The path to the house, where we were to have lunch, actually was a small gravel road that was on an incline. The steepness of the road made our hike somewhat challenging. As if the establishment anticipated what hikers were thinking, a small sign was mounted on a tree trunk that said nothing more than, "HALFWAY..…almost." Some of the people could be heard saying, "Oh no, we still have a long way to go" while others saying about the remaining distance, "That isn't so bad."

It seemed like a long walk to the farm house

Some distance beyond the halfway point, a shortcut trail appeared on the right side of the road. The shortcut looked enticing, but it was considerably steeper than the roadway. Kay and I decided to take the longer way the farm house where we would have lunch. As it turned out, the longer route took us across a scenic, grassy meadow with mature trees including oaks and willows.

It felt good to finally reach the farm house where there were comfortable chairs and a sofa. The house is the Lucas Pioneer Ranch house where they have been serving family style meals for 75 years, also known as the Lucas Lodge.

The entrance to the Lucas Pioneer Ranch house

A comfortable place to wait for lunch to be served

We first had to purchase our lunch "tickets" at a desk in a room just off of the living room. I was surprised to find that our meal tickets were in the form of colorfully painted clothes-pins. This was a first for me; I've never seen clothes-pins used in this way.

Vince has his lunch "tickets" — two clothes pins in his right hand

JC is purchasing his lunch "tickets"

While waiting for the dinner bell to ring, the guys looked around the area near the house. There is a very old grape vine — with a trunk 8 to 10 inches in diameter — growing next to the outdoor restroom building. A sign on the trunk of the vine proclaims that, "This vine is 100 years old. How do we know? We heard it through the grapevine." A bit of vineyard humor no doubt.

A 100 year old grape vine

Among the stuff we saw were a few pieces of antique gardening tools and equipment along with some humors "tools" hanging on the wall of a shed. The most interesting item was a very old outboard boat engine leaning against the wall of a workshop between two other pieces of mechanical items.

JB and Vince are talking about a very old outboard boat motor

Suddenly, the dinner bell range, yes an actual dinner bell. I turned around to look toward the sound to see that JB was the person pulling on the bell-rope. It was time for our group to assemble on the back porch of the farm-house where lunch was to be served.

A real dinner bell was rung by JB

The porch is a large, covered, screened-in style structure that looked very familiar as it looked very much like those I remember from my childhood. On the porch were rows of tables covered with red and white table clothes. Hanging from the ceiling were unusual decorations in the form of uninhabited paper-wasp nests. They made very interesting, natural art-forms. I don't think I would like to be the one who had to collect the nests for this art display.

There was no need for a menu as the meal was a traditional American fried chicken dinner served with mashed potatoes and gravy as well a selection of other veggies. This place proudly advertised that corn-on-the-cob is their specialty. All of this was served family style and ended with hot, homemade cobbler topped with ice cream. I for one did not leave the table hungry.

After dinner we had some time to kill before the boat would return to take us on our return trip to camp, so it was decided that we would walk to the small community of Agness. The route was along a small country road that passed a field that contained a small orchard of fruit trees. There was a barbed-wire fence between the roadway and the orchard that had "No Trespassing signs on some of the fence posts. I saw a familiar form out beneath one of the trees picking a couple of pieces of fruit. I don't want to snitch, but the person's initials are JB. The fruit he had in his hands appeared to be pears.

That person, picking fruit, looks familiar

JB shows off his loot — two pears

Just beyond the pear orchard was a sign that looked a bit out of place; the sign said, "AIRCRAFT XING." Next to the road was a windsock and just beyond it was an opening in the fence on both sides of the road. It seems that the long, grass-covered strip on both sides of the road was an emergency landing strip of some sort. A short distance ahead, our small group continued on past the United States Post Office of Agness, Oregon 97406.

This seems like a strange place for an aircraft crossing

The roadway came to a T-intersection where the Agness Store faced the cross street. The store is a fun, small town structure that is part general store and part gift shop. I noticed a sign on the entrance door that showed a bit of small town humor; the sign said, "FREE BEER TOMORROW." Think about it.

An interesting country store

After spending a while browsing through the store, it was time to head back to the boat dock. The walk back was uneventful and helped to work off our lunch. Our timing was pretty good, when we arrived at the dock, our boat came zooming around the bend in the river and slowed down to drift in slowly to the dock. The same seats we had on our trip to lunch would be what we had on our return trip back to camp.

Shortly after the boat was headed down river, a small boat appeared as we rounded a bend. Our pilot slowed the boat down as we slowly passed the boat. Somebody called across to the people in the boat asking if they had any luck. With that a man in the boat bent over and lifted a very nice salmon up where we could see how well he had done indeed. I think that fish was as big as the one Vince caught for the sea lion the day before.

A fisherman shows us a very nice salmon he caught nearby

Farther down stream our tour passed slowly by a boat where a women was working hard to reel in what might be a very large fish as indicated by the way her fishing pole was bending over. She fought the good fight and it was taking long enough that our pilot decided to continue without getting to see what she caught. A little way away from her boat we saw the disappointing image of her fishing line breaking under the strain of fighting fish. Too bad, I would like to have seen the fish netted.

A women is reeling in a fish that is putting up a hard fight

In between events along the river, our pilot kept funny stories coming. It was like having a stand-up comedian driving the boat. The next thing seen was another bald eagle perched very high in a tree on a branch on the shaded side of the tree. This made the big bird difficult to see. Because the eagle was so far away, we didn't spend a lot of time at this viewing point. I was able to get a photo that I was able to process to make the big bird show up better in the photo.

This was about the best we were able to see a bald eagle

With the boat moving again, the scenery looked familiar and yet looked somewhat different as we cruised downstream. Suddenly we heard, "BEAR" and all eyes came around to look toward the riverbank where a finger was pointing. Binoculars were scanning the forest to try to acquire to location of the fleeing bear. I didn't see anything but trees and brush. The person who yelled out said they saw a small bear that ran up the hill through the brush. This might explain why many of us didn't see any sign of a critter as it was gone by the time we looked toward where it had been. The boat got underway again heading downstream.

Our group looks for wildlife along our route as we cruise downstream

Soon a gravel beach came into view that had been empty on our trip upstream, but now there was a lot of activity. This is where several drift boats were being pulled out of the water. It was an ideal place to back several boat-trailers down to the water at one time.

A lot of drift boats being retrieved from a day of drift fishing for salmon

Continuing along our boat slowly passed a large gray heron or egret sitting on a branch that hung over the water at the edge of the river. Resuming our trip down the river we could see the bridge ahead where our picture had been taken at the beginning of our cruise. All along the way our pilot kept a continuing collection of humorous stories flowing. All of a sudden our pilot pulled a maneuver that surprised me and brought the boat to a sudden stop. It took awhile for the boat to start moving again.

Our pilot was a source of continuous funny stories about the river and the region

Shortly before getting to the bridge I spotted a very familiar RV parked on a gravel beach. It was a Lazy Daze motorhome that had the same floor plan as our old RV. It was fun to see that brand of motorhome so far from where it was built.

The Lazy Daze motorhome on the bank was the same model of one we once owned

As our boat passed beneath the bridge is was only a short time until we could see our campsites from the river. It was good to be returning after such a fun and interesting day. The boat pulled up to the dock at our campground where — after departing from the boat — I watched as the jet boat took off toward its home base carrying the other passengers.

Our campsites are now in view as seen from the boat as we head for the dock

As our group walks up to camp, the jet boat heads back to its home base

It wasn't long after our group returned to camp that several of them found their way to a shady area on the gassy area in front of our motorhomes. It was a nice place to sit back in lawn chairs and talk about the activities of the day. The view looking out over the river looked particularly nice with bright sunshine lighting up the trees across the river.

The afternoon shadows enhances the scenery as seen from our campsite

With time for dinner some time away, I decided to go into town to buy a copy of the photograph that was taken of our boat as it passed under the bridge. When I bought the photo I was told that the only story we heard from our pilot that was true was when he told us he is a minister in a local church. After hearing him tell stories all day, I would imagine that he may deliver interesting sermons.

On the way back from the office of Jerry's Rogue River Jet Boats I saw a site that looked as if it might make an interesting picture. It was an old fishing boat that had seen better days. The boat appeared to have sunk into the mud in shallow water close to the shore with water just going over the gunwale on one side. This is the boat that Kay and I saw earlier in the week.

For the serious do-it-yourselfer, this fixer-upper probably has a very low price

When I returned to camp the sun was low in the sky casting long shadows across our camp area. There was still time to visit before preparing for our last evening meal in this campground. By the time dinner was ready for us to sit down at the camp table, the sun had set and we dined by the light of a near-full moon assisted by a clip-on light that had been clipped to a tree at one end of the table.

Part of our group taking it easy at the end of the day

JC cuts slabs of watermelon for an after-dinner treat

After dinner, JC brought out a watermelon to share with all present. He sliced the big green melon into discs and handed them out. Several people simply stood up eating watermelon with the seeds falling to the ground. With the fog beginning to roll in the temperature dropped and it was decided to turn in without having a fire. The day had been filled with activity and was a very fun day to file away in the old memory book in my head.

[ SUMMARY ]

[ PREV ]

[ NEXT ]

[ RV FUN TRIPS ]

Disclaimer Contact Us
Copyright 2006, RVFunTrips.com. All rights reserved.