Hike – Champoeg State Park (2)

On Friday, May 19, we had scheduled to hike at Champoeg State Park. We had been there a little while ago and I thought it would be a great place to do a hike with the ladies from church, because it is easy to walk, has convenient bathrooms, and has ice cream in the middle! The Women’s Ministries team had asked me to plan another hike after the one last October was a success. I scheduled this day’s hike to Champoeg to sort of scope it out and see the best route, and check out the historic Butteville Store to try its lunch and ice cream.

The week before we were going to Champoeg I found out that The Girl’s baby shower has been scheduled on the same day I was supposed to lead the hike with the church ladies. Since the baby is coming in July we couldn’t find another date for me to do the church hike, so the ladies are going without me on the original day. I printed out a map and gave them all the info.

We decided to hike at Champoeg anyway because we really wanted to try out the food at the historic Butteville Store, since it was closed the last time we were there. The store is the longest running retail establishment in Oregon! It is about a 3-mile hike from the visitor’s center parking to the store, on a paved bike path. There isn’t much elevation except as you’re coming back up from the store. Somehow we ended up doing about 7 miles, but an extra mile is always OK! We didn’t go to the visitor’s center this time, but check out my last post about Champoeg to see what the visitor’s center and the area have to offer!

Exterior of Butteville Store from last time we were there.

The bike path follows the river some of the way and we could get glimpses of it, although I didn’t get any photos this time as the trees have leafed out and obscure most of the views. It is rather a “green tunnel” of a hike, but nice and cool in the shade. The campground at about 1.5 miles has a nice restroom and a fun play area for kids that we tried out on our last trip. Kangaroo and her Hubs had camped there a couple of months back with their new travel trailer.

Bike path through the “green tunnel”.

Toward the beginning of the path we saw some deer in the distance.

There were a few flowers blooming, which is always nice to see. At the visitor’s center we saw some camas blooming. Here is the sign that tells about the history and use of camas. Doesn’t it make you want to plant some and prepare it as food?

Camas

Wild rose — I usually don’t see these blooming!

Thimbleberry blossom.

Buttercup.

To get to the store, you follow the bike path to a short road and then follow a main road downhill to Butteville. Butteville is not too far from the fun little historic town of Aurora, which has many antique stores that we like to explore. We got to the store just before it opened, so we thought we’d relax on the deck until it was time. Unfortunately, the store lady was blowing leaves and blossoms off the deck so we had to wait a bit! We noticed the blossoms on the tree above the deck and asked the lady what kind of tree it was. She didn’t know, but reminded me of Google Lens, which is the neat app that identifies things when you take a photo of them. Google Lens found that the tree is a European Horse Chestnut, and we were happy to know that as we had never seen a horse chestnut tree before!

European Horse Chestnut tree.

Closeup of blossoms.

Even though the store wasn’t quite open, the store lady invited us to go in and take a look at the store. There we found a quaint room with tables and chairs, and nods to the history of the place all around. Butteville used to be a steamship stop on the river, and there was a big boat launch area. You can read more about the history on the Friends of Butteville website.

Interior of Butteville Store.

The J.J. Ryan store is the Buttevile Store today. The Saloon was knocked down during prohibition and a deck and lawn with picnic tables are now in its place.

The Ryan Family Library.

When the restaurant opened, we went to order our food. Sweet Pea and I ordered sandwiches and ice cream, while Kangaroo opted just for dessert. Here is the food menu. Since we were there on Friday, we could choose from a few sandwiches. Sweet Pea chose the Joe Wolf sandwich, and I chose the Josie Ryan. We were both impressed by the deliciousness of the sandwiches!

My “Josie Ryan” sandwich.

For dessert, we each had some ice cream, of course! Kangaroo got the “Cup of Dirt” ice cream in a bowl, I chose to have a scoop of “Luna’s Lavender” in a waffle cone, and Sweet Pea chose the “Hello Sunshine” sundae. Can you believe I didn’t get photos of anyone’s ice cream?😮

During and after our meal we had a conversation with an elderly couple who had three German Shepherd dogs. The man noticed Sweet Pea’s shirt that had a Guide Dogs for the Blind logo on it, and the couple said that their kids had raised guide dogs for 4H. They talked about their dogs’ history and where they had come from, a couple of them were guide dog “dropouts”, which are wonderful dogs who just can’t quite get the whole guide dog thing. Sweet Pea’s senior yellow lab, Angel, is an example of this kind of dog. She is a very good girl!

After our big lunch we were happy for the opportunity to walk the three miles back to the truck. The weather was very nice and it was a very fun day!

Just keep walking!

~Ninja

Hike – Champoeg State Park

TLDR: This is a long post about our hike and some history at Champoeg State Park. Please do follow the links to read even more about the park and town!

On Friday we chose to go to Champoeg State Park at Kangaroo’s suggestion. It has many trails and a lot of neat history to learn about. It’s only about 20-30 minutes away from our town taking the back roads. We hiked around 9 miles.

Champoeg State Park is the site of the Champoeg State Heritage Area. The little town of Champoeg was quite hopping in its day in the 1840s-1850s, until 1861 when the Willamette River rose 55 feet above normal summer stage and flooded the town with over 7 feet of water. All the buildings were destroyed except for (of course) two saloons. All that’s there now are flat parts of a field with street signs erected by the park to show the town’s layout, and a monument put up in 1900 to the 52 men who voted to form a provisional government in 1843, a vote that eventually led to Oregon’s becoming a state. Unfortunately there are few photos left of the town. Oh, we enjoyed learning all the history! I hadn’t been to Champoeg since I was a girl and don’t think the visitor’s center was there back then, as I have always been fascinated by pioneer history and would have remembered seeing all the things.

The visitor center wasn’t open yet when we arrived, so we started in back of the center at the Manson barn and kitchen garden. (If you want to biggify the photos to see them more closely, right-click on the photo and click “Open image in new tab.”)

Barn.

Manson Farmstead.

Inside the front of the barn.

One of the apple trees in the small orchard.

Kangaroo gets the shot.

I love to see old kitchen gardens and this one even had kohlrabi! It’s like a turnip. I think Dad grew some in his garden when we were kids. There were a few kohlrabi and turnips left in the garden, as examples, I guess. We are definitely going to have to come back in summer when everything is growing and blooming! Kangaroo said they do reenactments and I’d love to see that too.

Manson Farmstead Kitchen Garden.

After we explored the Manson Farmstead, we headed down the trail to the rest of the park. There is a nice campground there and Kangaroo and her Hubs had stayed there a few weeks before. Quite a few RVs were at the campground, and some cabins were occupied. They also have yurts. The camp hosts have these little rock areas around their signs and there were some nice painted rocks.

There was also this neat playground at the campground! The sign said it is for ages 5-12, but we played a bit anyway…

Kangaroo in the branch fort.

Me on the climb-y thing. My boots were too big to really get a grip on the little toeholds.

We noticed different things that told us spring is near…

Daffodils or narcissus, I think.

Buds!

After we visited the playground and the campground restroom, we continued on to the historic Butteville store, now owned by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. It’s about 2 miles (?) from the campground. The paths are paved and easy to walk on, but you do have to go downhill to (and then back up from!) the Butteville store. This involved a couple of road walks, but there was plenty of room to be out of the way of the cars. We made it to the Butteville store, and in spite of a sign we had seen that talked about summer hours, it was closed. There was no notice on the outside that said when the summer hours start, so I looked it up when we got home and still couldn’t find anything about summer hours. Next time we go I will make sure that it is open, because it has ICE CREAM, and I know in the summer that will be just what we’d like in the middle of our hike! The store does offer a lunch menu as well.

Butteville Store

Yum-O!!

Interior of Butteville Store through the window.

Library inside Butteville Store.

Near the campground there is a side trail to the gravesite of Kitty Newell, the Nez Perce wife of Robert Newell. Many of the men, especially the mountain men and trappers in the area, married Native American women (or girls!) because they were well-suited to the nomadic life the men lived. Robert and Kitty married when Kitty was probably 13 or 14, and Kitty had five sons before she passed away in her mid-20s. The Daughters of the American Revolution laid this gravestone here where Kitty’s ashes were scattered, and they keep up the Newell Pioneer Village near the park.

We found the dock and Kangaroo went down to get a photo of the river.

Kangaroo on the dock.

Dock and Willamette River — Photo by Kangaroo

The flood of 1861 destroyed the town of Champoeg, but miraculously nobody died.

The Highway Department survey marker in the middle of where the old town was.

The Parks Department has put up street signs to show where the town of Champoeg used to be, here is one of those signs.

Madison Street, Champoeg

Looks like rain coming.

When we got back to the visitor center the host lady invited us to watch a quick video about the Champoeg area and the meeting that led to them voting to start a provisional government. This is an original painting of that meeting, titled “The Birth of Oregon”. The painting is around 5 feet by 8 feet, I estimate. I wanted to photograph the informational signs about the painting, but the other people who watched the video with us were standing in front of the signs and I decided not to wait.

Portraits and photos of the men in the painting.

Me grinding flour like the Native Americans did. Do you like my new hat? It isn’t very becoming but it keeps my ears warm!

Artifacts from Champoeg. I’m wondering if they still have any archaeological digs here. I’d love to get in on that!

More artifacts.

Map of Champoeg

The monument in honor of the 52 men who voted to start a provisional government. It was put up in 1900. We didn’t see it this time, next time we visit we will go that way first.

Oregon beaver.

Beaver pelt.

Can you guess the animals and how many beaver pelts they were worth? The dark brown one in the middle is a grizzly bear hide. Can you believe a whole grizzly bear hide was only worth one beaver pelt?!

Beaver pelts were used as currency. The trappers pretty much decimated the beaver population in the area, but the beavers have come back now.

Herbs

We had a very fun time hiking and learning the history of Champoeg. I can see that it would be a neat place to go camping in the summertime when they have a lot of activities going on. The paths are great for bike riding as well. We can’t wait to go back and explore more!

Just keep walking!

Ninja

“Progress”

I’ve lived in our town for 30 years, and for most of those years there was a 10-acre cow pasture with a historic home right in the middle of town. It was a joy to drive past and see the cows every day. A few years ago we went to the estate sale at the big yellow historic home, it was built on the foundation of a log cabin and the home itself looked like it hadn’t been updated since the 1940s. The kitchen cupboards were original, and the wallpaper peeling off the kitchen walls was definitely 1940s vintage! The lady who lived there used to be out tending her flowers when I would drive by, but finally she got too old to live by herself and had to go to a retirement home. The granddaughter told us that in the 1940s the lady and her husband had divorced, and he got the lower 10 acres while she got the upper. The lower 10 acres is a park.

We knew the family would probably sell the property, but I always hoped that the city would buy the property to add to the park down below. I think if the city had been smart they would have anticipated the eventual sale of the property and would have set some money aside, but then I don’t know how city budgets work. Our town has few remaining historic buildings and spaces, so I thought it would be great to keep the space as it was.

The old home was torn down and the cows relocated, and then the property sat empty for a couple of years. This winter they finally started building apartments on the property. Ugh. The last thing this city needs is more apartments, and I doubt they will be “affordable”. While I don’t begrudge the family their inheritance, I wish they could have gotten it another way.

“Progress”. Hmph. 😒

(They are going to put a cow statue in the roundabout next to the property to commemorate the history of the place. So that will be nice.)

I snapped these photos quickly as I was driving by. It’s a shame to lose all that green space. And the traffic certainly won’t improve!

Hike – Yaquina Bay Area

On Friday we decided to go to the Yaquina Bay area in Newport, Oregon to do a beach walk hike. We parked at the South Jetty and started off on the beach with the Yaquina Bay Bridge behind us.

Yaquina Bay Bridge

Yaquina Bay between the two jetties.

Which way?

South Beach with South Jetty at right.

Last time we were at South Beach we walked out onto the jetty, but this time we just walked south on the beach. Kangaroo had seen a warning about sneaker waves, so we were careful not to let the water get us as the tide came in. We walked along looking for rocks and things, and guess what? I found this large agate! It’s even big enough for me to see in the sand, haha! (Usually Kangaroo finds all the treasures, I seldom wear my glasses on the beach.) There is a crack in the agate where some little plain rocks are stuck. I tried to get them out with a skewer, but I think I will have to use a toothpick.

Agate in the sun.

Kangaroo found some nifty fossils. This is my favorite.

We walked aways down the beach. The sun was out and it felt quite warm, and the wind was at our back so we hardly noticed it. I started to get too hot in my beanie and fleece, because I had expected temps in the 40s F and a 10-15 mile per hour wind!

Kangaroo looking for treasures.

Plover, I think.

A big driftwood log with a fancy rock in it.

Me taking a photo of the fancy log rock.

Once we turned around and started back there was a nice breeze to cool us off a little. We went off at the South Beach day use area instead of walking the beach all the way back to the truck. There was a convenient restroom there, and outside of it in the sidewalk we found this survey marker. A strange place for one, we thought!

We decided to walk along the Old South Jetty Trail and see where that took us, so we headed north-ish on that trail.

Old South Jetty Trail

Old South Jetty Trail

Witch’s Butter fungus

The Old South Jetty Trail led up to a paved trail, which we followed all the way back to the parking lot at the South Jetty itself. Once we got back to the truck we decided to go over to the north side of the bay and see the lighthouse. We drove back over the bridge and to the Yaquina Bay State Recreation Site in front of the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse.

Cpt. Cook called it Cape Foulweather. You can’t see the “Foul” part on the sign.

At the recreation site there are some things of interest, including this compass with signs marking various points on the coast and an informative sign listing the Lighthouses of the Oregon Coast.

Compass with points of interest.

Yaquina Bay Bridge from the observation deck.

The beach access at the parking area was closed, so we walked up the road toward the north beach access. The lighthouse sits up high on a hill, of course, and the parking lot is high up overlooking the bay.

Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, in use from 1871-1874. It is privately owned now and sometimes used as a navigation aid. Unfortunately it isn’t open to the public at this time. There was nothing to tell us what the structure next to it is.

We found this survey marker in the sidewalk near this Fisherman’s Memorial Sanctuary pavilion. I had no idea so many people had been lost at sea in the area.

Inside the Fishermen’s Memorial Sanctuary.

Next we went down the long path and stairs to the beach. The Oregon Coast Trail goes this way. When we got to this beach on this side I was glad I had my fleece and beanie on, it was chilly and the wind was blowing!

Kangaroo brings along some of her dad’s ashes and a yoga-ing Bigfoot to photograph wherever we go.

We saw a lovely full rainbow, it was sunny and cloudy at the same time and sprinkled on us as we were going back to the truck.

Kangaroo on the beach.

North Jetty with South Jetty in the background.

View down the north jetty.

Yaquina Bay Lighthouse and lookout tower.

After we finished at the beach, we had our traditional lunch at the Dairy Queen in Toledo, a small town just east of Newport. For some reason Newport doesn’t have a Dairy Queen, but Toledo does. We ate our $7 lunches of chicken strips, fries, root beer, and caramel sundaes while we watched some people get out of their fancy cars to come in the restaurant. The people were not as fancy as their cars were, ha!

On the way home Kangaroo asked if I wanted to stop at the Beazell Memorial Forest to do a quick loop hike, but I felt like I was done hiking for the day. I am sort of regretting that now, it is a pretty hike and it wouldn’t have been too bad to get some more miles in. All in all my Garmin watch showed 6.6 miles for the day.

Just keep walking!

~Ninja

Hike – Silver Falls State Park

Kangaroo chose to hike at Silver Falls State Park yesterday because the teacher she works with was planning to do the Silver Falls Trail Run 7 Miler and she wanted to cheer her on. The Silver Falls Trail Runs include a 5K, the 7 Miler, a half-marathon, a marathon, and a 50K, in the main park and the backcountry of the park (where there are cougars and bears 😮). The longer races are qualifiers for other races like the Boston Marathon! The trail we took follows Silver Creek and is very scenic. It is called the Trail of Ten Falls, but we didn’t see all of them. We saw South Falls, Lower South Falls, Drake Falls, Middle North Falls, and Winter Falls on this day.

I present here the first video I have ever edited! It shows us going behind South Falls and Lower South Falls, and a video of Winter Falls.

Here are some photos of our hike. We just got drizzled on a couple of times (we needed our rain jackets more going under the waterfalls) and the rain didn’t really kick in until right after we got into the car to leave. We are blessed that that is the norm for most of our hikes in rainy weather!

Kangaroo and her friend who was running the 7-mile race.

The path to South Falls. This is one that is not far from the parking lot and probably the most popular for visitors.

South Falls

Behind South Falls looking down Silver Creek.

Witch’s Butter fungus. I call it the “mac-n-cheese” fungus!

Someone had fun with the race marking chalk!

Silver Creek

Some mushrooms.

Cat’s Tongue fungus

Drake Falls

Middle North Falls

Winter Falls

Trail up from Winter Falls

Kangaroo getting the shot of some little mushrooms.

Me also getting a shot of the little mushrooms.

The little mushrooms 😀

We stopped in the park gift shop on our way back but I didn’t get a photo of it. I should have, it is a cute log building with lots of fun stuff to buy! The log buildings in the park were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. For more info on the buildings and the park, go here. The store had a whole section of mushroom-related items, a t-shirt, a mushroom identifier card, and books, and other things. They have some cute stuffed birds that make authentic bird sounds. I picked some up and we heard two different kinds of woodpecker sounds and another bird I don’t remember the name of. They also have lots of stickers and other souvenirs.

On our way home we happened to see a sign for the Willamette Valley Pie Company and I suggested we drive over and try to find it. We had never been there and I had heard they had a nice store and, of course, pies! The Boy’s choir in high school sold Willamette Valley Pie Co. pies for their fundraisers for a couple of years and I knew that the pies were delicious. The store featured a lot of kitchen things and Kangaroo bought some towels and a spoon rest for the new travel trailer she and her Hubs just got. I keep telling her she has to think of a theme for the trailer so I can buy her things for it! Anyway, we each bought a cobbler to take home, I got marionberry and Kangaroo got peach.

Willamette Valley Pie Co. Goodness, the sky was foreboding!

Marionberry Cobbler. Their pies and things are frozen so you just take them home and pop them in the oven.

I baked my cobbler when I got home and ate my serving, and as expected it was super good. As I was eating Philip was very interested, and when I was finished he came and licked the plate. I bet you didn’t know kitties liked berries! He is unusual in that he enjoys sweet foods sometimes.

Philip getting some licks in.
The tape is Leukotape, I use it to tape up my feet before hiking to avoid hotspots.

Fall color

We had missed most of the fall color at Silver Falls, but there were a few pretty leaves left. It was a good day and we had a fun hike!

Just keep walking!

Ninja

Hike — Willamette Mission State Park

On Saturday we went out to Willamette Mission State Park for a short hike. The ladies at church have asked me to lead a hike in October, and I wanted to recce and see where the picnic areas and bathrooms are on the trail I want to walk, and pick a good spot for everyone to meet. We parked at the first parking lot and walked about a mile and a half to the Filbert Grove day use area, where we started what was supposed to be a 4.2 mile loop. The park is fairly flat, no hills to worry about. I wanted something that pretty much anyone could do since I’m not sure of the fitness level of the ladies who might want to join us. I also wanted to find a good place to have a snack or lunch with the ladies.

Willamette Mission Park also has a lot of history, so I hope to be able to present some history of the park to the ladies as well. This year Oregon is celebrating 100 years of its State Parks system.

Jason Lee and the Willamette Mission

100 years of Oregon’s State Parks system.

Near the parking lot we passed some blackberry bushes and Linda had to give some a try.

Someone stuck a feather in this post.

The sky was very hazy due to some fires happening around the area. We didn’t smell smoke though, and didn’t have any trouble breathing. It was supposed to be sunny and 95 degrees, but I think the haze kept things a little cooler. The sun didn’t come out much at all.

Hazy sky

The sun looked like this (zoomed in)

On our way to the Filbert Grove, we stopped to use the bathroom and saw some horses. The riders were standing on a picnic table to get up onto the horses! There are many equestrian trails at the park.

Once we got to the Filbert Grove area, we took a path that led to the 4.2-mile Willamette Mission Loop, found on the AllTrails app. The loop is on mostly paved paths with a smaller part on dirt trails. On our walk we detoured a bit to go to the Wheatland Ferry dock to watch the ferry for a minute. A man went down to the water to fish for wide-mouth bass.

Wheatland Ferry

Someone left these headphones on the little bridge (?)

The man caught a bass and was getting out his phone to take a photo. He let the fish go after he got a picture of it.

Here is some more of the history of the park. The Willamette Station of the Methodist Mission was started across the lake there in 1834. Some “ghost buildings” have been placed to represent the first mission buildings that were built on that site.

If you zoom in on this photo you can read the history of the Mission.

Mission “ghost buildings”.

On the walk you can see the nation’s largest black cottonwood tree across the lake.

Nation’s Largest Black Cottonwood

Cottonwood sign. You can see the tree in the background.

Marnie is very good about picking up trash along the way. She found more than one cigarette butt. Really, smokers? I mean, come ON.

Marnie does trail maintence.

Dirt trail.

Paved path.

There were still a few flowers and berries left here and there.

Mystery berries. We didn’t eat any.

Teasel

Pine tree.

Rose hips.

Osprey nest.

They have their own sign.

There were no ospreys in the nest that we could see, which was too bad. I guess it isn’t time for osprey babies. We saw many birds and squirrels during the day and a couple of deer that were too far away to get a photo of them, and one of these orange and black caterpillars. We wondered what kind of butterfly those turn into. (Edit: They turn into the Isabella Tiger Moth.)

Wooly Bear caterpillar.

The loop was supposed to be 4.2 miles, but somehow all our various devices said we walked between 8.5 and 10 miles. With the extra mile and a half each way back to the car from the loop start we would have added 3 miles, but we wouldn’t have made it to 8 or 10 so I’m not sure how that happened. My feet sure felt like it was more than 4.2 though! We had a good walk and I know a lot more than I did about how to plan for the ladies’ hike in October.

A warm and hazy day.

Mirror, Mirror

Here is the mirror I got at the barn sale a couple of weeks ago. The Hubs was able to attach a hanger to the back and hang it on the wall in my office with a wall anchor. Looks good, right? I like mirrors, the house is full of them!

The new mirror goes well with my frame wall.

Frame wall with ancestors.

I am blessed with a beautiful office!

Hike — Milo McIver State Park

Today we took our last training hike before leaving for the PCT to Milo McIver State Park in Estacada (Oregon) at Marnie’s suggestion. The park is named after Milo K. McIver, who was a member and then chairman of the Oregon Highway Commission in the 1950s and 1960s. He was instrumental in investing nearly $1 billion on about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of new highway. During his term as chairman, Oregon led all other states in opening interstate freeways. The park contains a colony of Townsend’s big-eared bats, a sensitive species in Oregon, and the largest yew tree in Oregon (second largest in the nation!) is located in the park. There are a couple of nice campgrounds, some group camp areas, some day use pavilions, and equestrian trails. This was the first time any of us had been to the park.

We had a nice hike on the Riverbend and Maple Ridge trails, starting in the Riverbend side of the park. There are a few nice restrooms with flushing toilets in the park, which is always a bonus when hiking!

Marnie and Linda on the trail.

Linda and me, going down some steps.

The Clackamas River is close at hand throughout most of the park, and it is very scenic. They have added some channels and engineered log jams to make better fish habitat.

Clackamas River

Clackamas River — we saw a couple of people fishing and some kayakers

We walked by some of the 27 disc golf holes and saw many berry bushes and flowers, and quite a lot of daisies and Oregon Grape.

Bleeding Heart

Blackberry blossoms – lots of berries to come!

Not sure what kind of berries these are, they seem to grow quite low to the ground. Both Marnie and Linda ate one and neither of them died, so…

Daisies

Oregon Grape

There was a short trail to a landslide viewpoint. I’m sure it would have been more interesting if it hadn’t been so overgrown.

Landslide viewpoint – photo by Marnie

We noticed quite a number of snails on the trail, some brown and speckled and some white with stripes, with shells about an inch in diameter, but no snail photos were taken. We saw an owl that was annoying a number of birds, the birds were flying all over screeching and hollering. As we walked into the area the owl flew down toward my head and then into a nearby tree, where Marnie got this photo of it.

The Owl

After our hike we decided to check out the Clackamas Fish Hatchery that is in the park. Most of the pools were empty, but there were some tiny baby salmon in a couple of big pools (with some birds standing by for a meal!), and some very large salmon in a smaller pool. In the baby pool some of the fish were jumping around the water coming out of the pipes.

Pool with baby salmon

Baby salmon

Pool with adult salmon

Linda checks out what looks like a fish ladder, it flows out into the river.

The next feature of the park we went to see is the second largest yew tree in the nation. It is a Pacific yew. There was no sign to indicate which tree it was, but Linda was able to confirm what a yew tree looks like on her iPad. I had seen a much smaller one before and the only thing I could remember about it was its unique bark. We thought this tree looked like it needed some care. Since it is a feature of the park and is even on the little map, we hope that someone will come take care of it soon.

Yew tree

The last interesting area of the park we visited was the Milo McIver memorial viewpoint. A cobbled walk leads to the McIver memorial, and further on to the viewpoint deck where you can see Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, and Mt. St. Helens, although today clouds obscured all but a glimpse of Mt. Hood and a snippet of Mt. Adams.

Milo McIver memorial plaque

The memorial plaque has an interesting 3D sculpture of Mr. McIver. The photo above was taken from straight in front of the plaque, and the photo below was taken from the side.

Memorial plaque from the side

View from McIver Memorial Viewpoint – photo by Marnie

A zoomed-in glimpse of Mt. Hood

A guide to the view – photo by Marnie

After our visit to the memorial viewpoint we hopped back in the car and headed home through Silverton so we could stop at Dairy Queen, our favorite après-hike food place. We had a nice late lunch and were home by 3:00.

Everything is coming together for our PCT hike starting soon!

Just keep walking!

~Ninja

Light Switch Time Capsule

When we were remodeling our bathroom and took down the sheetrock, we found two different families’ names inside the wall, written on the back of the sheetrock of the opposite room. One was from the 1950s, and one from the 1970s where it looked like the kids had written the names and ages of the parents and kids. The oldest boy (16) had written his name away from the others, ha. We really enjoyed seeing the names and added our own with the message (referring to the bathroom remodel) “We did the best we could!”

So here’s an even better idea — someone has set up a light switch cover template with a tiny font you can use to write a message for the future occupants of your house to find after you leave! You can find it here in this article from Makezine.com. Wouldn’t it be even more fun to leave a note behind EVERY light switch cover? 😁😁

Photo from “Light Switch Time Capsule” on Makezine

1940s Saturday 2-1-14

This last weekend I bought a few magazines from the 1940s.  I’m kicking myself for not buying the whole pile, but hoping that the man will be at the flea market next month with the rest.  I want the magazines because A)  I love reading old magazines; B) Our house was built in 1946 and I’m interested in the history; and most importantly C) we have been re-doing our bathroom, and I’ve decided (I think) to decorate with travel ads from the 1940s.  This is the cover of one of the magazines, which will be perfect for my travel theme.  Seriously, you should have seen the giant grin on my face when I found it! 

 

 

 

 

While looking through old magazines, I’m always struck by how similar the articles and content are to what we have today.  For instance, I read an article about a lady who was a writer, and tired of trying to do her work in a space where she was constantly trampled by children, puppies, and tradespeople, decided to redo a cellar room into a study. She managed to do it for only $25, ($384.59 by today’s standards, according to The Inflation Calculator).  Today, however,  I saw this in a 1941 Better Homes and Gardens.  The first two paragraphs read:

“There’s one sure way to tell a long-lasting paint. Find out how much white lead it contains. For as good painters and architects will tell you, the greater the white lead content, the more enduring the paint. And you can’t get a more weather-resistant paint than one containing 100% pure white lead.”

 

 

<Jaw drops to floor>

Little did they know, a few years later children would be seriously injured from eating bits of the paint that was not, I suppose, as durable as the ads wanted them to believe.  Of course, 15 years ago people still thought margarine was better for you than butter.  We just never know when our prevailing wisdom will turn to foolishness!