Seabirds, pumpkins and Phoebe

Our friends Dave and Mandy Hewitt visited us this past weekend with their 7 month old daughter, Phoebe. They made the trek up from Klamath Falls, where they’ve lived since May. (Side note – what are the odds that the four of us, who all met in graduate school in Raleigh, would now live in the same state on the opposite coast; it’s all due to the small world of fisheries work…).

The Hewitt clan arrived around dinner time on Friday night. After oogling over Phoebe for a little while and then putting her to bed, we ate some dinner and the guys got prepared for an off-shore birding trip out of Newport the following day. They were up and out of the house by 5:15am.

Mandy, Phoebe and I had a very relaxing Saturday and I learned the schedule of a 7 month old, namely: sleep, play, eat, repeat. After Phoebe woke up from her mid-morning nap, we jumped into their van and headed downtown to the Farmers Market, where we took in the sights for a while and I purchased some chanterelle mushrooms (yum!) and some end-of-the-season tomatoes. We grabbed lunch at a local bakery and were home in time to get Phoebe back down for her afternoon nap. When the guys returned home that night, they seemed pretty battered, and after hearing about their day, I can see why….Here’s Nate’s report from their trip –

“Dave Hewitt and I braved the ominous offshore forecast on Saturday and took a pelagic trip out of Newport, Oregon. Within a mile from the beach we were cresting 15' rolling swell from the west, but very little wind and thus small chop early on. Within a mile from the beach we saw all three scoters, common murres, pelagic and brandt's cormorants, and western, california, and heerman's gulls. A couple hours later and further offshore, the wind freshened from the north (to 25-30 knots), and soon we were battling 8' waves from the north (on top of the 15' swell from the west). Given our primarily east-west motoring all day, we were broadside to these steep, fierce, and cold waves all day. I was suddenly in the worst offshore conditions I've ever dealt with. Multiple times I thought the boat was going to roll over sideways.

The surprising thing was that only 1 person – Dave - was noticeably sick on board. I was feeling off, which almost never happens, at least not in Atlantic seas. We eventually made our way about 30 miles offshore, where we saw pink-footed, sooty, buller's, and flesh-footed shearwaters, northern fulmar, cassin's auklets, ancient murrelets, black-legged kittiwakes, glaucous-winged gulls, and finally black-footed albatross. This crew had found a wandering albatross in these waters 5 weeks earlier, but we didn't have that kind of luck, unfortunately. I took my camera out for 5 tense minutes or so, until a wave smashed over the back of the boat, drenching those poor suckers and their camera equipment back there (I was luckily at the front when that happened). Attached are my quick attempts at pelagic avian photography in 8' seas (mostly of albatross, except for 1 fulmar).

We also saw some likely Baird's Beaked Whales, some distant Humpbacks, a Northern Elephant Seal, Steller's Sea Lions, and Dall's Porpoise.”

Poor Dave learned that even a Scopolamine patch couldn’t save him from sea-sickness…

On Sunday, we headed to a local farm, where we rode the “Pumpkin Express” tractor out to a 5-acre pumpkin patch to select our Halloween carving specimens. After a photo-shoot for Phoebe (which was only partially successful, since she was way more interested in the pumpkin vines within reach at her feet than she was in our waving hands and attempts to distract her to look up), we all selected our pumpkins. Nate picked the biggest, lumpiest, green pumpkin he could find and will no-doubt turn it into some sort of grotesque face. I found a cute short and squat pumpkin. Mandy and Dave took home a picture-perfect big one. Phoebe gummed it during our return tractor ride with her toothless mouth.

We’ll introduce our friend Kjell to the art of pumpkin carving and to the tradition of kids trick-or-treating on Friday night. He knows of a similar tradition in Norway, but tells me that it’s adults going door-to-door, asking for beer. Interesting. I’ll be sure to post our finished works-of-art…As for the foliage shot, I've watched this small maple tree turn color from our upstairs office window for the past few weeks.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Camping in the Cascades

Our latest OR adventure took us down-state for a weekend of camping (and elk hunting for the men-folk) in a section of the Cascade Mountains northwest of Crater Lake National Park. We were joined by our friends Jack and Kelly from Portland, and Summer and Nolan (and their black lab, Chetko) from Klamath Falls. Summer and Nolan, having done some preliminary scouting in the area the week prior, were kind enough to get to our campsight early to reserve spaces for the rest of us.

Our drive took us down I-5 to Roseburg, then due east along the North Umpqua River for some 65 miles or so. The North Umpqua is a beautiful river that flows out of the high Cascades - we happened to time our camping trip with the fall spawning run of Chinook (King) Salmon, fish that return from the ocean to the very same stretch of river that they were spawned in some 3-5 years prior, to spawn and then die.

There are campgrounds aplenty along OR 138, but those at lower elevations were all closed due to a recent wildfire that had come through the area. We camped at around 3500 feet in elevation and I was expecting pretty cold conditions, but we stayed comfortable with temps ranging from the 60s to the low 40s at night. And our camping spot couldn't have been any better - our tents were set up under huge Western Red Cedars, right next to the Clearwater River (really more of a wide creek), just upstream of a pretty waterfall it makes as it heads downstream toward the N. Umpqua.

Us ladies had a pretty relaxing weekend overall - breakfast at camp, then a day spent visiting different waterfalls and other sites with Chetko in tow. We had dinner ready and waiting when the guys returned from their day, which was anything but relaxing. They were up before light both Sat and Sun mornings, to be out in the woods and ready to go by sunrise. They spent each day walking through very rugged terrain, up and down ravines and high ridges, watching and listening for the elk herds. And elk were taken in the nearby area, but though Nate, Nolan and Jack heard a few different groups and saw elk sign (prints, droppings, bedding areas) everywhere, they never got close enough to see any. No matter, these guys were excited just to be out in the woods in search.

So, no photos of the hunters, as they were out before dawn and back after dark. But I took a few photos of the waterfalls and other stuff. Pretty country, for sure!

Mule Deer '08

The first weekend in October marks the start of the mule deer hunting season in Oregon - a 12 day season in which you're allowed 1 buck. For the second year in a row, we were invited back to hunt mule deer on our friend Kelly Laugle's family ranch in north-central OR - a stretch of high, dry range land along the John Day River, just east of Wasco. They farm a lot of wheat out there, but these days, the biggest "crop" appears to be wind -- everywhere you look, you see giant windmills spinning. Kelly's great aunt Millie, who owns the ranch, doesn't have any on her property yet, but more than 20 are slated to be erected this coming spring. As we drove out toward the ranch on Friday night, it felt like we were driving around a giant airport, with the red lights of each windmill blinking in unison along the horizon.

Jack, Kelly, Nate and I left from Portland around 5pm to make the 2 hour drive to Wasco. After one last calorie-laden meal at the Goose Pit Saloon in Wasco, where we met Kelly's dad, Tom, and her brother Neal, we all headed out to the ranch to set up camp at the "Rock-pit" - literally, an acre-sized pit dug out of a small hillside....the benefits of a slight wind-break outweigh the costs of sleeping on gravel!

We were up at 5:30am on Saturday morning to begin the weekend hunt by first light. Neal and Tom know the ranch well and have names for all the different areas: Four-corners, The Horseshoe, The Dickman tract, The Ross Field, The Shop Draw, The Point....To the outsider, it looks like one giant landscape of brown fields and hills, but when you start walking around the property, you find massive canyons, thick draws full of sagebrush and rabbit bush, canyon rim rock that looks fit for only mountain goats, and beautiful views of the river valley far, far below. On a clear day, from a high spot, you can see see both Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams (WA) looming in the far distance with their snow-covered peaks.

Kelly and I were along for every hunt, as two extra pairs of eyes. Every clump of sagebrush looks like a potential deer, so binoculars are a must. At one point, we spotted a large dark object making its way across a wheat field - for its size, we thought it might be a person, or a small truck? It was an elk - a male with a beautiful rack, just meandering along the field. We laughed to think that it might know it was mule deer season, so decided to take a walk and see where the action was...

The Saturday afternoon hunt proved to be a productive one. Neal and Tom decided we should hunt the Shop Draw - a long and fairly shallow canyon with a lot of sagebrush cover, so named because it ends at the ranch shop, a dilapidated metal shed. The plan was that Tom would stay up at the shop and the rest of us would walk to the end of the draw along the high field edge, then head down the hillside and walk back up the draw. It was a beautiful afternoon with moderate winds that would be in our favor as we walked back up the draw. After we got past the "Guzzler" - a watering station near the edge of Millie's property, we started to walk down the hillside - Kelly and I behind and slightly to the left of Nate, Jack and Neal. All of a sudden, Kelly stopped - "deer! get down!". ..I saw them right away, too and as we found them in our binoculars, we saw that there were 4 antlered bucks, standing in a tight group low on the opposite canyon. All the guys were looking higher and as we quickly tried to describe their location, the deer perked up and started to move slowly to the right. The guys found them, but hesitated - still not knowing who would take the first shot (which was sure to startle all four bucks into a full run). In the end, all three guys focused on one buck but no one is sure whose shot made the first good hit out of many that were fired; Kelly's brother Neal made a second and the deer dropped a short distance later. It was a beautiful 9 point (5x4 as they'd say in OR) buck, estimated at 200-220 lbs before field dressing. A lot of good meat to share, for sure!

Beyond the many deer and the lone elk, we also saw a lot of other wildlife - coyote, Golden Eagle, Pheasant, Chuckar, Hungarian Partridge, Western Meadowlark, American Pipet, and a Bald Eagle over the Columbia River on our drive home.

Brian's Visit

We hosted our first east-coast visitor this past weekend, our good friend Brian. We'll look forward to repeating some of the fun times with many more visitors in the coming months/years!

On Friday night, we met Brian up at Jack and Kelly's house in Portland and headed to a brewery called Roots for some good beer and live music. Brian sampled a beer that was flavored with apricots and Scotch Bonnet peppers - the rest of us weren't so adventurous, but all the brews were delicious (and organic - how "Portland" of them...)

On Saturday morning, we relaxed over coffee and some delicious apple-cake that Kelly baked. Then we headed back to Corvallis by lunch time. We showed Brian around our new abode and grounds...Had lunch at Nearly Normals, a local vegetarian place, then walked downtown to an arts/crafts festival. We stumbled across an interesting find when we hit the end of the Sat Farmer's Market, including the community forum, where there is literally a soap box on which you can stand and share about whatever your current concerns/opinions are...

On Sunday, we relaxed at home for the morning and then hit the road to Newport, directly west of Corvallis on the coast- about an hours drive through the coastal range. We found their quaint downtown and all the sea lions by their ridiculously loud barking. Next we made our way over to a public pier to see how folks were doing at catching Dungeness Crabs - a pretty simple trap that uses chicken legs as bait (a crab trap is definitely on our 'to purchase' list). And lucky for us, the public pier happened to be right next door to the Rogue Brewery. So, we stopped in for a visit and some sampling. Then we headed farther south down the coast to check out the Pacific proper and then back to Newport for a great dinner at a waterfront place that served the best crab/shrimp cakes ever...Nate had a delicious seafood stew of shrimp, scallops, sturgeon and clams. We were back home by 9:30pm, where we were entertained by some first season Flight of the Concords.

On Monday, Nate had to head to the office (bummer) but I had the day to hang out. After some reviewing of the Oregon Gazetteer, Brian made a good plan to try our luck at catching cutthroat trout on the Alsea River. Got licenses, some spinner baits for me and some flies for Brian, and we were on the river just before lunch - a 45 min. trip door to river (Alsea R is in the coastal range, between Corvallis and the coast). Brian caught a Cutthroat within mere minutes of arriving. And then a few more...me, I had a couple of bites that I completely missed and I spent more time tugging my spinner and hooks out of rock crevices than anything else. But what a pretty river and what a nice way to spend the afternoon. We were back home by 4pm and had a nice dinner and a relaxing evening to end the visit.

Who's coming out next?!