Camp on Wagontire Mountain

[BosnMate]

Our camp down on the Nevada border turned out a bust, so we back tracked to Adel and then turned north, drove up the Warner Valley to Plush, bought a pound of coffee and a loaf of bread for $10, continued north via dirt road to hiway 395, and headed for Wagontire. I'd done some research and found out that during the prohibition, a enterprising fellow had a still at this particular spring. I'd done a little detecting there before, and found a 1928 Lincoln, so what the heck, I'll look things over a bit once again. Well, the BLM has taken the cows off that range also, and the area where the still would have been is such tall and heavy grass I didn't even get the detector out of the truck. Great place to camp though, and some hard working fellow had built a place for a fire that was plenty safe, so at least we had running water and a fire.

We drove up to the trees and camped in the shade. There is a creek that comes down through that tall grass.



My friend Bob taking a break by the fire. We grilled steaks for dinner.

Someone had done a lot of work making this oven. Anyhow, it worked out great for our cook fire. The next morning after breakfast and goofing off we didn't get out of there until bout noon, and then it was pretty much time to head for home.

And this is the road out. Again, no cows, to elk, no antelope, no rabbits, and NO birds. Not a single magpie.

 

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[vpnavy]

Nice photographs! Thanks for sharing...

 

[old digger]

Nice Photo's! Too bad there didn't appear to be any wildlife in the area. I guess those BLM people there in Oregon don't want wildlife and ranching to coexist. So, I take it that neighboring ranches are not permitted to bid on any cattle ranging on the BLM property. I was under the assumption that it was to be made public as a profitable property by leasing out to the highest bidder per animal/unit? Wow! Sure am glad I do not live in Oregon.

 

[BosnMate]

Where I worked in Nevada it took 90 acres to winter a cow, and they had to walk 9 miles for a drink of water. You can't feed them hay, because that just gathers them on the feed ground, and they won't leave. In that type of deal a cow weans about a 300 pound calf, so that 90 acre cow unit can't rent for very much money, or it's just plain not profitable. There was a big push by some people to get the cows off the desert and apparently it worked. You hear about Bundy and the other bunch at the National Wild Life Refuge, but those are just the one's you hear about, there is individual battles going on all over the west, and it doesn't affect most people, so the country as a whole doesn't care what happens to those few ranchers that are left. I don't know what BLM did, raise the rent or just close the desert to cattle. What most people don't understand is that desert is thousands of square miles of land that grows nothing that humans can eat, but a cow turns that sage brush and bunch grass into food people can eat, or at least it used to.

 

[Old Dude]

Man, you sure paint that country as some lonely ground. No critters would be like hell on earth.

 

[BosnMate]

It sure as heck aint right. In the past that country was teaming with life, birds, coyotes, rabbits and big game along with cows. Hope the greenies like what they have done.