April flowers without too many showers

We have been busy the past few weeks. The rainy season has ended bringing sun and green. It has also been getting warmer and the combination has been urging us to be outside walking and biking around town.  We went to a tulip festival at the Wooden shoe tulip farm where met some new friends to view the fields of color.

 I even got to try on a pair of wooden shoes!

After viewing the flowers we went in search of food and came across a misplaced German town called Mt Angel which claims to be home of Oktoberfest. We ate some authentic German food which of course is bratwurst and sauerkraut. Here is what the street looked like:   








For Earth day we went to an organic garden and ate worm lollipops!

ok well we didn't eat the worm but I did plant some onions! When spring begins I always find myself wanting to dig in the dirt. Living in the short term as we are it doesn't seem practical to invest in gardening equipment so I hadn't gotten my fix yet until now!

On another outdoor adventure we went on a hike up to Mary's peak which is the highest peak on the Oregon coast. Jonathan told me it was only 7.5 miles but we found out it was really 9.5 miles. My muscles are still aching 3 days later! I've been reading some books lately about young women who thru-hike the Appalachian and pacific coast trail. Jonathan is an avid hiker and talks of someday hiking the Appalachian trail. Every time we go on a hike I try to convince myself that I could thru-hike but I just don't know that I can. At first it feel exciting to be out in the woods and smell and see the trees and flowers and greenery. But after awhile it becomes monotonous just walking and walking.  Then I think could I really go days without showering and using outdoor bathrooms? As I watch Jonathan's long legs putting distance between us I also realize if we hiked the trail I would be mostly hiking it on my own as we hike in very different paces.  I am a very slow hiker. Several hikers passed by me which embarrassed Jonathan.  They say on the trail to hike your own hike. Well I did and finally made it to the top.

Dust in the wind

This weekend we moved to Corvallis, OR Home of the Oregon State Beavers.  The move was not quite as stressful as the move across the country.  We still had the tetras game of fitting all our boxes, suitcases, bags, and clothes on hangers somewhere between the two cars.  I had multiple moments of feeling that it wasn't all going to fit but somehow we again managed to make it work.  Before we left town we actually met the new travelers taking our positions.  For the first time in three months we actually had another couple to hang out with.  We got to have dinner parties, meet out for drinks, and even go dancing.  Probably shouldn't have stayed out dancing the night before we moved but that's ok.  One of the travelers told us she had only packed 3 bags.  That's when I decided I had way too much stuff!

As we left the dusty desert lands of the east we drove into green lands of trees, flowers, and mountains.  We rented a small basement apartment close to downtown Corvallis. Its a perfect fit with the exception of storage and closet space. We have one small closet in which we have crammed full of clothes and boxes.  We did fill two bags of clothes to give away and yet another big box which we plan to mail back.

Now that we are organized and settled we are excited to begin exploring our new town and Western Oregon.  Already we fill this is a good fit for us.  Corvallis has the highest number of bicycle commuters in the USA with a large number of bike friendly roads.  It has multiple ethnic restaurants including sushi, Indian, and Mediterranean all of which we missed in Pendleton.  Just walking two blocks down the street we saw more culture and activity than we had seen in all of 3 months living in the wild west of Eastern Oregon.  It was almost a bit of culture shock.  Corvallis is a very green city with its cyclists, parks, free public transportation (bus), and they recently passed a law enforcing stores to carry only paper bags in which the consumer can purchase for five cents a bag or bring their own.

So far the weather has been up and down for the 3 days we have been here. It will be raining and hailing one minute and then sunny the next.  The grocery store has a covered walkway from the parking lot to the store which makes it nice.  We've heard the rainy season is ending so stay tuned for more adventures to come! 

Easter in Hell's Canyon

This weekend we went on a camping adventure with the La Grande Outdoor Adventure group which is a meet up group we joined.  I was skeptical at first about the weekend because all week long I checked the weather and it said the lows would be in the 30s and that Friday night was supposed to have thunderstorms. I have been on a couple cold camping trips and had vowed never to do it again but decided to give this one a chance as the highs for the daytime were expected to be in the 60s and there was talk of a hike to a real hot springs.

The trip was to take place in Hells Canyon outside of Oxbow, OR which is about 3 hours from where we live currently.  We drove down after work and set up our tent in the dark which only took a few readjustments to get it right.  Its not a difficult tent to put together as it only has one pole to weave through. It just takes a couple tries to get it weaved in the correct direction especially since this was only the 2nd time we had put it together.  All in all we did pretty well.

I took the liberty of including some background on Hell's Canyon with the help of Wikipedia.  It is supposed to be the deepest river gorge in North America and was carved by the Snake river. The rocks on the canyon were formed by volcanic activity. The water in the reservoir was so still this weekend it looked like glass.

Saturday morning we went on a nature hike with some interesting characters.  I will give them made up names for the sake of their privacy and protection of being found by the government.  They were a breed mix of hippies, gypsies, wild men, and perhaps a bit crazy.  They claim to live off the map bartering for rent and living off the land.  Directions to their house consisted of following the straight away to an 'S' curve, to another straight away and 'S' curve to a dirt road that began with a 'B'.  Somehow we found it.  We were greeted by a woman I shall call Mother Wolf who offered us marijuana before learning our names. We declined but that did not stop her from smoking the entire time we were there.  I would never be able to guess her age. Her face was wrinkled like an old worn sack and she wore a skirt made of deer hides with a hat that looked like it was decorated with human braided hair but don't know for sure.  Mother Wolf was camping at the mountain house we drove to.  The occupant of the mountain house which we were told was not considered a residential property because it had no running water or electricity but rather heated with wood burning stoves was a young man in his mid twenty's or so.  He was very intelligent and knowledgeable of the forest and living off the land.  I will call him Hatchet.  Another friend on our journey was a local from Halfway, OR who I will call Linda.  Linda was a massage therapists who dapples in both the real world and the wild world.  She told us she has been tracking big foot for the last few months. She actually gathered some suspicious 'skat' or dung that was near our campsite.  I suspect it was actually from a drunk camper but who am I to say.  Her friend in big foot trapping told her that she shouldn't tell us about their quest as we 'didn't have the knowledge to know'.   The last character on the hike was a person whose gender I couldn't discern but I will call Alice. We were taken on a beautiful hike up the mountain where we were shown how to identify edible plants and roots.  The problem was these were so tiny I normally would just step on them.  Digging them up required a special tool that looked like a cross with a hook on the end. Most of the things we were shown were very tiny.  I'm not sure how you could survive eating such substance.

Alice told me she only ate roots and rabbits which cleaned out all the chemicals in her body.  Later I noticed she was eating canned peaches which seems to defeat the point of body cleansing but who am I to judge. The views from the hike were pretty amazing.

After the hike we headed back to camp to have lunch and prepare for the next adventure.  We were going to scope out a Hot Springs.  This required crossing the snake river.  There were 7 of us and we had one 2 man raft, one 3 smaller person canoe, and an inflatable air mattress. After inflating the air mattress we found a hole and since no one had a repair kit we tried to patch it with gum. In the end we decided it was unsafe in which case we were able to score a ride over from a man with boat for a couple members of our group. On the way back we had to fairy the boats to get everyone across.

After rowing over there was a short hike up to the springs where we found a small waterfall and several tubs. There was a hose for hot water and cold water that constantly flowed. The water got up to 102 degrees. It was well worth the trip!

That night we sat around the campfire and listened to Linda tell us more stories of her big foot tracking. She is apparently involved with an organization with lots of money who is very impressed with what she has found. I'm guessing this organization is a reality show and hope to see her on it someday!  I'm not saying big foot isn't real. I just don't like to think about him or her when I'm have to walk in the dark and pee in the woods alone!

All and all it was a great trip until the next morning when I awoke twice to Jonathan throwing up just outside the tent. After the second time I decided it was time to pack up and leave. We did so somehow without waking anyone else.  The ride home took a bit longer to stop for Jonathan to puke several times during the trip.  I'm guessing it was one of the roots he ate.  He sure did clean out his system.