The Great Western Loop: A Hammer, A Chisel, And A Wet Desert

The next morning was cold and wet. Finding a new spare tire was at the top of the list so we eat a cold breakfast while backtracking the muddy roads to the nearest town, Jorden Valley.

There is not much in Jorden Valley, but they do have a Sinclair service station… and by service station I mean that in the old sense of the term. They had a two bay shop and lots of tools on hand. Much to our delight, they also had a 285/70R17 (33″) off-road tire in stock. It was not the same brand as my other tires, but it was the only tire I could find in a two hour radius that would fit my needs.

While the service station was well provisioned, the guys working there did not seem to know how to do anything besides a simple tire swap. That was going to be an issue for us, since we had that busted lug lock to deal with. After about 2 minutes of them staring at it, they conceded to just let my dad and I have run of their shop to get it off. A slightly oversized 12pt socket and 3lb hammer got the keyed lock off, but it took a hammer and chisel to get the inner race off.

With the hard work done, they proceeded to get the new tire mounted and balanced and we were back on the road in only a couple of hours.

Keeping with the wet theme of the trip, the rain followed us across south east Oregon. As we approched the Alvord Desert, we could see standing water on it.

Since we had never been here before, I stopped and talked to someone that knew a little more about the area. We took their advice and stay close to the edge so if it started to rain hard again, we would be less likely to get stuck.

While dad and I were setting up camp, Kiefer went exploring. About the only thing to find on such flat terrain, was the cracked ground under your feet.

This lead to Kiefer and I building some dams to see how it might effect the water still on the surface.

As the afternoon turned into evening the desert started to dry out and some other vehicles decided to do some racing out in the middle of it.

Dinner that night was Kiefer’s choice, so pancakes it was!

An after dinner hike took us out towards the middle of the desert. You can just barly make out the truck to the left of these track and right on the vegetation line.

The Alvord Desert is a very interesting place and one I’ll have to return to in drier conditions as it has some great photo opportunities.