An early morning start had us heading towards Paisley and the Chewaucan River.
It’s the third time we’ve attempted this loop route (previously stymied by snowy roads and a knee injury).
Paisley is on the southeastern end of Summer Lake, but first we headed to Lake Abert just a few miles further.
Both of these alkali bodies offer a stop over for migrating birds. The largest concentrations occur in July and August, so it seemed like a good time to swing by.
In addition to a huge variety of gulls, we spotted Black-necked stilts, Phalaropes, as well as Avocets, both feeding and nesting.
US 395 runs the along the eastern edge and there are frequent turn outs to give you a great view of the mudflats.
While we have been here before, the lake’s water level has never been this high, and by assumption that made for higher numbers of birds.
A plume of smoke moved through the valley, but we managed to avoid the worst of it, grabbing some images before heading back to Paisley.
What little water makes it past the alfalfa irrigation and into Lake Abert Lake is from the Chewaucan River.
Paisley, home of the Mosquito Festival, sits on the river’s edge.
We turned onto a forest service road that follows the river up the southern end of Winter Ridge . . . a point from which John Freemont “discovered” the Summer Lake Valley.
Ironically, the west side of this forested mountain range was consumed in a massive wildfire (Bootleg Fire, 365k acres) in the summer of 2021.
The understory shows signs of recovery, but blackened tree skeletons stand in memorial to the devastation.
Interesting point about wildland fire is how the fingers of a blaze reach into portions of a forest and miss adjacent areas.
The lower reaches of the Chewaucan were on the edge and our route wound in and out of the burned areas. At some high points you get a feel for the expanse of it.
We pulled into a quiet camp site for a lunch break, then continued to head up Winter Ridge. We skirted the edge of Gearhart Mt. Wilderness, and forged on to Bly and the Sprague River Valley.
On the way we discovered an unusual memorial from WWII, the Mitchell Monument Historical site. Apparently, the Japanese attempted to use High-altitude balloons to start fires in an effort to kill US citizens.
The Mitchell family and a group of Sunday school children were the sole casualties from an estimated 9000 balloons launched.
The USFS route out of the hills was a pothole riddled mess, but once we hit Bly, the roads improved and we had a very enjoyable journey along the slow moving Sprague River.
We then joined up with Highway 97 and cruised back up towards Bend.
At Mitchell we connected with Highway 26, and then took a short detour to visit the Painted Hills Unit.
Davis, Wickiup, and Crane Prairie are full from runoff, which is better than it’s been the last few years.
Typically one of the stops is just below Lava Lake, at the head waters of the Deschutes River. However, the stop was brief as the mosquitoes were thick and hungry.
