Adventures, Animals, hiking

Hike — William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge

This will be another long post — there’s just so much to see at the Finley NWR! We were talking about the refuge awhile ago and I suggested we go last Friday. I decided to wear my big backpack with about 20 pounds in it for training purposes. The forecast was mainly for light rain with some wind, so we went prepared for that weather, but as soon as we got onto Highway 34 it started to snow!

On the road to the refuge.

Kangaroo was very nervous about driving in snow since she hadn’t experienced it in her new truck, but she did great. Once we arrived at the refuge office, she had to take a photo of Georgio, her truck, in the snow!

We enjoyed browsing the nature store, until the store volunteer lady came in and told us they weren’t open yet. If you aren’t open, you should lock the door to keep us out, ha! There were oodles of neat things in there!

Finley NWR Nature Store

After we left the store, we headed over across the road to our first trail, the Woodpecker Loop trail. We came in at the back of the trail, you can drive up to the actual trailhead a little ways further on. There were plenty of paper maps and signs available for following the trails.

The Woodpecker Loop trail goes through many different kinds of natural areas, including an oak woodland, oak savanna, seasonal wetland, riparian area, and ash swale.

We think we may have seen one woodpecker in the oak savanna part of the trail. This loop trail had a few nice information signs and cards.

Kangaroo at the seasonal wetland.

We saw no frogs but I guess it isn’t quite time for them yet, I think they’re probably still hibernating or doing what amphibians do in the winter. We will have to come back later in the spring or in summer to see or hear them!

This natural area, the oak savanna, is now scarce. There was a photo on one informational sign that showed the area in the 1930s and in the 2000s, and how much the Douglas Fir trees have taken over. The property where I grew up and where Mom and Dad still live is an oak savanna. Here is a short video of the oak savanna area and the pavilion there, where we try to figure out where we saw the rare flowers last time we visited! (We did figure it out later, I think.) I believe they use the pavilion for educational purposes, but it would be a lovely place to stop and have a picnic lunch. On a clear day there is a very nice view of the mountains in the distance.

Kangaroo and I walk in the oak savanna.

Me with my big backpack.

After the oak savanna you descend into an oak woodland, and then move to the riparian area. The sign for the riparian area said there might be raccoons, but we saw no raccoons.

After the riparian area we came out to the Woodpecker Loop trailhead parking lot. We decided to go to the road and turn left toward the buildings we wanted to visit.

On the way up the road, we visited another oak savanna area. The sign says some of the oaks are over 200 years old, but none of them were as big as the ones at Mom and Dad’s!

This is the John Fiechter house, built in 1855. Iwas the first lumber house built in the area and is the oldest house like this still standing in the area. If you want to read some fascinating history about the Willamette Valley and Benton County, check out the 1985 National Register of Historic Places nomination form for the Fiechter house. Once you scroll through the very extensive description of the house, you get to the neat history part. I love pioneer history, don’t you?

John Fiechter house (1855) and auto garage added in the 1930s.

Here are some interior photos of the house (of course we had to peek in the windows!). All of the rooms we could see had these radiator heaters in them, and the heaters were on. The house does have electricity. The original idea back in 1985 was to use the house as a museum or for educational purposes, but that doesn’t seem to have happened.

Then we moved on to the Cabell Hunting Lodge.

Signs of Spring on the rosebush.

We were disappointed not to be able to hike the Cabell Marsh Trail, but the trail is closed from November 1 through March 31 so nobody will disturb the Canada geese that overwinter there.

Cabell Marsh overlook.

Kangaroo checks out the view.

Since we couldn’t hike the marsh trail, we went up the Cabell Lodge road to this barn…and I asked Kangaroo if she wanted to open the door to see if there were any owls in there… 😀 But the doors were nailed shut. Rats!

An old barn.

Then we went to the other side of the barn and there was this sign. Oops! Oh well, I guess we didn’t really molest, damage, or steal anything!

We made our way back down the road towards the refuge office and store, and what do you think we saw, in real life? ELK!!

ELK!!

The elk were very far away across a field, but it was so neat to see them! We had never seen elk in real life on a hike, only once on the way to a hike when we were in the car. We walked up the road a little way and there was an actual viewing area with a sign, but by that time the elk had gone into the woods.

We saw some elk footprints — here is a photo of Kangaroo’s foot next to the elk prints.

Once we got back to the refuge office and store, we crossed the road again and instead of taking the Woodpecker Loop, we took the Mill Hill Loop. This sign has a nice map of the area.

The Mill Hill Loop was very muddy from all the recent rain and snow, and we walked slowly to avoid slipping in the mud!

The trail.

There were quite a few of these boardwalks over really wet parts.

Here is a nice pond, but we didn’t see any otters or beavers, more’s the pity!

We went back into the nature store before we left but didn’t make any purchases. I’m surprised I was able to resist all the fun things!

We saw a total of FIVE rainbows this trip!!

Rainbow from the refuge.
Rainbow from the car on our way to Monmouth for lunch.

When we were done with our hike we went to Monmouth as usual and had DQ for lunch. The young man taking our order had a pointy stud in each nostril with a chain across to connect them. I said it looked like it hurt. “Does it hurt?” I asked. He assured me it didn’t. I told him I was glad and went to get my drink.

Just keep walking!

Ninja

Adventures, History, People, Things I've Learned

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

hiking

Hike – Lewisburg Saddle to Dimple Hill

On President’s Day I texted Kangaroo early in the morning to see if she wanted to hike since she had the day off from work. I thought we could go somewhere in the town of Corvallis, Oregon, it’s not too far away and there are lots of nice places to hike in the McDonald-Dunn Research Forest.

On the way to the hike we looked to our left and noticed what looked like a group of birds having a meeting. We realized at once that there were two bald eagles just sitting in the field next to the highway!! We both noticed at the same time and weren’t sure if the eagles were real or not, but then one moved its head and we both gasped in amazement. They were sitting there with a couple of crows. I don’t know if they were waiting for gophers to come out or what, but it sure was fun to see them! Since we were driving past I couldn’t get a photo of them. Rats!

The hike from the Lewisburg Saddle trailhead to Dimple Hill and back is around 6 miles. I’m not sure what the elevation is but it is a good workout, I wish I had the hills in my backyard to hike every day! The day was overcast but the sun did peek through occasionally, although it stayed in the upper 40s and lower 50s F. For the hike we just went up on old logging roads, but there are a few trails here and there along the sides. There is quite a network of trails all over the forest.

The old road.

A strange stairway to nowhere in particular.

View from the trail/road. I think this is the town of Corvallis.

At the top of Dimple Hill there is a nice view of the Coast Range of mountains, although their pinnacles were obscured by clouds when we got to the viewpoint. There is a bench there and we sat and had a snack. A large hiking group came up and stopped to have their snacks also.

View of mountains from the top of Dimple Hill.

Marnie setting up her phone to get a photo of us.

There are a few trails named after Dan.

Another view of Corvallis.

The OSU Research Forest — McDonald-Dunn Forest

The Forest’s namesakes.

We stopped for lunch at (where else?) Dairy Queen in Monmouth on our way home, and got home before 2:00!

Just keep walking!

~Ninja

Adventures, hiking, History

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

Adventures, Animals, Antiquing, hiking

Hike – Miller Woods Conservation Area – Part 2

Here is part 2 of our hike to the Miller Woods Conservation Area near McMinnville, Oregon. Don’t forget to read Part 1 first!

After exploring the pond and field areas, we continued on to the forested areas. The trail was sticky mud in many places and I was glad I had on my waterproof boots!

Kangaroo getting a selfie of us while I get a photo of her, haha!

On the way to see a stream, we found this small plant with a protective fence around it — can you see the plant?

Very spindly shrub.

The plant had this label. Neither of us had heard of a Western Wahoo. Sounds like it should get to be rather a large shrub.

There were these nice benches scattered along the trail, and I thought those people knew how to build a trail right! Oh, how we wished for benches when we were hiking the PCT!

A lovely bench.

We reached this summit…

But this was the view…

In one area some trees had signs. We admitted we would have a difficult time telling the conifers apart without the labels!

Grand Fir

Douglas Fir

Another tree full of nesting boxes

This little guy was on the trail, quite aways up from the stream. We wondered how long it took him to climb all that way, and Kangaroo suggested he might be on a thru-hike 😃

Newt friend. (Photo by Kangaroo – she always gets the best wildlife photos)

This is actually a data collection site for snow. Considering that we seldom have snow here, I thought it was a strange location for it.

After the hike we planed to go to the little town of Lafayette, a few miles away, and go to the antique mall there. We didn’t find anything at the antique mall we couldn’t live without, but there were some interesting items. One was a giant buffalo head that was positioned next to the entry door (I believe they were asking $2700 for it!). Because of the moisture in the air, the poor buffalo smelled like wet dog, ugh! There was also a wonderful secretary desk with supports that automatically came out when you opened the door of the desk. So neat! I didn’t get photos of either of those, unfortunately!

Before we went in to the antique mall we walked a couple of blocks down to get some lunch. We went into the little “Cafeyette” and noticed a sign that said they were serving soup, but no other signs of food except pastries and coffee. I asked the lady what they had for lunch and she said they had sandwiches, ham and turkey. She suggested that olives on the sandwich would be delicious, so I chose to have everything except onions on my sandwich, and Kangaroo chose everything as well and did add onions. As they were making the sandwiches, the lady asked if we would like jalapenos, but we both declined. I got an Italian soda to drink and Kangaroo got a berry smoothie, and we sat down to wait for our sandwiches.

BIG yummy sandwich

The lady brought our sandwiches, and they were BIG and very yummy! While we were eating we noticed a man come in and look around. He asked us if there was a menu, and I replied, no, but there are sandwiches. He went up and put his order in and left the building, and when he came back he had an armful of yardsticks. I was about to comment on his yardstick haul when he said that he was going to be using them for projects, and that the man he got them from had only wanted 50 cents each for them so he bought them all. I said they were nice yardsticks too, and he asked us if WE wanted yardsticks, and we said sure, we’d love one, and he gave us each one. It’s a very nice, strong yardstick from the Power and Telephone Supply Company.

A very nice yardstick.

On the way home we came through Dayton towards West Salem, and I suggested we take the Wheatland Ferry since it would give us a straight shot home instead of going around through West Salem. The Boy works in the McMinnville area and takes the ferry home to Keizer most days. I hadn’t ridden the Wheatland Ferry since The Boy’s first ferry ride when he was a tiny baby! It was a nice adventure to end our day 😊

On the ferry

Leaving the ferry

We enjoyed our hike and decided that we will go back to visit Miller Woods in the spring sometime when the birds and other critters will be out.

Just keep walking!

~Ninja

Adventures, hiking

Hike – Miller Woods Conservation Area – Part 1

Yesterday we hiked at the Miller Woods Conservation Area near McMinnville, Oregon. Kangaroo had discovered it on Google Maps and we hadn’t been there, so we wanted to check it out. The conservation area was donated to the Yamhill Soil and Water Conservation District in 2004 by Frieda Miller, who along with her husband had settled the 130 acres in 1967. They wanted the property to be used for nature education. Rain was forecast, and it was indeed raining when we got there. I got a lot of photos so this will be a bit of a long post!

The first thing we noticed when we drove in was this display of different kinds of nesting boxes for birds, bats, and bees. The one at the bottom middle of the photo above is a bat box. There is a small space between the front and back of the box, and the bats go up in there and nest. The photo below is the bee block for mason bees, which are great pollinators.

When we got to the trailhead, there was a group of elementary and middle school aged kids waiting to go on a nature hike. There were probably 13-15 kiddos and just a couple of adults to wrangle them. I thought they needed more adults, but we didn’t volunteer, ha.

We checked the maps and decided to go down to the pond on the Discovery Loop. It was about 0.3 of a mile and went around the pond.

We got down to the pond and saw a few interesting things, but no riparian wildlife. We assumed all the frogs and other pond-dwellers were hibernating.

Interesting tree with large branches growing on the ground.

The pond.
Cattails. They look a bit scruffy this time of year!

Some nesting boxes.

Turkeytail fungus on a log.

These wildlife cover boards with handles were scattered around the area.

Ohhhh…what will we find?

Nobody there!

We (I should say Kangaroo) lifted up the wildlife cover boards we found around the pond and didn’t find any creatures hiding. I was uncomfortable thinking about what we might find (snakes!) but no snakes were found. Along the trail there were more cover boards, and under the last one we did find this guy!

Salamander!!

Nifty gate for no reason – there is no fence on either side of it so it would be easily circumvented.

View from the floating dock.

Across from the pond there is a large field that is being restored as a native prairie. They have even resorted to hand-pulling to remove blackberries and daisies and other plants that are invasive.

Field with a line of nesting boxes on poles.

Prairie field

See Part 2 for the rest of the hike!

Adventures, hiking

Windy

This last weekend we set out to hike at Ecola State Park. We wanted to hike the trail to Indian Beach, since the last time we were at Ecola the trail was closed.

On our way to the coast we happened to see this rainbow and I got a quick photo of it. See it there right in the middle of the pic? It was a little brighter in person.

We got to the park and used the convenient restroom. Then we made our way to Chapman Point to look at the ocean and the wind.

It was very breezy and we spent some time at the point taking some video footage.

We walked to another side of the park and saw the Tillamook Lighthouse.

The Tillamook Lighthouse, or “Terrible Tilly”
Closeup.

After a little bit of exploring, we headed over to the Indian Beach trail.

Some film info about the area.

Start of the Indian Beach trail.

We started down the Indian Beach trail and crossed a little bridge, then almost immediately came upon a “logstacle”.

Now, I didn’t get a photo of the top of the larger log here, but it was perched precariously in the top of a standing tree and looked like it might let go at any second. Nevertheless, we crawled through these two logs and kept on. When we came to a much larger log across the trail, and noticed a few trees really blowing in the wind, we decided to forget the forest trails and head to Cannon Beach where there were no trees to fall on us.

We first stopped at a little park in town next to the beach. It had some neat historical info signs about Lewis and Clark, but the tide was in so far that we couldn’t actually make it to the beach.

Lewis & Clark whale story

Tide was way in.

We drove around to downtown Cannon Beach and parked in the public parking lot. We made our way to the beach and walked for aways south into the wind. The sand was blowing steadily toward us but thankfully wasn’t getting in our eyes. I imagine some of the dogs playing on the beach wished they had goggles, though!

Those white lines are lines of sand blowing in our direction.

Foam on the beach – the foam was also blowing across the sand.

Haystack Rock

The sun was trying to break through – way in the distance you can see the lighthouse.

Well…birds.

After walking for awhile and coming to a river that ran onto the beach, and not really wanting to find a place to cross, we decided to get lunch downtown. I was interested in going to this restaurant but there was a long wait time, and then I looked at the menu and it seemed very expensive. Kangaroo had spotted a fish-n-chips place down the street so we went there.

Oros’ Fireside Restaurant
These signs were on many of the historic buildings in town.

We went to Tom’s Fish and Chips and had…fish and chips. It was pretty good and very reasonably priced.

Delicious lunch

After we ate lunch I wanted to go to the famous bakery next door and see if they had some haystack bread for Mom. They did, but the loaves were so big and I didn’t know if it would stay good during the couple of days that would pass before I went out to Mom and Dad’s, so I didn’t get any bread. I got a couple of pastries for The Hubs and a cookie and then we walked back to Kangaroo’s truck and drove home. For not having “hiked” very much, I sure was tired when we got back!

Just keep walking!

~Ninja

Adventures, hiking

Hike — Silver Falls Backcountry

I’m a little late in posting about our hike last Thursday. Kangaroo planned a hike to the backcountry of Silver Falls State Park, so we set out early in the morning. We parked at the South Falls parking lot and noticed that these were being installed:

Electric vehicle chargers

Now, I didn’t get a photo of the rest of the parking lot, but it is quite large. We thought two chargers (with what looks like a two-car capacity on each one) didn’t seem like enough and that people will certainly be fighting over them! The park is quite a ways out from any town and people do come from far away, and it’s understandable that they might need to charge their electric car. I prefer my gasoline-powered vehicle and its 25-gallon gas tank that allows me to drive for quite awhile without filling up again.

We had been having quite a bit of rain and it did rain on us during this hike. The trail often looked like this (below) so we had to find ways around the puddles. I was wearing my waterproof hiking boots but Kangaroo was wearing her trail runners, so she understandably didn’t want to get into the water! We found ways around the puddles so our feet didn’t get too soggy, although Kangaroo did hit some deep mud with a couple of steps.

We walked through the main part of the park and across the highway to a campground, which was closed. Then we walked to the RV campground, which thankfully was open and had a nice clean restroom. When we hike we usually get coffee in town before we head out, and sometimes…well…it goes right through! We went through the RV campground to the nature trail and went into the backcountry from there. In the front country of the park there are many beautiful waterfalls, but in the backcountry there are some creeks but no waterfalls to speak of. Kangaroo had mapped our route on various trails, but we did check the maps at each intersection. The only problem with those maps is there aren’t any designations of “You are here” so you have to figure it out yourself, but the trails are marked well so you know which trail you’re on and which one is intersecting it.

We saw a few interesting mushrooms and fungi:

Here are some more photos:

Nice, dry trail

An interesting tree

Kangaroo gets the shot.

A little vignette near the conference center. It would be cute for a summer wedding!

It was a nice hike and a good workout in places, and we went about 8 miles. Kangaroo and I will hike rain or shine (or snow) so it didn’t bother us and we enjoyed ourselves as usual. Afterwards we went to the Dairy Queen and had our $7 lunches. After driving through the town of Silverton I thought we should pop back there sometime and go to the antique stores and little shops again, as I noticed a new vintage store. There are also some nice-looking restaurants that I wouldn’t mind trying out.

I came down with a cold the day of our hike and haven’t been feeling up to snuff except that I got miraculously better on Saturday and Sunday with just a little cough and sniffle. On Saturday I was preparing for our Christmas dinner we were having the next day on New Year’s Day, and of course Sunday was New Year’s Day when we had our dinner and gift-opening at Mom and Dad’s. I will do another blog post about that.

Just keep walking!

~Ninja

hiking

Hike – Peavy Arboretum

On “Black Friday” Kangaroo suggested we hike at Peavy Arboretum, which is part of the Oregon State University Research Forests. There are quite a few trails to choose from, and we can find a good loop that suits our mood depending on the day. We usually #optoutside on the day after Thanksgiving instead of going out shopping (this year many stores had “Black Friday” prices online all of Thanksgiving week, so I’m not sure why anyone would have needed to go out at all on the Friday!)

There was a lot of fall color in the forest, and although rain was expected it didn’t actually rain on us. We are almost always blessed with rain-free day hikes, but we are happy to suit up in our waterproof gear and hike in the rain as well (except Sweet Pea – she refuses to hike in the rain!).

The Trail

On our hike we saw many dogs (I think 11 or 12). People often walk with their dogs off-leash on these trails and twice I thought there was going to be a dog fight, but thankfully the pups were friendly toward each other and just had a little playtime instead. Whew! We also saw a girl leading a horse with a family trailing along behind her. I think she was trying to get the horse used to different environments and surfaces, as she took it onto the large concrete porch of the OSU Forestry cabin and led it to a little stream to see if it wanted to drink. It didn’t look too enthused about the stream. The family was a dad-type person and a few kids, most of whom acted like they really didn’t want to be on a walk at all. As we passed them a second time the dad person was saying that his back was in pain again because one of the boys had pushed him. We waited for them to go by after using the Porta-Potty and taking photos at the Forestry cabin so we didn’t have to hear them arguing!

OSU College of Forestry cabin and the “Big Wheels”

Near the Forestry cabin is a small lake along with the OSU logging sports arena. I’m not sure if they hold events here or just use it as a practice area.

Cronemiller Lake

Here are some photos from one of our prior trips to Peavy, we didn’t visit the logging sports arena this time.

Kangaroo trying out the log roller.

Logging sports arena.

We did a small loop this time, and probably walked about 4.5 to 5 miles, depending on which gadget you ask (phones, watches, or Garmin InReach devices). They never all say the same thing, so we usually take whatever number is in the middle if we don’t already know the mileage of the trail we’re hiking.

More photos from our hike follow:

Witches Butter fungus.

Someone hung this wreath on a tree.

Big leaf maple leaf.

Redwood tree

On part of the trail the trees are labeled, which we appreciate.

Oregon White Oak

We discovered this on one of our other trips to the forest — hmm…doesn’t look quite right…

AHA!! This box is underneath it! There is a little scavenger hunt for kids to do in the forest and this is part of it.

Ponderosa pine, one of nine around a picnic shelter.

The commemorative plaque.

As usual our hike at Peavy was nice and we enjoyed it, and would recommend it as a good local hike. Afterwards we went to Dairy Queen in Monmouth and each had a $7 Buck Lunch (3 chicken strips, fries, drink, and small ice cream sundae). Not too long ago it was the $5 Buck Lunch, and we are still a bit miffed that the price has gone up, ha. I did not get a photo of our lunches, oops!

Just keep walking!

~Ninja

Adventures, Fall, hiking

Hike — Baskett Slough NWR and Dallas City Park

Today Kangaroo wanted to do a local hike, so we went to the Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge. Then we planned to go to the Dallas City Park to look for painted rocks.

Baskett Slough is a refuge for many threatened and endangered species — go here to see a list of animals and plants you can find there — but it is mainly a refuge for the dusky Canada goose, and we saw quite a few geese flying overhead while we were there (we promptly got under the information sign roof just in case!) I knew it was going to be chilly but didn’t realize the wind would be blowing so hard, and me without my warm hat! It took awhile for my ears to warm up after we got back in the truck!

Why do I look like I’m missing a tooth in this photo?

Much of the refuge was closed for the comfort of wintering wildlife, so we did a couple of short loops and then went up to the observation deck that looks over part of the refuge.

Kangaroo on the observation deck, with my shadow.

View from the observation deck.

After our short hike at Baskett Slough, we made our way to Dallas (a small town near Salem) to walk in the city park. The park has a botanic garden/arboretum and people will often hide painted rocks there. While we were there Kangaroo found four painted rocks!

First painted rock, a Thanksgiving turkey

Second painted rock, I think a narwhal.

Interesting plants we had never seen before.

Another view of the interesting plant. Unfortunately, while many plants in the garden have labels, this one didn’t.

Kangaroo searches for painted rocks behind an informational sign.

Informational sign about a historic log flume.

Third painted rock.

Kangaroo re-hid this green rock in some green moss.

Kangaroo searches for painted rocks near the river.

Fourth painted rock — Kangaroo reached for it and touched the bug, ha. Ew!

Back of the fourth painted rock. Many rocks will have information on the backs, such as Instagram or Facebook pages where you can record that you found the rock and where.

I didn’t find any painted rocks, I usually don’t, but I did find another treasure…

A nest!!

I found this nest! Nobody was home at the time.

Then we wandered over to the other part of the park where you can see part of the disc golf course (and Kangaroo’s new truck in the background). One of the disc golfers was in the river when we got over there and had just fished out his disc. Since temps were in the 30s (F) I thought it must have been a pretty wonderful Frisbee for him to want to take such a “refreshing” dip! They had strange music playing from a backpack.

View from the bridge down to where the golfer was fishing out his disc.

There is this adorable sculpture of three bears made out of a stump. The larger bear’s face is no longer there, but this smaller one is still intact.

This park still has swings!!

And then there were these guys — this one’s so plump he can hardly waddle! SO CUTE!! Aside from the squirrels having been preparing for winter by eating, I imagine people do give them treats at the park. Our squirrels at home have a whole walnut tree to eat from and they aren’t nearly this roly-poly!

On the way home we decided to eat lunch at the Café 22 restaurant. I hadn’t been there since Mom became ill. Kangaroo had a BLTA wrap and I had a burger with pepperjack cheese and avocado. I hadn’t had a burger in a long time and it was quite good! And after all that we were home by 1:30 p.m.!

Inside Cafe 22 restaurant.

Just keep walking!

~Ninja