You are welcome come up early or stay a few days after and make a long weekend of it. Please Email me if you are coming early so we can put rigs and tents in the campground to secure it for folks showing up later.
The moon this year is 3rd quarter, waning. Deep sky viewing will be great early and then the moon will rise just after midnight.
There are many interesting caches to do in a 20-mile radius of PMO. And yes, for you numbers hounds there are for your caching pleasure several power trails that will keep you busy at least for a few days and this is in addition to the many caches on the mountain. Here are links to two nearby power trails: http://coord.info/GC3X2C3 and http://coord.info/GC3WFBN .
Other activities besides stargazing and geocaching are bird watching, Mountain Bike riding, caving, rock-hounding, and hiking.
I have lived in the Central Oregon area for over 45 years so just ask and I can give you information about things to do and places to go in the area so feel free to email me with questions.
Travel to almost all of the interesting areas around here are on gravel back roads so bring full fuel tanks, spare tires, extra food, water and charged cell phones…be prepared!
Camping will be available at the Pine Mountain Campground. Camping is free and I will provide trash hauling and drinking water. Please bring containers for your water. You can fill them at my place.
The campground has 4 RV (RV’s up to 30 feet max) sites; these sites are large and could be shared with 2 smaller RV’s. There is a large group area and dispersed camp areas with plenty of walk in tent camping sites. I also have some room for tent campers and RV’s around my place if we need an over flow area. If you are bringing a RV please email or call me in advance so I have an idea how much room to hold open.
Wheelbarrows will be available to get tent camping supplies in to the walk in areas. There are no power, water or sewer hookups and generator use is discouraged! If you must run a generator do it mid-day, not in the mornings or evenings. Stargazing is an event that lasts in to the wee hours of the night/morning so folks sleep late the next day. For this reason the campground and observatory areas are designated quiet zones so…. . No non street legal vehicles allowed in or staging out of the campground.
Stargazing begins at 9pm on Friday and Saturday nights with a talk in the lecture tent and then viewing through the telescopes after the talk. Viewing goes on till at least midnight and later if the skies are good and folks are still around and interested. The program costs $5 per person.
Wireless Internet and power hookups will be available on my deck “Internet Café”.
The Potluck-BBQ-Bonfire will be at the main group campfire pit area starting around 6pm Saturday the 29th. So far I I have not been able to locate a large BBQ as in years past. The company that rented them went out of business and after lots of searching ther is no rental business in central Oregon that provides large BBQ’s. I will bring up my 2 Webber gas grills. If you can bring BBQ’s let me know and we will go with a bunch of smaller ones this year. And for those of you who do not want to sleep on the ground I have purchased a dozen very nice camp cots for the folks to use. If you want to use them let me know and I will reserve them for you…first come first serve!
Don’t forget your lawn chairs and camp tables if you have them!
Food details: ***Bring something to BBQ and drink***.
To bring to the potluck: use your Geocaching name:
A-H- main dish, and I-P, side dish or salad, Q-Z bring a dessert.
If you want to do breakfast again let’s see how many look to be coming and then start a list of who will bring what. Since we will not have the large BBQ we can try having breakfast at my place on the back deck.
If you have raffle items please bring them! I will have Pine Mountain related items I have a couple of 10th annual Star party coins for the raffle. Send me an email with questions, comments, suggestions or ideas. We’ll see you in June. (*_*)