Pandemic Diary — February 14 to 25, 2022

Monday, February 14, 2022

About a week ago, M noticed that brightly colored heart-shaped boxes were starting to appear around the house. Being a quick study, he deduced that Valentine’s Day must be approaching.

Today, E, who is pretty quick herself, soon discovered a brand new box.

And of course, no one can live exclusively on bonbons, so the day also involved some gateaux. 

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Okay. Back to more or less normal, if there is such a thing. M has gone on an online buying spree. Some of the items, we fear, are somewhat frivolous. On the practical side, he wants some new kitchen cabinet hinges, and also a new pillow.

E went to a meeting of The Knitting Group via Zoom and enjoyed talking to old friends and colleagues. After supper, both of us had a you-know-what from the new heart-shaped box. Just one though, because we want to stretch out this box, at least for a while… 

Then we watched some of Yanık Koza. We’re tempted to say that it is a really terrible show. We’ve only watched 50 episodes, though, so we will withhold any final judgment. M also watched the wild west episode of Around the World in 80 Days. He’s liking that well enough.

In very recent days, the number of new COVID cases in Oregon is down, not only because fewer tests have been recorded but also because the percentage of positive tests is trending down. We will call this encouraging.

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

We went back to Lebanon, Oregon today, this time to walk along the Santiam River on the Old Mill Trail. Despite its name, the Old Mill Trail is brand new. It runs parallel to an older trail called the Eagle Scout Trail. The latter is a “soft surface” (i.e., unpaved) trail down in the river bottom area. The new trail runs along the top of a dike that was built in the 1940s, following a catastrophic flood. In the 1960s dams upstream made the dike obsolete for flood control. After languishing for fifty-odd years, the dike has recently begun serving as a long, level base for a concrete path. Though wide enough for a sixties Pontiac, the path is reserved for cyclists, pedestrians, and dogs. It sits high above the more humble Eagle Scout Trail. We took these pictures from the latter. There are lots of native cottonwood trees along the river, many encased in non-native ivy.

Friday, February 18, 2022

A dry warm afternoon. M mowed the shaggy part of the back lawn.

Saturday, February 19, 2022

E went for a dog walk with our friend A. E says that Pumpkin seemed to really enjoy the walk, which added to E’s enjoyment. M again went foraging in the forest, looking for suitable debris.

Sunday, February 20, 2022

Pleasant weather these days. Nighttime temps around 30, high temps in the 50’s. Early blooming plants are liking it fine: snowdrops and crocuses, a few daffodils, lots of buds on our maple trees.

We’ve started packing for our trip that starts on Tuesday. We made some lists and E put some stuff in the food box. According to our weather apps, our two days of camping at the coast will correspond with the two coldest days of the week. The yurt will be heated, but we’re not sure if they’re made for nights in the low 20’s. On the other hand, the days are supposed to be sunny. 

We had a delicious international dinner today: leftover Mexican chicken enogada, leftover Indian aloo gobi, and leftover Eve’s red cabbage. Then bonbons.

Monday, February 21, 2022

Shopping and packing day. In the morning E got together with her pals J and C at the place where C is house-sitting. It’s a rather grand house and C gave E and J a tour. The house is in a beautiful setting and is filled with lovely artwork and décor. Also big closets. Really big closets.

Juce and Brane have decided they’d like to join us at the coast and have reserved a nearby yurt. The forecast is for 18 degrees Wednesday night. Oh boy. 

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Left Corvallis at 8:30 and got to Reedsport around noon. We parked at the Umqua lighthouse and had our lunch in the truck, looking out over the dunes to the ocean. We then proceeded ten miles further south and hiked the Dellenback loop trail, which is named for a politician who was a instrumental in efforts to protect the Oregon dunes from development. Then it was back up to Umqua Lighthouse State Park, where there are six ‘deluxe’ yurts, one of which was reserved for us, and another for J and B. Since it was not yet check-in time, we did another short hike, this time around Lake Marie, just next to the campground.

Once we got moved in, we had a chance to relax before getting together with J and B for dinner. Dinner was Mexican food that M fetched from Reedsport, which was only about seven miles away. The food was’t real hot by the time it arrived back at the J&B yurt–it didn’t help that M missed a turn on the way home–but the microwave made it better. 

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

This was the day of the main event, hiking at Silver and Golden Falls. After breakfast, E made us some PBJ sandwiches and M made a thermos of half-caff with a spoonful of of chocolate powder. We packed up and headed out at around 9:30. Thirty-three degrees and sunny. At 11:00, we got to the trailhead, located about twenty-five miles east of Coos Bay. It was thirty-three and sunny there too. 

There are three trails from the parking area: one to a Silver Falls viewpoint, one to the base of Golden Falls, and a longer one that goes past the base of Silver and continues to the top of Golden. This last was the one we had planned to take, but where that trail starts we came to a small sign informing us that trees had fallen onto trail and saying something about “no through hiking.” We decided to try anyway. Maybe we could find out what ‘no through hiking’ actually meant. Here’s what we found:

Two large firs had indeed fallen across the trail as it traversed a steep slope. Someone had been kind enough (and industrious enough) to cut some steps that made a crossing possible. We’re not saying we just pranced right up this stairway, but we did manage it. And as the trail continued, we were glad that we had.

The cliff faces south and the sun was shining directly onto it. Even though it was still cold down in the trees, we had to take off our heavy outer layers to be comfortable up on the ledge. We had our traditional lunch of sandwiches, carrots and celery, chips, juice and chocolate, along with a wee dram from the flask. Here’s a video from up there at the top of Golden Falls

Later on, we went back to the trailhead and hiked to the base of Golden Falls. J and B, meanwhile, along with the indomitable Bento, hiked both the Golden Falls base trail and the Silver Falls view trail. Here’s Bento on the latter.

Once more back at the trailhead we took our thermos of artisanal instant half-caff mocha and sat at a picnic table in the sun. We didn’t linger, though; it was still just thirty-four degrees.  

Thursday, February 24, 2022

In the morning M took the Coleman stove out on to the porch and cooked up a camp breakfast of potatoes, red bell pepper, eggs and cheddar. Not too bad. Then it was time to start packing up. Here are a few photos of yurt life. The first picture is from the web site of Pacific Yurts, Inc., but the scene in the photo seems very familiar and we’re pretty sure that the yurt on the left is the actual one we stayed in. 

Unfortunately, we did not get either the kayak or the help of the kayak paddler. But it was too cold to be outside anyway. Here are some inside photos.

Friday, February 25, 2022

Now here’s another of our blue charts, the ones that track reported Oregon COVID death rates for each month of the pandemic. The chart shows that the November, December and January rates were all quite similar. By our reckoning, the first ten days of February were also roughly at that level. Beginning around February 11th, early figures show something of a decline. All numbers are provisional, as they say.