Painting the Hills

I still need to finish blogging our family reunion trip from August! On reaching Oregon once again, instead of following the freeway or taking Highway 20 through west through Burns and Bend like we usually do, we took Highway 26 with the John Day Fossil Beds as a major pit stop for our budding geologist.

The area provides a remarkable visible record of about 40 million years of change and a fossil record of plants and animals never seen first hand by humans.

The National Monument is actually made up of three "units", all within about an hour of each other. Our first stop, and the eastern most unit, was Sheep Rock, where the visitor center is located.  Ann Marie became a Junior Ranger after a bit of homework.

Robin also made friends with a hansom ranger. In addition to being a visitor center, Sheep Rock is also an active paleontological research center, and we were able to watch the live microscopic view on a screen as a scientist worked on extracting a fossil from rock. 

The Painted Hills unit is a bit farther west. There were several easy hikes with breathtaking views of colorful formations. We left the third unit, Clarno, for another day.

Here is a panorama I stitched together from five separate pictures using an open source program called Hugin. The fossil beds were an amazing stop, well worth the time!

Westy Outing #2

Ann Marie and I took the Westfalia back down to Camp Alpine again so I could help with the Blazer Day Camp. It is a bit more spacious with just two of us in it.

We spent Friday night at Alpine, and did water bottle rockets with the scouts on Saturday.

The second night we drove up to Marys Peak. We got to see the shadow of the mountain to the east. I always thought the Indians called it "Mouse Mountain", but apparently that was the mountain men's term for it.  The Kalapuya tribe referred to it as T'cha Teemanwi, pronounced "Cha TEE mahn wee", which means "the place of spirits".

The Indian name is quite similar to "Chintimini", which comes from a story John Horner wrote in 1900 about an indian princess who saved her people. There was a movement in the 1930s to rename Marys Peak Chintimini until it was realized that Horner's story was just that, a story. We were treated to a marvelous sunset with a crescent moon and Jupiter adding to the spirits.

The resident herpetologist captured and brought home three specimens. We picked up some crickets on the way home and will see if we can get them to eat, a prerequisite to keeping them longer.  We got back in time to clean up and go to Trevor's birthday party at Janeil's.

A Visit to Thompson's Mills

My dad found this "diamond in the rough" tourist spot and took us to visit the other day. Thompson's Mills is an Oregon State Heritage Site run by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. It only opened for tours in 2007 and is located several miles east of Shedd, Oregon.

The mill, originally called Boston Mills, used water from the Calapooia river to grind various grains and later, generate power. The mill, which was built before Oregon was even a state, had territorial water rights, giving them preference over the farmers. At one point, the farmers paid to have the mill electrified and paid the power bill during the summer so they could use the water for irrigation.

There were quite a number of interpretive displays. The girl's favorite was a miniature grinding wheel. It demonstrated the different states the grains go through and what they are used for. They also had a hands-on example of how the grains were moved through the mill via rotary screws, elevator belts, and gravity.

It never occured to me how many different products could come out of a mill like this. It ranged from rabbit pellets to pastry flour. There were recipe cards for each product, and chutes and valves were lined up to deliver the right ingredients to the correct areas.
Like Hull-Oakes Sawmill, various parts of the building were built at various times. In evidence were ax-hewn timber and rough-cut saw mill wood.


Here is a video which give an idea of what it would have been like in the mill while it was operating.

In all, we spent more than two hours there. It was a fascinating look at local history. We had a snack at the country store in Shedd before heading home.

First Outing in the Westy

We had our first shake down cruise in the Westfalia. The destination of course, was our beloved Camp Alpine. We had to share it with a Ward from Eugene, but stayed in Nauvoo and had that area to ourselves.

It was  beautiful evening with lots of stars. And glowsticks. And smores. With five bodies, it was pretty cozy in the van. I'm sure it is similar to the quarters on the space shuttle, with the exception that they can't open a window for fresh air or step out and stretch their legs. Ann Marie ended up sleeping on a mat on the floor, something she says she doesn't want to do again. Polly reported it was more comfortable than the cabins at Heber Valley.

The pond was drained, and with mom on site, there was no mud bathing or newt roundups. A new sign shows a small step in the relentless march toward "Heberness".

There was still plenty of wildlife to observe and play with. Ann fearlessly captured a small snake. Dad found a few lizard friends who were willing to pose for photos. This one eventually gave Robin a love bite before being returned to the wild.

We explored the Christmas tree farm area with an eye toward camping there in the future. The caretaker reports that they are fully booked for next season and have a waiting list. They are considering "doubling up" and having two girl's camps at once in the future.  A separate "family" camping area like Eldon is proposing would sure come in handy.

Griz, the camp mascot, came by to meet Polly after the other campers left and the caretaker let him loose for us. He seemed happy to see us, but I'm sure he does that for everyone he meets.

Another "having fun is hard work" picture. We drove to Alsea Falls in hopes of finding an open camp site on Labor Day weekend, but without luck. Instead, we continued on to Alsea, bought a half-gallon of hazelnut ice cream, and headed home to sleep in our own beds. A short, but successful cruise.

Family Togetherness on a Large Scale

The last Neil Y. Fugal Family Reunion was held at Heber Valley Camp in Utah. The camp is far larger than our local Camp Alpine, and can house thousands of visitors. Don and Lois are serving their mission there.

Our section had four cabins and two pavilions. Everything looked new, although the camp was built in 2003.

We were greeted and briefed on the rules by a missionary couple.

The food was great as always. Each family was in charge of a portion of a meal and one round of KP duty.

The first evening we had a talent show. A number of the nieces are very musically talented.

There were a number of activities to do. Robin is doing a rope swing, which both Polly and I tried. It was pretty exhilarating. There was also a zip line and confidence course.

Grandpa provided a number of fun crafts.

On the second evening, we had a presentation about mountain men by Jo's father.

We saw a number of deer and moose. The were unafraid of us and drifted through camp a number of time. Luckily we didn't meet any of the resident black bears.

The camp has a large pond, which we were granted exclusive access to for an hour.

Boy, having fun is hard work.

A City of Rocks?

City of Rocks Natural Reserve is a curious geologic feature located in central southern Idaho and was a key landmark on the California Trail where passing emigrants would leave their names written in axle grease.

We had been here before with Burt and Carol's crew, and had climbed some of the iconic features like Bathtub Rock, but this time we were looking for a series EarthCaches that lead us down trails we didn't know existed.

This is a world-class climbing area, and we saw a group ascending a rock face using ropes. We stayed a little closer to the ground.

I was reading Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire" at the time, which is about his time as a Park Rangers at Arches National Monument in Utah during the 1950s. I can see how you could grow to love the high desert.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. 

Traveling at a Different Pace - Baker City, Oregon

Our recent road trip was an experiment in traveling at a different pace. Instead of bearing down and driving straight through, we decided to pace our selves and take in some sights along the way. In addition to the geocaching I reported on earlier, we chose Baker City, Oregon, as a mid-point stop and left early enough to arrive in town with time to take in some sights.

First we visited the Alder House, which was the home of local publishing tycoon Leo Adler for most of his life. It was built in 1889 and contained most of it original furniture. The upstairs even had the original wall paper.

We also had time to visit the Baker Heritage Museum, the building which was originally a natatorium in the 1920s. There were exhibits on local history and a large collection of rocks and minerals.

We had dinner at the Sumpter Junction Restaurant, which I reported on earlier, and stayed at the local Motel 8, which had an excellent swimming pool and continental breakfast. We also spent some time at the city park, which is traversed by the Powder River and next to the city's library.

Before leaving the area the next day, we stopped at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center which is precariously perched on a hill overlooking the city and the Oregon Trail which passes near by.

This, incidentally is a can crusher. Or, at least that was what I used it for when I found one as a kid at Rockport when the water level was historically low. Apparently you could also use it to take a wagon wheel on or off. I wish I had kept it.

We got a personal tour of the local flora from a ranger/OSU biology student. We will never look at sage brush in the same way. Next up, Burley, Idaho, and the City of Rocks!

Geocaching, Now and Then

We started geocaching in 2002, when the sport was just two years old. We hadn't done much in the last couple of years, but decided to hit a few on our recent trip to Utah to break up the monotony.

I was surprised to see it has changed a bit in the intervening span. Where there used to be only a couple within a mile or so of our house, now there are more than two dozen. 

Instead of large ammo boxes loaded with interesting nick-knacks that the kids loved to sift through, now they are mostly "micros", just large enough to contain a log but no pencil. People are able to hit 100 caches in a day! It has gone from a treasure hunt to a ticket-punching commodity.

We hit a couple along the freeway, but even those large enough to contain the type of treasure the kids love were sparsely stocked. It was a way to stretch our legs, but it was on the whole pretty disappointing.

There was one bright spot, however. There is a new type of cache called an "EarthCache". Instead of a physical stash of goodies, you have to go to the coordinates, take a picture, and find clues about the natural features. We learned about geology in Idaho's City of Rock and Oregon's John Day Fossil Beds. I always enjoyed the fact that geocaching took us to areas we would have never visited otherwise. With EarthCaches, we not only get see nature at its best, we get to learn about it as well. I guess that is the true treasure.

Oh, and for those going for 100 in one day, it took us eight years to get our 100!