capture the flag!

Hello everyone!

I had a really fun weekend! I left Portland Friday afternoon with Elaine & Gina & Daisy to drive the 250 or so miles to Fort Rock in Central Oregon. Fort Rock is an ancient volcano that became an island when the area was surrounded by a huge lake over 10,000 years ago. At one point one of the cliff walls was breached by the water. People lived here a long, long, long time ago. In the 30's a cache of over 9000 woven sandals were found. The area is now a desert in a very sparsely populated part of the state. Basically we were heading to the middle of nowhere. Why? Fort Rock is the gathering place for an annual Capture the Flag game held every October for the last 27 years! This was another event Dave told us about and yet again I was not disappointed.

We drove over the Santiam Pass and marveled at the fall colors at the higher elevation. We stopped in the town of Sisters to get some supplies. We drove through Bend and saw Mt Bachelor & the Three Sisters looming in the distance. We arrived at Fort Rock right before the sunset. Wampler had already arrived with a few other people in the RV we had rented for the weekend. We had been told horror stories of extremely cold weather, sometimes even snow. It is the high desert in October so you never know what you'll get. We were even happier to have an RV after a park ranger told us we weren't allowed to have a campfire. Most of the people there stayed in tents but we all appreciated the RV as a warm place to retreat to and as a windbreak for the area where we all hung out.

Wampler made dinner for us that night and we played cards in the RV. More and more people arrived throughout the night. We had a campfire made out of a glowstick which we periodically used to play games of monkey in the middle or just tossing it around. The moon was almost full so it was very easy to see outside. I saw a few big shooting stars and Mars was bright in the sky. People played music around the glowstick and cursed the lack of a campfire. A group of us hiked up into the crater and walked around and hung out in the moonlight. The view was incredible especially by moonlight. It was nice to go to bed in the RV as it was pretty windy outside.

I woke up in the morning to Elaine starting water for coffee on the stove. We had cheese and apple slices for breakfast. Gina and I walked up into crater again. We walked around and took tons of pictures. It's so beautiful and isolated there. Some of our more adventurous friends climbed the rock wall to the top. We walked back down to our camp and grabbed some food before heading back up for the game. There were a total of 31 people and 2 dogs there for the game. We divided into two teams, talked some strategy, placed our flags and the game began. I hadn't played Capture the Flag in years but I used to play a lot when I was little. The first game we ended up guarding Jason for a long time. He had made it into the flag circle but a lot of his teammates were in jail and there was no one around to help him make it back over to his side. We switched sides each game with one side having a much steeper hill up to the rock walls. There were jackrabbits running through the sage and dramatic clouds in the sky. It was a pretty spectacular setting for Capture the Flag. We took breaks between game and out of the three games Team Yellow won. Most everyone fell at least once but Dave twisted his ankle pretty badly and was out of commission for the rest of the weekend.

We headed back to camp to hang out and have some snacks. A Minnesota boy pulled out a venison sausage with a big block of cheese and horseradish. Someone came upon a giant Jerusalem cricket in the rocks...one of the weirdest bugs I've ever seen! The exciting news of the afternoon was that another ranger had come by and gave us permission to have a fire. We set up the fire ring and a big fire was started for us all to huddle around. The sunset was really beautiful as was the moonrise on the other side of the horizon. The sky is so big out there! The guys played music with Wampler on accordion and Dave, Jimmy & Benno each playing guitar. Elaine and I made burritos for dinner. We marveled at having a microwave and running water! It was great to spend the night sitting around the campfire singing and talking.

Sunday morning I heard Dave get up early to let Daisy out for the bathroom. When he came back in I looked outside and saw the sunrise was blazing across the sky. I tiptoed across the pointy rocks in my socks and shivered in the cold desert morning air but it was worth it to see that sunrise!

I went back to sleep for several hours and woke up to Gina starting coffee. We cleaned the RV and packed up our stuff. We hung out for a while around the morning campfire and drank our coffee before hitting the road to go home. It was a beautiful drive over the pass again. We stopped at Niagara Park where the North Santiam River goes over some falls and there's an old damn structure from the early 1900's. It was such a contrast from the desert and red rock of Fort Rock to the mossy green green green of Western Oregon. We got home in the late afternoon. Showering felt luxurious and it was great to take off the long underwear. I had dinner with Elaine and Gina: a huge salad and steak. Yummm! We were tired but happy after our crazy weekend at Fort Rock. I can't wait to go again next year!

Please let me know how your weekend was and what you've been up to!

xoxo,
carolyn