Leg 19: Renner Lake valley

I was having fits with the GPS as we were driving that night and apparently left the darn thing on overnight. By morning the GPS had become a useless “brick” and would not initialize or load up. We were close to the pipeline right of way so we headed generally east and up hill crossing back and forth across the right of way till we got to the high ground we took these shots from. We could see the Malin hills we’ve yet to cross and even Mt Shasta to the SW. Beautiful forest and country side again. Looks like prime elk habitat and we found our way south to intersect the line and Corral Creek road at about 34 after some fun exploration. Found the bikes and prepared to leave the truck intending to ride the bikes east and down into the Renner Lake valley from its east end and then walk back to the truck. Didn’t have the GPS for help, but I had some Topo map prints and I could remember where the mile points were in the valley, so we felt confident. Heh heh!

These pics are looking back west from above where we slept. At this point the pipeline runs about mile north of the state line and this is from the hill west of Renner Lake.






Here's where we unlodaded near MP 32 to take the bikes back east down into Renner Lake Valley.

Leg 19 - The Incident.

Wish I’d had the camera rolling as we prepped the bikes – I know I’d be a millionaire at Dwane‘s expense! The bikes seemed a little hard to get started and I discovered a new idiosyncrasy about them. Seems that if we choke them too much they don’t really flood, they end up with an extra load of fuel in the carb. Once it finally starts the engine will race like it’s full throttle until the excess fuel is consumed. I got my fired up and fortunately got a quick grip on the brake as it started to take off. Warmed it up for a minute and then shut it down to advise Dwane on getting his running when about the funniest damn thing so far happened. I was forming the words in my mouth to caution Dwane about starting his bike while standing beside it instead of setting on it and in better control when his engine came to life. I think I got “I wouldn’t start it” out just as his bike took off at full throttle with Dwane hanging on to one side of the handle bar. I started yelling “let it go” as it ran up the side of my pickup with him dragging along with it like a rag doll still instinctively trying to control it with one hand as the bike revved for perhaps 4-5 seconds that seemed like an afternoon. If I hadn’t been suddenly focusing on what materials I had to fashion splints out of I would have been laughing my ass off as he danced a couple of dosie does with the bike until being whipped sawed to the ground as the bike finally fell over and died. I honestly didn’t think he was going to get up for a moment. After a couple of minutes Dwane assessed that he probably hadn’t broken anything even though the trauma made him sick to his stomach as he lay there with initial shock setting in.

We took a break.


After Dwane was on his feet again and properly instructed on how not to start these bikes we saddled up and headed west. Had a great ride and after a half hour and perhaps 10 miles running along smooth dirt roads we found a steep forest road that took us down in to the Renner Lake valley.

Without the benefit of the GPS it took a while to get oriented on the valley floor. Beautiful little piece of heaven, that valley. The farm house is at the west end of the lake on a mini rim rock overlooking Renner Lake. Can’t imagine owning that kind of spread.

This is a lake south and a little east of Renner in ths same valley.
The left half of the far ridge line is west of Renner, which is just out of sight, and is the east slope of the hill from which the previous pipeline pics are taken.

We set out along the fence line from the east end of the valley and found 28 after taking a while to soak up the view.



We could occasionally see someone at the house in the distance as we worked our way west along the south end of the lake. Found some unusual rock formations as we approached the shallow SE finger of Renner Lake.


The shallow lake was very low, but still didn’t reveal mp 29 where I remembered it on the map. A mile further west and we were near the house, but didn’t find 30 which should have been right there. Our focus was to finding mp 31 just below the 100 foot cliffs that ring the valley along its west and south rims. We gambled we’d be able to find a way back up the cliffs and the remaining mile across the high plateau to the truck. No such luck. As we started up the forested slope to the west it became increasingly difficult navigating thru the thick Manzanita underbrush in the pine and fir forest. Without the GPS functioning we wondered back and forth thru the brush, up and down the slope trying to line up visually with the fence line and mile point 28 some 3 miles to the east and barely visible. This pic is looking back east from below the rim rock cliff across Renner Lake - Goose Lake is in the far valley and MP 28 is at the far brown field on the other side of the lake. You can see the heavy brush in the forground we were struggling thru.
Sadly, after an hour or so and determining the cliffs appeared to be too big of a challenge we decide the way we’d came was the better choice even late in the day. We trudged back eastward across the valley to the bikes and saddled up.

We headed up the road we used to get there, but there were some steep sections to navigate. I was concerned that my bike wouldn’t pull my fat 275 lbs up the hill, but found that with a full throttle and good run up I could make it up the several hundred yard stretches on the steep inclines.

Even though evening was coming on, we stopped to take in the late afternoon sun at one of the many meadows along the beautiful forest road. Made it back to the truck, loaded up, but decided to hike east to the rim rock cliff and see if we could find the line. We did as it was getting dark finding a section marker and sign at the top of the cliff overlooking the manzanita and forest we'd stalled in below several hours earlier. Got dark on us as we wondered a little in the forest to re-find our truck, but we did so without too much delay. We saddled up and headed back towards K Falls for a late dinner. At dinner over our meat loafs, a tradition on our road trips, we assessed our situation. We’d talked about leapfrogging to the west of the Klamath River and getting a segment done in the morning, but without the GPS and a good map recon of that area we figured we were asking for more trouble trying to navigate and find the mile points.

We decided just to get in the rig and head home. We headed out of K Falls at about 10:00, turning back to town because the discount gas station on the north end wasn’t open as hoped, and we rolled into Creswell about 1 in the morning.

Still haven’t figured out what’s up with my Magellan. Won’t initiate or talk to my lap top with or without the card in it. The factory guys are absolutely no help. Found several hints on line including the secret three finger reset of Select, Page and Power buttons simultaneously, but to no avail. Finally was told by the manufacturer to send it in for a small discount on a newer model. Damn thing is only a year and a half old! I think I’m switching to Garmin.

We tried to pull off an early Nov outing, but work forced a canceled 4 day outing.