State of Wilderness

Seven Meadows Duck Pond Walk

We have a way we like to walk, especially on days when we have a little more time. Weekend mornings, some late evenings, catching sunsets or the morning dew as we go. Sometimes my middle son is along, and we have the chitter chatter of sharing observations. Sometimes it is just me and the dogs, with the jingle of their collars and their panting as the accompanying sounds. Most days we hear mockingbirds and doves, sometimes starlings or grackels. There has been an unexpected treat or two, like the belted kingfisher I saw last winter, or maybe a roseatte spoonbill, herons, egrets, or cormorants fishing along the little bayou that runs next to the path, or at the “other pond” across the street from this view here below.
Mostly there are ducks, though, and lots of them. As we walk, we are observing the world around us, with all the duck drama that unfolds.Usually, this little pocket park featured above and below, usually our second stop along the walk, has a few Muscovy ducks. However, it is also the spot where the misfits hang out, the outcasts, the ducks that don’t fit in.

Seen in the picture above is the current group of little duck rebels. The two white ducks on the end, and potentially all of these, are domestic ducks that were most likely dumped at the park at some point, perhaps turned loose when they weren’t cute enough for Easter pets anymore. The kids and I call the white ducks our “little friends”, as in “do you see our little friends today?” or “how are our little friends doing?”. The two middle ducks in this row are two Mallard females who used to live at the upper pond with their mates, until the drakes disappeared one by one – to predation or accident, I am not sure. The lighter duck in front was also one of a pair, kind of unusual blonde looking ducks, similar to the white ones but with sort of an apricot tinge. They showed up one day when they were babies and grew up at the pond over the past year, but now one of them is missing as well. The dark duck at the front is a new one.

The highlight of the walk is the first pond we come to, the great glorious duck pond. This pond is able to support a huge flock of muscovies, many who have hatchlings during the course of the year. The following pictures show the newest group of ducklings and their proud mama. These ducklings haven’t learned to be afraid yet. My dogs were sitting just a few feet away during these pictures, and the ducklings ran practically right up to them and probably would not have stopped except Scout started barking at them.

These ducks are fed by many, but fed correctly at least by one person, or perhaps the community organization. We have seen duck food spread around the trees where they like to roost during the hot parts of the day. Perhaps because of this boon, the flock has increased in size. It usually has 30-35 members present when we show up to sit a while and take a census, marveling at the new babies. However, today there was a surprising high of 53 ducks total at the pond. I am curious if communities feel like having a duck pond is a positive feature for their neighborhood, and if they try to encourage ducks to come and stay, or if they wish the ducks would just go away already. I wonder why the ducks picked this pond to live at, and not the two or three others further up which only have a handful of ducks. The furthest north of the ponds, up where Gaston hits Fry Road, is bigger than this pond and even has a couple of duck decoys in the pond, presumably to draw ducks to it, but no live ducks ever stay. Do the decoys scare them off? Is there something unique about the water or availability of food here at this pond, or do the ducks stay simply because there is food that appears sometimes here, and if the food moved to the other ponds, would the ducks move, too?

At any rate, it is intriguing and somewhat relaxing to stop by the pond and see what is new today, what has changed, sometimes to feed the ducks or just sit a spell and listen to the water fountain.

Proxy Falls: Three Sisters Wilderness

Lao Tzu is credited with saying that “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. In this day and age, we might change that last word to “click”. Most of us make our arrangements for journeys, or get ideas on where to go and what to do over the internet.

Proxy Falls was such a case for us. I had seen a picture while browsing earthporn images (arousal images for nature lovers, ha) and downloaded it as my wallpaper for my computer at work. I decided to look up where that place was in the picture, and learned that this falls was located in the Three Sisters Wilderness outside of Bend, Oregon.

I stashed the information away on where it was located in case we ever made it to that area. Well, in June, I was headed there for my work conference, and it looked like I would have enough spare time in the schedule to make the 1.5 hour drive out to the location, hike the (what we thought to be) four mile round trip, and make the drive back.

We weren’t sure how hiking with baby Sebastian would work, but Jason always felt confident that he would be able to use the baby backpack to carry him, and that it would not slow us down terribly. Of course, then he told me he would need to get in shape to be able to carry him four miles, and then never actually started working on that plan. So I was a little apprehensive about our ability to complete the hike, given the extra weight, but it turned out to be little problem.

It was a good idea that we agreed that Jason would carry him, because despite the fact that the it was supposed to be an “easy hike, perfect for families”, it required a little agility to cover the initially-rocky trail, made doubly difficult by my still-wonky right ankle. I am not sure why I thought the distance was that far, unless that distance was if you traveled clockwise along the loop, but going counter-clockwise provided a fairly short walk for us to the base of the falls. In looking up information afterwards, it appears it is only 1.5 miles, so perhaps I was just working off false information. Luckily for us this time, the error was in our favor.

The trail was a mix between the rocky remains of a lava field and the ferny, mossy shadowy depth of the type of forest that I absolutely love. There were flowers blooming along the trails, like these little purple bells cast about in shady little corners (or occasional patches of sunlight, like this):

There were patches of rhododendrons, and some other flute-like orange flowers that I don’t know the names of. I really need to get on with the plant-learning business over here. I was in heaven with the moss and the ferns.

We had some debate on whether or not I should have bought the parking permit, because where we stopped to buy it, the lady (who admitted she was new to this) said they only had one kind of pass, which was a one year NW (Washington-Oregon) Pass for $30. Although Jason thinks I should have just not bought the darn thing then (we were thinking $5-$10 range for day pass), in the end I felt more secure having it since the rangers had stopped at the parking area as we were leaving to clean the facilities (and presumably check for parking permits). So, if any of you are in the need for a parking permit for national recreation land in that area over the next year, let me know – have I got a deal for you – one lightly used pass, bone of contention.

Here are some other pictures from along the trail:

These pictures below of the actual falls are some of my favorite pics from our journey. One we reached the base of the falls, we had to sort of scramble around to actually get up to the falls, which on one hand made me nervous that Jason was doing, and on the other, I couldn’t resist doing myself.

It was simply awesome to actually get there in person, to feel the gentle spray on your face coming off the falls, and hear the rushing stream of water in person. All said, it was the best hike of our year so far, and probably the highlight of the year altogether. These are the moments we aren’t likely to forget.

Sahalie and Koosah Falls: The One-Hour Five-Minute Hike

These pictures are from a hike we took more than a month ago, while we were making our way through Oregon to get to my work conference. I haven’t had time to tell the stories, though, because that baby pretty much demands most of my time at home. As a matter of example, I have been thinking about posting this for about two weeks, and then had the page up for about four hours before I was able to sit down to actually type these words.

_DSC1406 — The trail running parallel to the stream

I still want to chronicle our outdoor adventures, though, and I am not giving up on that idea. We’ll just have to get used to the idea that every post will be a past-tense situation, and not a regular update.

On the day I took these pictures, we were making our way from Portland to Eugene, and then from Eugene to Bend. These waterfalls are a short distance from parking – so the information I read said – off Highway 126 (McKenzie River Highway). The problem was, I didn’t identify which parking coordinates/spot that was from. We saw a sign indicating a parking spot for these falls, as well as other points of interest, so we stopped, anticipating a five minute hike.

We ended up spending an hour out here instead. We could have make the walk shorter, I suppose, by giving up on the idea of finding a second geocache in the vicinity that was beyond the falls (which it turns out we could not find, anyways). We thought about turning back briefly after the first find (GC3Y0R7) but then made the choice to keep going. I don’t think any of us regretted it.
There was a time on the trail that everyone wanted to stop and get their pictures taken at various places along the path. This is one example here. We indulged the kids at first, but then it just got to be time consuming, so we told them we were just going to get to the end, then take more pictures on the way back. However, as per the kids typical MO, they got it into their head to whiz back along the trail at hyper speed and not wait to see if we were keeping up on the way back, without thinking about the pictures they wanted to take. I was torn between sticking with Jason, who had his camera out and wanted to take pictures, and keeping up with the kids, and then I lost visual sight of the older boys and had to hurry up to catch up with them, being annoyed at every turn that they didn’t stop to wait for us when they noticed we weren’t right behind them (or maybe not even noticing). I finally caught up to them, but then we were over it and just wanted to get to the car. It’s a good thing, then, that we at least stopped to take the few we did along the way.We took some of the other pictures that we took along this trip and printed them out for a big multi-photo frame that I had recently gotten for a Mother’s Day present from Jason’s sister. It’s going to be a memory that will be with us for a while as a result.

As we got closer to the top of the second falls, I noticed that we were passing another parking spot, and realized that this was the one we should have parked at for a five minute walk. My oldest son and I remarked that Jason might be annoyed that I had picked the wrong parking spot, but when AJ went to talk to Jason about it, Jason was like, “why would I be mad? This was an awesome walk!” I agree that this walk was one of the best times of our year so far, one we would have missed out on if it wasn’t for that location mistake.
The only reasons we should have parked closer was that we had other time commitments, and we hadn’t packed any water for the walk. We were supposed to be meeting up with the kids dad and were now going to be about an hour late, and I was going to be late for the opening ceremonies for my work conference. We all ended up being a little parched from the walk, as well.

In the end, though, I made it to the work obligations without having missed much, and we still found their dad and made it work, and I am not going to feel regret about making him wait, considering everything I have been put through due to him past and present.

I think that Jason’s response to AJ’s question about the parking is perhaps a response we could apply to life: sometimes we take the long way, but if it wasn’t for the long way, we would have missed all these other beautiful experiences. I certainly feel like that could apply to my own life. Sometimes it is the detours that make life worth it, or at the least, things still work out in the end, anyways.

Paradise Campground

There is a road…there is always a road, with us…there is a road that crosses east to west, from Eugene to Sisters in the great green state of Oregon. This road is called the McKenzie Highway (126), as it parallels the McKenzie River. There are parts of this river that are good for fishing, rafting, and then there are parts that are good for just being still and watching. Fishing in the McKenzie River could yield Chinook salmon, mountain whitefish, and two varieties of trout. Various ducks as well as bald eagles and ospreys feast on these waters. The river is also the sole source of tap water for the communities of Eugene and Springfield. If one was serious about birding, one might search the dense forest on the west side of the basin in Linn County to see if they could find the threatened Northern Spotted Owl.
For us, we were simply seeking respite from the road, and a good ole geocache. We got more than we were searching for, though, with these stellar views. It is a place we would love to come back to and spend more time, perhaps camp for a while. This spot we found truly was Paradise.