Walk around Bandon and another hike at the Slough

Several people told me to be sure to get an ice cream cone at the Face Rock Creamery in Bandon.

Wednesday we parked at the other end of the Old Town area and walked 3/4 mile for a treat. It was indeed wonderful ice cream, and the double cone was a very generous size.

 

Old Town Bandon isn't much to get excited about. Lots of small restaurants that were either closed or serving outdoors, and the usual selection of craft, gift, candy and fudge shops.

Just about everyone we passed on the streets was wearing a mask, and all stores had signs requiring masks for entry. Nobody was making a big deal about it. Perhaps this is why this county has zero COVID deaths even with the tourists that pass through.

This large fish was one of several sculptures on display. It was made of trash from the ocean.

On Thursday we went back up to the Estuary and hiked another 2.5 mile section of the trails (marked in red below).

This place is a showcase of nature.

Most of the trees were second growth, but this giant cedar may have been one of the few that survived the original logging of this area.

I wish I could share the sounds with you. The wind was whispering in the trees, a few birds were singing, and the gentle babbling of the Hidden Creek were soothing to the soul.

The trail took us down along the slough, where the water was at low tide.

When you first look at the image below, what do you see?

I saw Bigfoot with a peg leg. 

Towards the end of a hike, I find myself looking down as much as up or ahead. As I tire, I try to be more careful of where I step so I don't stumble. I also try to "see" the small and beautiful things along the way.

There were a few other hikers on the trails today, but I may have been the only person in the world to have noticed these treasures.

I am one lucky lady!

Count Down To Summer 2019, or To Blog or Not to Blog!

Except for our January trip to visit our son in Myanmar, we have been quite content to stay put on our site at Jojoba Hills RV Resort near Temecula, CA since the end of October.



There really has not been much to post about. We have been quite healthy and at peace. Actually, "lazy" would be the best description of our days at Jojoba Hills.

With this to look at out our side window,  who can blame us!

The Spring weather has been terrific. There was a lot of rain, and in breaking the California drought, it caused a super-bloom of wildflowers.



A single California Poppy is a delicate bit of beauty.




When billions bloom it is a sight to remember.

We went for a hike in the poppy covered hills near Lake Elsinore, (about 20 miles from Temecula) a week or so before they peaked!  It actually got better than this! One weekend there were so many visitors they had to close the road and trails.

We took hundreds of pictures that day. This was one hillside where the poppies were intermixed with pretty purple flowers.

On another day we drove over to Diamond Lake (near Hemet) to their Wildflower Trail.

Although there were some poppies, most of these hills were covered by a sea of yellow blooms.

A view from the trail that would make a great jigsaw puzzle.

Sometimes you have to just look down at the weeds along the trail to see the magical shapes of nature.










I didn't finish the series of posts about our Asian trip, but I plan on finishing that story  as "second parts" to my regular posts over the summer. I was never quite sure writing about our trip really belonged in my RV travel blog, and got a bad case of "writer's block". 

So, on June 3 we will be pulling out again in the Alfa, and will be visiting Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Ontario, Michigan, and then heading back to California by way of Phoenix and Algodones, Mexico.  Being a very organized person, I have made reservations for most of the trip.  You can see when and where we will be on the side bar, to the right,  under Pages.
Click on: Summer 2019, Locations and Dates.

I hope I can get back in the groove of blogging.  After all, it is a great motivation to take and process our pictures. I do enjoy writing about what we are up to, and hope you will enjoy sharing our new adventures.

A Pleasant Walk Along the Deschutes River

Four or five years ago I would have had lots to to write about a nice five mile walk along a beautiful river on a sunny May day. But today I feel like I have written it all a dozen times. 

Best I can do is to say it was a very good walk. Just the right distance, with no big ups, downs or rough rocks.

The Deschutes river had more twists and turns than a sidewinder going down a steep rocky incline. At one point on the map, it almost crossed itself.

[From Craig]  One of the first times we drove into the park, our navigation screen showed what appeared to be a loop in the river. All of the camping areas are loop roads, but a closed loop in a river is unique! The furthest point in our hike was the conjunction in the river loop. Unfortunately, it was not easy to photograph from our side of the river. In the image below you can just barely see the left side of the loop, while the right side is more obvious. I think the river used to follow the loop, but in some flood year it cut the direct channel in the foreground. In a thousand years, the loop will probably be dry.

From time to time we feel we need to rest. If no bench is available, I tend to look for a stump or flat rock. I have found my Cotton camera vest doubles as a sling for my bad shoulder. I just slip a thumb in a nook behind the camera, and my arm is supported. 

Craig has discovered that he can relieve the compression of his spine, enough to relieve the pain in his back, by squatting like a frog for a few minutes.  

[From Craig] Far as I know, no frog squats on just his feet!

Whatever it takes, we will keep on hiking!

If you want to photograph wildlife, sometimes you have to think small.

We wondered if this tree split as it dried, or if had been struck by lightning. There are no burn marks.

The circle of life.

Walk on!

Mono Lake - Hiking Panum Crater

We have been reading news stories about the eruption of the volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, that has lava flows burning through residential neighborhoods.

On Sunday we hiked the rim trail of the Panum Crater, the youngest of the 20-30 volcanic cones to the south of Mono Lake, which are themselves the youngest mountains in the US.

It is just a baby Rhyolitic Plug-Dome Volcano, having had its last erruption only 650 years ago. 

Much of the hike was quite easy, along a loose gravel path that ran along the top edge of the outer ring of the crater. The air was crystal clear and the day was pleasantly warm. To the west we had a beautiful view of the snow-capped Sierra Nevada Mountains.

As we came around towards the lakeside edge of the rim we had a bird's eye view of Mono Lake. Friday it looked blue. Saturday it looked green. From this vantage point on Sunday, it looked both blue and green!

We could see the tufa that we visited the day before. Because the day was quite windy, a white line of breaking waves appeared along the top line of submerged tufa further out in the lake.

At this point we are about halfway around the rim, and the Sierras are coming back into view.

The lava in the center of the cone looked as if it had just cooled and crumbled last week. 

But at the same time, there were a few trees bravely growing at the top. The ground on the outer rim was covered with sage brush, pink pear, and other desert plants.

Although most of the hike was easy, there were a couple of rather steep climbs. We both were puffing from this exercise in the altitude.

The gravel road we drove in on and the parking lot

As always, the best view of any hike is the sighting of the parking lot below and our faithful Jeep waiting to carry us home.

When I planned our route north this year, I hoped to be able to get diesel fuel for the Alfa in Nevada. We filled her in Las Vegas and will top off in Reno as we travel up 395.  We did have to get gas for the Jeep today. There are two stations in Lee Vining. This was the more expensive. We went down the block and only paid $4.49.

I have always noticed much higher prices near the entrances to National parks. The east entrance to Yosemite is quite near. I just checked Gas Buddy and Regular is $3.39 in San Diego and $3.25 in Reno. 

But we are here and want to tour some tomorrow, so we bought 5 gallons.

Hiking North Zion, Kolob Canyons - Taylor Creek Trail

First a couple of responses to comments.  You are right Doug, there is no pool at Red Canyon RV. I must have confused it with some other place I had considered. It is just a two road lot with a few cabins on the side of Utah Highway 12. But it is convenient to Bryce and a few other places we want to visit this week.

And to Judy, yes I do want to do a day trip to Kodachrome Basin this week.

The weather was fine for another hike on Sunday, and we headed over to the North part of Zion that not as many people seem to visit.

There we hiked up the middle fork of Taylor Creek to the Double Arch Alcove. I forgot my camera, so the few pictures included here were taken with Craig's phone.

In one of my books, and in the information from the park, the hike was supposed to be an easy five mile round trip. In part because we went astray at the start, our "Map My Hike" app read just shy of six.  

Easy it was not! The trail was littered with large jagged rocks that were definitely hard on my ankle. 

We crossed Taylor Creek, which was only inches deep in most places, about 120 times (60 each way).

All of the crossings were easy, but I was careful to use my poles so I didn't misstep.

Once again we were treated to impressive views of red rock canyon walls, some with water flowing on them.

When we got back to the Alfa in the late afternoon, I flopped down on the bed for a nice 40 minute rest. Craig took off my hiking boots for me because I really didn't feel like moving. I was very glad we had yummy leftover pulled pork that I had made the day before for dinner. I don't think I would have had the energy to cook a meal.

My entire being was tired. But it was a good tired. The kind you feel after doing a hard job, skiing all day, or running a race. I felt at peace with myself and with the world. That is in part why I hike. I enjoy the scenery, and know the exercise is good for me, but I really like the satisfaction I feel. I could never get this good a workout in a gym.

[From Craig] Merikay didn't like the two pictures below as well as I did.  This first one is inside the inner of the two arches at the end of the trail.  All those colors are different minerals that have seeped through the big rock above over the millenia.  I wish I had taken more chemistry and/or geology so that I could tell you which color is which compound.  If anyone reading knows, please leave a comment or send me an email at craigm014@gmail.com.

The second image shows two attractive rocks that stand together on the north side of the canyon.  I like to think of them as brothers who have watched animals and people walk past them over the years, and share a constant but low-bandwidth commentary about the travelers.

We will be hiking past a lot of rock formations in the next few months.  Where are your favorites located?

A great Hike

I guess if you stay in a place long enough, and refuse to give up, you will eventually find the great hike you have been looking for.  That's what happened on Monday.

We've had some nice walks during our stay here, but none have really been great.  Some were just too short, some had boring views,  and some have been too hot or too hard and we turned back.

The weather forecast for Monday promised cooler temperatures than the weekend before it, with highs in the mid 70's. So we checked AllTrails National Geographic and found a hike that had good reviews and sounded like one we would enjoy.

The Santa Margarita River Trail is about 45 minutes away.  Although I skipped water aerobics so we could get an earlier start, it was still almost ten before we left the Alfa. Craig had printed the trail map, but not the address or directions to get there. His phone navigator did not recognize the trail name, but we were able to get pointed in the right direction by telling it the name of the road we were aiming for.  We ended up taking a longer route, but the drive was very pretty.  Not much traffic, and no appointment time to meet! The important thing is we got there.

I don't mind rough trails, or trails that have sections with significant uphills, but I don't do well in the heat or on trails that are completely shadeless. 

This trail turned out to be a good mix of shaded forest trail overlooking the river, with some challenging rock scrambles, a few places where we had to climb uphill through the chaparral, 

and some shadeless traverses across the rock strewn hillside high above the river.  

Although the sun felt hot at times when we were out of the trees, the air never really did because there was a cool breeze. 

Walking the high trail gave us a close look at Southern California hills that are burned over by wildfires every few years.  This area probably burned sometime in the last ten years. There were many small bare, blackened trees among the new growth of manzanita and chamise.

 Speaking of plants, does anyone know what this stuff is?

We have seen it on weeds along the roads. It is very thin and covers the host plant. 




On the tops of the hills there were very large homes, and you could see the generous green lawns defensible space around them. The views were amazing.

As usual we stopped for a little lunch about half way thru our hike.

As we sat on a boulder high above the river valley, I asked Craig if in his younger years he had imagined himself eating sandwiches with his old wife in the foothills of a Southern California mountain range.  I know, when I was in my twenties, I thought that 67 was far too old to be doing much more than sitting in front of a TV watching soap operas like my mother did.

In addition to the usual lizards running everywhere, we saw a few other critters on this hike.

We came upon this guy on the soft sandy trail near the river. He must have heard us coming because he was all tucked in and going nowhere. We could see his track running quite a few yards down the path to a place were he had come up from the river's edge.  We of course left him alone, other than getting down to his level to get this picture. I looked for him on the way back. He was long gone on turtle business.

We also saw a bobcat on the trail ahead of us in the chaparral, but he vanished before we could get a picture.  We also noted a wonderful abundance of bird song in the wooded areas.  I always find it a bit disturbing when we walk in forests and don't hear a peep or a chirp from the birds.  Maybe it was because it is springtime and all the birds are looking for love!

On the way down we noticed something we had missed going up. This wrecked car shell was behind a tree on the side of the river. We had noticed other debris caught in the trees four to six feet above the water line. We realized this was from past high waters. Since there was no road anywhere near this car, we have to assume it had been carried here by a flood.

Craig has the Map My Hike app on his phone. 

We have been using it to see where we are. The reviews of this hike mentioned the trail was not well marked. Although we did not have any problems, it was interesting to compare our route as shown on the phone with the trail map we had printed before we left home. The app shows the red line as you go. The above image is a screen shot of our completed route.

We went 6.3 miles, with a 200 foot elevation change, averaging about two miles per hour.  

We were both quite happy to see the parking lot where we started, and enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day, even if we were both very tired.  

One of the nice things about RVing is that after a hike like this we could go back to our own home, shower, drink margaritas in our jammies and not have to find a restaurant for dinner.

Life is good!

Land of Medicine Buddha

Our hike on Friday was thru a beautiful place called the Land of Medicine Buddha Retreat Center.

I looked up information on the web for hiking trails in the Forest of Nisene Marks, a state park near us, when I came upon some descriptions of hikes in the Medicine Buddha Retreat Center. It borders on the state park, and there was a nice six mile loop trail described, that started in the Center and wound through part of the Nisene Marks park.

The day was cool but the sun was shining, and by the time I made our lunch and we drove there, it was about eleven in the morning.  

By following some directions we got from the Web, we found a parking area near the trail head, and found the trail with no problems.

The well-groomed path crossed a little creek and climbed steadly up into the forest.

It felt so good to be hiking, but we both agreed we were terribly out of shape from sitting around for so long!  I have gained some of my weight back and feel terrible about it.  But perhaps a renewed hiking regime will help with that.

This forest was logged, possibly clear cut, many years ago.  One of the fascinating things to me is the way the redwoods grow back.  Where each large tree was cut, a circle of new trees grows around it.  They call the cut tree the "mother" and the ring around it the "sisters".

In time, the stump of the mother totally decays, and the sisters grow thicker and taller.  In the picture above you can see several groups growing.  

Some people are distressed by the logging of old-growth trees.  Seeing how the new growth develops gives me a peaceful feeling that although we may not see the giants in our lifetime, they can and will regrow in their own time if left to do so. 

So very tall!

We hiked for a little over three miles, and when we came to what we decided was near the halfway point of the loop trail, we stopped for a little lunch.

Sandwiches, cheese sticks, cut asian pears, and water on a fallen log taste better than any fancy gourmet dinner.

Not all of the hike was through redwood forest.  This section was dominated by live oak and tan oak trees.  We were glad to see so many small tan oaks, because there has been an epidemic of disease that has killed many of them just a few miles away.  We are hopeful that these new-growth trees will survive.

Part of our hike took us past several meditation points that had Buddhist quotations and explanations of them.  I (Merikay) was quite taken by what some of them said.  Perhaps it is because I am in such a stressed state, but I found a new comfort and a curiosity about Buddhism.  It may be what I need right now.

The hike felt so good.  We did get to go out for an early dinner, and 

were happily tucked back in at Camp Driveway by nine.