Lake County, Oregon, Day 3 and 4: Poker Jim Ridge Overnight

After checking in at the Headquarters (a charming outpost on a high plain) I parked off the main road and walked off onto the sagebrush steppe to tour Poker Jim Ridge.  There aren't any trails in this area, so it's choose your own adventure.

I don't know enough about grasses to identify these.  But, in general, its extremely safe to say that any area over grazed by cattle before the turn of last century no longer has its native bunchgrasses.  These grasses were a high nutrient content and fire resistant ground covering for thousands of years before cattle came.  They were not evolved to deal with the pressure of cattle, though, and they were replaced by invasive cheatgrasses almost totally, by the 1930's.  There are several spots in the state that have managed to hold onto their cheatgrasses- Hell's Canyon and Zumwalt Prairie are well known examples.  Cheatgrasses are not as high nutrient content for animals, and they also create a "hot" wildfire, meaning that the plant is killed dead, and the soil is scorched, thus allowing it to blow away for good.  Partly for this reason, land managers have suppressed the natural fire cycle, and the prairies here have not experienced the regular thinning of fuels that characterized their pre-white history.  Once cheatgrasses infiltrate, they stay for good.  Efforts to transplant and encourage native bunchgrasses have failed.  That part of Oregon is lost forever.

I walked over to the rim, and looked down on the main road to headquarters.

I had hoped for another nice sunset, but it became clear that clouds had moved in for good.  Here's a view toward the long flat east slope of Hart Mountain, and Beatys Butte in the distance.

At this point the ground was covered with rocks the size of footballs, in random arrangements.  I was looking for a place to set up camp, and had brought a nice new sleeping pad with me.  But I'd still need a flat spot to set it, and I was starting to doubt that I'd find a place.  I knew I'd be heading for a rocky outcrop with a stand of juniper trees, and had planned on spending the night there, but, since the guidebook called it a rocky outcrop, I wasn't sure.  I kept walking on, though, feeling like something would surely work out.  Sure enough, the junipers saved the day!  They lay down a fine layer of needles under their branches.  The ground on the knoll was rocky, but underneath all of the juniper trees was a 4 inch deep layer of soft humus.  I found one tree that had just enough space for me to lie down on the soft ground in between large rocks.  What luck!  Here's a juniper, photographed the next morning.

In another unexpected bonus, the knoll was covered with boulders that provided perfectly sized supports for my camera.  When I backpack, I don't carry a full size tripod, just a 4 inch tall mini tripod.  This means I have to find sturdy branches, stumps, or rocks to hold the camera still when I shoot photos in low light.  Sometimes I can lay the mini tripod on the ground, but usually grass would obscure the photo. So I need height, too, and the boulders provided great viewpoints.  I'll have to camp here again.  It was one of the nicest places I've ever spent the night.

Here's a view of Petroglyph Lake from my campsite:

Here's a view of Poker Jim Ridge from my knoll:

As you can see, this campsite offers great views of surroundings.  It would be a spectacular place to be during sunset and sunrise.

After dinner, I debated setting up my tarp.  I was right under thick tree cover, and thought that if there was a small rain shower in the night, I wouldn't get too wet.  Rain started as I was debating, and I went ahead and set up the tarp.  It rained lightly till the next morning, and I slept in till 9 or so.  Nice change from getting up at 5.

From camp I walked down to Petroglyph Lake.

There are several-thousand-year-old petroglyphs on the rimrock on the west side of the lake.  No one really knows who put them there, because the Paiute Indians who lived here when whites arrived actually immigrated to the area only about 500 years ago, and this kind of petroglyph activity is not something that Paiutes did.  Then again, Alan St. John calls similar petroglyphs "Paiute rock art".  Sources do not agree.  Here's one that looks like a modern design for a mentoring program logo:

That's all for now.  Up next is Warner Peak!