Great Basin Trip 2011 by Anne Rempel and Jonathan Barrera: Day 5: Caravanning Across the Oregon Desert

7/21/11

After breaking down camp and having a quick breakfast, we were off to help Kaitlin and Tony look for Miocene fossils. En route, we stopped in Lakeview, Oregon to restock supplies and visit a deli/antique store. Interesting interactions with the owner aside, the antique shop was definitely worth seeing. We then continued on to what was arguably the most remote locality of the trip: Beaty's Butte. We drove for hours on single-track roads through Bureau of Land Management land, often stopping to try to find the road or remove brush that got caught under the cars. We decided to camp right on the road for the night (being in the way of potential cars didn't even cross our minds after seeing no signs of other people for miles). We were quite fortuitous in our camp selection; a couple remnant teepee rings showed that Native Americans had chosen that very spot for a camp. After setting up camp, we hiked to Rattlesnake Butte (a fitting name after running into a few rattlesnakes and scorpions) to prospect for fossils. Kaitlin and Tony were interested mainly in teeth because they are easily identifiable. Eyes to the ground, we all spread out over the area, looking up once in a while to remind ourselves of the vastness of the land. As the sun started to go down, we headed back to camp. Liz declared that it was undergraduate cooking night. We decided to make vegetable stir fry with rice (Tony was our resident rice maker). We ended up eating in the fading light. Just as we were finishing our dinner, an owl flew overhead. Instead of going on his/her way, the owl lingered around our camp for what must have been 5+ minutes, just circling overhead, checking out our camp. It was definitely a great way to end a successful day.