Today we attended an event sponsored by OSURA, the OSU Retirees Association. The speaker was women’s basketball coach Scott Rueck. Rueck has been coaching at OSU for 14 years and his teams have had a lot of success, three of his teams having made it into the Elite Eight and one into the Final Four. His OSURA talk is an annual event and we’ve attended two or three times over the years. Rueck is a positive and engaging speaker; listening to him always seems like time well spent. Today there were about 50 people in attendance, most of whom have been fans during his whole tenure and who have gotten to know him over the years. This made for a very relaxed event, like a gathering of old friends. He talked about the ups and downs of the season just ended and about how much he enjoys finding ways to help his athletes improve their abilities. The audience was mostly white-haired, but M got to sit next to a good looking redhead.
In other news, M reports that whatever else is going on in Washington D.C., the passport office is still functioning. Renewals can now be done online, so on May 1st M submitted his application. On May 2nd he received confirmation that his application had been received. On May 4th he was advised that his application was being processed and that this would take 4-6 weeks. On May 5th he was told that his new passport had been shipped. Today, May 7th, it appeared in his mailbox.
Friday, May 9th
We ran across a gopher snake up in the OSU forest today. It’s been a decade or two since we last saw one there.
Saturday, May 9th
We went up to Vancouver today for an early Mother’s Day celebration. The Andees took us up to Woodland, Washington to visit the Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens. Hulda Thiel Klager was born in Germany in 1863 and came to the U.S. when she was just two years old. She married Frank Klager in 1879 at the age of sixteen. Around the turn of the century, with her children mostly grown up, she was given a book about the work and methods of Luther Burbank. From then on she devoted much of her time to plants, creating many new plant varieties, especially lilacs. By 1920 she had become widely known as The Lilac Lady. Klager died in 1960 at the age of ninety-six. The story of her life and the rather dramatic history of her garden can be found here.
Before we left the gardens we had a picnic lunch catered by the Andees. No need to go into details, but we will mention that lunch came packed in a deluxe vintage picnic basket and that it included chocolate chip cookies.
Saturday, May 16th
We went along on a birding walk today at Inspiration Garden up in Monmouth. We spent about two hours peering through binoculars and listening to the group leaders giving us pointers about how to identify birds by sight and sound. We heard or saw 32 different species, including a kestrel eating its lunch on a flat topped outdoor light fixture. But that was a little far away. Among the birds that we saw more clearly, the standout was a black headed grosbeak.
This photo was not taken by either of us because we were not carrying cameras with 18-inch long telephoto lens–like some people. But this bird is exactly like the one we saw.
We came for the birds, not the gardens, but we did take time to notice an iris or two. For some reason, they’re easier to photograph than birds.
Monday, May 18th
Today we slaved away in the garden all morning and then in the afternoon drove up to Brooks, Oregon to visit the Adelman Peony Gardens. What a place that is! They must have twenty or thirty acres of peony fields. What do they do with all those flowers?! For a few weeks in May and June, they are open for retail sales of potted peonies. They have several dozen varieties in stock with prices ranging from $20 up to more than $100. They were doing a very brisk business at around 2:00 PM on a Monday.
Have you ever seen a vintage lowrider Chevy pickup full of peonies? We have. Does every peony farm have one of these?
In the background of the truck photo you can see some of the many varieties for sale. Those were beautiful, but the really spectacular blooms were to be found inside the sales room. Here are some examples.
And of course they have a nice website. If you would like to know more about the different sorts of peonies, click here. If you would like to purchase a nice expensive peony, try this one. In total there are over 500 varieties for sale at Adelman’s. All can be ordered online with individual plants being delivered September 15 to October 15. If you don’t need a peony, how about a canvas tote?
We have some peonies in our garden, all given to us by neighbors. We like them because they come up every year and require little care. They are also very pretty, of course. But we have reservations. Aren’t they a little too showy? Rolls Royces are nice cars, but there is a tinge of vulgarity in owning one. Peony cultivation has a very long history, dating back at least to the sixth century. Ancient texts from China mention medicinal uses and also the use of peony flowers as a flavoring agent.
Tuesday, May 19th
Actually we’ve been overwhelmed with flowers lately. Our back garden is being overrun by a plague of volunteer poppies, rapidly spreading calla lilies, and Oregon blue flax popping up everywhere except where we’d like to see it. See below for some glimpses into the chaos.
Bloody Crane’s-Bill, Geranium sanguineum.
Despite the iris, thimbleberry and cascara, who are all trying to shade it out, there is a salal plant back in there somewhere and it seems to be doing okay.
These callas are where they belong, planted there by the previous owners who knows how many years ago.
This used to be lawn. No one ever planted poppies here. Now they’re taking over. Rogue calla lilies are also springing up.
Pale Yellow-eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium striatum. About four feet tall.
Blue-eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium angustifolim. About 5 inches tall.
This area also used to be all grass. But now…clockwise from top: weeds, ranunculus starts, weeds, young service berry, weeds, weeds, bridge, wild flax, weeds, tidy tips, weeds, monkey flower, weeds.
We’re having absolutely beautiful spring weather here in Corvallis, so what do we do? We leave town. Why, because we planned to; this was our five-day window to take a road trip. As it turned out, not only did we leave good weather behind, we drove endless miles only to find bad weather. That’s what planning will do for you.
The trip started off nicely enough. We left at 9:00 in the morning and drove across the mountains to Sisters, home of one of our all time favorite bakeries. It was after 11:00 when we got there, but they still had plenty to offer: a chocolate raised bar for M, a chocolate old fashioned for E, and two marionberry scones for another day.
Thus fortified, we went for a hike on the Whychus Creek trail, located just south of Sisters. It was steep in places and gave us quite a workout, but that was fine–sort of. The area is quite beautiful, in a very different way from the wetter forests on the west side of the Cascades.
The trees around Sisters aren’t as tall…and they grow out of rocks.
After the hike we went on to Bend and stayed the night. Our hotel had an unfamiliar name: Home 2 Suites by Hilton–but we liked it a lot. We were on the fourth floor with a beautiful view…
…of a car wash.
Sunday, April 26th
We had a long drive today, about 350 miles, from Bend down to Winnemucca, Nevada. Traveling south-southeast, we soon left the trees behind and got into sagebrush country. After a while we also left the sun behind and ran into some rain showers. We also encountered an unusual 45-minute delay on Highway 78. We were almost to the top of a low pass when we saw a flagger holding out his stop sign. For the first 15 minutes there was nothing else, just one flagger and our single car. Gradually though, the level of activity increased. As it happened, the delay was to allow passage of two semi trucks towing oversized flat trailers. On each trailer was a giant shiny blue metal box. Each box was roughly 12 feet tall and 20 feet square. In other words, those boxes were big, easily wide enough to take up the whole width of a two-lane highway like Oregon 78. So the procedure was basically to close 15 or 20 miles of road and let the trucks proceed alone to a place where they could pull over enough to allow other traffic to squeeze by, one lane at a time. Then they would close the next stretch of road and repeat. The flagger we first saw was actually part of team of about ten workers who were managing all this, many of them zipping around in unmarked but new looking black pickup trucks that were rushing back and forth on the closed sections. What was the purpose of those blue boxes, you ask? Beats us. It’s not like they were advertising.
Despite this delay, we got to Winnemucca early enough to walk around a bit before dinner. The rain had paused.
At 5:00 we went to our old favorite restaurant to have some dinner, but there we had a shock. Although it was still open, it had gone downhill, way downhill. We did not go in, and instead looked for somewhere else, which turned out to be–quite unexpectedly–a Korean restaurant. Are there lots of ethnic Koreans in Winnemucca? Well, we aren’t sure, but we very strongly doubt it. The owner/manager of the restaurant is a Korean woman who married an American paratrooper while he was stationed in her native country. The restaurant’s name is Koreana, and the food is good.
After dinner we went out to our glampsite in Grass Valley, about 13 miles south of Winnemucca. Yes, friends, we stayed in the “Billy the Kid” glamping tent at Star Gaze ranch so you don’t have to. Our accommodation there was a large tent set on a platform a few feet above the ground. Inside were a queen bed, a wood stove, a solar powered charging station, a propane heater, a couple of board games, three books about old west outlaws, and one BB gun with lots of extra BBs. Toilet facilities were–as one reviewer put it–“interesting but functional.” On the platform outside the tent there was room for a porch with two Adirondack chairs. Also outside, on ground level, there was a gas fired grill, a gas fired pizza oven and a metal bowl fire pit, as well as a rack of hanging targets to test your prowess with the BB gun. There was also a five gallon container of what the hosts called spring water, which was, in fact, delicious.
The bed was comfortable and the bedcovers were thick. The place was cold and rain was pounding down, but we lit a fire in the wood stove and things got toasty fast. (Eventually, when we let the fire burn down, it got colder fast too.) Somewhat to our surprise, we did not perish in the night.
Here’s the scene. In the background is the view to the north.
And here’s the view toward the west. It’s what you see if you sit in the Adirondack chairs. These two photos are were actually taken early in the morning on Tuesday, when the weather had cleared.
Monday, April 27th
We had opted for the extra cost breakfast and it was delivered promptly at 8:00 from the ranch house a few hundred yards away. For each day we ordered one breakfast sandwich (delicious!), one order of Danish pastry (ditto!), and one large thermos of what the hosts called coffee. It was weak, but it was hot and there was lots of it. The sandwich and pastries also arrived nice and warm. That was a very good thing, as the outside temperature was probably still in the 30’s at this point. We were running the propane heater, but it wasn’t doing much.
Our plan for the day was to drive down the freeway to Imlay and then take Pioneer Road north into the mountains. We had hoped to go up through Rosebud Canyon and onward to the ghost town of Sulphur at the northeast end of the Black Rock Desert. But it looked like the weather wasn’t going to cooperate. While it was not raining where we were, the skies were heavily overcast and we could see the dark lines of active showers here and there in all directions. Going deep into the back county on deserted roads in bad weather did not seem wise.
In the end we decided to follow the lower reaches of Pioneer Road and gauge conditions as we went along. Pioneer Road–as the name implies–was a route used by gold seekers and settlers in the mid 1800’s. The main California Trail, which follows the course of the Humboldt River, ran mostly west across Nevada toward Central California. Travelers who wished to go to Northern California had to turn off the main trail near the present town of Imlay. That route to the north is now called Pioneer Road.
The actual place where the two routes split is a few miles north of Imlay. These days there is a natural kind of parklike area there. It’s a nice spot. Only a few people come there these days, but it is easy to imagine it crowded with weary travelers back in the mid 1800’s.
The weather was fairly nice at this point and we had hopes of being able to go a little farther.
But even as we tarried there by the river, the sky was getting a little darker.
We soon left the river and continued north for half an hour on Pioneer Road, reaching the top of a range of hills, where a small sign informed us that we had reached Imlay Summit. It had been raining lightly on the way up and then at the summit the rain had turned to very light snow. It was charming and pretty, but we turned around.
We did a little more low altitude exploring on the way back to our tent. In late afternoon the weather cleared and the temperature dropped. We had a camp dinner of sandwiches and a can of Amy’s soup heated on the wood stove. Again the tent was fairly warm as long as the fire was going. When the fire went out, we found some extra covers and got some sleep. But the night was colder than the previous night and around 4:00AM, we decided to start up the little propane heater.
Tuesday, April 28th
In the morning the weather was still clear and cold. When we got up, the sun had not yet risen over the small mountain range to the east; so our little world was pretty frosty, probably somewhere around 30F. While we waited for breakfast to arrive, we started packing up. When breakfast arrived, we chatted a bit with our host. He mentioned that a new lithium mine will soon be coming online just sixty miles from Winnemucca. The mine and its associated refining facilities will create hundreds of new jobs. For better or worse, that will have a big impact on the town.
(Currently there is only one lithium mine in the United States, a small operation near the town of Silver Peak, Nevada. The new mine near Winnemucca is expected to produce about forty times as much lithium as the Silver Peak mine. General Motors is a major investor in the new project. Interestingly, the U.S. Department of Energy also holds a 5% stake. Several more new lithium mines have been proposed in Nevada and Eastern Oregon and are in various stages of approval.)
By 9:00 we were on the road. The day’s plan was for us to begin the long drive home to Corvallis, returning not by the way we had come but by a route a little more off the beaten path. First we got on I-80 and drove thirty miles west to the town of Lovelock, where we filled up with gas. The station had a giant piece of a very old tree out in front facing the road.
We don’t know where this big section of log came from. It doesn’t seem like there would be any trees at all within a hundred miles of Lovelock.
Having gassed up, we got back on I-80 for another fifteen miles before exiting at a place called Toulon, the site of a now abandoned mineral refinery. There we turned north and took Ragged Top Road up into the Trinity Mountains. Our reasons for making this turn were simple, as can be shown by the map below.
Suppose you had been freezing to death in a tent just northeast of Imlay in the upper right corner of this map and you wanted to get to Gerlach in the upper left corner, because from Gerlach, you could eventually get to Lakeview, where you had reserved a nice warm motel room. Would you just take the freeway down to Fernley (bottom, left) and then drive up to Gerlach from there? Of course you wouldn’t. That would be crazy. Would you go down to Lovelock and turn right onto a dead end road leading to a mining area? No, that would be foolish. Wouldn’t it be best to go down to the center of the map where those three little lakes are and then turn off onto a scenic route that goes straight up to Gerlach? Of course it would. But wait, you say. Are you sure there’s a road there? Why isn’t it on the map? Tsk, tsk. Of course there’s a road, a lovely road. Just go to Toulon (the one in Nevada, not the one in France) and you’ll find it.
Just a couple of miles up Ragged Top Road, you can see how the road got its name.
The route took us across three small mountain ranges. Here we are at the top of the first one, looking down toward the road leading to the second one. This day the weather was nice.
Here’s what that straight stretch of road looked like after when we got down onto it. .
Just past the summit of the Trinities, we started to see antelope. We ended up seeing three separate groups of four, plus one singleton. A few miles away, we also saw a big coyote, who was moving too fast for a photo.
Whenever we came across one of the small herds, they would startle and bound away from us, their white rears bobbing up and down as they ran. But then at a certain distance away they would all stop at once and turn to gaze back at us.
After a couple of hours of lovely views and slow going, we came to the end of Ragged Top Road and got back onto pavement just twenty miles south of Gerlach. In that town–known famously as the Gateway to Burning Man, or, as the locals like to call it, The Center of the Known Universe–we stopped and ate our lunch at a tiny park.
From there we drove north to Cedarville, CA and thence up to Lakeview, OR, arriving there just before 5:00. We were glad to have a heated room and a pretty good restaurant just half a block away. It had been a long day.
Wednesday, April 29th
We drove home via Sprague River, Chiloquin, and Highway 58, which took us to Eugene. And, since we were there, E thought we might as well drop by the Oakway Mall where she might find some extra sunglasses and a new pair of summer pants.
Saturday, May 2nd
Back in Corvallis flowers are popping out everywhere. E went walking at Oak Creek with her friend B. She says she’d never seen so many delphiniums together in one place.
Monday, May 4th
Today E went out for a walk again, this time at Bald Hill with Graham and Graham’s owner. What did she find? More delphiniums!
Tuesday, May 5th
A while back we noticed that a pair of scrub jays had made a nest in our back garden. Now we see that the garden has a new resident.
Scrub jay parents care for their fledglings for about a month after they leave the nest. This one doesn’t seem to have been out very long.
