Palisades Weekend

Palisades, Night the First

Last weekend, Nick and I planned on going to Topaz Mountain, we even sent a notice out to Semenza_Adventures. Things have a way of changing and since I couldn't leave work till 4:00 pm, no one else would be going with us, I would really rather not drive 6 hours to the camp site, AND there were no facilities once we got there, we changed our minds.

Instead of heading South to really warm weather, we headed North to the moderately cold region of Palisades Reservoir. The drive was gorgeous and as we pulled through the campground it seemed fairly empty and quiet. Our first choice of campsite was already occupied so we pulled into our second choice and Nick turned off the Jeep. I tried to open the hatch to the jeep, only it wouldn’t open because we were parked at an angle and the boat was in the way. Nick got back in to straighten out the parking situation only to discover that the jeep wasn’t interested in starting again. EEEK.

Nick got intensely quiet. I thought about it and started unloading. After all, if the jeep wouldn’t start now, we could still camp and deal with it in the morning. It was almost 8:30. As I moved through camp it became apparent that we forgot our bug spray and the mosquitoes were definitely out for blood. Lucky for me they don’t really like my blood that much and as long as I kept moving I was okay. Nick continued to try to start the jeep, but it just wasn’t cooperating. I told him that it would be fine. After all, I had a cell phone, we were in a camp with quite a few other folks, we have AAA coverage, AND I have a credit card. All good things. It didn’t help much. So then I started telling him all my fun breakdown stories including the one late at night on the freeway in Portland… Things always work out so why worry, is my philosophy.

I got the tent laid out, but didn’t think I could get it set up by myself so I tried to pry him away from the jeep. When that was unsuccessful I decided to take a walk over to the nearby creek. On my way, the campground host (a garrulous old dude with a mystifying accent and an inability to hear) stopped me in his golf cart. He asked how things were. I said they were going okay. He didn’t hear me so he asked again. I said we were probably only going to stay one night cause our jeep wouldn’t start. He still didn’t hear me so I tried again. Our jeep won’t start, so we’re not going to be staying long.

This time he understood, he asked me if the lights worked, I had to admit that I hadn’t a clue. So I got into the golf cart and off we went, back to the jeep. He got the hood opened and took a look at our battery cables and went to work cleaning them up. The jeep was working not long after that, pheww. Nick even agreed that we didn’t have to leave first thing tomorrow, but really could stay another day.

We got the tent set up and moved all our stuff inside. It was too mosquito –y outside to be pleasant. In the end we both succumbed to an early bedtime. Our adventure was off to a rollicking good start, jeep breakdown, lack of bug spray, what more could we ask for?

Palisades, Day the Second

(There was no day the first.) It was very cold that night and I was incredibly grateful for my new cape. We used it as an additional layer on top of the sleeping bags. We also slept fully clothed, sweatshirts, socks and all. In the wee hours of the morning we got up and got going. We were at the lake by 7:30 am. It was a gorgeous morning. (Check out my flickr account for pictures). We unloaded the boat from the trailer, loaded it up with us and our stuff and Nick turned it on. Or rather, he didn’t. There was definitely something in the air this weekend. Once again, we had a vehicle not starting. Not only did he have a non-functional boat battery, he had TWO non-functional boat batteries. Once again, it was time to load up the boat and just call it quits and go home.

I am not so easily dissuaded from having fun. I suggested that before we quit we should go down to the Dam Store (yes that’s really what it is called) and see if they had a battery. After all, we can always use another one. Sure enough, they had one, only one. We had gotten lucky yet again. Nick made certain he could start the boat before leaving the store’s parking lot. I also picked up some bug spray. I did not want to be mosquito food this night. On our way back to the lake we came across a tree loaded with huge birds. Brown feathers, one with a white head, oh my goodness, 7 bald eagles in a tree??? Some were obviously juveniles. I didn’t really get to take a solid look, but one for certain was and they were all so much alike. I don’t understand what they were doing there but we took it as a sign that things were going to be fine. After all, how many times does one see 7 bald eagles in a tree?

We were back to the lake and on the water by 9:30ish. It was a marvelous day. We spent about 8 hours on the lake. I may not fish, but I nap, read, study the wildlife, learned to identify plants from a boat with binoculars, watch the water and otherwise have a great time.

Over the course of the weekend we saw birds:
Rock doves
House finches
Starlings
Kestrels
Red tailed hawks
Crows
Robins
Magpies
Yellow headed blackbird
Red winged blackbirds
Western kingbirds
American white pelicans
Bald eagles
California gulls
Bank swallows (lots, and lots of these)
Rough wined swallows
Brewer’s blackbirds
Double crested cormorants
Ravens
Great blue herons
Osprey fishing (although it was more of a hunting type activity than what I would consider fishing. He’d literally dive into the water for fish.)
An unidentified tern
Calliope hummingbirds
Broad tailed hummingbirds (my new species for the weekend)
Song sparrows
Barn swallows
Western meadowlarks

From the boat we saw:
Sticky geranium
Wooly mullein
Mountain little sunflower
Yarrow
Quaking aspen
Juniper
Spruce
Silvery lupine
Mules ears
Woods rose
Tweedy’s thistle
Western serviceberry
Chokecherry
Rocky mountain bee plant
Lodgepole pine

And many more species that I didn’t get identified, it’s a little difficult when you can’t actually touch the plant.

While on the boat I realized that we had forgotten one more thing, my serious 40 spf sunscreen. Eek. I used Nick’s milder 7 spf suntan lotion and just kept re-applying. We’re going to buy a bottle of my heavy duty stuff and just leave it on the boat so I don’t forget it.

It was a beautiful way to spend a day.

Palisades, Night the Second

That night, we may have had bug spray but we really didn’t need it. Nick made us dutch oven stew which was deliciously flavored and we had a fire. A big fire, we ended up just burning everything we could find that was dry. Very fun, we’re usually such responsible children, making certain we have fuel for the next day etc… It was another early to bed night, so much sunshine definitely makes me tired.

Palisades, Day the Third

Okay, so I woke up woozy, and stiff. REALLY stiff. It wasn’t until this past Tuesday when I went to the doctor that I found out that I had damaged the tissue that connects the rest of the body to one’s sternum. OW, Ow, ow!!! Nick took down the camp and we left right away. A few Advil later and I was feeling well enough to help unload the jeep, and that was the end of my physical activity. I’m hoping I’ll feel well enough this weekend to bend over. I wonder if this is penance for teasing the man who was frustrated by batteries….

After later
Jenny