Following Edge

Our original plan had called for reaching Bend on our first night out of Boise, but the extended effort shopping to equip the camper and the brief (90 minute) visit with Anne Marie's relatives got us started late out of Boise. However, Anne Marie had remembered that there were hot springs near Burns (about half way to Bend) and we managed to cross the huge mountains to get there and found the Crane Hot Springs just before bedtime. This was our first night staying in the camper, and it went really well.
The next morning, Lauren and I enjoyed the 104 degree pond and had several pictures taken of us by a news photographer doing a story on the hot springs. When we later rented a private hot springs tub for all 3 of us to enjoy, the photographer knocked to ask if he could take a picture of us in the tub. Uh... I don't know what he was going for, but I had to tell him, "I don't think so". We had gotten the private tub for a bit of privacy after all!

Next, we decided to see if we could see some Kiger Mustangs in the BLM land set aside for them. Anne Marie was very curious about the horses and the BLM described a viewpoint that may be less than an hour from the hot springs. After a short drive on the highway, then a 25 mile ride on a gravel road, we found the 11 mile dirt road to the viewpoint. The first 2 miles were a rutted dirt road, then we got to the muddy, mutted dirt road, then our left, rear tire got stuck in the mud. We were lucky to be able to get back from that point. I can only imagine being stuck in the middle of BLM land, on a road that no one passes and with no cell phone service. Hopefully, anyone else hoping to see the mustangs at this viewpoint will read this and decide against it. The vista above is a shot of the land where we were traveling when we almost got ourselves stuck.
After that experience, and on the way back to the highway to Bend, we did get to see some animals. In fact, as Lauren was ironically listening to Sandra Boynton's song "Cows" on her CD player, she looked up and said, "Speaking of cows, there are some"...

Indeed. It was at least 100 cows led by two cowboys down the highway. Evidently, in Eastern Oregon, this is how they get the cows from one pasture to another. The cows were moving quite slowly, and the cowboy motioned us to move right on through, nearly pushing cows out of our way. For a few minutes, our camper was surrounded on every side by cows and by cursing cowboys. The cowboys were so adept at letting loose a string of obscenities at the cows that I have now switched from the expression "curse like a sailor" to "curse like a cowboy". It appeared they had come quite a ways, since there were cow droppings in the road for the next 15 or 20 miles.

We did actually make it into Bend in the evening and enjoyed a nice meal at Pine Tavern, which is awfully fancy, but we figured we deserved it after missing the Kiger Mustangs and instead seeing hundreds of cows and their droppings.