Camping at Lavabeds! 
Wow. Well, after a slow start this morning, We entered The Lava Beds National Monument through the Tule Lake Wildlife Refuge. So Miranda got a chance to see a ton of birdies.. A PrarieHawk flew along side our driver window at about 25 feet away for a bit, that was intense ;)
From there we hiked the Captain Jack Stronghold trail. Pretty interesting location where 60 native men,women and children held off 600 American Troops in the late 1800's By using the terrain and caves in the area.
After finding a campsite, We had dinner, and then Went out in the dark for a walk to the nearest caves quick. We went down the Fully-Lit easiest cave first, it was awesome.. I want to go back to take video :) We'll see.
After that we went down the Labyrinth Cave. Wow. super cool. Felt like 3-4 city blocks worth of walking, croutching under some parts, scrambling over another smooth part. So crazy in there with the lava flows still in tact in some places.. Wow. Tomorrow we plan on hitting all of the easy and most medium caves in the Main part of park :)
-Joe


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Excitement about Lavabeds 
I was looking at a Brochure for the lavabeds (Hundreds of Caves!) And read this one:
Catacombs Cave (6,903 ft/2,104 m)
This very long cave is easily entered but gradually
increases in difficulty. It is possible to walk upright for
approximately 800 ft (244 m) to the stairway, after
which the ceiling rarely exceeds 3 ft (0.9 m). A few
places exist where the ceiling height is less then 12 in
(30 cm). A cave map is highly recommended for any
group planning to explore the entire length, as multiple
levels and numerous side passages can be confusing.
This cave is not recommended for inexperienced
cavers.
Lava Beds Website

Nice :) One mile long cave, with some parts you have to crawl through!!
Yeeehaaawwww!!! We'll be heading there Sunday or Monday :)
-Joe

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Ouch 
So yesterday we decided to bike down the road and see where it goes. Well, it was all downhill (not a good sign for coming back) but other than that it is a very pretty road. There was a trail head that goes into a preserve that's about a mile long. We kept going to the end of the road though. There was another trail head there that was a 2.7 mile hike with the first 0.5 miles being pretty steep. So, we went for a hike.
That first 0.5 was all down and switchbacks. After that is was pretty easy walking except for some muddy parts. Parts of it seemed like an obstacle course. Some trees had fallen over the path, so you had to work around them and then other parts, the plants were crowding in on the path so it was almost like walking through a jungle.
There were some huge trees too. Some had fallen across the path but a path had been sawed through. There were at least a few that were 6 feet across that had fallen across the path. At times you'd be walking through the two pieces.. pretty neat.
Oh, and then after that hike, we were pretty tired and then had to bike a couple miles all uphill back to the RV. :)
-Miranda

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BoonDocking in a National Forest. Finally :) 
Took us a long time to find a suitable national forest road to explore.
We went down one right before Lincoln city and it's great :) We have internet(slow), Sun for solar, and HOPEFULLY only 1-2 cars per day might drive by... . So hopefully we can hide out here for several days :)
Really sweet forest, and some good biking ahead of us (Cold and rainy today)
-Joe

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Tour of the Rich and Famous Lifestyles 
In searching for a place near Pacific City to stay a while, we came upon a Thousand Trails park. Upon stopping in, we were told it was a "Members Only" park and told to turn around and leave. . . . So we did. . . But then looked them up online. .. NO INFORMATION. Kinda worriedly, Miranda Called them, NO INFORMATION, Said to find out more we'd have to stay the weekend for free.. . . . Ummm Ok... . So we took it. Deal was had to meet with a sales person the next morning. . (Which we just got done with.) Any way, we just returned from that. . . :) $9000 Up front for lifetime membership, and then $700/yr to keep the membership.. But then you get to stay for "free" :)

HOLY CROW :)

The campground is REALLY NICE though. .. Tree's between campsite, real nice forested area, Pools, Hot tub, store, Hookups, etc. etc. etc. tons of stuff. .. But $9000!! Sheeesh. . . So, I don't think so :)

We enjoy Staying at a "Real" campground maybe once per week. . . That is ~$25/week + maybe $25 on average for other parking,etc fees.. $50/week*52 weeks = $2600 / Yr for our camping lifestyle. . . So, if we were going to continue like this for 10 Years, POSSIBLY. . .. But. . I think we'll move on to other adventures in life :)

plus they are all really snobby... no need to support that.

-Joe

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