For some geological reason that I’m not aware of, Oregon has dozens of large lakes at or near the summit of its backbone (the Cascades Range). The southernmost of these is Lake Of The Woods, on SR 140 between Klamath Falls and Medford. It is a gem of a lake with a view of a gem of a mountain, Mt. McLoughlin, which is Oregon’s southernmost volcano with a permanent snowcap.
Memorial Day Weekend was coming. Not a time to be on the road in an RV. I pulled in to one of the campgrounds at Lake of the Woods and paid for a week. Here’s a picture of camp.
There was no electricity there. Water was available at a spigot, which you haul to camp. There is a dump station down the road. It was almost boondocking1. I had new house batteries2 and I was well prepared for boondocking.
What a lovely camp. I was close to the lake.
It was here that Pookie fell in love with camping in the woods. She began exploring around camp, sniffing …
and hunting…
and walking along logs: the ultimate cat furniture.
She LOVED walking on the logs. For the rest of her life, every campsite that had a horizontal log, she would walk it. And, of course, there are all of the scratching posts (trees) that grow out of the ground.
She had found her new favorite place in the whole world: Oregon forests.
I, too was happy. I had grown up among the tall, straight Douglas Firs of Oregon, and it gave me enormous peace to be back among them. Yes, there are trees in Colorado. But not like these.
Pookie and I were both in a John Denver mood: I was “back home again” and she was “coming home to a place she’d never been before.” This was her first time in Oregon.
More later…
"Boondocking” is an RVer’s word for getting out there in “the middle of nowhere” in your RV and camping with no outside resources. You make your own electricity, haul your water, let your sewage tank fill, eat whatever you brought with you, and just enjoy nature. It usually means not in an official campground.
In an RV, “house battery” is the 12 volt battery / battery pack from which you power the living space - lights, controls for the propane appliances, furnace fan, etc. It is separate from the battery which is used to start the motorhome’s engine.
It makes absolute sense that a cat would so much love to walk on logs.
I just love that you have Pookie with you and that she enjoys herself just as much as you do!