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Well, I had a nice day with MikeJ and his wife today, who are both fantastic people! Heck they were like old friends!

While on a short trip they earmarked a day and night in Lapine for a meetup so we went shooting at the 'Deerleg Tree' spot and I shot two guns of theirs I have never shot before - An M1 Garand and an M1 .30 Carbine! After that we wrapped it up with a couple beers at the local 'Roadhouse' - VIc's Tavern in LaPine.

Anyway a great day with a couple great people!

IMG_2898[1].JPG
 
And ! finally learned what 'Garand thumb' is!

And fortunately not by personal experience but by a demonstration.

Also I was impressed with the accuracy of Mikej's Garand !

Here was my first eight rounds out of the Garand at 50 yards rested.
I had a couple on the outer edges but then tightened it up and put five inside 1.5"
Not too bad for never having shot one before!

img20220518_13131190.jpg
 
Last Edited:
Now that was a good time. Man it was sure a nice day. Not to cold, windy, warm. Good company. All around good day. We might have to do that again sometime.

This little outing started back on April 12th when we decided to take a 4-day road trip starting by driving to LaGrande where we hooked up for a beer and snacks with member @bbbass and his lovely wife. All was good and the plan was heading to Mitchell OR over on Hwy 26 the next morning. A heavy snow came that night and all roads out of LaGrand were close and there was no easy way to get to Mitchell. We just went home once the Blues opened.

This time it was straight to Mitchell, turning South/East just short of Biggs (Fulton Canyon). Coming from Utah I miss the open desert sometimes. And wish I was closer sometimes too. The Painted Hills was a visual RUSH! Gosh I miss the open, less populated country. I've never been through that area. Bend/LaPine, East Lake. But never through Central East/West. It was sensory overload being up where you can see so far. And NO traffic! And when it was time to come down, it was way down. The John Day at Cottonwood Canyon was something else. Suffice it to say I didn't realize that Oregon had so much contour. I always thought it was mostly flat once you got well East of Bend, Redmond, LaPine. Going through the small towns of Condon, where I had the pleasure of speaking with a retired gentleman that was sweeping their little park. With a push broom. And Fossil, where we drove through the towns streets and looked at the history of the past. And a place where you can STILL put $5.00 in a box and dig for fossils behind the high school sports field.

The open spaces between Mitchell and Prineville, through the Ochoco national forest, is stunning! And with very little traffic the enjoyment is doubled. You can see in places where the forest is healing from the fires in 2020. The forest floor at altitude is just sprouting green, because, I believe, the snow hasn't been gone long. Some places the fire was hot enough to sterilize the soil though and there is very littl/nothing going green.

Redmond and Bend. Eh, back to the big cities. Traffic, traffic, etc. Ugh. A shout out for the Best Western in La Pine! Less that $90.00, including tax, for one of the best rooms and facilities I've ever had the pleasure of enjoying.

After getting through that city mess, we headed over to check out Crane Prairie Res. Last time we were there was 30 +/- years ago with my 13' smoker Craft. The place looked the same. :s0155: Talked fishing with the owner of the resort for a bit. And drove the loops through the (mostly empty) campground. Great campground!

From there we headed back toward LaPine and met up with RVTech just off the highway and followed him to his little shooting spot. A great time was had.

Next morning we headed home, over Hwy 20/Santiam Pass. I've never been over that way either. The rain was coming down hard all the way back to the valley. Seeing where the fires burned is pretty sobering. We cut off and went up to Detroit and down that way to Stayton.

Damn there some beautiful country over there. Even around LaPine is pretty darn great.

Thanks fer yer hospitality Ed! I see us doing this again. I think I'm finally figuring out that, being as I don't work any more, I can take off any time I want! HAAA!
 
Now that was a good time. Man it was sure a nice day. Not to cold, windy, warm. Good company. All around good day. We might have to do that again sometime.

This little outing started back on April 12th when we decided to take a 4-day road trip starting by driving to LaGrande where we hooked up for a beer and snacks with member @bbbass and his lovely wife. All was good and the plan was heading to Mitchell OR over on Hwy 26 the next morning. A heavy snow came that night and all roads out of LaGrand were close and there was no easy way to get to Mitchell. We just went home once the Blues opened.

This time it was straight to Mitchell, turning South/East just short of Biggs (Fulton Canyon). Coming from Utah I miss the open desert sometimes. And wish I was closer sometimes too. The Painted Hills was a visual RUSH! Gosh I miss the open, less populated country. I've never been through that area. Bend/LaPine, East Lake. But never through Central East/West. It was sensory overload being up where you can see so far. And NO traffic! And when it was time to come down, it was way down. The John Day at Cottonwood Canyon was something else. Suffice it to say I didn't realize that Oregon had so much contour. I always thought it was mostly flat once you got well East of Bend, Redmond, LaPine. Going through the small towns of Condon, where I had the pleasure of speaking with a retired gentleman that was sweeping their little park. With a push broom. And Fossil, where we drove through the towns streets and looked at the history of the past. And a place where you can STILL put $5.00 in a box and dig for fossils behind the high school sports field.

The open spaces between Mitchell and Prineville, through the Ochoco national forest, is stunning! And with very little traffic the enjoyment is doubled. You can see in places where the forest is healing from the fires in 2020. The forest floor at altitude is just sprouting green, because, I believe, the snow hasn't been gone long. Some places the fire was hot enough to sterilize the soil though and there is very littl/nothing going green.

Redmond and Bend. Eh, back to the big cities. Traffic, traffic, etc. Ugh. A shout out for the Best Western in La Pine! Less that $90.00, including tax, for one of the best rooms and facilities I've ever had the pleasure of enjoying.

After getting through that city mess, we headed over to check out Crane Prairie Res. Last time we were there was 30 +/- years ago with my 13' smoker Craft. The place looked the same. :s0155: Talked fishing with the owner of the resort for a bit. And drove the loops through the (mostly empty) campground. Great campground!

From there we headed back toward LaPine and met up with RVTech just off the highway and followed him to his little shooting spot. A great time was had.

Next morning we headed home, over Hwy 20/Santiam Pass. I've never been over that way either. The rain was coming down hard all the way back to the valley. Seeing where the fires burned is pretty sobering. We cut off and went up to Detroit and down that way to Stayton.

Damn there some beautiful country over there. Even around LaPine is pretty darn great.

Thanks fer yer hospitality Ed! I see us doing this again. I think I'm finally figuring out that, being as I don't work any more, I can take off any time I want! HAAA!
Good report on your road trip!

Thank you.

Cate
 

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