We packed up the Porsche and headed for the coast this morning, all due to the kindness of our friend P, who had offered to let us stay in her cottage in Yachats. We took Highway 20 west and it was top down weather all the way. From Newport we headed south and stopped in Waldport at the Pacific Sourdough Bakery, a place that we had heard a lot about. It’s incredible–so many different breads and pastries. How do they make it all? There was a long line of customers waiting outside, but it moved fast. We ended up getting a little more than we really needed; to wit: a raspberry puff, a pecan sticky roll, a potato knish, and a lavender lemon sourdough boule. They all turned out to be delicious. We must go there again–except that it’s 65 miles away…
We arrived in Yachats just before noon. P’s cottage is in a lovely spot just at the mouth of the Yachats River, a short walk from the town center. Yes, if there’s a tsunami, it will be the first to go, but it’s awfully nice now.
The weathered deck was beautiful. The coast at this latitude is an awesome place for things to grow.
Later on we went out on the deck to see the sunset.Some neighbors wading across the estuary, returning to their house at the end of the lane.
Sunday, August 28, 2022
After a breakfast of Chambeck espresso and Pacific Sourdough pastries, we went for hike on what they call the Amanda Trail. The trailhead was only half a mile from P’s cottage, so we decided to just walk the whole way. We found that the first part of the trail runs just beside the coast highway. Not terribly pleasant. Soon, though, it crosses the highway and climbs up onto a forested mountainside. From there the trail continues south with some nice views along the way.
Eventually the trail turns deeper into forest and descends into a steep valley at the base of Heceta Head. A suspension bridge crosses the stream and leads to a very strenuous trail up to the Heceta Head viewpoint. We wandered out onto the bridge, just to see how it was…
Our destination, however, was just beside the bridge. A wooden stair, which can be seen in the upper right of the photo above, leads down to a park-like meeting area dedicated to the memory of a Native American woman whose English name was Amanda.
Amanda was a blind Coos woman who was discovered by an army patrol and forcibly relocated to a camp known as the Yachats Sub-Agency. Since conditions in the agencies were disastrous, the “relocation” policy was in effect genocidal. Our knowledge of Amanda comes from the diary of Corporal Royal Bensell, a soldier who was a member of the unit that apprehended her. We will not tell her story here. Better that our readers examine for themselves the relevant excerpts from Bensell’s diary.
This ancient stump overlooks the shrine.
After the hike we rested and in the evening went to the Drift Inn for dinner. The Drift Inn is a fine place for dinner–or lunch or breakfast probably–but that’s only in its latest incarnation. For most of its long life the Drift Inn was a bar, a bar of the sort that caused some people–it is said–to cross the street rather than walk past its doors. You can read its colorful history here.
Sunday, September 4, 2022
Back in the valley, we celebrated Labor Day with a great dinner at K and J’s place in Salem. The Andees were there as well. J made elote (Mexican corn on the cob), chicken mole with lime rice, and some extraordinary margaritas. Dinner was served in their back yard, which is small but exploding with life.
Tuesday, September 6. 2022
In the morning we met with a woman named Yaddi in Lebanon and bought pre-paid cremation plans. Yaddi is a rare marketer–more interested in finding out what you want than in describing what they sell. In the afternoon we had even more fun. M had a root canal and E got stung on the foot by a yellow jacket. (Maybe we shoulda died yesterday–less painful.)
Wednesday, September 7, 2022
Just a normal day. A walk in the forest. A trip to the Co-op. E made potato salad and soaked her foot. Then the patio umbrella blew over despite the 150 pounds of sand in its base. With much effort, we got it back into place. Later, E went to see her seamstress. We ate the potato salad and washed it down with Argyle, a wonderful Willamette Valley sparkler.
M decided to get himself a take-out pizza for dinner. (Wed. is double stamp day!) So he called in his order and was told it would be ready in half an hour. He used that time to wash some lettuce and put together a salad. He already had a beer in the fridge. When he got to the pizza place his order wasn’t quite ready, so he paid and sat down to wait. Just a couple of minutes, they told him. The place wasn’t busy, just one person finishing in a booth and another who looked like he was also waiting for a take-out. And sure enough, after a few minutes a pizza came out of the oven and that other fellow got his pie. At this point things were looking pretty good for M. The next pizza out of the oven would surely be his! From where he was sitting the oven was partially visible, so as soon as it came out he would know. He could taste it already. Soon he saw the counterman turn and open the oven. M couldn’t see exactly what happened next but he heard a sort of muffled flopping sound and at the same time a strangled groan. He could see the counterman looking down at the floor. Not a good sign. M didn’t bother with denial or anger; he just went directly to despair. And then, perversely, a kind of joy. This had never happened to him before. It was a new experience…
Thursday, August 18, 2022
M is off on another overnight campout. He’s picked out a spot near the coast where the weather ought to be cooler. And yes, it’s another place, he thinks, to which tourists do not flock and for which locals have no use. As he nears his goal, he is struck by how different this forest is from the one in the Ochocos. The trees here are huge with an impenetrable understory of shrubs and berry bushes. The lush growth pushes in from both sides of the road, narrowing it considerably and threatening to scratch the sides of the new truck. The real problem, though, is that there is no place to park and pitch a tent. Just this endless, narrow one lane road. His map shows him a number of spur roads, but reality tells another story. In the end, though, he comes to something…
Hmm. What’s that little jog off to the right?
It’s a closed off road! With enough space for truck, a tent, a chair and a table.
It looks like a nice grassy spot, but when he tries to drive tent pegs, M is soon reminded it’s really an old gravel road with just half an inch of soil on top. He ends up anchoring the tent by tying it off to a couple of logs he finds nearby. When he finishes he looks at the logs again. How did they get here? How is it that they are exactly the size this purpose requires? Someone has been here before.
That’s leftover pizza, by the way, that M is cooking.
La hora de cenar y de estrenar la nueva mesa portatil.
You can’t tell from this, but that setting sun is way out over the ocean. The shore is less than ten miles away.
When the sun went down, it got dark fast. M stayed in his chair for a while, musing in the gloom. It was very, very quiet, as it had been ever since he arrived. He could hear his heart pushing blood around and for a short time he could hear a roaring sound from the south that must have been wind in the trees. As it got darker that sound faded. Then, at 9:34, when it was really quite dark, suddenly a tree or large limb came crashing to the ground somewhere nearby, something heavy and partly rotten collapsing down to rest.
Friday, August 19, 2022
Back in the Adirondacks, the annual “Cousins Week” reunion of the Chambers family is just winding up. As a final event, the family staged a re-enactment of an 1950’s photo of E, her parents and her three brothers. Some of the original participants are now departed, but Jesse, Tom and Henry–three younger members of the clan–graciously agreed to fill in for them. We regret not being able to show Henry’s handsome face, but his elegant handstand will go down in history. Photo credit to Anne, Henry’s mom, who has had years of experience dealing with the Chambers antics. Andrea and apprentice out-law Andy were also there to cheer them on.
Chambers family photo at Lake George in the 1950s. Left to right: John, Marvin, Ruth, Grant, Jim and Honey. E remembers that her mother–the upside down one–said that this was the only picture of herself that she liked.
The 2022 re-enactment. Left to right: John, Marvin/Jesse, Ruth/Henry, Grant/Tom, Jim and Eve/Honey
In the afternoon brother John transported E from the lake down south to the Hillbilly Fun Park, where he handed her off to Mrs H, who had driven north to pick her up. Did they have ice cream cones while they were there, you ask? Oh yes. Stopping for ice cream on the way to and from the lake is a Chambers family tradition. From her childhood E remembers her mother insisting upon it even though it made her father grumpy. On this day many years later, our three overage youngsters broke the HFP house rules by sitting in a pavilion bearing a sign saying “FOR SEEING EYE DOGS ONLY.” No one seemed to mind.
M’s Friday started at 2:00 in the morning when he woke to hear a few tiny drops making gentle landings on the roof of the tent. Very few in number and just barely audible, you wouldn’t think they were loud enough to wake a person. M’s brain must have left a few cells on watch while the rest slipped into dreams. What to do, what to do? M lay in his sleeping bag for a while listening to the drops, realizing that he really should get up and put the fly on the tent and maybe put his chair under the truck…
The rain sounds continued all night and into the morning. When he got up, M saw that it wasn’t really rain at all, just fog off the ocean jettisoning tiny bits of itself as condensation now and again. He had no trouble cooking his breakfast and eating it out in the open. Kinda nice out there amid the big, damp trees.
Saturday, August 20, 2022
On Saturday the Andees left the lake and headed down towards the Albany airport to depart for home. On the way they stopped to see E and Mrs H, who were delighted to see them and served them a lunch of Harts’ pizza and homemade cake.
Back in Corvallis, the large and bulky air mattress found a buyer! Another $50 gets added to our vast hoard of cash.
Sunday, August 21, 2022
Sunday was the big day for the reunion of The Ev–as E was known in college days–and her friend Botany. In between bouts of laughter, they polished off a fancy Greek lunch followed by American ice cream cones, then spent some time thinking of ways to celebrate the 60th anniversary of their friendship. Botany, aka The Plant, presented Ev with a copy of Michael Pollan’s book, The Botany of Desire, and kept another copy for herself. Although far apart, they will be able to enjoy the experience of reading it and comparing notes after each chapter. The day flew by.
Monday, August 22, 2022
Today E went to Saratoga to visit again with J & J. In order to gain entry to J’s senior residence, E needed a recent Covid test. When she arrived, they gave her a kit and told her to go back to her car to administer it, wait the required time, etc. Later in the day, she went to see her high school friend F for another happy reunion.
Twenty-five hundred miles almost due west, M went to take the garbage out and found this…
Tuesday, August 22, 2022
M thought that the Porsche needed exercise, so in the morning he took it for a spin over to the coast.
In the evening he drove the Mazda up to the Portland airport to pick up E. Her Delta flight was on time and we arrived back in Corvallis just before midnight. All four of the flights on this trip were on time and no luggage was lost. You know what they say: Ida y vuelta, vuele con Delta.
E has already started packing for her Wednesday trip to New York. She has several places she wants to visit and communications are flying as she tries to finalize dates and places. M is planning a solo camping excursion closer to home. He’s not at the packing stage, but earlier this week he had a vision of packing, which revealed to him that he needs a new duffel. That arrived today.
Sunday, August 7, 2022
Dinner with B and B at Momiji in North Albany. They’ve been busy as usual, with guests coming and going. Momiji is nice, and their menu has lots of photos to help you make sense of the sushi selection. E and M shared a large bottle of Kirin. Does everybody know that the Kirin logo was based on a long ago traveller’s description of a giraffe? Doesn’t look like a giraffe…
Tuesday, August 9, 2022
After spending an hour at the dentist, M went out to visit K and L and see about buying their old suitcase style solar panel. They don’t need it anymore since their new travel trailer has built-in panels on its roof. But will their old one work with M’s new Jackery battery pack? Initially it refused to cooperate, but M took it home anyway to fiddle with it.
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
M got the solar panel working by asking the Internet for advice and getting a simple answer right away. E finished packing, which was not simple but was very organized. Now she has to actually travel. There are all kinds of air travel horror stories going around. Airlines are cancelling 900 or 1,000 flights a day and apparently there are vast numbers of bags out wandering around trying to catch up with their owners. “Damn the torpedos,” says E, “I’m going to the lake.” Her first flight leaves Portland at 11:00 P.M. We put her on the Corvallis to Portland shuttle at 5:45.
Thursday, August 11, 2022
M packed up the new duffel and threw it in the truck along with the refrigerator, battery pack and solar panel. He headed east toward the Maury Mountains. He’s just guessing, but he expects that the Maurys don’t attract many visitors. He also expects that his route will take him right past the Sisters bakery…
While M was still in range of a cell tower, E texted to say that she was safely ensconced at Mrs. H’s place in Glens Falls and eating cookies. Both her flights were on time and no luggage was lost.
M was in Prineville at this point, where he stopped for gas. Yikes, guess what else stops at the Prineville Sinclair?
It’s a Hispano-Suiza, H6B. H6B’s were made between 1919 and 1929, so this car is at least 93 years old and possibly 103. It was running quite nicely. In 2020 a car very similar to this was sold at Amelia Island for about $250,000. Is the owner a movie actor or other celebrity? This being Prineville, probably not. More likely a tech nerd with heavy responsibilities in one of the cloud server barns just west of town.
From Prineville M heads for Post, Oregon, which is said to be the geographical center of the state. There are no giant server barns in Post, and no cell service either. And in fact there are no actual residences. At one time, though, it appears that there was food::
The first two lines say HOME MADE and FOOD. The third line could be AND. But that last line is tough. What goes with homemade food? Is it A) supper, B) supplies, C) supermarket, or D) strippers?
The featured dish sounds good to M..
And there it is: the Post, Oregon house of meatloaf! But as we might have guessed…it’s been closed for a while.
From Post, M went up into the mountains and found an out of the way spot to set up camp. The solar panel worked like a charm, putting out enough current to run the refrigerator and re-charge the Jackery battery at the same time. Once the sun went down the battery took over and kept things going till dawn. With this system, a person could just hunker down there on the mountainside and run that little fridge forever. Of course that’s about all a person could do. No water, no bathroom, no cell service, not very many stars
The solar panel is in the middle there, sitting up on a pack box, generating its last few watts of the day. The fridge and battery are in the back seat of the truck.
Why not many stars? Well, the night of Aug. 11-12 was a little strange in that it never really got dark.
The sun went down in the west like it was supposed to….
…but then the east started to light up as a strange looking cloud wafted in from the south.
And soon enough, the moon appeared. It must’ve stayed up all night…….because there it was in the morning.
Saturday, August 13, 2022
M is home now and having a hard time putting away his camping stuff. There’s no room in the garage. He needs to clear some space for his new stuff by getting rid of some of his old stuff. He starts making Craigslist ads for a car cover, an air mattress, and a radio controlled tank.
Sunday, August 14, 2022
E travelled with Mrs H to what they call the north country–the area not far from the Canadian border–to visit E’s aunt. She reports a wonderful visit with N, D and H in Malone, NY. Cousin H made the world’s most delicious cake in honor of her visit. One key to its success was an enhanced proportion of light fluffy sweet frosting.
After that, E and H also visited their long-time friend S, in Saranac Lake.
Monday, August 15, 2022
E arrived at the hamlet of Huletts landing on Lake George today, just in time for a happy hour reunion at Baby Brother’s cabin. Niece M served sumptuous hors d’oeuvre on a century old tea wagon. Nephew J and his wife L were also there along with A&A. After a lovely time, E and the two A’s headed back to their rental cabin, which is down by the post office.
In case you’re wondering if we’re making all this up, here’s a picture of Baby Bother himself at his actual house.
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Lots of swimming today. A swam from BB’s dock all the way around 2 peninsulas back to her rental cabin. It was an hour’s swim, with Andy paddle boarding along beside her. E swam over to the dock at nephew T’s rental house, but there was no one there; so she started swimming back to BB’s dock, only to be overtaken by T in a kayak, who accompanied her the rest of the way. They sat on the dock and had a long catch up chat. Soon E noticed another figure swimming towards them. It turned out to be T’s 16-year-old son, H, who came to join them.
After all that exercise and chatting, E took an inspiring nap in the loft of BB’s new cottage. Here’s a photo of the view from the loft bed. In the background is the main house.
E committed a serious error by not texting her whereabouts to her daughter, who became worried and issued a silver alert to various family members, one of whom reported that E was safely napping on the loft bed.
E contritely walked home and upon arrival found best son-in-law in the kitchen preparing dinner. Not a bad day: family, food, swimming and beautiful scenery. Meanwhile, M’s Craigslist offensive has stalled. The tank went fast, but no action on the other things.
M’s birthday! E made him a double chocolate sour cream bundt cake. She’s made it before and M loves it. E herself is less enthusiastic. She likes the chocolate chips that are baked in and also the richness that comes from adding the sour cream. But how, she asks, can anyone even think about a cake that doesn’t have any frosting at all? She ate a little to be polite. We had our friends D and S over to mark the occasion. We hadn’t had a chance to talk to them for a long time. Very nice.
As for presents, M got just what he wanted. E gave him a refrigerator (!) and M gave himself a solar capable battery pack to run it. These are for his latest project: equipping himself for low rent truck camping. He figures he just needs one or two more things. A little folding or roll-up camp table would be nice. And he may end up getting solar panels to charge the battery pack. But those are down the road a bit. First he has to get a new truck.
Monday, July 25, 2022
M sold his old truck to Carmax. We are both sorry to see it go. It was cute and tough. But its bed was too short to sleep in. Also, it’s color, alas, was controversial.
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
We went shopping in Salem today. E went to REI and Macy’s and got some summer cloths on sale. M went to a used car dealer (the horror! the horror!) and bought a new truck. It’s just like his last truck, but one year newer. Features include a more efficient engine, a longer bed, and less red paint.
Friday, July 29, 2022
Daytime highs have been in the upper nineties all week. We do our plant watering and truck dealing in the early morning. We walk mostly in the evening.
Saturday, July 30, 2022
We went on a guided butterfly and moth walk today. The event was sponsored by the Luckiamute Watershed Council and took place at a property owned by one the Council board members. What a lovely place! The ranch consists of 240 acres, much of it forested in Douglas fir, western red cedar, hemlock and valley pine. There are two streams and two largish ponds. There are also scattered open areas of various sizes that provide good habitat for butterfly and moth species. The landowners have been working with a lepidopterist and are in the process of creating some additional open spaces so as to create a ‘butterfly corridor’ across one end of the site.
The owners originally purchased the property as a timber investment, but soon began to appreciate it for its beauty and decided to live there. They built themselves a house with wonderful views and a big fish pond not far away. They also began giving attention to restoring the overall ecosystem of the site. Helped out by a couple of restoration grants, they first removed many acres of Himalayan blackberries and other invasive species and then replanted with natives. Another ongoing process involves the protection and expansion a small area of oak savannah. They believe that the savannah had once been much larger, but had suffered from Douglas fir encroachment that was encouraged by the forestry practices of previous owners.
The butterfly and moth walk started with a group of sixteen or so nature lovers sitting in the shade listening to Dana, an OSU lepidopterist, who gave us a basic introduction to the field. Dana then passed out butterfly nets to those who would have them and Dave, one of the land owners, took us on a walk to a part of the property where butterflies are common. As we started out, several of the group couldn’t wait to get into action and ran off into a field, nets flying. Others held back, thinking quite correctly that the really nice netting spots were a little farther along “You’ll see a lot of those later!” Dana called out to them as the rest of the group continued along the dirt road.
It was a lovely walk. People who caught things in their nets could take them to Dana to be identified, whereas people who were more interested in flora could ask Dave questions about how the area had been restored and what remained to be done. Everyone, though, sooner or later came round to the idea that Dana was a true master of the butterfly net. He’s a strong man with quick reflexes and thousands of hours of practice. His net moves faster than the eye can see. Whew.
We stopped at a pond that was crowded with dragonflies, including red skimmers. This one had lost a wing, but was still getting around pretty well.
Dana caught this eight-spotted skimmer and took it out of the net for the benefit of photographers. The skimmer seemed unharmed by it all. Dana told us that butterflies and skimmers are tougher than they look and that you can’t really harm them just by touching their wings.
Sunday, July 31, 2022
J and B came over this evening, along with retired hairdresser and bon vivant C. E made a Pavlova merengue with fresh berries and whipped cream. Our guests brought champagne. Delicious. We also took a turn about the yard to see what was thriving and what was not. We had our last sips of champagne outside on the patio, in the welcome cool of the evening.
Monday, August 1, 2022
M performed emergency surgery in the garden this morning. Last evening our friend B had noticed a trailing plant with white flowers in our newly expanded Hummock #1. Oh dear, said he, that’s bindweed. It turns out that bindweed (Convolvus arvensis) is a very obnoxious invader that is known and feared all over the world. It spreads quickly, strangling other plants as it goes. It is difficult to eradicate since it grows both from seeds and from roots. We don’t know where ours came from, but it was probably from a contaminated bag of mulch or potting soil. M has dug up what we could see, but it had already seeded some. We could be in for a long struggle. Or not.
Tuesday, August 2, 2022
E had a dental appointment this morning and was once again amazed at how pleasant the experience was. It began with the dental chair, so comfortable, so supportive. She felt like a leaf bobbing in the wind. The dentist himself is always so competent and uplifting. It’s true that there were no free cupcakes in the waiting room due to ongoing COVID constraints…but a lot of places have cupcakes. Not many places make you feel better when you leave than when you came in.
We had K(R) and L over for dinner. E made paella. Yum. For desert the guests brought strawberry pie. They have a connection to a family that has ever-bearing strawberry plants. Pretty tasty. K and L are going to Portugal in October, with travel arrangements being made by their son C. That sounds pretty good. Also of interest, K has a spare solar panel he wouldn’t mind parting with. Ah….
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
Highs only in the 80’s these days. Much nicer than last week. We hiked up Bald Hill today and when we got back to the car E noticed some bindweed in the parking area. We looked around. Oh no! There’s more of it along there! ‘Hello, 911? There is a plant emergency at Bald Hill Park.’
We went to a party in Salem yesterday and ran into one of Becca’s college friends. She and E had met briefly when Becca died, but they hadn’t seen each other since then and neither of them recognized the other. Becca’s friend is 47 now and has a sixteen year old daughter. When Becca died E invited her friends to take what they might want from among the things in her apartment. Michelle still has the moon and stars blanket that she took that day.
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
It’s time for the Oddball Plant Quiz! Can you identify these two? They don’t have much in common. One of them is mostly of interest to humans; the other is of interest to butterflies.
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
We have raspberry freezer jam! It hasn’t been easy. First there was the great pectin shortage of 2021 and now we find that 2022 has not been a good year for our local raspberries. They’re hard to find and expensive. But E was not to be denied.
The two taller jars–Aktürk and Tamek– are souvenirs from our time in Turkey. The answers to the Oddball Plant Quiz are potato and milkweed.
Friday, July 8, 2022
We got in the Porsche today and headed for the Washington Square Mall up in Portland. Our main purpose was to get a sample bonbon from See’s Candy. Other than that, M wanted to order some prescription sunglasses at Warby Parker and E had three stops in mind–Soma, Macy’s and Lulu Lemon. Success all around. Nice mall…and pretty busy on this Friday in July. On the way home we stopped in McMinnville for dinner. They had blocked off part of the historic district and we were able to stroll down 3rd Street and check out the scene. We went to McMenamin’s and ate outside.
Saturday, July 9, 2022
B and B came over for dinner. E made onion pie. One of the B’s friends took him fishing for sturgeon in the lower reaches of the Columbia. He caught (and released) three. In Oregon and Washington there are just a few ‘keeper’ days per year for sturgeon, and his day wasn’t one of them. Even on keeper days, the limit is one fish and there is a “slot” regulation that states that only fish of a certain size (44 to 50 inches) can be kept. All other days and all other sizes are catch and release. Barbless hooks are required.
The sturgeon species is said to be about 200 million years old, which means that sturgeon roamed the seas when dinosaurs roamed the earth. There have been a number of reports of very large sturgeon that have been caught in the Columbia River. The largest are reported to be over eleven feet long, are estimated to weigh over 500 pounds, and are thought to be over 100 years old. It is legal to catch these fish in both the US and Canada, but they cannot be removed from the water and thus can never be officially weighed and measured.
Sunday, July 10, 2022
M took the truck up into the mountains above Green Peter Reservoir. He was interested in a backpacking trail we had taken some twenty years ago to get into the Middle Santiam Wilderness. Did it still exist? It was missing from the newest edition of our favorite trail guide. Taking along his trusty 1990 paper map, he went looking for it. Did he find it? Of course not. But he saw some pretty sights and had a chance to go up some pretty sketchy roads. He found the road where the trail used to be, but found no sign of the trail itself. Instead he continued upward on Road 1142, which was pretty much abandoned. Tree branches were growing in from the sides and in places there was just enough room to get through without scratching the paint–hopefully. Then came the place that looked like it definitely would scratch the paint. M paused, then got out and spent some time clearing away the offending branches. Then he set off again up the hill. But alas, just twenty yards further on there were a couple of washing machine sized boulders blocking the road. Oops. He won’t be clearing those away. The new problem was how to turn around. The nearest good place was a long way back, maybe quarter of a mile? Too far to go in reverse. M had to make do with a not so good place. Good thing M’s truck is smallish.
Defeated by Road 1142, M took a little tour of Road 1152, where he found a place to have lunch near a small stream.
It’s been mostly rainless for a while now and this little creek looks like it’s almost ready to give up for the year.
Wednesday, July 13, 2022
Today is the first day of our trip Leavenworth, Washington. We got up early and were on the road by 7:30. By 8:45 we were nearing Portland and traffic on I-5 slowed to a crawl. Sigh. By the time we got into the city, things were better; but then we took a wrong turn trying to get out of town. A tough morning so far. We did get onto I-84 eventually and drove up into the Columbia Gorge. At Cascade Locks we crossed over the Bridge of the Gods and continued up the river on the Washington side where it’s quieter.
This is, of course, the new Bridge of the Gods. The original one was created about 500 years ago when a giant landslide filled up several miles of the gorge and dammed the river. Eventually the river broke through and washed the debris away, but for a time the local inhabitants were able to walk across the gorge if they really wanted to.
We had a windy picnic at a small rest area about 40 miles up river.
In the early afternoon we left the gorge and turned north on U.S. 97. This took us past Goldendale and later through the Yakima Nation and on to Ellensburg. From there the route was dry and empty but quite spectacular.
Stopping for a driver change provided this view of Mt Adams. Adams was one of the many peaks that we saw from Gray Butte hike earlier this summer. From there, Mt. Adams was about 100 miles north. From here, it’s about 50 miles southwest.
We arrived at Leavenworth around 4:00 in the afternoon. It’s a tourist town nestled in a pretty mountain valley on the east side of the Cascades. The central part of town has exclusively Bavarian (or possibly faux Bavarian) architecture and lots of Bavarian food. For dinner on Wednesday we had käsespatzel, red cabbage, and Bavarian goulash at a cellar restaurant called Andreas Keller. Also big glasses of German beer. A little heavy? Uh…yeah. Good though, especially that cabbage.
Thursday, July 14, 2022
Here’s where we stayed in Leavenworth:
Oh wait. Sorry, wrong Leavenworth. This accommodation is in Leavenworth, Kansas, which was named for Henry Leavenworth, a 19th century army officer. Leavenworth, Washington was named after Charles Leavenworth, a 19th century land speculator. We have heard, though, that Charles Leavenworth and Henry Leavenworth were brothers! Or was it cousins? Second cousins? Second cousins once removed? Something like that. Maybe. Frankly, it’s a little unclear. Our research has confirmed, however, that the two men did indeed have the same last name.
Anyway, here’s are some pictures from Charlie’s town as it is today:
Our biggest challenge for the day was to take an e-bike tour of the area. We hadn’t been on bicycles of any kind for quite a few years and on an e-bike never. Turns out they are pretty fun. Coco, our very efficient tour leader, helped everybody get familiar with the bikes before we started. The tour route covered sixteen miles and included two longish uphill stretches. We ended up saddle sore, but happy to have dared do something new without ending up in the ditch.
Coco took this picture of us when we stopped alongside the road about three miles from the center of town.
Here’s the same scene, without all those people in it.
After our longish bike ride we retired to the comfort of the big Jacuzzi tub in our room. We were staying in a room called Dream Suite 4 booked through the Obertal Inn. It was very large and very comfortably furnished, with an almost complete kitchen and a dining table in a bay window overlooking the main street of Bavarialand. Workout followed by shower followed by Jacuzzi. Very good. For dinner we got take-out bratwurst from München Haus–one meat and one veg–plus carrots and celery brought from Oregon. Also wine. Enough with the beer already.
Friday, July 15, 2022
Today we hiked on the Tumwater Pipeline Trail, getting up early so as to avoid the hot part of the day. The Tumwater Pipeline was a penstock, taking water from the Wenatchee River and carrying it two miles down the river to a generating plant. The story of the pipeline begins in 1893, when the Great Northern Railroad built a line across the Cascades, finally completing their direct link between Seattle and St. Paul, Minnesota. The line crossed the mountains at a place called Stevens Pass at an altitude of 4,055 feet. It was an impressive feat of engineering, but because of the steepness of the terrain, it was a slow and complicated process to get a train across it, especially in the winter. To make things easier, the railroad decided it needed a tunnel. Accordingly, a 2.7 mile tunnel was completed in 1900. But the tunnel was unventilated and the smoke from the steam locomotives sometimes built up to toxic levels. To address this new problem, the railroad wanted to use electric locomotives to move trains through the tunnel. But that required building a power plant of some kind.
The railroad decided to build a hydropower station on the Wenatchee River near the town of Leavenworth. Four miles up river from the town, a diversion dam fed water into a large pipeline. The water flowed down the pipeline to a generator station, where it drove three turbines to produce electricity. When it was completed in 1909, it was the second largest hydropower station in the U.S., the largest being the Westinghouse Niagara Power Station. In 1927 the railroad changed the route of the line, bypassing Leavenworth. At that time the power station was sold to a local utility company.
While the power station continued to produce electricity well into the 1960’s, the town of Leavenworth nearly disappeared after the railroad line moved. It remained moribund from 1927 until the late 1960’s/early 1970’s when it reinvented itself as–yes, you guessed it–a Bavarian themed tourist town.
The main thing that remains from 1909 is an iron bridge that carried the pipeline–or penstock, as it was called–across the Wenatchee to the power station.
The hike starts at the bridge and then follows the path of the pipeline up the far side of the river. Very little of the actual pipeline remains. Records show that it was eight feet in diameter and was made of wood lathes bound with a steel wire mesh. It must have been quite a sight.
After the hike we moved on to our next major goal: a visit to the Bavarian Bäkerei. The Leavenworth BB is one of those bakeries that really isn’t open all that much, especially not when you want it to be. But we had studied the matter and we were pretty sure that now, mid morning on a Friday, we would almost surely find success. And so it was. First we found our primary targets: two generous pieces of apple strudel. (How could apple strudel not happen if you put a Bavarian town into the largest apple growing region in the world?) Then M got himself an éclair, which he ate almost immediately. We saved the strudel for later.
By then it was time to leave Bavaria and head back to Oregon, where we planned to stay the night in The Dalles. Before leaving Bavaria, we couldn’t help but take one last look around…
Later in the day, as we were driving south through the middle of Washington, we found ourselves low on gas just as we were crossed into the Yakima Nation. Oh serendipitous day! Turns out that gas on the rez is forty cents a gallon cheaper than it is anywhere else. E says that we should always come here when we need gas.
We got to The Dalles at around 4:00 and checked into a Shiloh Inn. We’d booked a room with one queen bed and that’s what we got. The only odd thing was that there was a large empty space where another queen bed had once been. The padded headboard was still attached to the wall. Did management move the bed or did a previous guest walk off with it? In any case, the Shiloh was okay, partly because there was a great outdoor pool with plenty of clean towels. E was very happy.
Saturday, July 16, 2022
Breakfast at the Shiloh was a study in contrasts: terrible coffee and good strudel. Then we zipped down to Portland, paid a visit to the Bridgeport mall, and got back to Corvallis at a reasonable hour. It’s amazing what you can do with proper nutrition.
Name Changes! You may not feel ready for any more earthshaking changes in the world right now. But these are easy ones–we hope. Because After the Purge is now After the Plague, and the Pandemic/Endemic Diary is now Eve and Michael’s Meandering on the WayDiary.
And speaking of the word “meander,” we remember the time when we were on a long bus ride in Turkey. Along the way we caught several glimpses of a river called the Büyük Menderes. We later learned that the ancient Greeks called it the Miandros. Greek travelers who saw it were struck by its extremely winding nature. Back in Greece, people started using the word figuratively, to describe anything that moved indirectly or aimlessly. Eventually this usage came into English as the word meander. About ten years ago a fellow named Jeremy Seal decided to float down the Büyük Menderes in an inflatable canoe. He’s written a book about the experience and also posted a slideshow.
Saturday, June 11, 2022
Rain off and on today. What a difference from Nevada. Our yard is spiraling out of control. Cocker Spaniel sized plants are turning into St. Bernards.
Sunday, June 12, 2022
Cloudy and damp, but only raining a tiny bit. M mowed the lawn, front and back. Including time out for a necessary nap, it took him all day.
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
We went into the forest today and hiked the Vineyard Mountain Trail. We saw tons of wild iris, way more than we had seen in previous years. We used to be happy if we saw a dozen in a season; we saw many dozens just today.
Wednesday, June 15, 2022
E went for a tour of a native plant nursery run by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. On her way home she took a side road so as to go past Sarah Helmick State Park. Near the park she came to a stop. A mother skunk was shepherding five tiny babies across the road. The process kept the mother skunk very busy, as she had to keep circling them to keep them together. The crossing was slow, but it looked to E as if they were going to make it.
Friday, June 17, 2022
A somber day today. In the morning E spoke to a longtime friend, who revealed that she had just gotten a cancer diagnosis–a bad one. And in the afternoon E went to the funeral of another friend, someone that she had known since her early days in Corvallis. Either you die, we say to ourselves, or you watch your friends die. Some choice. E says that there were a number of children at the funeral. The young ones so cute, the older ones so handsome…
Sunday, June 19, 2022
We went back to the Luckiamute State Natural Area today. This time we wanted to take the trail that goes east toward the confluence of the Willamette and South Santiam rivers. The first half of the hike was easy. It went along the edge of a field, much of it covered with wild flowers. The bees were going crazy over the yellow and white ones
The last part of the hike went through a riverside forest. That was a little harder. In some places the trail was flooded and we had to detour through the brush.
Finally we came to the place where the rivers come together. It turns out that just before the Santiam flows into the Willamette it splits into two channels. Here’s a Google Maps satellite view.
The arrow in the satellite photo shows where we got to today. Below is a photo that E took from that spot. She’s looking across the Willamette to where the smaller of the Santiam channels comes in.
You may notice that there appear to be sandy beaches in the satellite photo. There are no such beaches in E’s picture. That’s because the river levels were much higher today than they were when the satellite took its picture. We’re imagining that the amount of water passing by here today must be more than what flows through all the rivers in northern Nevada in a week.
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
For the last week or so we’ve had a long stretch of clouds with cool, damp weather. And now–just when the calendar says it’s summer–suddenly it is summer. Sunny and warm today, with more of the same in the forecast.
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
What a year it has been for flowers! And what a year for weeds! Mornings are still cool–nice conditions for working outside. E is heroically thinning the good apple tree, M is working on the watering network, and both of us are weeding. We are not used to the heat though, so even though it’s only in the 80’s, we spend the afternoons resting inside.
Thursday, June 23, 2022
Tertulia this morning with R and J. They’ve just come back from a trip to San Francisco, during which 1) they had the catalytic converter stolen from their Prius while it was parked at a motel, and 2) they attended two performances of the San Francisco Opera. One of the operas was Don Giovanni and the other was a modern work inspired by (gasp!) The Dream of the Red Chamber. They loved Don Giovanni; they weren’t so sure about the other.
The Dream of the Red Chamber, a.k.a. The Story of the Stone, is a vast and immensely popular 18th century Chinese novel, one that M wrote about extensively in the very early years of this blog. To see his description of the novel, click here, here and here. The same material–with fewer typos–is also included in The Last Bookshelf.
After coffee, it was time for more yard maintenance. M mowed and weeded. E weeded, fought the mite wars, and planted a new Russian sage. Then, after a suitable period of rest, we went to Ba’s Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. Delicious. Still a fairly limited menu, but all very good. And, finally, they have their beer/wine license. M had a pFriem pilsner.
Sunday, June 26, 2022
A memorial gathering was held today for E’s friend and yoga teacher Susan Meyer. E helped plan the event and had spent part of Friday helping clean up the venue, an old schoolhouse out in the country. She also made biscotti for the crowd, using a recipe that Susan had given her. When teaching yoga Susan often used to read poems at the beginning and end of each class. At the gathering E read two of them: When I Am Among the Trees by Mary Oliver and Unfolding Bud by Naoshi Koriyama.
Items on display included two cane chairs that Susan herself made.
Is that a spelling error in this picture of the old schoolhouse? Or did they just run out of em’s?
So, that was one thing. Closer to home, today was also Becca’s birthday. She would have been 47. A number of E’s friends and relatives called or sent messages to let her know they were thinking of her. Late in the evening, E and M shared a small piece of chocolate cake to mark the occasion.
Monday, June 27, 2022
Another very warm day, downright hot. We did our weekly shopping and a few chores outside. M has started a painting project in the garage. Everything was pretty normal–right up until about 4:00 PM, at which point E started on a rhubarb pie. It’s in the oven now and the aroma is wafting down the hall toward the study. Salad and pie is the menu for tonight’s dinner…
Left home at 8:22 this morning in a steady downpour. The rain eased when we got to Tombstone Pass. Going up to the next pass, we went by the Potato Hill snow park. Funny to see the trailhead with no snow. Then came Lost Lake, which was definitely not in its lost phase. It was as full as we’ve ever seen it. There are patches of snow here and there, but it’s melting fast.
Stopped at Sisters Bakery around 11:00 to stock up on delicacies for tomorrow’s breakfast.
Departed Sisters at 11:10, headed for Burns, with EC driving. The trip was not without difficulty. EC had to buy gas twice, and also pass other vehicles at least 4 times, not to mention driving straight through what should have been her lunch hour. How could this be happening? We finally reached Burns at 1:35 and went to our favorite picnic park. After a very nice lunch of MW’s finest sandwiches, we took off again towards Winnemucca with MW at the wheel, thank goodness. Beautiful country with strange plateau formations rising out of sagebrush flatlands.
Arrived in Winnemucca around 6:00. We stayed at Scott’s Shady Court, which we remembered dimly from days gone by. It’s still lovely: a large property with dozens of big trees situated in a residential neighborhood a few blocks away from the main drag. The Shady Court first opened in 1923, a time when automobile travel was just getting started. It began as one long, low building divided into a row of ten or so “housekeeping” units. Three of those old units still exist, tucked way in the back and long unoccupied. We peered in through the dusty windows to see how they were laid out. Each unit had a narrow, doorless “garage,” a bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen. There are no furnishings or appliances now, but we could identify the kitchen by the old porcelain counter with a built-in sink. These days the Shady Court consists of five such long, low structures, all seemingly constructed in different eras. There must be about seventy rooms all told; only seven or eight were occupied on the night we were there. One nice thing about the Shady Court is that all the buildings–older and newer–are single sided, which means that every unit can have a window in the rear as well as the front. We loved having that natural ventilation, not to mention hearing the birds sing through the open windows.
On this visit we stayed in a unit that we think was from the seventies. We’re at the far left.
Back in the 1990’s we stayed in one of these older units. Since then they’ve been repainted and named after saints. We’re betting, though, that they are pretty much the same inside, especially as to size, which was tiny.
The property was operated by several generations of the founding family for 97 years and then sold to the present owner in 2019. The present owners are a father and son. They are very nice and we wish them good luck. They will need it.
As you may have guessed, we feel some affection for Winnemucca. The main street is pretty bad, as it is in all of the little gambling towns along I-80. In Winnemucca the casinos are mostly small and maybe a little shopworn with names like The Winners Hotel, Lucky J’s, The Roadhouse, The Sundance, the R&L Casino and Lounge, and Parker’s Model T. But the rest of the town is just a place where people live, mainly working people, some of them in new homes scattered on the hills around the town and some of them in the old town, in small, tidy houses built on ridiculously wide streets.
Our favorite place to eat is The Martin Hotel, which was founded in 1913 by French immigrants Augustine and Elisee Martin. During much of the twentieth century, many sheepherders and stockmen in the area were of Basque origin and the Martin Hotel became their home whenever they were in town. After Augustine Martin died, the restaurant and hotel were owned by a succession of Basque families. Many of the current menu items are based on Basque recipes preserved from that era. Today the Martin serves a six course meal with standard sides and your choice of entrée. Seating is family style, so you always get to meet some new people. This time we got to talking with a farm wife from Utah who was in Winnemucca visiting her brother.
The current structure was built in 1920. It is located on the corner of Railroad and Melarkey streets.
The main entrance is on Railroad Street.
Behind the cute façade on Railroad Street, the structure extends northward down Melarkey Street. During Prohibition, a speakeasy operated on the second floor. When it was raided, revenue agents poured out barrels of whiskey onto the ground. Legend has it that residents came rushing outside with spoons and cups as a whiskey river flowed down Melarkey Street.
When we came outside after finishing dinner, an Amtrak train was just pulling up to the tiny Winnemucca Station. We were excited to see it because we were passengers on that same train back in March.
We drove 478 miles today. Note to selves: That was too many miles for one day. Seriously.
Tuesday, June 7, 2022
The day’s plan was to go up to a place called Paradise Valley and see what we could find there. Having heard us mention Paradise Valley, one of our dinner companions at The Martin–a UPS driver by day–had suggested we might want to go to Mount Hinkey as well. The owner of the Shady Court had suggested we might want to stop in at the Paradise Valley saloon and get Nita to make us some lunch. So, we filled up with gas and off we went.
A little less than an hour later, we were in the tiny town of Paradise Valley. We easily found the saloon, which did not look inviting, and also a lovely little square called Firemen’s Park. There were two roads out of Paradise Valley. A helpful sign showed us that one went north to Mount Hinkey and one east toward a place called Chimney Dam Reservoir. We headed north. The road was unpaved, but it was wide, level, and smooth–at least for the first few miles.
Mount Hinkey is the mountain with the snow on it. The road to the summit goes up to that little notch just to the right of the peak. From down here, the road that leads to the summit is the one that goes straight ahead. Nice road, eh? The road that veers off to the left goes to a place called Solid Silver, at least according to a weather beaten sign. In some ways, this is an even nicer looking road. Too bad we couldn’t go check it out.
We continued on the nice, smooth main road. After a while it turned narrow, rough and steep. We climbed and climbed, and eventually we arrived at the summit, elevation 7,850 ft. .
Should we continue down the other side? No, we had other plans.
We needed to go down the road we had just come up. This would take us back to Paradise Valley, which we knew was hidden under that bunch of trees in the left center of this photo.
Here’s the biggest building in the town of Paradise Valley. Once it was the Micca Saloon. Another time it looks to have been the Korral Bar. It looks pretty empty now. The current town saloon is down the street more in the middle of town . The new saloon is in better shape than the old one, but not by a whole lot. It is also a lot smaller.
We had some snacks and fruit juice with us, so we didn’t actually have to go into the Paradise Valley saloon for lunch; but we thought maybe we should. It was an old wooden building, once painted a sort of beigey color. It didn’t have a sign, but there were some tables and chairs out in front and it just didn’t have the look of a residence. Also, there was a big gravel parking lot next to it. We pulled in and parked. As we were getting out of the truck, we noticed a short older woman out in front wiping off a table. As we approached, she gave us a less than welcoming look, then turned back and went inside, closing the door behind her. Not surprisingly, we were somewhat hesitant at this point. But it seemed that M had made up his mind. He opened the door and in we went.
We entered to see an eight-stool bar along the right side of the room. In the center, there were two tables. On the left wall was a big old velvet couch, seven or eight feet long with a high curved back and dark wooden arms. But before we could really look around, we had to deal with Nita. She was standing behind the bar looking skeptical. M started rambling about how Chris, at Scott’s Shady Court, had told us we really ought to drop by here because Nita made a great cheeseburger. “The grill menu’s on the whiteboard,” said Nita grudgingly and pointed toward the far end of the bar where the board was located. Now that was definitely a thaw in relations, not enough to make anyone real comfortable, but a start. We dutifully walked farther into the room and examined the board. There were four items: hot dog, hot dog with cheese, hamburger, cheeseburger.
After a minute we sat down at the bar and M ordered a cheeseburger. Then E had to negotiate a meatless burger for herself. You might think that Nita would have been annoyed by this, but that didn’t happen. Apparently she was a woman who appreciated a challenge where cooking was concerned. When she was done, E was quite pleased with the result–a grilled bun with cheese, lettuce and tomato, kind of amazing. M found the cheeseburger excellent also. E asked Nita what the bar’s hours were and how late she had to work. Nita said they stayed open as long as the customers wanted to stay, sometimes till midnight or later. But then she added, “But that’s only if they’re drinking. If they’re just bullshitting, we throw ’em out.”
To continue the day’s adventures, we took the other road out of town, the one that led east into the sagebrush. The area is not densely inhabited. At first we passed a few scattered ranches. By the time we were ten miles from town, however, it was pretty much just us and the sagebrush. We came to a number of road junctions, none of them with any signage whatever. With the help of a pretty good map, and we made to Chimney Dam Reservoir without undue difficulty.
From Chimney Dam Reservoir we had a choice of two roads. M leaned toward the one, E toward the other. M finally saw that E was right. E is good at map reading; M is better at noticing and reading signs. As we set out on the correct road, M noticed a yellow sign with black letters. “Road not maintained.” it said, ” Travel at your own risk.” Which is what we did. And it was fine.
We loved seeing these horses seemingly in the middle of nowhere. They didn’t look wild, but on the other hand, they were running free on the open range. Nevada hillsides like this are green for just a very short time in the spring. Most of the year, they’re parched and brown.
A few miles past the horses we came to an abandoned ranch. If you look closely, you might be able to see the house in the middle.
Not having seen another vehicle for over an hour, we were heading south on Kelly Creek Road when we noticed a huge mining operation to the west of us. All we could see were huge piles of tailings. Only the uniformity of the piles made them stand out from the natural landscape. Soon the road turned east and we left the mine behind. A while later, we caught our first sight of Kelly Creek. We knew from the map that we had been going parallel to the creek, but we’d never seen it. But now suddenly it was right in front of us running quite swiftly across the road. That gave us pause, but it was less than a foot deep and the truck crossed easily. More dirt roads and several hard to decipher junctions followed. We had many miles to go at speeds of 25 to 40, so it took several hours. E was very relieved when we got back to pavement and got up to 70. We arrived in Elko around 6:00, both feeling like we had again done a little too much driving. We ate leftover Basque food in our hotel room and later went across the street to take a walk in a beautiful park where we found majestic trees and a group of old log buildings from the early days of the European invasion.
Wednesday, June 8, 2022
On this day the goal was to go up into the Ruby Mountains and spend the night in a tent. Thankfully, this involved very much less driving–just 35 miles or so, all on pavement. We arrived at the Thomas Canyon campground at about 10:30. We hadn’t reserved a site, but there were a couple of good ones available. The area was spectacular. As soon as we settled on a spot, we packed our lunches, put on our hiking shoes, and headed up a nearby trail.
It was beautiful, and it would have been nice to go up to where the trail entered the snowfields at about 9,000 feet. But at 8,400 we were having a lot of trouble getting enough oxygen. We decided that where we were was a good place to sit down and have our lunch. Then it was back down to the campground to set up our tent and have a rest. We made a dinner of Amy’s soup, Albertson’s French bread and a bagged salad, followed of course by cookies and a crazy sunset.
When the sun was gone, the moon came by. It wasn’t full, but it was fat enough. M talked E into a moonlit drive just eight more miles up the main canyon, to a place called–appropriately enough–Road’s End. The road ended at a large circ amid some craggy peaks. There was a wide, empty parking lot and a rushing stream that came out from under a snow field just a few hundred yards away. We got out and walked around a little, but we didn’t stay long. It was darn cold and our sleeping bags back at camp were calling to us.
Thursday, June 9, 2022
Here’s a photo of E sleeping in while M was out trying to video the quaking aspen as they quaked.
We survived the cold night in our little tent. Had a nice breakfast in the surprisingly warm morning sun. Packed up the tent and gear and headed off westward toward home. We stopped in Winnemucca for lunch at McDonald’s and for gas at Fast Eddie’s. But Fast Eddie’s pumps were acting sickly, so we moved on to Chevron. After that we had a long drive on Oregon 140, heading westward and ending up in Lakeview, Oregon at the Fremont Inn. Deluxe suite with a flush toilet and everything. Okay dinner at nearby El Aguila. No aspen, no sagebrush, all roads paved.
Friday, June 10, 2022
We left Lakeview at 9:30 am and drove up past Abert Lake, then Summer Lake, which is mostly dried up. This seems like better cattle country, much greener than the past few days in Nevada. We drove OR 31 through Fremont/Winema National Forest and then crossed the Cascades on OR 58. Around 1:00 E drove us into Oakridge where we could get a very nutritious lunch at the DQ. This consisted of celery & carrots in car as an appetizer and then sundaes in the restaurant: a small hot fudge for E and a medium chocolate for M. Yum. To E’s relief M drove the rest of the way home. We got home around 3:00 and started unpacking and also rustling up a small hors d’oeuvre to take to B and B’s house for happy hour. It was great to see them. We traded stories about our respective travels. Us: three days in the Nevada outback. Them: a month touring the west coast of Italy. Hmm.
E did Zoom yoga today and followed it up with an hour or so of weeding flowerbeds. She reports that yoga and weeding are not completely compatible, spiritually or physically. It might be better to do the weeding first.
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
It took two of us, but the long-delayed weeding of the raspberry patch got done today. It had been years. We are both exhausted. Meanwhile, flowers are popping out everywhere.
Hummock #3
Iris #14
Exploring one’s inner iris
(Camas lily video 5332, originally scheduled for this space, is currently on back order with delivery expected by June 11.)
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Today is our anniversary. To celebrate we went off for a two-day stay at the coast. Our plans for the first day included a dock tour, a nice dinner, and the opening of a new box of Burst’s chocolates, preferably in that order.
Our tour took us to Newport’s Dock #5. Our guide was Angee Doerr, an OSU Extension Marine Fisheries Specialist. Dock #5 is the commercial fishing dock at Newport. In terms of total catch, Newport ranks third among Oregon’s four commercial fishing ports. It ranks second, however, in terms of catch value. Doerr took us around the docks and showed us how the various boats were rigged for different kinds of fishing. We saw examples of rigging for tuna, halibut, hake, rockfish, crab, shrimp, squid, hagfish…and probably some more we don’t remember. Doerr also explained how several fisheries at Newport have achieved sustainable fishery certification. In addition to controls on how many fish of each species can be taken in each season, certification also requires the reduction or elimination of “by-catch.” By-catch occurs when non-target species are caught by accident in the nets or other equipment that fishermen are using. By-catch is an especially serious problem in tuna and shrimp fisheries. In some traditional shrimp fisheries, for example, the total catch is about 10% shrimp and 90% other species. Doerr showed us how the Newport fisheries, working with researchers at OSU’s Marine Science Center, have addressed the by-catch problem for both the tuna and shrimp fisheries. Newport was the first shrimp fishery in the U.S. to be certified sustainable.
It was interesting to the hear about hagfish, which are also known as slime eels. They are very weird creatures and are considered a great delicacy in Korea. Newport has an active hagfish fishery which involves catching them in special barrels and also keeping them alive for shipment to Korean kitchens. In 2017 a truck carrying live hagfish from Newport overturned on the Pacific Coast Highway. The result was a sliming of epic proportions.
After the tour, it was time for lunch. We walked over to Mo’s Annex on the bay front and had ourselves some chowder. Mo’s has been a Newport fixture since 1946 and is very much thriving under the management of the founder’s granddaughter. It is a wonderful place whose menu still reflects its working class origins.
Later on we went to dinner at Local Ocean. M had Moqueca De Peixe, a Brazilian fish stew with rockfish, scallops, wild prawns, and Dungeness crab (all obtained hyper fresh from Dock #5 across the street) plus mushroom, bell pepper, tomato, onion, and cilantro in a coconut milk broth. Stunning. E had grilled hoisin black cod (also from Dock #5), which came with asparagus, green beans, fresh orange, shiitake mushrooms, onion, red bell pepper, yakisoba noodles and sesame seeds. She liked it very much. The owner of Local Ocean comes from a local fishing family and has an MS in Marine Resource Management from OSU.
We seriously doubt that Mo Niemi (founder of Mo’s restaurant) had a master’s degree in anything, and yet the two businesses seem to be part of the same tradition of being deeply rooted in the local community and very committed to the well-being of that community.
Here’s the view from our table on the second floor of Local Ocean, showing the dock area that we toured earlier. If we had taken good notes, we would able to tell you what kind of fish each of those boats is rigged for. Alas, we’re past that now. We’re still good at eating, though.
Thursday, May 26, 2022
In the morning we drove from Newport down past Waldport and Yachats to Heceta Head and went hiking–not to the lighthouse but inland up to a little valley called China Creek. Vegetation is lush in these parts.
Even some of the dead limbs of this tree are covered with plant growth.
A wild rhododendron blossom just coming out. Once in full bloom, the petals will be much lighter in color.
At a certain point on the trail, we came to a sign hanging from a rope stretched across the trail. China Creek Trail Closed, it said, Due to Bridge Damage. M wanted to just keep going and see what sort of bridge damage it was. E wasn’t so sure. “What if it’s not really bridge damage at all?” she said. “Huh?” replied M. “They’ve probably been spraying toxic chemicals and they don’t want anyone to know,” E explained. M thought that seemed unlikely. We ended up going around the sign and continuing up the trail. The area turned out to be quite beautiful, rather like a city park with a think layer of moss instead of grass. After we had walked a half a mile or so past the closed sign, we started wondering when, if ever, we would come to the supposedly damaged bridge. At this point E suggested another possibility. Maybe the CIA had established a top secret facility higher up in the China Creek valley. Hmm. After another half a mile or so, we finally came to a damaged bridge. So that was a relief. But wait, what if it was just a decoy? What if someone had deliberately damaged the bridge just to have a plausible excuse to close the trail?! Maybe a flying saucer had crashed up there and the government was trying to keep it quiet. Yeah, that could be it…
After the hike, we ate our lunch at Washbourne State Park, then took a walk on the beach.
The trail leading to the beach at Washbourne.Sand and things
For dinner, we were able to walk over to the Rogue Ales brewery. The restaurant was jammed, so we ate in the bar, which turned out to be very pleasant. After that, we had a little more chocolate and a (very small) bottle of sparkling wine.
Friday, May 27, 2022
Drove back to Corvallis, arriving around noon, just in time to get some takeout tacos from La Rockita.
Saturday, May 28, 2022
E spent the middle of the day volunteering at a Get Outdoors Day event designed to familiarize pre-school and elementary school age children with the natural environment. Normally this event is held at the OSU Research Forest but this year was held in a city park. Turnout was very good, despite a continuous cold rain all day. The kids seemed to really enjoy the various learning activities such as making crowns out of leaves and name tags out of “tree cookies.” There was also an exhibit of animal pelts, one of which was a werewolf according to one enthusiastic little boy.
Sunday, May 29, 2022
We were invited to K and J’s for a barbecue today, so off we went to Salem. K was a college friend of Becca. C, another friend of Becca’s, was also there. It’s so nice for us to be able to keep in touch with them.
Here’s Andrea, having a moment with C’s friend Oliver.
Our hosts
Friday, June 3, 2022
We went down to Eugene today. E’s pal S was having a birthday party. Since it was one of those birthdays when your age has a zero in it, and since at our age, you don’t know how many more of those you’re going to have, she put on quite a spread: rack of lamb, lots of salmon, vegetarian ravioli and more. We got to talk to a bunch of Univ. of Oregon people that we don’t get to see often. It was nice to catch up.
Here’s our friend S in serving mode.
And here’s E, showing her admirable ability to focus on what is truly important.
Saturday, June 4, 2022
M was wiped out today, all groaning and lethargic in the aftermath of his fourth Covid shot the day before. So he did nothing. E, though, went to see a ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the Oregon State Parks system. The event was held at a state park just twenty miles north of us. The reason it was held there is that the park is named for Sarah Helmick, a pioneer woman who in 1922 donated six acres to the State of Oregon for the purpose of providing a wayside park for travelers going up and down the Willamette Valley. It was the first such donation in state history and became the first state park in Oregon. It was noted that Sarah herself did not attend the park’s opening ceremony in 1922 because she was 101 years old at the time.
There were a number of information booths and also a number of cupcakes being given away. There was also a cake. E has provided us with a photo of the event, again focusing on issues of greatest significance.
Sunday, June 5, 2022
Spent the day today packing for a road trip to the wilds of north central Nevada. There are about 2.6 million people in Nevada. Two million live in Las Vegas and a half million live in Reno, so the rest of the state is pretty empty. We’re planning to tour some of the empty part. M made us chocolate chip cookies to take along in case we get lost miles from anywhere and are forced to go into survival mode.
More rain and clouds. The grass is growing like crazy and many lawns in the neighborhood are looking shaggy. Only the lawn service lawns are neat and trim. The professionals work in all weathers; residents who mow their own wait for better days.
Tuesday, May 10. 2022
And here’s a better day now, bright sun from early in the morning. They say we’ll have two days of sun before the rain returns. Very good, says M, one day for the back yard and one day for the front.
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
As promised, we got sunshine today also. There was lots of mowing going on up and down the street. But, more importantly, E made her first rhubarb pie of the season! It was delightful!
Thursday, May 12, 2022
Back to rain. Hard and steady with gusts of wind. Pretty nasty, actually. Across the street, lawn service workers in heavy rain gear are making an inordinate amount of noise…
Friday, May 13, 2022
We went to see the new Corvallis Museum. It’s not terrible.
Sunday, May 15, 2022
E went off to Portland today and met A at the Saturday Market in Vancouver, WA. She was expecting some kind of farmers’ market like we have here, but no, the Vancouver Saturday Market runs more to upscale crafts than to upscale veggies. The two of them had a great time looking around at all the pretty things and clever ideas. They had lunch at a place near the market and then went to A’s house for tea. E came home with a wall mountable planter to go next to our front door. It’s meant for succulents and is quite pretty. Plus, it came wrapped in several pages of a newspaper called The Epoch Times, which had a number of catchy headlines, as for example 1) How the Specter of Communism Rules Our World, 2) How China is Using Amazon to Destroy Democracy, and 3) The Infrastructure Bill is the Royal Road to Communism. There was also an ad for a new book about how we know the earth is flat. The book is titled–cunningly enough–The Flat Earth.
M, meanwhile, went “shopping” up in the mountains and came home with some rocks and a few pieces of wood with which to decorate the back yard. The first rock supply yard that he came to was relatively small and featured mostly gray rocks. M likes gray, so he picked out three examples, with his main selection criterion being that the rocks had to be small enough for him to pick up and carry.
Later on he came to another place that specialized in rocks that weren’t gray. He picked out a couple of those too.
Once he had his rocks, M was free to enjoy the scenery. Here’s Canyon Creek in its springtime glory.
And finally, the photo below shows where M turned around and headed home. This is Willamette National Forest Road 2024, which goes up along Two Girls Creek over toward Road 2032. To M, this infrastructure does not appear to be part of the royal road to communism, but you never know.
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
Breakfast at Bodhi’s today. We’ve been there five or six times now and have been frustrated that only once did we find chocolate chip scones. What’s wrong with these people? Their scones are very good, but lately we have been forced to try all sorts of weird varieties. Finally, today, we realized something important: all their scones taste pretty much the same. And they’re all pretty good.
After breakfast M left for Day 1 of his Porsche tour of central Oregon. Day 1 was spent getting from Corvallis up to the The Dalles in the Columbia Gorge. M did a part of the trip on what is now called Historic Highway 30. Completed in 1922, 30 was the first auto route up the gorge. It was built to facilitate tourism and features a number of lookouts and viewpoints. Here’s the view from one such place, near the town of Mosier.
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
E was halfway through breakfast when she noticed something quite disturbing: there was no glass of juice next to her placemat! Worse yet, no one had even started making the coffee! Staffing shortages strike again.
M breakfasted on bad yogurt and a stale donut, then left The Dalles and headed east to Arlington, finally reaching the area that he wanted to explore. As planned, he went south down OR Highway 19, then crossed over to OR 74 on a nameless east-west rural connector. Wonderful road.
The connector
This is OR 74. Towns like Ione and Hepner are hidden among the folds. You don’t find ‘em till you find ’em.
In Hepner M bought a sandwich at a grocery store deli, then took OR 207 south to Kimberly. From there he went east to Long Creek. Beautiful scenery and trafficless roads. Lots of curves. Warm enough and dry enough to have the top down, at least for a while.
Down around Kimberly, the land starts to get more vertical…
…but there are still a few gentle spots in the valleys.
From Long Creek, M went south down US 395 through John Day to Burns. This was a road he’d driven several times before. Parts of the route can be very fast.
So M made it to Burns in a timely manner and found his motel. He’d got a good deal on his room by going through a booking site called Traveluro. It was so cheap that he was worried about whether it was for real; but it all seemed to work. After checking in, M got a message from Traveluro thanking him for using them and wishing him all the best during his stay. He then got another text from Traveluro congratulating him on having chosen to visit ‘Burnsville’ (!) and reminding him to be sure and visit Culzean Castle as well as the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum. Foolishly, M skipped both of these and visited a Mexican restaurant instead.
Thursday, May 19, 2022
M got up early and headed even farther south on 395. He wanted to see Lake Abert again.
Then it was time to turn for home so as to be back in time for H’s birthday dinner at Sybaris. He got back to Corvallis around 3:30. His three-day trip covered 912 miles. At $5.65 a gallon for premium, the fuel bill was $185.
And how did the dinner at Sybaris go? It was wonderful. H had sole, M had vindaloo sausage, and E had pasta primavera. The sauces were all delicious and everything came with early spring vegetables: paper-thin snow peas, tiny asparagus sprigs, spicy greens, and more. Did we sensibly forego having an appetizer and then all eat too much for dessert? Yes we did.
Saturday, May 21, 2022
E went to a weed pulling party this morning, answering a call for volunteers from the Benton County Soil and Water Conservation District. The setting was Mary’s River Park in Philomath and the main targets were Himalayan blackberry and English ivy. E went after ivy. The most interesting thing she learned was that ivy does not flower on the ground. Only when it gets high in the tree does it produce flowers, and then seeds which are easily scattered by the wind. So severing vines from their roots is an effective way of deterring the proliferation of ivy. E enjoyed cutting and pulling vines, and when it was over, she was delighted to sample the donuts generously provided by our host.
We went back on Sunday to see the results of E’s work. Can you tell which tree had the benefit of her attention?
Meanwhile M went to a baseball game with R. They went to see the OSU Beavers, who have been doing very well this year, despite a late season slump. The opposing team was from UCLA, a school where M was once a graduate student. OSU won, 9-3, and ended up finishing second in the Pac-12.
M and R sat in the right field bleachers, their usual spot. Here’s what it looked like. Two of the buildings visible here bring back memories. In the late 70’s, M and E had offices in the older building in the center. In the 90’s and 00’s, M, E, and R were all based in the somewhat uglier blue building on the right.
We went on a Sunday stroll in McDonald Forest in search of wild irises, but all we found was this cute little Douglas squirrel.
Monday, May 2, 2022
The time has arrived for our trip to Central Oregon. We spent the morning packing up and rolled out of town at 1:00, planning to spend the first night in Terrebonne, a little town just 135 miles east of Corvallis. We left home in a pouring rain, but the forecast was for a drier day tomorrow. And besides, we’d be on the other side of the mountains, which is a much drier sort of place than where we live. So off we went, confident that we were headed for better weather. After about an hour of driving, we noticed that we hadn’t found it quite yet.
It seems that 50º and rain in Corvallis equals 30º and snow up above 4,000 feet.
It wasn’t bad, really. After another hour we were on the other side of the mountains and looking around for our sunglasses.
Terrebonne, Oregon is just on the edge of Smith Rock State Park. It’s small but bustling. Smith Rock is the birthplace of the sport of modern rock climbing and was long considered to be the world capital of that sport. There are hundreds of climbing routes at a wide range of ability levels. It’s also a great place for hiking and we’ve done that once or twice. But our destination this time was a place called Gray Butte, which is well east of the park in an area of no interest to climbers. The plan was to spend the night in Terrebonne and drive to Gray Butte in the morning.
So all we had to do tonight was check into our hotel and then find a place to have dinner. Neither task was all that easy. Our lodging, called the Smith Rock Resort, turned out to be nowhere near the park or the town. It was, rather, twelve miles west of Terrebonne. When we finally got there we found that the resort cabins were in a long line between the Crooked River Gorge on one side and a vast golf course on the other. We were in the last cabin in the line, which gave us some fine views. The gorge side looked like utter wilderness, while on the south side we could see gophers and rabbits capering among scattered golf balls on the driving range. We didn’t have much time to take in this somewhat bizarre scene, cuz we were hungry and the nearest good food was 17 miles away in the town of Redmond.
Eventually we found that Hola restaurant now has a branch in Redmond. Oh boy. Hola is a Peruvian-Mexican chain with a good vegetarian selection and mighty nice drinks. E had a signature pisco sour and M had a paloma made with Jarritos grapefruit soda with tajin on the rim of the glass. Thus fortified, we returned to our cabin and noticed a nearby sign pointing to something called the Crooked River Gorge Trail. Well, we had to at least take a look at that, so we bundled up and went off to explore. After just a hundred yards we came to the edge of gorge, which turned out to be quite a sight.
There was a signboard with a map showing a loop trail that descended to the river level, then ambled along the river for a while, and finally climbed back up the very spot we were on. The map did not say how long the trail was. Well. It was a little late in the day, but the days are pretty long in May and we had at least another two hours of good light. We couldn’t actually see the trail, but it seemed like it would have to be steep and maybe rougher than we’d prefer. But the whole place was beautiful. So the pisco sour and the paloma looked at each other and decided to go for it.
Here’s a view to the northeast from part way down. By the time we got all the way down and then all the way back up, there was no sun left on that cliff face and the canyon was dimming fast.
M liked the looks of these people and wants to know if they have names.
So, yes, the trail was a little steeper and rougher than we would’ve liked, but still passable and of course quite beautiful. Also, we found that the trail had a place where you could choose to go all the way down to the bottom, or you just go along the river at fifty or so feet above the level of the water. We saved strength and time by choosing the latter. (But now E says we have to come back again some day and go all the way to the bottom.)
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
We slept fairly well last night, despite the overly large pillows and the memory foam mattress whose memories were mostly bad. We made our breakfast in the room from things we’d brought along. It was a little after 9:00 when we got everything repacked and headed for Gray Butte.
The route took us back to Terrebonne and onto a road that went east around the southern edge of Smith Rock Park. By the time we turned again, this time onto a route called Lone Pine Road, we had left the climbing terrain behind. After seven more miles we turned left at an unmarked turn-off for a narrow track called Road 57. At that point, as we rattled across an old metal cattleguard, we put aside our printed guidebook and started navigating by using the Avenza App on M’s phone. (In our limited experience with back country navigation, Google Maps is better than Apple Maps, but neither is as good as Avenza.)
After half an hour of pretty rough going we arrived at the trailhead, which is located at the site of an old homestead. We wanted to look around a little, but first it was time to hike. The trail looped around the north flank of the butte, climbing steadily but gently. There were wildflowers everywhere. The dry, bare earth and lichen covered rocks made a great setting.
After about a mile and a quarter we began to get glimpses of snow-covered Cascades peaks in the distance.
The big peak in the video is Mt. Hood, 70 miles to the north. We could also see the top of Mt. Adams, 120 miles northeast. To the south we could see Mt. Batchelor, Broken Top, and the Three Sisters. Here’s a photo of two of the Sisters, about 40 miles southwest..
It was 11:00 A.M. when we started down, making it just about lunchtime when we got back to the trailhead. There were no remnants of any structures at the homestead site, but there were a striking number of large dead trees that didn’t look like natives.
We found out later that these were Lombardy poplars.
We had our lunch next to one of the biggest.
The poplars may be long dead, but the apple orchard still survives.
Julius and Sarah McCoin first homesteaded here with their four children in 1886. They planted the Lombardy poplars to provide shade for the house and a windbreak for the apple trees. We had lunch in what was once their front yard. The family raised sheep and horses, operated a freight business, and planted over 100 apple trees. Sarah McCoin died in 1888 and from then on the McCoin children had to manage alone for weeks at a time while Julius drove his 12-horse freight wagon on a route between Prineville and the Columbia River. One source reports that when Sarah died, the eldest child was nine; another source says thirteen. Both sources say that the two youngest were three and five.
During the mid 1930’s conditions made it impossible to make a living in the area around Gray Butte. In 1936, the McCoins, along with hundreds of other homesteaders, were forced to abandon their properties. An appeal to Franklin Roosevelt led to a program under which the federal government paid the families for the land they were leaving, thus giving them assistance in starting anew somewhere else. Since then the land has been administered by the U.S. Forest Service. All of the structures on the affected lands were removed as part of a CCC project in 1938.
In the 1980’s, Forest Service rangeland specialists Ecker and Ketrenos pruned the apple trees, which was critical to extending their lives. A few trees have died over the years, but many still bear fruit.
Wednesday, May 4, 2022
We’ve just spent the night at the Balch Hotel in Dufur, Oregon. There’s not too much happening in Dufur–population: 639–but the Balch is a really amazing place. We’d like to go back some day. For now we must be off again, back to Corvallis.
Thursday, May 5, 2022
Rain.
Friday, May 6, 2022
Rain. In the evening E went to see Mamma Mia with H and T. This marked the resumption of live theatre performances at the Corvallis High School following two years of shut-down due to COVID.
Saturday, May 7, 2022
Rain all day. But in the evening, ice cream!
Sunday, May 8, 2022
Rain and clouds. But also, flowers for Mother’s Day!
