May 19th to 22nd Cougar Reservoir

On to Cougar Crossing Reservoir.  This takes us up a dramatic drive to the dam nestled between very steep, multiple rimrocks and fed by the south fork of the McKenzie River.  We find the small campground empty and unhook The Rig so we can explore the area and find somewhere to put the kayaks in the reservoir.  The campground is advertised as “at the upper end of Cougar Reservoir.”  That may have been true at on point but given the current, and obviously long-term low water level we are a good 2 miles from the upper end of the body of water, the only boat ramp also being high and dry.  

Not to worry, we explore upriver, with the plan to head over the top and into Oakridge.  We get near the top and it is still closed due to snow.  Plan “c” is to head to Hidden Lake and kayak.  That road has trees down. The logging operation helicopter and crew are camped just down from the trees but I guess it is not in their bailiwick to keep the road clear.   

In addition to not being able to kayak our electrical system for the last 2 nights, has drawn down so far that the battery protect gizmo shuts off power. We are able to take on enough solar rays to recharge the battery but the same thing happens the 2^nd night.   

We decide to pull up stakes and find a full hook-up site on the west side of Eugene.  We end up at a Lane County Park, Richardson, a delightful, well-spaced, nicely treed park along the shores of Fern Ridge Reservoir.  We take showers, take on some water, fully charge the battery, and empty the tanks in preparation for our 3 nights at Alsea Falls.

 We are now in official test mode on the battery system, charging, discharging, jotting stats and trying to isolate what the issue might be. In the mean time we enjoy our very nice space (#15) in the campground after a young man vacated it for us. He had pulled in and set up “just in case” we did not show up.  Protocol is that you can do that the 2^nd day of a no-show but he figured he was fine.  He did politely pick up his camp, re-attach his trailer and move to a different space. “This is a very nice space,” he continued to explain.  We agreed, thus the reason we have booked 4 months in advance for the 3 nights.