Since Verizon bought out Unicell the family (Cindy, Natalie, Ryann and myself) decided to go camping at our old deer and elk hunting area off the Middle Fork of the John Day to see if we still had cell phone coverage …well that was the original intent ……
The first sign of trouble occurred when I was filling the old camp trailer with water and found out that I did not get all the water out of the system before it froze during this last winter …that’s right BROKEN WATER PIPES ……luckily I only had to fix a 3 foot section of the water pipe in the bathroom.
Truck and trailer ready for the road trip
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The ride over was uneventful will hardly any wildlife along the river.
The second sign of trouble happened when we pulled up to where the family normally camps (the upper camp site) and half the site was under water so I found a new location on the upper end of the camp site where it appeared dry and solid ground (remember APPEARS).
Camp site under water
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Since we got there in the afternoon on Saturday and the weather was in the upper 70F, we decided to go check the several locations that we use to get cell phone signals, well halfway to the first location on the main road between the upper camp site and the Deadwood camp site the road was still blocked with 8”-10” of snow pack from the winter. Since we were the only ones in the area I decided to walk the 1/8 mile to check cell coverage ….and we had 1 good bar.
Main road between camps (8"-10" of snow)
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Next we tried to go out to the point to see if we got coverage and again the road was blocked by 8”-10” of snow, so I decided to go back in the morning and walk the ½ mile to where we setup to scope and to call out.
Back in camp the family got some time around the camp fire and then we went to bed early. The next morning I got up and set out to hike the ½ mile to the point and was treated as I parked the vehicle to see several elk about 200 yards away (love watching elk in the wild).
Family time around the camp fire
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After the hike to the point I found that I was able to get 2 bars (Yes) ……several pictures later I walked back to the truck and returned to camp to get things packed up to head home.
After packing up the back of the truck I looked to see about hooking up the trailer, remember the statement above about APPREARS dry and solid, WELL after the extremely warm weather of up 70’s the day before and now low 80’s the snow behind the trailer had melted and deposited a nice pool of water at the front of the trailer.
Yepper you are going to guess it …. Long story short, I got the truck stuck (right in front of the trailer) trying to pull out the trailer …..As I was in the middle of digging out the truck, two trucks came down the road and I flagged them over to help pull the truck out. As luck would have it they were DUCK fans (to go on record ...........the BEAVERS ROCK).
We were able to get the truck out but had to leave the trailer, and were able to make it back to Bend to restock the truck with supplies to rescue the trailer.
Leaving the camp trailer
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With my dad, his truck, and me and my truck we headed back the next day (Monday) and were able to pull the trailer backwards 30’ to a solid spot to get the trailer out.
Pulling the trailer backwards
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What was supposed to be a leisurely camping trip of round trip driving of 400 miles and one night of camping turned into an 800 mile road trip over three days.
The priceless part of the full experience was my middle daughter (Natalie) using her toy cell phone to call Uncle Dave (a college friend of mine) to come get the trailer out for daddy.
