your entrance is on the opposite side from your picnic table. 

Or you can park as I did, with my entrance on the same side as the picnic table, but since my electric connection is on the far side of my rig, this means I need a very long cord to plug in.  Luckily, I carry a 25' 30 amp extension cord.  A lot of Canadian campers carry 30 amp extension cords because a lot of provincial parks have electric boxes a long way from camping sites, but American campers usually don't have one of these. 

 

Here is a view of the front of my motorhome and another neighbor who spent only one day next to me.  Like the other neighbor, they chose to park so their electrical cord could easily reach the box. 

 

Canadian electrical hookup boxes look a lot like the ones in the U.S., except this particular brand has a big problem.  I plugged my cord in, and flipped the circuit breaker, but nothing happened and I had no power. 

 

This photo, which was taken from a horizontal position, shows the first circuit breaker switch.  This was the one I switched on.

I had to get help from one of the rangers, and she pointed out that if you lifted the door a bit higher and looked very, very closely under it, way up on the top, there was a second circuit breaker switch, as shown here.  However, to see it, you almost have to put your head in the dirt and stand upside down.  Here is a photo of the hidden switch.  It is only visible if you are looking directly up!!  Once I knew it was there, at least I could feel for it.  

Note: This is the 20 amp side of the box.  There is an almost identical 30 amp receptacle with similar switches on the opposite side.  Very poor design, but the ranger said that the national parks had to accept the cheapest bid for things, and this is what they ended up with for electrical hookup boxes!!

This is a row of bear-proof food storage boxes for owners of hard-sided RVs to use.  Good place to put used grills that might have food particles on them.  There was also a pile of free firewood. 

 

 

One nice thing about Lake Louise is that once you set up camp, you can go almost everywhere via shuttle.  This is the waiting space for the campground shuttles. 

There is a big park and ride lot to catch shuttles to the two lakes, but it is really easier to just take the free campground shuttle.

9/13 Columbia Icefield & a Lot of Mountains!

I am back in the U.S. and finally catching up on my last two posts from Canada.  It takes time to download photos from my camera to my laptop and sort them into groups by date or subject, and then I have to select photos I want to use for my blog and use Outlook to shrink them to an appropriate size.  The whole thing takes at least an hour for even a short post, and this one is going to be a LONG post because I took so many photos and had to be selective in which ones I would post.  

The Columbia Icefield is an area between Lake Louise and Jasper.  While you cannot go all the way to Jasper because of the recent fires, you can drive the 90 miles from Lake Louise to the Icefield and see the most impressive of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.  I have been in a lot of the parts of the U.S. Rocky Mountains, and I have to admit that the Canadian area has bigger and much more impressive peaks!   There are also a lot more visible glaciers on this drive.  I'm posting these photos in the order I took them--going and coming back to Lake Louise. 

So, to begin the drive!

 

 

As you head north, the mountains get bigger and bigger, and there is more snow on them.

There are two or three lakes on the way.  You can judge the size of the lake and the height of the mountains in the background by looking at the tiny red dot on the right and the far side of the lake. 

 

 

I don't know what this is, but it is clearly not just a small cottage.  It looks like some sort of lodge or hotel.  

Another lake.

 

 

The road looks small compared to the mountain. 

 

 

 

And finally, we reach the icefield area. 

 

 

 

There are at least 3 or 4 glaciers visible from the parking lot.  This is the Athabasca Glacier, and it is the one you can walk on more easily since it is flatter, and there are buses to take you to a safe place on it.  Note the group of tiny dots on the left.  Those are people and large buses.  

 

 

This is another glacier to the south of the Athabasca glacier.  

 

 

This photo shows how the Athabasca glacier has shrunk since 1844.  

 

 

You take a regular tourist bus across the highway and transfer to these special glacier buses with 12-wheel drive.  They go very slowly, but they get you there.

 

 

We were told that at this point, the glacier is at least 700' deep, which is amazing. 

 

 

 

 

I was bundled up in several layers, so was not too cold, even though the temps were close to freezing.  However, one thing I was NOT prepared for was that the ice was wet and very slippery. A few people were better prepared by having ice crampons on their shoes, but I was able to take only a few steps away from the bus to take some photos.  

 

A kind lady took my photo and then helped me get back to the bus.  I could have walked more, but since I travel alone, I did not want to fall and spend the night in the hospital!

 

 

The bus took us back to the loading area and then to the visitor center and parking areas on the other side of the road.   I took off a couple of layers and started my drive home to the campground.  

 

These mountains are constantly growing, but they are also constantly falling down, either through avalanches or more gentle gravel fans like this one.  It was probably at least 1,000' long, or longer.  

 

 

The view is always different as you drive back to where you had come from, and there were several more glaciers heading back to Lake Louise.  

I plan on coming back in a year or two when the town and campgrounds at Jasper have recovered from the recent fires.  Maybe even slightly warmer weather so I don't have to wear so many layers???