CaT
California IS full of nuts and fruit cakes...
I feel sorry for you being in Ohio though, I moved to California from Illinois so I understand.
Now I live in a tiny town thats an official 1880s town complete with board walk on main street and rodeos.
Maybe the best part is being .1 mile from a wild and scenic river coming out of Three Sisters Wilderness and VAST wilderness/national forest on the other side of the bridge. I can drive a mile or fifteen miles up the road and into the forest on dirt to walk my dog and hike the river.
Funny thing is that few Oregonians or people from Washington actually BP or camp.
You can always get a campsite in most of our parks without any reservation even if its on a nice fishing lake,
but we have so many lakes who would go to a park anyway? My 12 foot canoe weighs 33 pounds so I can throw it on any little pond and generally have it all to my self. People here DO 4wd a lot though, and you will pass people off road so if you break down everyone will stop and offer help or just to tease you. Even during the week in the summer someone would come along and help you, its a very friendly outdoors community, at least on this ast side of the cascades. When I lived in Bend I was 19 miles from mt Bachelor ski area. Trust me, this beats the heck out of living in California and driving 5 hours to camp.
I also live 25 miles from Smith Rock but I haven't climbed there yet.
Jim
