Christmas Crab

Thanksgiving in the Fire Tower

It was snowy-er than expected on the day before Thanksgiving in the mountains of Oregon. This soft and forever-vast expanse of grey was a perfect backdrop for the sighting of Alan and Dabney's fire tower refuge.


and Alan and Dabney cozy inside...

Morgan, Deb, Malia, Josh + soLo
that's Brian up there...


and Brian with his rockin' sis








moss mustache woman and moss-mustache man
old moss mustache beard man
regal moss mustache contemplating man


snow sliders!!!

the bear bit the inner tube

or:

Elisa and Kayla pay us a visit.


the penny is there for scale - that's something Josh got in the habit of while photographing the mushrooms he collected and classified. The bear's tooth put a hole in the innertube and we were no longer able to float down the river with it.

these are some of the mushrooms -

notice the penny for scale?



-but I get
ahead of myself. The mushrooms we collected later in the fall - just before Thanksgiving in time for a fungal feast.

The bear bit the inner tube around the time of Elisa's October visit.


This is Elisa.
She would do well to look behind her because I think that's Sasquatch.

People have noticed him around.

Josh introduced himself to Bigfoot, and now we're all friends.



Kayla and Solo are also friends.

Kayla took the big bed, so Solo had to be contented to stuff himself into Kayla's bed.

It was great to see E. and the big K.
Until next time... keep your innertubes inside or the bears might bite them!

the river

Train Mountain! September, 2010

or:

The Attack of Solozilla.


Josh and I drove to Oregon to meet Aunt Amy and Uncle Courtney at thei r beloved Train Mountain near Klamath Falls.





Steve Martin made this event famous in his own way, and we had anticipated sharing the same adventurous glee ever since talking with Courtney about his hobby of building these trains with a couple of buddies of his.






We camped right in between two lines, and so were able to catch this early riser as he took a spin on his machine. Here's Josh with his morning maté hanging out in the sun while the single engine rider whizzes by...




Our first morning, we fueled up - some trains run on gas, others steam, and there was a wonderful story of the guy who runs his engine with the pine cones that he collects as he chugs through the forest tracks.







We asked SoLo if he would like to take a ride on the flat car in front of me, and as he was obliging, we took off. Josh and Amy in front, Courtney driving, and Solo and I hanging out near my favorite car: the caboose!





We toured over the 13+ acres, under bridges and through the woods
until we came to a rail block - seems like once again, a damsel in distress decided to lay herself on the tracks.
It was just as well, because we wanted to check out the miniature (functioning) water tower
Courtney and his friends had built. We had a moment while the damsel was coming to her senses to admire his handiwork.





We continued through miniature towns, tunnels made from large culverts, and later that night, we took a ride through the garden of lights. It was a unique and fun day, I will always remember the feel of the rhythm of the tracks - an up-tempo version of their larger cousins - rocking us gently as we rolled through the grounds of Train Mountain!

whooooooooooo-whoooooooooooooo!

10 Orchard Lane

and how we fell in with the perfect situation

Our friends Michele and Tim built this truly sweet cabin on the land that has been in Michele's family for 3 generations.
As perfect synchronicity would have it, we were looking to move to the northern west, and they were in need of people to finish the cabin... voilá!
here we are in lovely little Willow Creek California.


our first night in the cabin!


Josh soon put in a kitchen sink













and prepared the soil for a garden with oyster shells and chicken manure. mmmm.









we ate salmon out on the porch...




took some hammock time





sealed the decks and the eaves...

made the cabin warm with a wood-burning stove...



and watched our garden grow.

the SMITH river

This river - turquoise blue - is one of the most beautiful (if not in fact, the most beautiful) river I have ever seen. It is so crystal clear because of the serpentine or peridotite in the rock and because the rock itself is granite - so there is little sediment to cloud the water.














The Smith has wild and scenic status because it has no dam blocking it's natural flow. It is also supposed to have one of the largest populations of Steelhead. They are a type of trout that hatch in the river, swim to the ocean and return to the river to spawn - meaning they are anadromous fish - like the Salmon and Sturgeon. Abby Imsand Nielson is afraid of Sturgeon because they are like large, prehistoric monsters.

We drove up the river corridor as far as Cave Junction, Oregon, and then back down to camp near the smaller North Fork of the Smith.

This might be a bit of a challenge, but if you look very carefully, there is something up in this tree - quite near the top in fact.

















Did you spot him?















Here's our cozy little camp - replete with puppy dog and minivan. I think at this point I am lounging in the tent because it is what we termed "red hour" - the time when the mosquitoes come out to play.


We stayed a couple of days by the Smith, hiking around and relaxing before we decided to head back toward Humboldt County. Seems I put the camera away for a while, because we didn't document our stint by the Mad River in a lovely spot named 'swinging bridge.' The old bridge is no longer but there's still a huge rope swing that I remember lobbing myself off of when I was in college.
...and even though it was cold, Josh took the challenge, launching himself off the cliff hanging on to the 40' rope swing and let fly into the water. Very fun...!



next we go to meet Tim, Michele and Ula on the South Fork of the Trinity at Surprise Creek.