buzzardnotes

It has been three long years, but the Orange High group was finally able to get together this year in Manitou Springs, Colorado.  Diana and Shoo found a wonderful house (named the Allison House after the man who restored it) and we really enjoyed its accommodations.

For those of you not familiar with Manitou Springs, here is Google’s short description of this pretty town.  Manitou Springs is a resort city in Colorado, just outside Colorado Springs. It’s known for its mineral springs and mountain landscapes, dominated by soaring Pikes Peak. The Manitou Cliff Dwellings are a group of reassembled ancient cliff structures. Hundreds of steps lead up a steep slope on the Manitou Incline Trail. Manitou Avenue is home to art galleries and specialty boutiques. All of this is true, but I found the charm of the people and area to be most captivating.  “Manitou” is from the Algonquian language meaning “great spirits.”

After Garden of the Gods, we drove to downtown Manitou and walked to The Loop, a nice Mexican food place. We all ate too much but we can’t prove it because none of us took pictures to document this event. We got to talking and somehow everything was gone before it entered our minds.

Lynda needed to leave the day after the Zoom to return to Denver for a family gathering…a birthday celebration!

Our time at the Allison House ended much too quickly and I’m sure we didn’t have enough time to chat about everything we wanted to.  We especially missed those of you who were not able to join us.  We hope it will work out for next year.

Eagles & Ag – Our Style

1/15/22

Douglas County Chamber of Commerce holds this event each January to celebrate agriculture and the eagles that return each year to feed on the after birth of the cows, which traditionally bear their calves in this month.  It’s a great event and brings many people to the community to see the eagles and tour ranches.

Jerri and I have been on the tours and thoroughly enjoyed them.  But, now we “know” where the eagles will be and are able to zoom out to do our own tour.  Following, are some of the photos we took while out and about.  We definitely love our area and feel blessed that we can get out to enjoy it.  (Please click on a photo if you wish to enlarge it)

While we didn’t get to see as many eagles as we wanted, nor did we get the photos we wanted. We did have a good time and look forward to going out again to try to espy more of the enthralling critters here in our area.  If you’d like to see some professional shots of the critters, please click on the following link and then scroll down to the photog section and you’ll have a treat.  https://www.carsonvalleynv.org/eagles-ag/ 

The scene we woke up to yesterday was smoky but not bad. This meant we could see the mountains and the phone app indicated the air wasn’t hazardous. Jerri and I hemmed and hawed and finally decided to make a run up to our “private” lake that we have enjoyed on my birthday last week. We got in one good kayak ride and were lounging on the beach when we noticed smoke pouring in from the west. This was our first indicator that we probably made an error in judgement. A disclaimer here…I did not take most of these photos. Jerri took some and Facebook had some posted.

Photos from the Dixie fire equal these if not surpass them as it is now the largest fire burning in the western states. I believe the Dixie fire was begun by lightning but the Caldor fire was begun by someone’s stupidity, an illegal bonfire and wind. I do think of an apocalypse when I see these pictures and having seen the glow, eeriness and sun disappearing on a daily basis.

My family and I are very blessed not to have lost anything due to these devastating fires and we grieve for those who have been injured or killed. We thank all those brave firefighters who put their lives on the line to help stamp out the conflagrations. Jerri’s son, Scott, is one of those firefighters who works long, difficult hours for weeks at a time. We hold our collective breaths when we know he’s out on a fire.

People our age will remember the TV show called “77 Sunset Strip” with Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and Kooky with his comb. Well, I’ve just reached 77 and don’t live at the title address but did celebrate and have a very relaxing and pleasurable day.

Jerri and I decided to do a shakedown cruise in our new toy – a Polaris Ranger. Our first adventure was to be on Sunrise Pass over the Pine Nuts Mountains just to the east of us. I need to warn you that the sun was very bright and my phone doesn’t have the best camera, but I hope you’ll get an idea of the terrain even though the photos aren’t of the best quality.

The Johnson Lane area where we live is rural enough that we can just hop into our vehicle and zoom up to the mountains. Our Ranger is not street legal but if we’re not on busy Johnson Lane, we’re fine. Lawn mowers aren’t street legal either, but many folks drive their lawn mowers to the General Store on Johnson Lane for gas. That’s how rural we are.

Jerri and I read an article in the Nevada Appeal describing a cool hike that takes off from State Highway 208 going to Yerrington, about an hour southeast of Minden.  It was a good thing that we left relatively early as the hike was longer and more strenuous than we had anticipated, plus it was hotter than we had anticipated.

After you’re over the first ridge, the trail winds along next to the river for a while, then takes a sharp right up through the canyon. It’s a slow ascent to the summit which provides some great views of the surrounding area and mountains, then it’s a little steep and rocky through the next canyon you return you to the beginning. Description of the hike by a previous hiker.

As we got over the first hill and were in relatively isolated territory, Jerri commented how quiet it was. Just then, we heard a rattle of rocks and we witnessed a small landslide coming off a bluff. We were in no danger as it was a good 150+ yards away. (If you want to enlarge the photo, please click on it)

As we walked on, we noticed the same hill became more vibrant in color.

We walked around said hill and found the west fork of the Walker River. What a pretty riparian place. Critters such as ringtail cats, beaver, and raccoons find shelter and food here. Raptors and other birds are abundant in the area. Alas, we didn’t see any critters except many lizards.

Believe it or not, the highway is not even 30 yards away from the river.

Here is one of the signs explaining geology and/or plant life with some of the melted rocks behind the sign.

This is what the Melted rocks sign described and what the rock looked like from a distance.

We saw many plants such as Mormon Tea and several sage plants. But the Desert Paintbrush was the first colorful plant we saw. I believe this is also called Indian Paintbrush and guess these signs are PC.

Another plant was the Little Leaf Horsebrush. The small white things are not buds or blooms. Jerri and I believe they are egg sacs of some sort of insect or critter. We didn’t take one apart because we didn’t want to disturb what must have been a lot of effort by whoever was the mother.

The Appeal article said there was only an 803’ elevation gain. Apparently, that gain doesn’t happen with just going up a short route. Here is a view looking back on the trail we had just climbed and this was basically just the beginning. The Walker River and the highway are just behind those scraggly trees

We had already learned that our trail went through what was a very large ancient lake, hence trees must have been there. I read somewhere that an oddity occurred here where cottonwoods and pines were growing near each other. That seems weird in today’s climate. We were excited to see petrified wood and even identified it before we saw the sign

As we walked on, I espied what looked like a giant petrified tortoise. Jerri is standing beside it to give some perspective of its size.

By the time we climbed to the view point, we felt like we’d climbed to much higher than the approximate 6000’ level.  The vista is of several mountain ranges and large valleys.  It must be really pretty at sunset, but this is what you get on a very bright mid-day photo. I believe the snowy mountains are part of the Carson or Pine Nut Range.  The Walker River is in the lower center, not far from where we parked the car.

As we trekked downward, our next point of interest was the Slickenside. Yes, you read it correctly. A slickenside is a smoothly polished surface created by frictional movement along two sides of a fault. Its surface is normally striated in the direction of movement. Tremendous heat is sometimes produced causing the minerals to fuse and form a ceramic surface. The ceramic-like surface can be seen in this photo…the shiny part.

We turned around to continue our walk through a dry wash, looked up and this is what we saw. A small short bridge. Note the color of the sky. This is not edited.

At one time, this was a very tall tree. It’s now petrified into the yellowish, reddish, whitish rock in the foreground.

One of the last fun formations we saw were the hoodoos; a tall spire of rock that protrudes from the bottom of an arid drainage basin. Some people feel they are eerie looking and perhaps evil.

Hoodoos consist of relatively soft rock topped by harder, less easily eroded stone that protects each column from the elements. They typically form within sedimentary rock such as those we encountered along our trail or in volcanic rock formations.

This adventure was our first of the year and we surely did enjoy it. The Appeal article said the trail was only 3.5 miles long, but by the time we reached the peak of the last hill, we thought it might have been about 10 miles long. While we had food and water, we didn’t have enough water and that was a big mistake. We were pretty dry by the time we got back to the car. Luckily, we each had another bottle in the car. Lesson learned.

This is also my first go around with the new Word Press format. It’s going to take a few tries to learn the new tricks they have provided, but I hope this issue gets the point across that we enjoyed ourselves and learned some lessons.

Yes, 2020 has been the weirdest year ever and all of us have learned to cope in many and different ways. My usual volunteer opportunities became unavailable and I’m too chicken to go back to the NV State Museum as much as I was. Dean, the new cat, is a help with entertainment but I found I wanted to be outside more. So my sister and I began to take drives and hikes. We’ve kayaked and hiked more than ever this year. We were able to make lemonade out of the lemons

It is going to get very cold this weekend and perhaps our little jaunts and hikes are done for the year. But it’s Nevada! Weather changes quickly and we could be out and about in a week or so…much to the neglect of housework and other chores. I’m so happy that we were able to take advantage of what our area has to offer without breaking social distancing rules. That has been a real plus this summer.

A friend at the gym told me about his rental on the Oregon Coast and since we wanted something different this year, we made a fortunate decision to go there.  The house offered privacy, social distancing, a beautiful beach and access to many places to hike/visit.  Jolee joined us this year and she added much to the frivolity.  We were lucky all the way around. (Click on a photo if you wish to see more detail)

An Ashland, OR park.  We didn’t know that Ashland had been hit very hard by a fire just a day or two before, but we learned that as we left town.  Entire neighborhoods had been burned to the ground.  Fire were still burning in the Cascades and other places that caused us to be diverted from our original route.  Jolee and her trusty phone rerouted us and we arrived at our house not much later than originally planned.

This road sign (on the street) is in Port Orford).  It greatly amused us.

Of course, we had to drive over the hill and check the view.  I’m sure the view is generally beautiful but, on this day, it was filled with smoke.

The landmark for our house.

The Tale of the Whale gate to the house.  (These photos were taken at different times and the smoke is more apparent in some than others)

View of the house from the gate.

Berries growing right beside the driveway.  They were tasty!

This house was so nice and comfy.

Our first tourist stop was the bookstore in Gold Beach.  Wow!  It gives Powell’s in Portland a run for its money.

Jerri & Elvis

The Gleesome Threesome in Bandon, OR posing with a sculpture made from ocean trash. We had fun visiting many cute shops.  Pretty smoky that day.

Jolee wondered if this farm actually raised dragonflies and turned off the highway to check it out.

We were met by the next sign shortly after our turn.  This was great cause for hilarity.

Eerie fog creeping over the highway.

Our visit to the Prehistoric Gardens was fun and a bit mysterious.

Jerri and Jolee are quite unaware of danger in the background.

All the little kids we saw were enthralled by these sculptured critters.

2 triceratops hatchlings

Jolee is too close to the mama triceratops!

3 serious folks waiting for a streetcar.

Wouldn’t want to meet this guy on a dark trail.

Our favorite place was Otter Point to see critters; otters, seals, dolphins, seabirds and some we hadn’t expected to see…a colony of giant slugs!

Shades of UC Santa Cruz – a banana slug!

A vulture (but we like to call them buzzards) flew over me but this was best shot available.  (Gracias, RDS)

An osprey having a fish dinner

Otter Point arch – The otters, seals and dolphins were just too far away and weren’t posing for us.

We even found a Jolee peeking out.

Beach view of our house. Sadly, we didn’t think to take one when it was sunny.

Jerri’s driftwood that Jolee hauled up to the house.

Pelicans flying along our beach. I love seeing then skim along the water surface.

Rogue River Bridge

Near the bridge is the Mary D. Hume, a steamer built in Gold Beach in 1881. She was retired in 1977 and then sank in the Rogue River in 1985 where she remains today.

We hiked to see the Thomas Creek Bridge, the highest bridge in all of Oregon…345′ tall. I was disappointed that this is all we could see without going down to the bottom of the canyon. My knees won’t do that any more.

Part of the trail was rough.

Three on the trail.

Jolee took a 4-hour hike on a steep trail on Humbug Mountain.

She said it was pretty along the trail along with obstacles to get around, such as this giant fallen tree.  Jerri and I stayed home, walked on the beach, read our books and worked on a jigsaw puzzle.

Back on our beach – the first sunny morning.

Looking north from the house

A beach plant surviving in the sand

Jolee enjoying a taste of the grape

3 weirdos on the deck

We had to go south to McKinleyville, CA on Hwy 101 in order to avoid the Oregon fires.  We were very excited to see 6 elk along the way.   Here is a grazing elk bull.

We took a detour on the way home to see a cousin we hadn’t seen in many years.  This was in Nubieber, CA.  Most folks don’t know about that town, but it’s east of Redding.  Cousin Lee took great pride in showing us his wood projects.  I must say they are really amazing.  These are working models, by the way.

Lee is holding his model of the metamorphosis of a tomato worm.  This is significant because his dad grew many varieties of tomatoes and, of course, had to deal with these pests.

Yes, this is a long blog with probably too many pictures.  But I’m hoping you have enjoyed reading and seeing photos of our Oregon trip.  It was great fun to see territory we haven’t seen before.  At the same time, I sort of felt guilty having a good time while many Oregonians were/are suffering huge losses from the many fires.  May God bless them and help them to recover from this tragedy.

OUT TAKES