Castle Rock, OR

Some time ago I found Castle Rock on SummitPost and added this peak to my list, and today looked like the day.

I had been looking at the weather for Saturday, and eastern Oregon near Burns looked like the best bet. With all the rain recently (almost 2" in Boise this week) I was a little worried about the road, but it was supposed to have stopped raining over there Friday morning. No problem.

But as we got close to Juntura, the pavement was once again wet... so I drove the road until my wheel wells clogged so bad that the little Suby engine was having a problem turning the wheels. This pic shows the car after I dug out the tires. It also shows pretty much where we parked.

From here, we couldn't see the summit. Oh well... it was all new country so we just put on our packs and started walking toward the bump on the right side of the butte.

As we got higher, we could see Beulah Reservoir to the south. It was cool, perhaps mid-60s, but pretty muggy.

After a spell, Jasmine decided she had had enough. So she sat down to listen to her iPod while her parents soldiered on.

As we got close to the previously mentioned bump, there were dark clouds scudding in from the north. I knew that if it rained we would be sitting until things dried out, maybe all day. That sounded less than apetizing, so we quickly turned around and headed down. Just about then we heard the first rumbling of thunder. Hurry, Julie!

When we got back down to the road, it was a lot drier. But near the top of the hill, it was still sticky enough to attach itself to your shoes.

Well, it was fun to see some new country, but we will have to go back when we know for sure the road is 100% dry.

PS- The ruts you see here are not mine. As soon as I started leaving any real tracks, I stopped at the first chance to turn around.