Oregon Trip

I just returned from a ten day trip to Newport, Oregon to see my brother Steve and his family. What a beautifully rugged part of the country it is! There was an additional bonus when my sister Sarah, who was visiting her friend Joannne in Seatle, decided to drive down Thanksgiving Day to spend the holiday with us in Newport. There were also several days of great weather to go explore the natural wonders of the Oregon coast.

I met Steve at his office in Newport where he is a coastal planner for the state.

Steve, Lorie, Shadow, and I went for a hike up a canyon with some huge cedar, spruce, and fir trees. It was oozing moisture and was prime fungi territory. Here Steve is showing us how to find cantarelle mushrooms for our Thanksgiving dinner. Cantarelles grow only around spruce trees.

These are not cantarelles. The purple color suggests, "Eat me and die."

More fungi.

This fungi looked like a coral formation.

This gives some idea of the lushness of the coastal forest.

Steve and Lorie above the forest on an overlook hundreds of feet above the ocean. Lorie is the managing nurse for the hospital in Newport.

The view goes far enough to see the curvature of the earth (or is it just my progressive lenses).

This is a blowhole we had to stop and check out.

Sarah (standing) from Alaska and her friend Joanne from Seattle. Sarah's last name is Williams, not Palin, even though she did have to sit in meetings with her.

Steve prepares the cantarelles we picked.

Across the street from Steve's and Lorie's home is Yaquina Head. This is the view looking south on the way out to the lighthouse.

Logan, the older of their two sons, is 16 and quite possibly going to MIT next year. Currrently, he is assisting a Phd after school with software development for hydrophones that study a variety of oceanic sounds.

The Yaquina Head Lighthouse, which we climbed a few minutes later.

Looking up through the Fresnel lens of the lighthouse.

Looking down the free-standing spiral staircase made entirely of cast iron (you can tell I paid attention to the ranger).

Early Sunday morning Steve and I drove up to Nelscott Reef in Lincoln City to watch the annual tow in surfing contest. This was a stop at Whaler's Cove on the way up. This wave is much bigger than it looks.

The surf contest was not visible in the morning due to fog. The reef is about a half mile offshore. Steve decided to take me for a hike to Drift Creek Falls about 12 miles back in the mountains. This is a suspension bridge crossing the chasm above the falls.

This is the waterfall as seen from the suspenson bridge.

The waterfall and the bridge above.

Mossy guardians of the falls.

Back to the surf contest in the afternoon; the wave in the distance is where the surfers are. There is a surfer on this wave which probably is in the 20 to 25 foot height range (remember, it's a half mile out there). On the cliff where we were standing, Gerry Lopez pulled up and stayed awhile. He was known as Mr. Pipeline in the '70's. He dominated Hawaii's Bonzai Pipeline for years. He seemed like a regular guy, my age, who now lives in Oregon.

Sunset from Steve's and Lorie's deck with the lighthouse in the distance.
Looking south from their deck over Agate Beach.

I am now a sushi convert. Here we are at Sada's sushi restaurant, which Lorie claims has the best sushi on the west coast. That's Aaron on the right. He is an eighth grader, champion table tennis player, sax and guitar player, and has a real feel good kind of personality and sense of humor.

One of the sushi plates - yummmm!

Across the street, the bull sea lions were raising a ruckus as they established the pecking order for room on the boat docks. Well, that about sums up my trip as I am out of photos fit to print. Thank you, Oregon family, for your wonderful hospitality! 5 stars!

Contest Winner!

And the winner is...... ANDRIA! Excellent deduction. The picture is of the hole in the fallen tree Nick is squatting on. The sky and trees above are reflected in blood red water stained by the tannins of fallen leaves. Of all the responses, yours was the closest. Many respondents incorrectly guessed that it was some kind of fish. Nice job, Andria!

Archer Taylor Preserve

For today's hike, Nick suggested we go to a place he had been to once before, the Archer Taylor Preserve. He phoned the caretaker in advance, and we were granted permission to go in. This gem is at the headwaters of Napa Creek on Mt. Veeder, about 12 miles west of town. The hike we took was about 3 miles round trip.

We parked in the orchard by the trailhead.

Nick signed us in on the registry.



We entered a grove of immense Douglas Fir and second growth Redwood.

The reserve is in a large volcanic area that was active about 3 million years ago. This volcanic rock tumbled down from above.

Quite a jumble of boulders in the the stream, here.

Because of the darkness, my camera was unable to capture the vivid contrasts in color that we saw.

We came across several massings of ladybugs.

Turkey tail shelf mushroom.

Recycling going on.

Vine maples, I believe.

A banana slug and its chapstick.

Seconds later, Nick spotted a Pacific Giant salamander in this pool at the bottom of the waterfall. It swam under a rock before I could get a look or take a picture. They grow to almost a foot in length, and have been known to eat mice and garter snakes.

Behind Nick is the bottom 25 foot section of the falls which are 110 feet in height altogether. The falls will carry much more water after a few rains.

CONTEST! The best guess of what this is earns a big shout out. (Hint - a Nick photo)

The Devil's Well

Sorry, I just learned that videos taken with a vertical orientation cannot be rotated. About half way up the waterfall is a ledge where the falling water has made a hole that is deeper than this branch is long. We read later that the hole is about 20 feet deep. It is a spectacular spot with views down the falls below and sheer lava walls on three sides.

An odd fungus surrounding these little trees.

Nick embracing some big wild grape vines.

Manzanita above the ravine.

An underside view of a fungus on a fallen tree above the trail. Well, that's all for this trip. I definitely plan to return again and try to do the reserve more justice photographically.

Backpacking Trip to the Trinity Alps

This year Nick and I had the pleasure of bringing Dave along on our annual backpacking trip. We settled on going to the Canyon Creek area of the Trinity Alps. After a five hour drive from Napa (gas crisis be damned), we arrived at the campground just downstream from the trail head for a little bread, cheese, cantaloupe, and wine - our last hurrah before entering the wilderness.

Sunday night at Ripstein Campground near the trail head.

Dave, Bob, and Nick, Monday morning, ready for the nine mile ascent up Canyon Creek Trail and Boulder Creek Trail.

The trail starts out shady and soft - nice!

From the beginning, Nick had us stopping to examine berries and seeds and sometimes sampling them. I think he was a bear in a previous life.

No trouble fording the streams this time of the year.


Strange seeds on spikes.

One of California's hundreds of wildfires that skirted the trail for a mile or two.

The views started expanding the higher we got.


All the granite gives the Trinities a Sierra feel.

The last mile and a half gained about 600 feet so a dip in Boulder Creek Lakes was needed.

Note Dave's impeccable form, toes pointed, too!

Dusk falls on our campsite.

Dave getting our drinking water from next to his feet. Nick and I didn't fall for this obvious move to get fired from this tedious job.

Ahhhh! Rest.

As we watched the sun go down, Dave spotted a bear down below this ledge. We watched it apparently picking berries as it went in and out of the bushes. About a half hour later, Dave spotted another bear much closer to our camp. They never bothered us, but judging by the amount of scat we saw, we knew they were all around.

I strive for candid shots like this one of Dave.

Tuesday morning before moving on towards our next destination - Canyon Creek Lakes.

The trail gets a little sketchy at times.

Blissfully ignorant, Dave didn't realize that Nick and I put some large rocks in his pack to slow him down.

This waterfall would really be spectacular earlier in the year.

This is a female shield back katydid with a very long ovidepositor used to make a hole to bury her eggs. It was approximately 4 feet long.

These berries were almost a good as blueberries (huckleberries?)

We finally reached Lower Canyon Creek Lake. We never saw other humans the whole day.

A little time later and we were at Upper Canyon Creek Lake. We camped the next two nights about a quarter mile beyond this lake.

We called this magical spot "The Grotto". It was next to our campsite and was a stunning place to hang out, take a plunge, and contemplate your feet.

Nick, at The Grotto.

Dave surveys the "haps" at The Grotto.

Dave and Nick doing some kind of coordinated move beneath the ridges and peaks of the "Alps".

On Wednesday, we took a day hike up to L Lake. This is the view looking back down Canyon Creek as we start up the mountain.

Another candid shot of Dave in front of Mt. Hilton, which is close to 9,000 feet elevation.


Pristine L Lake.

We spotted an endangered Trinity furry frog as it sought refuge in the depths below.

Actually, Nick spotted this Cascades frog, a species of concern.

A rare Trinity furry hawk was seen perched on a ledge.

We found this mini grotto to be a cooling spot to have lunch on our way back down to Upper Canyon Creek Lake.

This Cascades frog, a species of concern, blends in perfectly with the speckled granite of the area.

Dave spotted this baby garter snake and then bravely stood watch while I scrambled for the camera.

Back in camp and looking forward to another freeze dried dinner by Mountain House.

This deer was seeking anything that had the taste of salt (sweat) on it. It hung out with us for two days, even following us around the area. It may have been the doe Nick and I dubbed "Socks" three years ago after it stole Nick's socks, belt, and shorts at this very same campsite.

Deer Whisperer Dave.





Socks sucking salt.

This is what bear scat looks like. Note all the seeds.

Thursday morning, we hiked out, spurred on by visions of gourmet restaurant food. We had a great meal in Weaverville and made it back to Napa by 7:30 pm. The following morning, Dave and I flew back to Illinois and Nick took public transportation back to Santa Cruz from SFO. Now we will savor the memories and before too long, start thinking about the next adventure.