Travel with Us!

"On the Road to Chiloquin"
 and daily Photos by Jane Pappler

 

Sunday:  When the day comes to leave on the Big Vacation there is always tons of last minute details to attend to.  Making a list and kennel map for those taking care of all the dogs left behind, last minute check list for the airlines, rabies certificates, etc. For a 7am departure from Newark airport, I was up at 2am and pulled out the driveway at 3:15am. Managed to take each crate and dog in with no hassles from anyone while I stayed parked out front of the ticket counters! My 6 hour flight on Alaska Air couldn't have been nicer. (managed a 3 hour nap too). I had a connecting flight in Seattle then on to Portland on a smaller propeller plane.  I forgot how those vibrate! One dog howled on the way up till we leveled off in altitude. No issues with the Alamo rental SUV except it was a smaller one than I had paid for but both my 2 dogs and crates fit in. Now the 5 hour drive south through beautiful Oregon to the trial site.

 It was light rain but I didn't mind a bit. Two hours south on I-5 I made a left and took Rt 58 through the National Forests for another 1 1/2 hours. Huge lakes and TALL pine trees lined the smaller twisty road over the Cascade Mountain range. Beautiful. I came through the little town of Oakridge, country and quaint. One the left I notice billowing smoke--Ribs being cooked in a giant outside smoker and what a  delicious smell in the air! The sign said the "smokiest ribs ever" so I stopped and got some for the road. What a nice young man that is the owner/cook/rib smoker. The restaurant had all of 3 booths, home made scones, muffins and ribs with all the fixings. Yummie they were. I saw a beautiful covered bridge, and started seeing signs designating the small creeks or sloughs that ran through the pasture fields. And then, there is was, the first "hill" right out jutting up in the middle of the flat lands.  Shortly, others followed as I drove closer to the mountains.  Little farms, horses and sheep -all were nestled among very tall pines against the bottom of the foothills.

        

I continued on to Rt 97 south and after another hour was at the local little motel of Chiloquin, Melita's Motel and Restaurant. It's the only place close by to eat (except for the Casino and Gas stop 4 miles down the road) and proved to be very popular. Ron and Ginny Reed made their way to Oregon with their new motor home called the  "Proud Mary".  (Big wheels keep on turning as the song goes). They took the long route though, heading from Pennsylvania south first to visit family in Florida, then headed West!  They stayed in Colorado, visited Utah and made Oregon in good time, traveling with 2 dogs. Marston Jones flew out from Maryland with 3 dogs and ran the prior trial before the specialty this week. Julie Cole, CA and Linda Harger, ID, ran the trial this past weekend too and then came on over the mountain to camp at the Knapp's ranch. Successful they were. Linda won the Qualifying with Comet, Julie a 4th with Ruddy Duck and Jane Patopea a Rsv Jam with Ivy. (all 3 are litter mates). What a way to start the competition week

Shane and Woody Woodsen drove with the dog trailer 1800 miles from Oklahoma. Chris Payne took the quicker route by plane with his lap top for company and met up with his Oklahoma team in Oregon. They did have a very scary drive in Nevada. All of a sudden there was this tiny road, twisting and turns with no guard rails going down 6200 Feet. Once at the bottom Shane decided he could not drive any further without a break. Gary Kavan from Nebraska endured the same route and all have said no way will they travel back that way to go home. Diane Mazey arrived Monday evening from Idaho as well as Anita Schaefer from northern Oregon. Long time ACC members and trialers Janis and Jim Nichols from CA came without a dog to visit everyone.

Stephanie Beach of Palo Alto, California, sent this note to me the other day----
    Well the travel to Oregon is a little more complicated than it was yesterday. This evening, on my way to Half Moon Bay, I was rear- ended.  This is Mr. Ford's first collision, but who knows what the  insurance  company will say.   There is "minor" damage as near as we  mere mortals can tell (a tail light & a little bit of scrunch on the  bumper & side panel), and humans are ok, but Mr. Ford is a '97 & past  his "insurance" prime.  This accident led to a frantic search for the ever present car  registration & insurance papers, and naturally the  registration expired 9/8/10 & for some reason I didn't have the insurance paper in the glove box.  Dave brought the insurance paper to  me, & found that we had in fact renewed the registration in August but somehow didn't have the paper.  Arriving home I tore the house apart and FOUND car registration, Jane Pappler's entries & check that I thought I never received (Yikes), and a whole bunch of other bills - mercifully not yet due.  Big sigh of relief!  Soooo, tomorrow (Friday) I'll deal with insurance, try to get a tail light Dave can install for the journey north, and see where we  are.  Will keep you posted.  Regardless of Mr. Ford, I WILL be in Oregon on Sunday.

After unpacking at the motel Sunday evening, I ran into Chris Payne, Woody and Shane Woodsen from Oklahoma at the Melita Restaurant Bar. Two local cowboys were sitting next to us with big hats and one a nice handlebar mustache! They "run cows" on a big ranch south of here and were now hauling them north to Pasco, Washington. They talked about their border collies they use for the cows and a healer dog also. Interesting guys. Off to bed about midnight and slept late till 8 am, a much needed rest. 

Monday:   Dogs barked, car doors shut and I could hear motors warming up in the cool morning. (Sunday Ron and Ginny Reed were visiting Crater Lake and there was new snow on the ground). Groups were off to a few ranches in the area for last minute training today. The training areas were beautiful. Cattle pastures were complete with cows, cow piles and irrigation water splashing as the dogs ran through the grasslands after their bumpers. It was a gorgeous day, perfect weather and the dogs did well stretching out after their long rides to get to Oregon. At 5 pm there was a bit gathering at the Chiloquin Community Center. Raffle tickets were sold for the big aray of donated items and the silent auction items were open for bidding. Jon Knapp opened with a warm welcome and introduction of judges. He thanked his wife Carol for without her there was no trial! Mike Pickett led a brief ACC meeting. Around the room we went with each person standing and giving their name and where they were from. (including Germany's Moira and Matthias Frank) One of the evenings highlights was the presentation of the AKC Good Sportsmanship award being presented to Julie Cole of California!!!! Very well deserved indeed. Oh the dinner that was served - a huge slab of prim rib or red salmon with all the fixings from the folks at Yummy's Cowboy Cuisine. It was so tasty and no one left hungry and many had doggie bags.

   

Tuesday:   6 am and the rooster on Anita's alarm clock was a crowing - crispy, crispy, crispy is the weather this morning, frost on the grass and not a dog making a noise until they have to get out of their warm beds. Where are my gloves and knit hat??  8am is kickoff time.  Both the Open and Qualifying are in pasture fields right near the Knapp's main ranch so easy to get back and forth to for those running dogs in both stakes.

The Open started about 8:45am after the sun burned off a little of the mist/steam from the wet frosty fields. A big triple with two retired guns was a nice start for the talented Open dogs. 14 of the 19 starters were brought back to the land blind. The line was over a little mound, across the ditch and out a line very close past the flyer boxes and keep on trucking. My young girl Wren thought the boxes with live birds very exciting and made a few circles around them.  Needless to say Wren wasn't called to the next series. 11 Dogs made it to the water blind with only 7 being successful enough for Wednesdays water marks.

Qualifying started with a not too long of a double with a retired gun and a land blind off to the right. The retired gun proved to be one of the hardest of the day for the young dogs cutting the 25 starters to 16 dogs. The judges seemed pretty lenient with their call backs.  One contestant filed a protest with the trial committee regarding the position and throwing of the retired mark. Next came the water blind being completed with lots of whistles for most dogs. 12 dogs back to the water triple. This was a triple run off a mound out threw the pasture with 2 birds being thrown into little ponds and the center gun retiring. Only 4 of the 12 dogs did the test without handling. 11 dogs were given placements and completions. The evening wine and dinner was in Ft Klamath at the small community center. If you blink, you miss the whole town of Ft Klamath! Great eats again, Qualifying ribbons and beautiful glass trophies were presented and everyone headed back to their motels, quite tired from the long day outdoors.

 
This photo is of a local motel in Ft Klamath. Notice the "parking garage" next to the motel room.
 There is one room and one garage for each motel room renter! We save several motels like this in the area

Wednesday: The photo stop this morning was at 7 am for photos of the 1863  Ft Klamath Frontier Military Outpost. What a neat little piece of history. The US Calvary would bring their horses to pasture here in the summer.
           

The Open triple was with 2 retired guns and proved to be "meaty" for the 7 dogs doing these marks. Only one dog, Dee, did the test without handling. Two dogs broke on the flyer and 4 others handled on one of the marks. So 5 completed successfully.  The Derby started right after the Open with all 12 young dogs doing the first test. Diane Mazy kept things running smoothly as the Derby Marshall. Meantime, the Amateur had started with a triple but after just a few dogs, the judges scrapped the test. They moved to a different area and setup a double with a retired gun and a blind. After running the test dog, the judges scrapped the blind and competition began with just the double. 28 starters provided just 18 back for the double land blind. 13 dogs advanced for the water blind Thursday morning.  During the day the puppy stakes got started but unfortunately I didn't get to see any of them or take any photos. I did get photos of most of the qualifying, derby and amateur dogs so will post those when I have a chance. at 6pm we were all back at the Ft Klamath community center for another fabulous dinner with wine and desserts. With a lot of excitement, the winners of the Open and Derby were announced with much applause. Julie Cole sold the last of the raffle tickets and then drew numbers for the prizes. Next the silent auction concluded with many happy purchasers.  Both made a nice income towards the expenses for the trial. Thanks so much to the generous donators. A beautiful full moon was shining as I drove back to the motel with my 3rd place ribbon in the Open.  What an awesome evening I had!

    

Thursday: Last day of the competition means motel checkout for most of us. I stopped in the Melita restaurant for a free tea (free tea/coffee if you rent there) and I came across Mike Pickett and his wife enjoying breakfast. Chris Payne was at the counter with this GIANT yummie breakfast burrito. The puppy stakes participants were doing their water work this morning while the Amateur water blind got started. What a treat for the Amateur contestants this morning where after opening and closing 3 gates we found ourselves driving among the cattle on a beautiful ranch owned by friends of the Knapps'. Local plants/flowers were showing their purple colors around us while wide-eye steers watched through barbed-wire fences wondering what was going on. The water marks were hosted in ponds just below the ranch house sporting a most relaxing awesome view. Can it be any prettier in Oregon than this....

Thursday Evening:    more to be added

                 

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