Angie and Matt’s Big Adventure – Days 3 and 4

So yesterday we decided to stop at Crystal Cranes Hots Springs about 24 miles outside of Burns, OR.  The ride down was supposed to be short, but Matt and I have discovered that the Garmin GPS can’t be trusted.  We have it set to avoid expressways and unpaved roads.  So it routed us onto a forest service road that it said was paved.  Matt and were both a little dubious at the existence of a paved forest service road, but we figured we decide when we came to it.  It wasn’t paved.  But I, being the dutiful wife decide, because it was well graded gravel, to give it a go anyway.  That and Matt does this puppy thing with his eyes.  So off we go.

Stopping and wondering what Matt is doing. Ohh a picture, k, I’ll keep moving.
And I’m moving. See, the road is nicely graded…

And then Garmin wants us to turn.  The road becomes a little sketchier, the ruts deeper, puddles start to appear, and still I soldier on, until this happens about 2 miles in.

End of the road.

That yellow sign is a no trespassing sign.  I tend to take the traditional interpretation of that whole ‘no trespassing’ as meaning, thou shalt not pass.  Matt was a little more optimistic, but I had to pull rank, I mean really, my scooter is many things, but a 50cc dirt bike it is not.  I had visions of yet another tragic Fox 12 news bulletin about another couple lost in the wilderness of Oregon.  Would they find us in before our food ran out!  Would we, with no rational explanation, leave our bikes to forage for food and become even more lost, eventually building our own cabin out in the wilderness and regressing to a pioneer lifestyle?  Or, more likely, would my irritation at having to drag my scooter out of  mud puddles 15 to 20 times overwhelm my sanity, causing me to climb a tree and regress to ape like behavior, never to be seen again…  No thank you, I had Hot Springs to get to.  So we back tracked and headed towards Burns and Crystal Cranes Hot Springs.

I can’t recommend this place strongly enough, it is a truly well run establishment.  The springs are privately owned, the facilities can accommodate several types of travelers, for RVers they have full hookups and level pads, for people who want a bed for the night they have rustic cabins and common bath facilites, they also have sites for tent campers and they have three teepees.  The bathroom facilities were scrupulously clean.  The hot springs itself is a large pond and they have 5 private soaking tubs.  It was such a relief to be in a nice place after staying in that crap hole in John Day, OR.

Outside our Cabin
The cabins aren’t big, double bed only, but they are very clean and homey.
The hot spring fed pond for swimming.
Matt and I in the pond. I’m on the right.

While relaxing in the Hot Springs, Matt and I decided we would skip going all the way down to Yosemite when a fellow traveler told us that the passes might still be closed.  We were starting to consider skipping it anyway, so that just made the decision for us.  Instead we are going to focus on Lassen National Volcanic Monument.  With that in mind we decided to head to Lakeview, OR, a town we had ridden through on a previous trip and thought was cute.  When we awoke on Tuesday morning, all comfortable and rested from the Hot Springs I found this little guy outside the cabin.

Wook at the wittle bunny a shoo shoo shoo!

One of the highlights of the ride to Lakeview was emerging into the Lake Abert valley.  You come around a curve and you are confronted with a valley that seems to be filled with iridescent light.  I haven’t actually looked up the details, but it must be a relatively shallow lake.  It was gorgeous and pictures don’t quite do it justice.

Since the Lassen National Volcanic Monument is on our agenda, we are heading for Susanville, CA on Wednesday the 15th.


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