After Battlebots, I flew up to Eugene while I was on the west coast. The plan was to visit an old friend from my Urban Exploring days, and basically just chill and recover from the stress that is two weeks of full-send comprising battlebots. Don't get me wrong, I love BB, and seeing just how far you can push yourself and your team is illuminating and tons of fun. But the 16+ hour days leave you weary down to your bones, and (co)managing a team through the gauntlet left me a bit neurotic.
I flew into Eugene, a small airport in a small city, and after Mel picked me up from the airport we promptly left civilization. Small highways turned into empty backroads, which quickly became gravel roads when we hit the mountains. Definitely a change from LA. Much of my time was spent reading, helping out around the house (splitting wood for the stove, gardening, playing with the dogs), and just generally relaxing, so instead of a traditional day-by-day I'm going to cherry-pick a few random episodes for the blog.
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| I knew exactly why Mel pulled over after blowing past this random ditch. |
Animals!
Coyotes, elk, banana slugs (gross and plentiful), hawks, deer, a lot of mountain lion poop, opossums, raccoons, rabbits, varying levels of suicidal grouse, chipmunks, and quail; and possibly a wolf. We were looking across the valley at the cows and elk grazing in the field, and saw something weird and fast in with the cows. It was grey, thin, and about half the height of the cows. As we watched, the cows noticed it. And they were not happy. There was aggressive mooing and they slow plodded straight towards it until the grey blur headed into the woods on the far side of the valley. I'm calling it my first wild wolf sighting and taking full points, feel free to disagree in the comments where I'll ignore you and continue congratulating myself. Update: Mel informs me were 100 miles from a known wild pack, and juvenile males will travel up to 600 miles, so very possible.
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| Great picture of a hideous animal |
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| Hideous picture of a great animal |
Stars:
There were so many stars. Compared to LA or even Baltimore you'd think we were on a different planet. Even the darkest days in my hometown couldn't hold a candle to Oregon. The only other time I'd seen so many stars was when protests in Peru closed the roads and stranded my bus in the mountains. The milky way had branching arms, entire regions of space where stars ceased to be points and became regions. We were blessed with no moon and a super-bright Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars as well. One evening we drove to the ridge of the opposing mountain and shot some long-exposures... I need to practice my astrophotography, because while I captured a few good images, they still paled in comparison to the beauty the sky had in real life. On the way back, a young 'yote jumped out of the bushes in front of the car. And instead of darting back into the bushes, he panicked and started running down the road. We followed for quarter mile through a number of switchbacks before he finally realized he wasn't going to outrun us and veered into the brush.
On the flip side, this also meant it got seriously dark. Even after spending an hour watching stars, meteors, and satellites from a nearby cemetery and letting our eyes fully adjust, we still could barely make it home without lights. I found I could make out the lines on the pavement until I got back to the property, and then follow the light-colored cat as it wove around the plants and assorted obstacles up to the porch.
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| An incredible number of stars and galaxies. |
Beach:
It seemed a shame to spend a fortnight on the coast and only see the ocean out the window of an airplane, so on my last day we headed over to Coo's Bay to see the ocean. Our first stop was Coo's Head, where we spotted a tunnel in the cliffs. The high tide (18' above low) meant we couldn't follow the coastline, so we tried a few gravel roads and sketchy trails until we could walk it. It was... weird. Definitely not natural, but we couldn't see any reason for anyone to excavate it. Turns out, it was an ammunition bunker for a now-closed airforce outpost during WW2! Very neat. Also followed a vanishing trail to what I believe is a cliff-diving spot, but without depth-checking first there was no way I was going to try it. Even with depth-checking, I don't have 60' of bravery.
Our second stop was Coquille River lighthouse. We picked a random state park on our drive back, drove to the very end of it, and stumbled upon an adorable lighthouse! Unfortunately it was closed up for the season, but we wandered around it and then hiked down the jetty buffeted by wind and spray. Afterwards we wandered down the beach for a bit we headed back home.
Waterfalls:
There are waterfalls everywhere. Any one of these would be a state park in Maryland and draw people from all over, but here they were a widespot in the road and an unmarked trail through the blackberries. Still gorgeous though, even though it was dry season. Apparently in the rainy season we'd be drowned for standing where we stood. And in addition to the waterfalls, there were mushrooms. Basically anytime we were in the woods (which was most the time), we were searching for mushrooms. I learned the common edible varieties and their poisonous lookalikes, and Mel had a sixth sense for them. At one point we were bombing down a dirt road when she slammed on the brakes. I thought she'd seen a bear, but she reversed 100yards back up the mountain, pulled over, and headed into the woods. There was a cluster of Forest Chicken that was promptly harvested.
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General:
The main industry in Oregon is logging. There are forests everywhere in various states of logging, replanting, regrowth... it's a staggering amount of wood being moved. And often a clearcut would give you a look at the geology underneath the forest, or a great view out into the valley. Also, on a more general note, everything ran on forest time... which is like island time, only more so. Nobody was ever in a rush, and it was understood everything would take a while. Really a great change of pace from LA. So am I going to drop out of the rat race and peace out to the mountains? It's tempting, but not for me.
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| At least not yet. |
