Rainy Rainey

Short Version:
Went to Wal-Mart, saw fat people, went for a ride in the snow.

Long Version:
After the epic ride at Surveyor's Ridge ("You wanted an epic ride - you got one!") it was no real surprise that we slept late next morning. One neighbor - who had come in while we were out riding - was leaving as we crawled from the tent, and the other lot were packing to go. We had a leisurely breakfast then headed back into Hood River, to the Wal-Mart* for more tarpaulins** and chewing gum. And Giant Flamin' Hot Cheetos**. Then we hooked southwest into the hills and up to the Kingsley Reservoir camping area...

...which was absolutely overrun with ATVs, offroad motorcycles, enormous pickup trucks, and giant caravans. Oh, and the people who owned and operated them.

Looked a lot like what must have been a long-weekend ATV gathering was in the process of winding up, so we set off into the wilderness for a ride while they - hopefully - vamoosed from the area. We'd deliberately picked a mellow ride to acommodate tired legs, and most of it, when measured by distance, was exactly that. Measuring by time spent, and by psychological trauma, the last half-mile evil climb up to and past the snow line was pretty dominant.

After riding, and failing to ride, a number of increasingly-deep snow drifts, we hid the bikes*** in the trees and hiked a quarter mile to Rainey Lake, which was stunning, and stunningly cold. Nestled in a mist-wreathed mountainous half-bowl, it looked like the lake had been totally frozen over until very recently, and the outer third of the surface was still iced. We found what we believe to be a cougar paw-print (big, deep, no claw-marks so not a dog) and ate a quick lunch whilst huddled together for warmth against the ravages of the icy winds streaming down from the heights. Then we turned tail and retraced our steps to the bikes, then blasted down the steep section and through the chilly stream at the bottom. Meandered along the hill face and back to the reservoir to find that our surmise had been correct, and that most of the ATV crowd had departed****.

We set up camp, with new tarps providing plenty of cover from the rain, and settled in for the night, which was COLD. We still haven't had a campfire, unlike pretty much every other group of campers we've encountered - too well brainwashed by NZ's Department of Conservation, I guess.







* = Haven't yet plucked up the courage to head in to any of their competitor's stores - I'm a bit wary of what I might find at Bi-Mart

** = Gobstopper-sized cheese-flavored corn snacks coated with artificially-red hotpowder. We ate the whole bag.

*** = Really, really well. Plenty of snow meant plenty of footprints and tyre-tracks leading straight to where we'd stashed them, and as the only silver metal manufactured things in a landscape comprising snow and trees they kind of stood out. Luckily, we were the only people hardy and/or foolhardy enough to be up there, so it didn't cost us our trusty steeds

**** = The last few stragglers were still noodling about - essentially a couple of grotesquely obese women riding quadbikes up and down the gravel road through the camping area while everyone else packed up or stood around talking shit and drinking beer